Search

The paper argues that: (1) the demise of 'occupational' and 'internal' and the spread of 'external' labour markets in growth areas of UK economy such as the creative and cultural sector, coupled with the massification of higher education which has created a new type of post-degree 'vocational need', means that the transition from education to work should be re-thought as the development of vocational practice rather than the acquisition of qualifications; and (2) in order to re-think transition as the development of vocational practice it is necessary to eviscerate the legacy of the 'traditional' conception of practice in UK educational policy. The paper reviews a number of alternative social scientific conceptions of practice, formulates more multi-faceted conceptions of vocational practice, and discusses their implications for UK and EU educational policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 20 years the importance of creativity as part of young people's education has increasingly been recognised. The stimulus for the growing emphasis on creativity has come from diverse sources including drives for greater national economic prosperity and enlightenment visions of young people's education. One facet of creativity in education has been its place in the national curriculum texts of nation states. The research reported in this paper aimed to investigate the place of creativity in the national curricula of the 27 member states of the EU ( EU 27) and in the UK. A content analysis of all statutory national curriculum texts for the EU27 was undertaken and implications compared to the answers of 7659 teachers to a survey. The findings showed that creativity was a recurring element of curricula but its incidence varied widely. It was also found that creativity was represented in arts subjects more than other subjects and that it was relatively neglected in reading and writing as part of the language group of subjects. The countries of the UK in general had maintained their historic attention to creativity but there was evidence of a shift from emphasis in primary settings to secondary settings. It is concluded that there is a need for much greater coherence between general aims for education and the representation of creativity in curriculum texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the use of mobile technologies in relation to the aims of the European Union's Lifelong Learning programme. First, we explain the background to the notion of mobile lifelong learning. We then present a methodological framework to analyse and identify good practices in mobile lifelong learning, based on the outcomes of the MOTILL project ('Mobile Technologies in Lifelong Learning: Best Practices'). In particular, we give an account of the methodology adopted to carry out meta-analyses of published literature and accounts of mobile learning experiences. Furthermore, we present the results of an implementation of our Evaluation Grid and the implications arising from it in terms of management, pedagogy, policies and ethical issues. Finally, we discuss lessons learnt and future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]