The reform of post‐16 education and training and the lessons from Europe

Abstract

With the future shape of Britain's post‐16 education and training still undecided policy makers are increasingly looking abroad for new models to follow. The educational debate has become internationalized. As in the late 19th century it is the pressure of economic competition from Europe which has galvanized British interest in the relative ‘success’ of training in countries such as France and Germany.

This paper examines the current use and misuse of comparative examples in British debates over reform. It analyses the systems of vocational education and training (VET) in France, Germany, and Sweden and assesses what lessons, if any, we can draw from them for the reform of British VET.     

比较教育研究在全球化时代的意义和作用

本文缩编自格林教授的一篇早期论文①,旨在提炼其有关当代比较教育研究的理论与观点,以期对改善和提高我国比较教育研究的质量和水平有所助益。本文主要聚焦三个问题:全球化如何改变着教育?因全球化而引发的教育变革对比较教育有何启示?比较教育研究如何做到真正意义上的比较?     

Exploring ‘learning lives’: community,identity, literacy and meaning

This article explores the term ‘learning lives’ by reporting on three research projects conducted by members of the Oslo‐based research group TransActions. By stressing the term ‘learning lives’ within a range of social ‘educational’ contexts, the article aims to look at learning within and across different learning sites exploring the positioning and repositioning of learner identity across these different ‘locations’. We emphasise how the individual learner relates to other people and objects, drawing on deeper trajectories or narratives of the self as it exists within and outside the immediate learning contexts. We pay attention to processes occurring between people which we find significant for the individual's identity, literacy and learning. By doing so we hope to make explicit the mobilisation of resources within and across specific contexts, in the ‘learning lives’ of Norwegian youngsters.     

Complete blood count alterations in COVID-19 patients: A narrative review

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents a scientific and social crisis. One of the main unmet needs for coronavirus disease 2019 is its unpredictable clinical course, which can rapidly change in an irreversible outcome. COVID-19 patients can be classified into mild, moderate, and severe. Several haematological parameters, such as platelets, white blood cell total count, lymphocytes, neutrophils, (together with neutrophil-lymphocyte and platelet-lymphocyte ratio), and haemoglobin were described to be associated with COVID-19 infection and severity. The purpose of these review is to describe the current state of the art about complete blood count alterations during COVID-19 infection, and to summarize the crucial role of some haematological parameters during the course of the disease. Decreased platelet, lymphocyte, haemoglobin, eosinophil, and basophil count, increased neutrophil count and neutrophil-lymphocyte and platelet-lymphocyte ratio have been associated with COVID-19 infection and a worse clinical outcome. Our study adds some novelty about the identification of effective biomarkers of progressive disease, and might be helpful for diagnosis, prevention of complications, and effective therapy.     

Psychometric Characteristics of the Revised Procrastination Inventory

The Procrastination Inventory developed for use with doctoral students in clinical psychology was modified for use with ABD students and doctoral graduates in a College of Education. The original Procrastination Inventory contained 43 items with 11 subscales. The structure of the revised measure was analyzed both through factor and Rasch analyses and three subscales that were more generalized were found instead of the eleven originally posited. The three subscales were: (1) procrastination, 20 items, alpha = .88, (2) perfectionism, 9 items, alpha = .64, and (3) graduate school comfort, 6 items, alpha = .59. Eight items were deleted after Rasch and factor analyses, resulting in a 35-item scale. Validity was demonstrated by the measure's ability to predict dissertation completion and through correlations with related measures. The Procrastination Inventory is useful in the study of attrition from doctoral programs, particularly at the dissertation stage.     

Inviting Conversations? Dialogic difficulties in the corporate university

The paper experiments with, and reflects on, the limited possibilities for collaboration and communication across disparate groups within the university setting. The authors respond to the strong imperative to bring management, academics and support staff together, and so move beyond the entrenched positions and interests that those groups often display. They highlight the implications that this may have for collaborative academic publication. The text of the paper works as a research exercise in which each author's contribution constitutes data as well as providing reflections upon their own distinct identity and its consequences for communication in universities. The authors argue that attempts to enact ‘better communication’ is in many senses a failed project, but that it is this very fact which makes the experiment instructive. They conclude that calls to collaboration must acknowledge the fact that such relationships will always be relations of power, and are therefore not easily negotiated or understood.     

Web tutorials: bibliographic instruction in a new medium

Libraries are adding electronic resources of all kinds at an increasing pace to provide service to users outside the library and around the world. To meet this new demand, libraries are turning more and more to the use of online tutorials as a valuable means of providing instruction on how to access and use important resources. This article describes the Health Sciences Library and Biocommunications Center's work and experiences while creating tutorials, the ideas used, and ways the work was evaluated.     

1991 Census - The Ethnic Question

The British 1991 Census will include for the first time ever a question on race. This article describes the pilot surveys which were used to test the feasibility of including such a question.