Inter-University Cooperation and ERASMUS: The Integration of French LEA Students in British Undergraduate University Courses

With the advent of the ERASMUS programme a new impetus has been given to the exchange of students between countries within the European Community. Having outlined the aims and objectives of ERASMUS, the authors take as a case-study the development of links between the Universities of Birmingham and Grenoble III (Stendhal University), from the initial inter-university agreemart to the creation of an ERASMUS diploma. The problems posed by diffetences in university systems and practices in Britain and France are identified. Academic issues discussed include the relative merits of contrastive and complementay study programmes, the tailoring of course packages to the needs of specific groups of students, linguistic difficulties, assessment and validation procedures. After a brief consideration of practical arrangements, the article concludes with an evaluation of lessons which are to be learnt and of the extent to which such an initiative might be said to fulfil the ideals of the ERASMUS program.     

Exploration of technical and nontechnical employee attitudes toward participation in training

This study examined technical and nontechnical employee attitudes toward participation in training. A survey was administered to 337 self‐identified technical and nontechnical university employees. Our findings are as follows: (a) most employees prefer training that is less than 2 hours in length, (b) employees do not want training outside their regular shift, (c) employees strongly prefer hands‐on training, and (d) less than half were encouraged by their supervisor to apply what was learned in nontechnical training to their job.     

The Use of Student Consulting Projects as an Active Learning Pedagogy: A Case Study in a Production/Operations Management Course

Active learning has attracted considerable attention in higher education in response to concerns about how and what students are learning. There are many different forms of active learning, yet most of them are classroom based. We propose an alternative to active learning in the classroom through active learning outside of the classroom in the form of student consulting projects. While the literature on student consulting has largely focused on projects to assist small business owners, this research demonstrates the potential for using student-consulting projects in the Production/Operations Management course. We use a case study to describe the use of a student-consulting project as an alternative to the other types of active learning described in the Operations Management education literature.     

Lifelong learning and the reform of the teaching practicum in Australia

This paper reports the findings of a project—‘Lifelong learning and teacher education’—undertaken by the Centre for Lifelong Learning, Australian Catholic University, under the auspices of the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training. The study was designed to investigate the operationalization of lifelong learning in Australian teacher education. The study revealed that there is a range of existing, innovative practices regarding partnerships between schools and higher and further education that are in keeping with emerging ideas about lifelong learning. Moreover, some of these take the form of collaborative action research projects focused on improving the learning occurring in the partnership schools. This paper describes some current approaches in Australia to collaborative action research by teacher educators' and their partnership schools and shows how they contribute to lifelong learning. The approaches are then analyzed to suggest ways of advancing lifelong learning within Australian Education Faculties thus helping to make lifelong learning more of a reality for all.     

Opportunity structures and educational marginality: the post-16 transitions of young people outside education and employment

This paper reports on findings from a three-year ethnographic study of 24 young people in northern England who were classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET), or at risk of becoming so. Drawing on conceptions of opportunity structure and educational marginality, the paper discusses the processes leading to young people becoming NEET after leaving school. It presents findings concerning the family backgrounds, school experiences, and educational attainment of participants, and traces their initial post-16 destinations and their pathways to NEET status. Although most participants did not become NEET immediately after leaving school, restricted labour market opportunities and a lack of high-quality education and training for middle- and low-attaining young people exacerbated social and educational disadvantage. Over time, participants became increasingly restricted to marginal forms of learning. The paper argues that a focus on opportunity structures provides a powerful way of understanding these processes, and that alongside sustained NEET status, educational marginality should be of equal concern to policy makers.     

Towards a theory of instruction in the 1980s

The purpose of this article is to provide a historical perspective on the contributions of learning and instruction to instructional theory and to discuss some of the major obstacles currently inhibiting the growth of “Instructional Theory.” Some suggestions for future development of this discipline are provided. In clarifying the impediments to instructional theories' development, heavy reliance is placed upon the process of theory construction as perceived by philosophers of the natural and social sciences. Some comments are made regarding the appropriate use of instructional theory in developing nations.