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Background: Community-based volunteering supports outbreak management by extending reach into at-risk communities. This paper examines the application of a 'community champions' model in England, UK, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence pre-pandemic shows that community champion interventions tap into social networks to strengthen connections with disadvantaged communities. During the pandemic, the UK government set up a COVID community champions funding award scheme for local authorities to develop local programmes that addressed emerging inequalities. The study aim was to identify transferable learning on community engagement in the pandemic by undertaking a secondary qualitative synthesis of practice-based case studies of local COVID community champion programmes. Methods: A systematic staged approach for synthesis of practice-based case studies was used. In total, 16 COVID community champion case studies, which were written by practitioners involved in local programme implementation and published by the Local Government Association, were included. Case studies covered aims, programme development and delivery, examples of activities and a discussion of learning. Framework qualitative analysis methods were used to code and organise data prior to cross case analysis. The final stage produced an overarching thematic framework that best represented descriptive and interpretive themes. Results: The results provide an overview of common features of COVID community champion programmes and emergent learning. All local programmes aimed to reduce health inequalities by involving at-risk communities in local prevention efforts, adapting the approach to local priorities. Two levels of community engagement were volunteer mobilisation and subsequent community-based outreach activities. Elements of capacity building, such as training and creation of networks, were common. The synthesis of practice-based learning found that stronger relationships with communities were regarded as a key mechanism to support more equitable prevention strategies. Other learning themes related to champion roles, community engagement strategies and programme implementation. Conclusions: By focusing on how community champion approaches were applied by local authorities in England during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study contributes to knowledge on volunteer mobilisation as a mechanism to improve public health communication and outreach. Notwithstanding the limitations of experiential evidence, the synthesis of practice-based learning highlights potentially transferable community engagement strategies for health protection and health improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore preservice science teachers' (science PSTs') reflective practice (RP) during a 1-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education programme in England. Previous research suggests that science PSTs are not very reflective, and I hypothesised that lack of reflectivity is related to their difficulty in learning to teach. Science PSTs (n = 38) took part in a teaching intervention designed to support development of RP, and eight volunteered as research participants. Four seminars about the diagnostic teaching cycle and action learning (AL) took place in the university during the year. Data collected included written reflective journals, analyses of critical incidents, and action plans; audio recordings of AL sets; and school-based mentors' reports of participants' progress in school placements. I investigated participants' reflectivity using Zwokdiak-Myers' nine dimensions of reflective practice. There was substantial variation between participants, and more evidence of reflectivity in some dimensions than in others. A relative strength was that participants adopted a range of teaching strategies (Dimension 6), but linking theory with practice (Dimension 3) was a weakness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police forces in England and Wales have faced ongoing difficulties of engagement with minority communities leading to a loss of confidence and trust in policing. The paper reports on the results of a project to improve relations with communities with Humberside Police, UK by implementing key ideas relating to procedural justice that consider how fairness in interactions between the police and others can promote the perception of police legitimacy. An Action Learning Research project was set up during the Covid Pandemic to apply procedural justice. Two groups of front line officers worked with a researcher/facilitator over five meetings with the support of senior officers. Data provided from the meetings and written logs were analysed to show how procedural justice works towards relationship development and more positive opinion of the police in interactions. It is suggested that police forces can tackle difficult issues such as engagement with communities by more use of action learning research in collaboration with researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a concept gaining popularity: entrepreneurial ecosystems. It finds a significant lacuna in the concept as it stands as it does not sufficiently consider learning within regional ecosystems. Considering the established centrality of learning for entrepreneurial activity and regional development, it is surprising that the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature does not yet incorporate how learning occurs in time and space within regional ecosystems. This paper presents research conducted in the North West of England over (20) years examining programmes to support entrepreneurial and regional development. It argues that learning, and the pro-active support thereof, is crucial within an entrepreneurial ecosystem and should be fully considered within theoretical frameworks and policy blueprints designed to support and encourage entrepreneurship within regions. As a tangible suggestion of how to theoretically incorporate learning into entrepreneurship ecosystem development efforts, we present an integrated learning model developed by entrepreneurship scholars through collaborations with practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In England, religious education (RE) is a part of the basic curriculum mandatory for all pupils in the compulsory years of schooling. This paper explores how RE and spirituality interact and whether one can contribute to the effective delivery of the other. It explores the experience of a small group of subject leaders working in schools in one local authority area in the West Midlands of England, drawn from schools with a religious affiliation and those without. Using in service training activities, questionnaires and reflective processes, it seeks to elicit their aspirations for the interaction between RE and spirituality (also referred to as meaning-making). The findings suggest the subject leaders have an intention to develop both activity to promote learning and activity to apply that learning to real life experience. This suggests that developing a spiritual dimension to religious education requires a move from the abstract or theoretical and from knowledge acquisition towards increased engagement, making a personal response and considering what difference can be made as a result. As such, a spiritual dimension to learning cannot be passive. The project has the potential to impact policy and practice on both national and international levels, given its focus on values and pedagogy rather than specific curriculum content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the ways in which ICT is conceptualised in geography education in England. Our argument is that the way ICT has been conceptualised in school geography is clearly linked to a particular view of geography as a subject, one based on ideas of positivist and empiricist science. Other views of geographical knowledge based on humanist and realist approaches to science have been neglected. In this paper we describe this dominant approach, and suggest how these features are present in the work of one geography teacher one of us has worked with as part of the 'InterActive Education' Project. The second part of the paper uses Ron Johnston's typology of applied geographical knowledge to look at other ways of conceptualising the role of ICT in school geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the body of work within the social studies of childhood on creative visual methods and the emerging critique on the participatory assumptions of child-centred creative visual methodology. Drawing on ethnographically informed research with a group of children aged 8–12 years which utilised a range of creative methods including child-led video and photography, the paper provides a methodological focus on the children’s interactions with the adult research team, each other and with the children whom they filmed, interviewed and photographed. The paper suggests that attention to the dynamics between children as researchers and participants is essential for understanding how children’s voices are made (and diminished) in child-led creative visual methods. Methodological attention to the ways in which children’s voices are differently (and unequally) heard in the research encounter is essential for evaluating what such methods bring to research with children and challenges theorisations of a singular children’s voice suggested in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The report of the Chief Medical Officer in 1999, and the government consultation paper A First-Class Service advocated a review of medical education and called for the implementation of strategies that encouraged work-based, multidisciplinary learning. Several articles addressing the problems of delivering education to the workplace in both the private and public sector have discussed the concept of the 'learning organisation'. This paper reviews the experiences of a team of educators in Herefordshire, who implemented a programme of activities by developing protected time for all practices, using problem-based learning (PBL) techniques and trained facilitators who could visit practices and run the sessions. The key aim of introducing regular, effective, multidisciplinary educational activities has been achieved, and every practice has participated in the programme. INSETS: Box 1 What makes CPD most;Box 2 Key features of a learning organisation (adapted from Senge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest School in England is the practice of young children playing outside, rooted in the outdoor kindergartens of Scandinavia and more especially Denmark. Using observation and semi-structured interviews with children and adults in two settings, this case study approach allowed an in-depth look at where, how and what children played in a Forest School in England compared with a Forest Kindergarten in Denmark. This study found that even though each case had contextual differences, with different conceptualisations of pedagogy and play, children were active in the process of their play. Choosing to play in familiar places, which resources they needed, on their own or with peers, but away from adults, a common theme to the play was play stories or narratives. Bounded by the two cases, and explored through play pedagogy, this study offers practitioners and pedagogues a unique insight into how children experience and operate in two similar yet different forest environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the delivery of action learning sets to students on the peer educator course provided by the Dementia Studies Department at University of Bradford. Our understanding of action learning sets is laid out together with our rationale for their use on this course. Feedback is presented that described a conflicted, even confused experience for many of those involved. This paper is the outcome of the organising teams' effort to make sense of, and learn from, this feedback in order to inform our future practice. We conclude that, amongst the many issues, most key was that the students had been subscripted into an action learning process for which voluntary commitment is more usually the norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings from an evaluation research project undertaken by Henley Management College in 2006. This project followed an earlier research study that focused on identifying the leadership development needs for leaders of small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, developed a leadership development model and made recommendations for a leadership development programme. The principle challenges facing the SME organisations overwhelmingly concerned leading change in their organisation. Their personal challenges concerned implementing change initiatives, communicating these and motivating the people in their organisation. In consideration of the challenges identified, one of the key recommendations was to pilot an action learning programme and evaluate the effectiveness of action learning to develop leadership skills in SME leaders. Henley Management College then conducted a research project to evaluate the pilot programme. This pilot consisted of three learning sets, run in three geographical areas in the UK and facilitated using three very different styles. Following the pilot programme, there were several wider reviews by academics, advisors and representatives of relevant government boards. This has since resulted in a significant programme of action learning for SME leadership development being implemented. This paper provides an overview of the relevant literature and research methodology and then presents the evaluation results from the pilot programme. The dominant theme was that action learning does indeed deliver significant business benefits and provides a real opportunity for SME leaders to develop their leadership skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In public services delivery, action learning is increasingly employed in the hope of improving capacity to address complex, multi-casual and 'wicked' social issues to improve the lives of citizens. Yet the understanding of how and why action learning might have potential for enhancing organizational or systemic capability rarely goes beyond the notion of peers in adversity tackling problems. Making sense of the impacts of action learning has more commonly focused on explaining individual learning. This paper aims to address that gap. It explores the relationship between individual and organisational in action learning, a connection that is under-explored and insufficiently problematised in the literature. The purpose for using action learning is often presented as a dichotomous choice between benefit for the collective 'we' or the individual 'I' - either it can be used to enhance organisation capacity and further organisation performance or its purpose is for the benefit of the individual participants. Reflecting on experience of action learning with public service organisations in England, this paper draws on social constructionist notions of organising as patterns of interaction to explore the potential of action learning to impact on organisational development and on psychodynamic and identity ideas to make sense of what is argued is a tension between the 'we' and the 'I'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on several papers on critical action learning. Writer Mandy Chivers describes an action learning and research project with NHS speech and language therapists and the parents of children with severe communication difficulties in Liverpool, England. To improve a situation with which both parties were unhappy, parents and practitioners worked separately and together to develop new services for the children, adapting their own practices as they went. In a very different context, writers Jeff Kuhn and Victoria Marsick propose an action learning model for strategic innovation in mature organizations with the aid of a case study from the U.S. financial services sector.

Can disaster risk reduction and dealing with disasters be taught in the classroom at the secondary school level? This paper seeks to answer this research question in order to apply and critique pedagogical theories for improving how teachers are trained to teach disaster-related topics and how these topics could be introduced into the classroom. The case study used is secondary school geography education in England. Three main geography education theories are examined in the context of disaster-related education: experiential learning, multiple intelligences and self-theories on whether or not people have a fixed amount of intelligence. An overview is given of putting the theories into practice for improving the disaster-related component of secondary school geography education in England. Then, specific proposals are provided for improving curricula, for classroom and extra-curricular action and activities, and for teacher training and support. The overall ethos aims to make education interesting and relevant, for both the educators and the students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Problem-based learning (PBL) in medical and dental curricula is now well established, as such courses are seen to equip students with valuable transferable skills (e.g. problem-solving or team-working abilities), in addition to knowledge acquisition. However, it is often assumed that students improve in such skills without actually providing direct opportunity for practice, and without giving students feedback on their performance. ‘The Manchester Dental Programme’ (TMDP) was developed at The University of Manchester, UK as a 5-year, integrated enquiry-led curriculum. The existing PBL course was redesigned to include a unique, additional PBL session (‘Session 4’) that incorporated an activity for the group to complete, based on the subject material covered during student self-study. A summative mark was awarded for each activity that reflected the teamwork, organisational and overall capabilities of the groups. This paper describes the different types of activities developed for the Session 4 and presents an analysis of the perceptions of the students and staff involved. The student response to the Session 4 activities, obtained via questionnaires, was extremely positive, with the majority finding them fun, yet challenging, and ‘worthwhile’. The activities were perceived to enhance subject understanding; develop students’ problem-solving skills; allow the application of knowledge to new situations, and helped to identify gaps in knowledge to direct further study. Staff found the activities innovative and exciting learning tools for the students. The Session 4 activities described here are useful educational resources that could be adapted for other PBL courses in a wide variety of subject areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to identify two contrasting, yet successful, ways of conducting CPD training specific to the regeneration sector; looking at the different delivery methods of the two courses and the benefits associated with each. Design/methodology/approach - The paper provides an overview and analysis of contrasting courses available through Coventry University and the University of Salford through literature and participants' experience. Findings - For professionals in the regeneration sector traditional CPD courses from HE institutions are not the most effective. Regeneration covers a variety of different activities and is practically based; as a result flexible work based courses are more effective. Two contrasting examples of effective delivery methods are individual study based around existing projects and workplace based training to support tailored company development. Originality/value - This paper will be of interest to regeneration professionals, managers and HR officers looking for effective ways to develop the workforce while maintaining business relevance. It looks at two new courses which take different approaches to work-based CPD and discusses the differences and benefits of the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the work of the Russian social philosopher and cultural theorist, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin as a source of understanding for those involved in action learning. Drawing upon data gathered over two years during the evaluation of 20 action learning sets in the north of England, we will seek to work with the ideas of Bakhtin to consider their value for those involved in action learning. We consider key Bakhtin features such as Making Meaning, Participative Thinking, Theoreticism and Presence, Others and Outsideness, Voices and Carnival to highlight how Bakhtin's can enhance our understanding of the nature of action and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study describes the implementation of the Assessment of Learner-Centered Practices (ALCP) surveys in 4 English schools, 3 primary schools and 1 secondary school during the academic year 2002 – 2003. The ALCP teacher and student surveys for grades kindergarten through 12 were developed and validated with over 25,000 students and their teachers in the United States. The theoretical basis for the ALCP surveys is the American Psychological Association's Learner-Centered Psychological Principles. This paper firstly describes the knowledge base underpinning the ALCP surveys, then describes their implementation in the UK. Although the ALCP surveys have been extensively validated in the US, this study is the first attempt to trial them in the UK as a teacher development tool. Given the cultural similarities between the US and UK, as well as the presumed generalizability of the Learner-Centered Psychological Principles, establishing the psychometric qualities of the ALCP surveys with English teachers extends the cross-cultural usefulness of these surveys. The study found that the ALCP surveys demonstrated comparable reliability and validity as U.S. data and their usefulness in practice were confirmed via teacher evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to argue that action learning (AL) may provide a means of successfully developing small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach -- The literature around SME learning suggests a number of processes are important for SME learning which similarity, it is argued, are encompassed in AL. AL may therefore offer a means of developing SME. This argument is then supported through the results of a longitudinal qualitative evaluation study conducted in the north-west of England, which involved the use of AL in 100 SMEs. Findings -- The paper finds that the discursive and critical reflection aspects of the set environment appeared to be of great utility and importance to the SMEs. Sets also had an optimum level of which helped them find "common ground". Once common ground was established set members often continued to network and form alliances outside of the set environment. SME owner-managers could discuss both personal and business. Finally, AL offered the opportunity to take time out of the business and "disengage" with the operational allowing them to become more strategic. Practical implications -- In this paper both the literature review and the results of the evaluation suggest AL may offer a means of engaging SMEs in training, which is relevant and useful to them. AL offers a way for policy makers and support agencies to get involved with SME management development while retaining context and naturalistic conditions. Originality/value -- This paper attempts to move beyond other articles which assess SME response to government initiatives, through examining the literature around SME learning and constructing a rationale which proposes that AL encompasses many of the learning processes suggested in the literature as effective for SME development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to use methodologies is an essential ingredient in the teaching of Information System techniques and approaches. One method to achieve this is to use a practical approach where students undertake ‘live’ projects with local client organisations. They can then reflect on the approach adopted with the aim of producing a ‘reflective methodological practitioner’. This paper focuses on the use of experiential learning in a modular course at the University of Central Lancashire to produce these ‘methodological practitioners’ and is based on the experiences of the authors in running this module. A model is presented which outlines three viewpoints of the project. This is in line with a ‘soft systems’ perspective in analysing the three views of the project or problem situation. It reports the results of investigations into one of those viewpoints [that of the students]. This is approached by a survey undertaken amongst students to obtain their views on the determinants of project success and failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument for a pedagogy which embraces visual and multimodal representation is well established in academic circles ( Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996 ; New London Group, 1996 ; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000 ) and a plethora of literacies congregate around the ever-expanding subject English as the prime site for innovation and development. This paper will focus on one exploratory case study from the Economic and Social Research Council InterActive Education Project 1 to examine how working with multimodal texts creates tensions for English teachers as well as creative opportunities for pupils. Questions around what might be an appropriate pedagogy and metalanguage for the new literacies involved were tested against the models put forward by the New London Group. The process has shown that the development of a viable metalanguage for teaching and assessing multimodal texts is highly problematic and is in need of further empirical study. This cultural work is constrained by the current assessment requirements for English in England and needs to be considered against discussions of what definition of English and literacy we need in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the repeating themes around the provision of the knowledge and skills needed for delivering sustainable communities is the idea of a "common language" for all built environment professionals. This suggestion has been repeated regularly with each new political and professional review within and between different sectors responsible for the delivery of sustainable communities. There have been multiple efforts to address academic limitations, industry fragmentation and promote more interdisciplinary working and sector collaboration. This research explored the role of skills for sustainable communities, particularly within the higher education (HE) sector, and the responses to support the development of a "common language of sustainability" that can be shared between different sectors, professional disciplines and stakeholders. As an interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners working with the HE sector in the North East of England, we evaluate the progression of sector collaboration to develop a quintuple helix model for HE. We use this as a suitable framework for systematically "mapping" out the mixed sector (academic, public, business, community and environmental organisations) inputs and influences into a representative sample of HE degree modules that are delivered from foundation and undergraduate to postgraduate levels, including examples of part-time and distance-learning modules. We developed a cascade of models which demonstrate increasing levels of collaboration and their potential positive impact on the effectiveness of education on sustainable communities. The methodological assessments of modules were followed by semi-structured group reflective analysis undertaken through a series of online workshops (recorded during the Covid19 lockdown) to set out a collective understanding of the generic skills needed for the delivery of sustainable communities. These generic skills for sustainable communities are presented as a pedagogical progression model of teaching activities and learning outcomes applied to the levels within HE. We propose sustainability education principles and progressions with the hope that they can have an impact on the design or review of current degree modules and programmes. The paper informs future sustainability research to be grounded in holism and systems thinking; better understanding of values, ethics, influencing and political impact; and procedural authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a mechatronics-based project which is part of the first-year Design and Manufacture course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol. The project introduces students to the use of novel and integrated microcontrollers as part of a complete product development cycle. The project involves the design and manufacture of a microcontroller-based vending machine in an active learning environment. This is a team-based project carried out over two terms; it lasts 60 hours, spread over seven weeks in the spring term and a one-week post-examination build phase in the summer term. Many of the engineering principles learned are applied in order to conceive, detail, cost, plan and build a vending machine to a product design specification, mirroring industrial product development. The nature of the project allows students to learn about the interface of sensors and actuators through the use of a recently adopted microcontroller package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an account of preliminary research into strategies, especially in the area of communication methods and technologies, adopted by students undertaking group projects within the Computing and Technology disciplines. The research forms part of a five-year study of the types of support students want and find useful in an innovative curriculum. The study is being carried out by the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning - Active Learning in Computing (CETL ALiC), a collaboration between the Universities of Durham, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan and Newcastle, whose primary focus is on active learning through group- and project-based work. Initial findings indicate that students adopt communication strategies that are easily and readily available with which they are most familiar. The choice of strategy appears to be unaffected by the presence within the group of students with identified Special Needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the White Paper Valuing People, person centred planning is now firmly on the agenda of services to people with learning difficulties in England. Person centred planning has its foundations in communities of practice that have innovated and developed person centred approaches to action planning for disabled people. This article suggests that services will need to undergo some radical re-visioning of their ways of working if they are to make a meaningful reality of person centred planning. It is further suggested that services need to become learning organizations, committed to values of inclusion and to living those values in their practice. Further, by promoting and celebrating innovation and creativity, by flattening hierarchical structures and promoting social entrepreneurship and cooperative working and inquiry, services can further develop person centredness in what they do and make a reality of the rhetoric in Valuing People. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning to read is an expectation rather than an exception in society today. Despite this, some children experience reading difficulties. The purpose of this article is to review recent and seminal research on reading difficulties through the lenses of three perspectives: cognitive, social and cultural and interactive. The three perspectives are reviewed and the contribution they make to our understandings of how to support children with reading difficulties are considered. The implication of these perspectives on instruction is explored by examining one contentious contemporary debate in the field of reading instruction; choice of texts to support reading development. To conclude, an argument for a more holistic approach to reading difficulties is provided with reference to two contemporary assessment tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion and exploration on the topic about action learning research at the Third International Conference on Action Learning held on March 2012 at Ashridge Business School in England. There has been a focus on the 'action turn' within some academic circles, the development of the notion of actionable knowledge, the epistemology of practice and the research potential of action modalities. The three foundations for the basic premise about the research are provided.

This article discusses the development and impact of an information literacy (IL) collaborative initiative undertaken by a module leader and library staff at Sheffield Business School (at Sheffield Hallam University) to improve business students' web searching skills, in order to support their academic work and develop the IL skills required by future employers. It considers the use of a range of interactive learning activities in a lecture setting - not the preferred setting for information skills - coupled with a web-based research assessment and student reflection on the development of their web searching skills. Student feedback and reflective practice is reviewed and ways of further developing activities to address student feedback and promote further student engagement are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutrition and food students at Sheffield Hallam University completed an 'active learning' assessment as part of a final year module, Applied Nutrition 2. The purpose of the 'active learning' assessment was to encourage and enhance learner autonomy. The assessment consisted of 5 main stages: a briefing, thought shower, oral business proposal presentation, a feedback stage, and Nutrition Fair. To assess learner autonomy, levels of motivation, confidence, and control were quantitatively and qualitatively monitored throughout the learning journey. The results showed that levels of confidence, motivation, and control increased following each stage and significantly across the learning journey. However, there were significant gender differences in terms of achievement of marks and in levels of motivation at various stages. On average, females achieved higher marks in certain assessments and they demonstrated higher levels of motivation after the initial briefing. Further, significant differences were also reported between different degree routes in terms of achievement of marks and levels of confidence, motivation, and control. 'Active learning' has been shown to foster improved levels of confidence, motivation, and control in a cohort of nutrition and food students, contributing to overall learner autonomy. Graduates able to demonstrate such qualities will undoubtedly be welcomed by employers in the relevant sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Primary Care Trust Intermediate Care Services provides a range of services from occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurses and social workers to clients in a community setting. With pre-registration students from two universities participating in placements at the Primary Care Trust, an opportunity for the students to observe professionals working together and to take part in interprofessional education (IPE) sessions was identified. A pilot project was undertaken to study how IPE may be made an explicit objective of learning that was already occurring in practice, particularly in light of the document "Creating an interprofessional workforce: An education and training framework for health and social care in England" (), which aims to provide the guidance needed to "mainstream IPE across health and social care". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to discuss the various interactive teaching methods used during large group information literacy sessions at Liverpool Hope University during the academic year 2008- 2009. Based on the practical experience of piloting a range of methods with students at Liverpool Hope University during the current academic year, this article analyses the benefits of using various interactive teaching techniques to assist in the delivery of information literacy skills when large group teaching is the only available option. This includes an outline of a variety of aides to interactive teaching within the lecture. Also discussed is the use of post-session follow up actions to ensure that students receive hands-on practice using resources through the use of quizzes and worksheets, while drop-in sessions and online tutorials enable further support for those students who require it. Evaluation to date indicates that interactive teaching methods improve student understanding although different methods may be more successful than others and with different groups of students. The article recommends using a variety of different interactive methods during a lecture, as well as ensuring there are opportunities for hands on practice after the lecture. This will cater for different learning styles and also the teaching styles of the presenters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about panel discussion on innovative networks of practice for action learning held in Liverpool, England on November 6, 2008 is presented. Some participants of the event are Kiran Trehan, Aileen Lawless from Liverpool Business School at Liverpool John Moores University, and Mandy Chivers of Mersey Care NHS Trust. It states that the event is organized to learn from each other about the practice of action learning by exploring areas of mutual interest.

This is an account the work of NetworkNorthWest, a £1m project at the University of Salford that ran between 2004 and 2007 and was developed to address the issues relating to poor take up of traditional business support by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and low levels of engagement of the business community with Institutes of Higher Education. Originally funded by the North West Development Agency (NWDA), NetworkNorthWest was specifically developed to improve innovation, entrepreneurship, enterprise and wealth creation in the Northwest's SME business community through educational micronetworking - networking to learn from, and with, others in a similar position in other SMEs using action learning techniques that allow the participants to set the agenda for what they need to learn. At the same time the project was able to benchmark best practice in this form of business support regionally, nationally and internationally. Working with six delivery partner universities across the North West of England, the support was multi-disciplinary and multifaceted (including applied research, knowledge transfer, management and professional development and provision of sector specific training for employees) and there was potential to deliver support in the form of face-to-face contact or online resources. The project, seen as exemplary by the NWDA, has since delivered support for Manchester Chamber Business Enterprises to a further cohort of SMEs across Greater Manchester and the core process has been adopted as the basis for the second level of intervention for leadership development by the Northern Leadership Academy. It also significantly improved the profitability of the SMEs who took part through the impact of innovative processes and developments enabled by action learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on research and development carried out at the Centre for Outcomes-Based Education at the Open University (OU). It explores the way in which higher education (HE) assessment could meet specific criteria in order to assess the unique qualities that underpin the relationship between practitioner-researchers and the workplace. These unique qualities relate to the new knowledge and understanding created from finding solutions to real issues. Evaluation of curriculum developments assessing learning in the workplace at the higher education level suggests that being an experienced and successful practitioner requires both the ability to seek out relevant knowledge and the skills to apply that knowledge in the appropriate way to real situations. HE therefore needs to assess not only cognitive knowledge, but also the social and cultural knowledge that is an essential characteristic of a successful practitioner-researcher. This article sets out the criteria for developing this type of assessment. Social and cultural knowledge has been seen as 'intangible', but it is the position of the authors of this article that developing appropriate assessment must help to reveal this type of knowledge by teasing out how individuals apply them to their working practices. This could fulfil the aim of helping to make these skills more explicit for the individual practitioner and the workplace, while also ensuring that the assessment criteria is appropriate for the purpose of assessing the relationship between the practitioner's knowledge and behaviour in the workplace. Experienced practitioners rely on their experiential learning from past experiences within the culture of their workplace in order to develop new ideas that are successful and relevant to that workplace or sector. Practitioner-researchers therefore display a range of social, cultural and interpersonal skills, as well as a tacit knowledge and understanding of their particular workplace and sector. The workplace sets the scene in which the practitioner needs to operate, and the practitioner-researcher uses a wide range of behaviours to create practical solutions to real problems. Some areas of HE assessment, such as health and social care, have long required articulation with the workplace and cultural norms, and these have evolved to facilitate this interaction of research and practice. It is the spread of this articulation into new areas and across new cultures that presents issues for the development of effective assessment practices that are able to elucidate the full range of knowledge and skills used by practitioner-researchers in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how action learning is applied in a multi-agency organization development program in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The program was titled Service Development for a Modern City. A business-driven action learning was implemented, bringing participating organizations together to achieve a more integrated, relevant services for city residents.

This article considers the current range of contexts and pretexts for practical media work, principally in England. I argue that the current educational context in England requires us to broaden, rather than restrict the role that practical work is given in the curriculum. In particular I argue that practical media work has too often been associated with critical reflection (the ability to read between the lines of media texts) and critical authority (the ability to adopt the formal discourses of appreciation and judgement). It does this at the expense of critical autonomy (the ability to work with others to develop new, sustainable arguments) and critical action (the process of testing and refining these positions by applying them in real social settings). I argue that such a role is compatible with the development of pedagogies relevant to a 'curriculum for the future' (Young, 1998) which aims, among other things, to reconceptualize learning as a social, rather than an individual process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies the domains of applicability of action learning within courses of Higher Education and explores factors affecting the spread of this approach to learning across subjects in a university. Action learning was developed as a method for management learning and development. It had made slow progress in universities, even within the business schools and departments of management. At one university, however, action learning is being used on 27 courses across all six faculties of the university. Our purpose in this article is to explore the phenomenon of the singular receptivity of the university to action learning and to reflect on the conditions that have encouraged its widespread use at this institution. The main conclusion is that the adoption of this innovation within the university can be explained more convincingly in experiential than cognitive terms, which has implications for the adoption of other innovations in learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]