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Over the past decade, there has been a rapid increase in higher education institutions offering opportunities for interprofessional learning (IPL) to their students. The literature presents a number of factors that contribute to effective IPL, including having trained facilitators that help optimise the learning process. Many of these IPL facilitators are university teachers and the literature provides us with some insight into their views of IPL. However, little is known about university teachers' views about IPL and their role in supporting students in achieving outcomes linked to IPL during their own teaching; this paper explores these areas. University teachers, working with students in Norway and England who contribute to patients' care pathway were purposively invited to join focus groups. Data collected from the teachers' conversations during these focus groups were analysed to elicit the main themes. Findings show that university teachers have a wide range of views about IPL, its potential to enhance collaborative practice and care, and their role in helping students achieve outcomes linked to IPL. A key challenge appears to be whether IPL is "worth the struggle," which emphasises the need for strong leadership in order to align pedagogical approaches in education and practice that strive to achieve agreed outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Botanic gardens, as well as being widely acknowledged as beautiful places, are often scientific organisations that aim to engage visitors, including families, in science learning. Yet, the extent to which families view them as settings for science learning is largely unexplored. Drawing upon social constructivist perspectives, this paper investigates families’ views of science learning at Kew Gardens. Kew is one of the largest botanic gardens worldwide and an internationally renowned scientific organisation located in London, UK. Twenty-four families took part in the study, which involved interviews and accompanied visits. Findings indicate that all families referred primarily to the aesthetic beauty of Kew, while its function as a site for science learning was less well acknowledged. However, interpretation helped families establish what constitutes science at Kew, and linked science to the beautiful plants, which offered avenues for families to appreciate science learning. The findings provide implications for developing interpretive provision in botanic gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England and Wales government pressures to raise attainment has led many schools to implement structured “ability” grouping in the form of setting. The introduction of selective grouping has been justified with the assumption that the differentiation of students by “ability” advances students’ motivation, social skills, independence and academic success in national tests and examinations because students are “better engaged in their own learning”. This paper critically engages with this assumption. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted in primary and secondary mathematics, science and English setted classrooms in England the aim of this literature review is to consider how teachers’ pedagogic practices with low, middle and high “ability” sets facilitates and/or constrains students’ learning and potential achievement. We also explore why, despite strenuous criticism and moves towards egalitarianism in schools, the segregation of students on the basis of “ability” continues to be a common feature in schools in England and Wales. This literature review draws attention to a number of substantive issues including (but not restricted to) fixed and permanent grouping; the potential misplacement of students to sets and a culture of stereotyping where learners within a set are taught as a single homogenous unit. We conclude the paper by suggesting foci for future research in the hope of eliciting renewed critical interest in and investigation of setting by “ability” in a broader range of subjects of the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Assessment and the documentation of learning is an international issue in early childhood education (ECE) and has increasingly become a way for governments to exercise direct control over the practitioners working with young children. This paper details recent statutory guidance about assessment and documentation for English ECE settings and deconstructs the latest English ECE policies, highlighting that these often give contradictory messages to practitioners. It suggests that practitioners are caught up in playing a game: trying to make compatible assessment practices that address both the scientific discourse of empiricism and a more recent internationally influenced sociocultural discourse, as outlined by Soler and Miller. However, we concede that it is unrealistic to reproduce practices that have deeply culturally embedded significance elsewhere. The paper therefore outlines key challenges for English practitioners: how to use documentation as a generative assessment tool and how to make assessment more collaborative. We suggest that addressing these issues through building pedagogical knowledge could enable practitioners to develop greater confidence when playing the assessment game. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A government department directive in England required all schools to implement facilities to support important aspects of learning, and such facilities were deemed to require inclusion of a learning platform (LP). Looking at the implementation of a single LP across schools in one local authority, it is clear that schools face challenges when implementing uses of a LP, but that there are, at the same time, important learning (as well as management and teaching) benefits that can be gained, for pupils in all age ranges. This paper, using evidence from a two-year study, explores examples of learning practice from a range of schools and shows that particular aspects of activity and learning are being encouraged, and that practices are beginning to emerge that could lead to future forms of enhanced involvement and engagement in learning activities for parents as well as pupils and teachers. This paper shows that a LP has the potential to provide an architecture that will allow parents to have more access to artefacts and scaffolding to support learning and suggests what the future potential of integrated parental access and support might hold. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents findings from a study of the experiences of in-service trainee teachers in colleges of further education in England on programmes run under the auspices of and through franchise arrangements with universities. It argues that there is a significant gap between the rhetoric of gaining teaching qualifications through a work-based route and the reality experienced by many in-service trainees. Consideration of the role of the workplace as the context for teacher training and professional development is currently absent from the reform process. The research findings comprise data from a questionnaire survey of 195 trainee teachers (drawn from colleges throughout England), the responses of 21 of them who agreed to be interviewed about the extent to which their colleges supported them during their training period, and the 'learning logs' of six of the interviewees. Using the 'expansive-restrictive' framework to analyse the findings, the paper argues that college managers need to conceptualise learning as something that is central to the practices of their employees as much as it is for their students and to help colleges become more expansive-learning oriented. Initial teacher education needs to be much more closely integrated within colleges' broader workforce development strategies. Much greater attention needs to be paid by policymakers and the agencies responsible for teacher training to the way in which workplace practices and the organisation of teachers' roles and responsibilities might need to change in order to accommodate their professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary modern schools form the focus for this paper, which explores an aspect of this topic that has received comparatively little attention: the role of external examinations in determining the character and fate of these schools during the 20-year period when they educated the 'large majority'1 of pupils in the 11 to 15 age range. Particular attention is paid to the pivotal role played by external examinations in secondary modern schools' quest for parity of esteem with grammar schools. Various functions performed by external examinations are considered and it is shown that, while some worked against the interests of secondary modern schools, individual schools were able to turn others to their own advantage. The paper ends by considering a darker side to examining, which was asserting itself as this brief period of history drew to a close. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching-research nexus has been studied by many researchers, mainly looking at pedagogic links and direct benefits arising from the interaction of both activities. The paper takes a comparative approach, looking at the relationship between teaching and research in four universities from two different countries. This paper argues that contextual factors are vital in shaping the nature of the relationship and also identifies differences between disciplines in how these contextual factors may be understood. In particular, the contrasting structural and political contexts provided by two different national settings are seen to have a crucial role in shaping institutional activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many education systems, young peoples' 'disaffection' is increasingly equated with non-participation in education, training and employment. There is also an expectation that educational activity can provide a key response to this situation. Drawing upon a case study of a successful development project based in Bristol, England which utilized an 'alternative' assessment regime in raising the participation and attainments of young people defined as disengaged from schooling, the paper considers a series of key issues. These include: the nature of the provision; the difficulties of understanding and evaluating it in a climate of performativity; a distinctive concept of learning promoted by the assessment practices; and the role of individual and networked professional mediation in creating the 'space' for the initiative. The paper concludes that the case study project represents a 'marriage of convenience' between the expectations of a culture of performativity and, on the other hand, a horizontal community of practice which provides a strong professional framework for action, and that there are implications for both practice and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the sociological issues raised by a recent study on school councils in England. This study revealed a lack of clarity among policy-makers and schools regarding the purpose of provision for pupil voice. The paper argues that this allows important questions about the functions of pupil voice to be avoided. While suggesting ways in which schools could refine their provision, the paper asks whether more effective pupil voice would make the concept less attractive to policy-makers and schools in the first place. It goes on to highlight more fundamental questions raised by critiques of notions of 'voice'. Connected to this, the paper outlines the potential for pupil voice to support neo-liberal as well as progressive ends. It concludes by arguing that teachers must grasp the opportunities provided by pupil voice to ensure that it serves 'collaborative' rather than 'managerial' professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on teacher-student interaction in two Gujarati complementary school classrooms in one school in the East Midlands city of Leicester, UK. To date, little work has been published on interaction in complementary schools, and little is therefore known about the cultures of learning and teaching in such contexts. Our study of complementary schools in Leicester has shown how the classroom participants manage bilingualism and bilingual learning and teaching. One of the most noticeable features of the discourses of the two classrooms is the way two languages are juxtaposed to create learning opportunities. This uncontested use of two languages through the pedagogic strategy of code-switching goes against the perceived notion of bilingual learning/teaching as being a deficient strategy. Classrooms in complementary schools offer a highly significant, though under-researched, context in which to study language choice, and specifically the multilingual experiences of classroom participants. By exploring the educational pedagogies and classroom discourses, it is the aim of the paper to extend theoretical insights into the way complementary schools might help to transform, negotiate and manage the linguistic, social and learning identities of the participants in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with changing constructions of teaching and learning in the further education (FE) sector in England. It explores how current changes may be affecting the development of lecturers' professional identity, drawing upon a small-scale study of trainees on a full-time FE teacher training programme in the academic year 2001–2002. Our underlying concern is the possibilities for democratic forms of practice within the changing context of lecturers' work. The paper considers how trainees make sense of pedagogic relations, and considers how such work might inform debates about new forms of professionalism and practice in FE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing learning programmes to enhance the formation of generic skills is an international concern in education and training policy. This paper provides a broad survey of the development of generic skills policy in England from 1975 to 2002, drawing on both the economic and educational literature. It demonstrates that, despite an evident demand for generic skills in the English economy, successive waves of education and training policy intended to stimulate the supply of such skills have failed to deliver the desired results. Such failure is accounted for using a policy instruments and institutions framework. This suggests that the failure of generic skills policy can be attributed to a combination of weak policy design, the interaction of generic skills policy with other market-led reforms of education and training in England, and broader exogenous socio-economic trends. The paper concludes that current initiatives to develop key skills for all 16-19 learners in England are unlikely to succeed without substantial changes in the current education policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides the outcomes of two small-scale sets of interviews carried out in the Netherlands and in England on views about and interpretations of the work-based route for young people. In the light of current revival of interest in work-based learning for young people, and in particular the apprenticeship model in England, I was particularly interested in the issue of parity of esteem between the work-based route and other routes. Whereas in the Netherlands the focus for the development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is on the full-time vocational route, which has a reasonably high status, England has opted for the apprenticeship route to be the development tool for high quality VET. The paper explores what we can learn about our own experiences in England in the light of what is happening elsewhere (Raffe, 1998; Raffe et al ., 1999). It becomes clear from the data obtained that policy development in the Netherlands aims to increase the status of work-based learning through incorporating the route into the full-time route and providing end qualifications that can be achieved through either a full-time college-based route or through a work-based learning route. The modern apprenticeship route or work-based learning route as such has not a high status, contrary to what is sometimes claimed to be the case. In England, the aim of policymakers is to create a work-based learning route, which is considered to be a high quality route, and is comparable to the general/academic route. The paper shows that there are various reasons as to why this attempt might fail. Both countries aim to provide a 'ladder' or 'column' of opportunities in VET. The research shows that very few young people in fact move up a ladder, but rather move into work-based learning or apprenticeships at certain points on the continuum, and subsequently move sideways into general or theoretical provision in order to be able to progress higher up. Target groups for work-based learning are different at the lower end from those at levels 3, 4 and 5. Very few participants in either country move from level 1 up to level 4 through participation in a work-based route, and it may therefore be appropriate to talk about the provision of a climbing framework, where young people move backwards and forwards and sideways, rather than about a ladder of opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the rationale for introducing the raising of the participation age (RPA) in learning in England from 2013 and assesses how, if fully implemented, it could contribute to improving the outcomes for young people who do not participate in any form of post-16 education, employment or training, and are currently defined as not in education, employment or training (NEET). It considers previous experience of extending young people’s participation in learning, both in the UK and overseas, and draws on evidence from the author’s research on a recent policy initiative targeted at the NEET group. The piloting of activity agreements explored the value of offering a financial incentive, tailored learning and intensive support as mechanisms to re-engage young people in post-16 education, employment or training. Faced by a lack of enforcement; the necessary levels of investment in support mechanisms to engage with young people and to sustain their participation in learning; and innovative approaches to post-16 learning, the article concludes that the RPA will, in effect, be allowed to ‘wither on the vine’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the changes and continuities to apprenticeship in England since the 1960s. It argues that apprenticeship is primarily a model of learning that still has relevance for skill formation, personal development and employer need. It also argues that, since the late 1970s and the introduction of state-sponsored youth training, apprenticeship has been transformed into an instrument of State policy, primarily for the control of young people and as part of new legislation to keep them in some form of education or training to the age of 18. In that sense, the holistic notion that apprenticeship had in the past as being a journey within which young people learned to be morally upright citizens as well as acquiring occupational expertise, is being reinvented. Now, however, the State's dominant role has profound implications for the role of employers in apprenticeship and the extent to which skill formation is being underplayed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviews with 14-19 year olds in England and Wales are analysed to explore young people's perceptions of the experience of school and of alternative settings for learning such as further education colleges or work-based learning. Many experience school as oppressive, suggesting a defeasance of their rights as human beings. The paper posits that conceptualisations of childhood, rather than offering protection, may lead to vulnerability, and that in secondary schools there are negative and disabling relationships between teachers and learners. If secondary pupils are conceived as vulnerable and marginalised, frameworks to address issues of social justice and inclusion for disadvantaged groups may be relevant. A capabilities approach to assuring the well-being of young people is explored as an alternative theory within which to evaluate schooling and to adjust relations between young people and staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enabling pupils with special educational needs to participate more fully in the assessment, planning and evaluation of their own learning has become a principle enshrined within the legislation of many countries in recent years. Educational policy in both England and the Republic of Ireland has recognised the desirability of increased pupil involvement, and this is reflected in policy documents and in legislation which highlights the requirement of schools to take greater account of the views of pupils. This paper documents the approaches to increased pupil involvement in decision-making adopted in England and Ireland and provides an overview of the key challenges that face policy-makers and educators in ensuring meaningful participation for children and young people with special educational needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English Learning and Skills Sector (LSS) contains a highly diverse range of learners and covers all aspects of post-16 learning with the exception of higher education. In the research on which this paper is based we are concerned with the effects of policy on three types of learners - unemployed adults attempting to improve their basic skills in community learning settings, younger learners on Level 1 and 2 courses in further education colleges, and employees in basic skills provision in the workplace. What is distinctive about all three groups is that they have historically failed in, or been failed by, compulsory education. What is interesting is that they are constructed as 'problem learners' in learning and skills sector policy documents. We use data from 194 learner interviews, conducted during 2004/5, in 24 learning sites in London and the North East of England, to argue that government policy assumptions about these learners may only be 'half right'. We argue that such assumptions might be leading to half-right policy based on incomplete understandings or surface views of learner needs that are more politically constructed than real. We suggest that policy-makers should focus more on systemic problems in the learning and skills sector and less on problematising groups of learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores what kinds of advantages and strengths the process of learning to read simultaneously in different languages and scripts might bring about. It is based on a socio-cultural view of learning and literacy and examines early literacy in three parallel literacy classes in Watford, England. It analyses the learning experiences of five bilingual children who are of second or third generation Pakistani background. At the start of the study the children are five years old and they attend the same school and class. They learn to read in English during their daily literacy hour lessons; their home language is Pahari . They attend weekly Urdu lessons that take place in a community language school. They also learn to read in classical Arabic - in a language they do not speak or understand - in their daily Qur'anic classes and, typically, in the local mosque. The data shows that the children learn to switch between three literacy systems. They talk about their literacy learning in terms of `how you got to do it' and `do it properly', which varies from class to class. They use a different range of learning strategies in establishing how to read with meaning. Rather than finding these - or the different related languages and scripts - confusing, they have a powerful impact in enabling the children to see literacies as systems that change and that can be manipulated. This kind of analytical approach of understanding `proper' reading is based on the children's varied experiences of parallel literacy classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of agency and context in workplace learning is explored through a micro-analysis of the implementation of networked learning communities in schools in England. Interviews with local activists show evidence of co-participation between individuals' responses and their workplace roles and experience as they take up the opportunity to create a networked learning community for their schools. The paper raises issues about the community of practice model as promoted for workplace learning, with its emphasis on group participation rather than individual agency. Activists make strategic use of existing power relationships in order to facilitate networked learning, and develop skills in influencing and communicating across existing practice communities. Sustaining the network also depends on continuing intervention and strong support from activists' personal communities of trusted peers and colleagues with whom values and goals are shared. The opportunities, challenges and risks of using a networked approach to foster workplace learning are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between education, learning and civic participation arising from 120 biographical interviews conducted with respondents in three areas of England. Through analysis of individual biographies, it is argued that the relationship between education, learning and the generation of 'bonding' social capital is largely unrealistic. Rather, there emerge three loose typologies of relationship between education and civic participation: atomistic, networking and altruistic. These relationships are shaped by individual biography, type of learning and structural considerations. Class, gender and ethnicity particularly influence relationships between education and participation but not in a rigidly deterministic fashion, and may additionally be generators of creative tension. It is concluded that although policy makers would be naïve to expect investment in education and learning to automatically generate virtuous cycles of social capital, the role of education in generating benefits in what can be called the 'ecology' of community is both unexpected and illuminating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue of whether student learning style has an impact on use of a learning technology such as a virtual learning environment (VLE). It is based on material from a broader research project at a UK university (Kingston University) on the use of VLEs in teaching and learning and explores the findings from the analysis of qualitative interviews with 43 first-year undergraduate students, drawn from three faculties and four subject areas. It discusses the features of the VLE that are most valued by students (including their evaluation of more flexible modalities of learning); how students integrate the VLE with other learning and studying activities; and the specific ways in which various learning styles and approaches affect VLE use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]