40,119 research outputs found

    Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape ā€“ opportunities, challenges and tensions

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    This is the first report from research commissioned by Becta into Web 2.0 technologies for learning at Key Stages 3 and 4. This report describes findings from an additional literature review of the then current landscape concerning learner use of Web 2.0 technologies and the implications for teachers, schools, local authorities and policy makers

    The Internationalisation of UK Higher Education: From ā€˜technical observanceā€™ to ā€˜relational participationā€™, the road to CAPRIā€¦

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    This article reflects on a review of the literature on the internationalisation of UK higher education (HE) commissioned by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in 2006. Recent progress on some of the key themes is considered and likely issues and possibilities for the future explored. Methodology is grounded in the authorā€™s own experience in the context of research in the field and recent developments in assessment, learning and teaching policy and practice as they affect the internationalisation agenda. Emerging themes include global citizenship and graduate attributes at the institutional level and notions of critical thinking and phronesis as they relate to the internationalised curriculum. A key consideration is how academics may be supported in developing the internationalised curriculum. The author argues that a focus on generic graduate attributes for employability could unintentionally detract institutions from a much-needed reassessment of purposes, principles and practices required by diversity. Such reassessment implies the deconstruction of our understanding of concepts like critical thinking and critical literacy in pursuit of a curriculum that embraces multiple perspectives and provides the space to cross cultural boundaries through the deployment of threshold concepts in teaching and learning strategies. While acknowledging that facilitating border-crossing may seem quite alien to some teachers in HE, it is argued that the most effective way forward is via a research-informed and evidence-based approach to curriculum design rather than a ā€˜best-practice checklistā€™ approach

    The challenge of enterprise/innovation: a case study of a modern university

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    In the prevailing economic and political climate for Higher Education a greater emphasis has been placed on diversifying the funding base. The present study was undertaken between 2012 and 2014 and addressed the implementation of an approach to the transformation of one academic school in a medium-sized modern university in Wales to a more engaged enterprise culture. A multimethod investigation included a bi-lingual (English and Welsh) online survey of academic staff and yielded a 71% response rate (n = 45). The findings informed a series of in-depth interviews (n = 24) with a representative sample of those involved in enterprise work (support staff, managers, senior managers), and those who were not. The results provided the platform for the ā€˜S4E modelā€™ for effective engagement with enterprise: (1) Strategic significance for Enterprise, (2) Support for Enterprise, (3) Synergy for Enterprise, and (4) Success for Enterprise. The outcomes of the research and the recommendations from it have potential to inform practice in other academic schools within the university and, in a wider context, within other Schools of Education regionally, nationally and internationally. Its original empirical exploration of enterprise within education studies is a significant contribution to that body of knowledge

    Internationalisation and Equality and Diversity in Higher Education: Merging Identities

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    Summary This project arises out of Eade and Peacockā€™s (2009) scoping report, commissioned by Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) entitled Internationalising equality and equalising internationalisation: The intersection between internationalisation and Equality and Diversity in higher education. The principal aim of the current study is to identify the advantages of building on the intersection of Internationalisation and E and D agendas, through an exploration of the effective mechanisms for linking E and D and internationalisation policies, structures and activities within a small sample of heterogenous HE institutions located in Australia, England and Wales. Reflecting a multi-level and mixed-method approach this report provides an in-depth account of awareness, commitment, understanding and involvement of domestic and international staff and students, and other key players, in Internationalisation and Equality and Diversity. This account is supported by examples of good practice and synergy and consideration of areas of potential improvement in the two fields. The mixed-method approach involves desk research to consider the influence of geographical location, profile and size on rationales for internationalisation and commitment to Equality and Diversity, complemented by interviews of key personnel to provide insights regarding performance, accessibility etc. Data regarding staff and student awareness, perceptions and dispositions is captured via online survey and focus groups. Finally a review of the literature supports data interpretation by suggesting emergent key themes. Institutional challenges are identified within the context of what may be learned from other organisational forms. A central focus is the student learning experience, with discussions embracing key issues such as competing perspectives on learner support models, the association between inclusive curricula and multicultural education and attendant barriers and tensions. Extensive and systematic analysis of institutional policy in Internationalisation and Equality and Diversity within specific local contexts provides substantial evidence of how current and future direction is shaped by the socio-economic and cultural make-up of surrounding communities, tempered by institutional aspirations in the global arena. The insights of senior managers provide the personal accounts and deep insights into the ongoing strategic initiatives and perceived challenges which determine the practice which emerges from the rhetoric of policy statements. The in-depth exploration of awareness, perceptions and dispositions of staff and students serves to highlight a striking continuity of perspective across the range of stakeholders, within different institutions which approach Internationalisation and Equality and Diversity from widely contrasting positions vis-Ć -vis locality, status, market position and relative size. Seemingly, any shortcomings of policy to practice transfer are not the outcome of a lack of will on the part of those who have engaged in this research, but rather reflect the complexity of finding the most appropriate way, whether senior manager, teacher, support and development professional, student or other stakeholder. The challenges of internationalisation and Equality and Diversity simply manifest themselves in different ways at different levels within different institutional contexts and key messages from this research include for example: ā€¢ The need to manage structural diversity within the framework of a broadly-based business-case approach in order to maintain internal cohesion and external credibility. Such an approach should acknowledge diversity of mission which derives from the nature of the global-local interface, profile, status etc. ā€¢ Broad awareness of the potential synergies between Internationalisation and E and D within a framework of inclusive practice ā€¢ Broad consensus surrounding the merits of inclusion embodying both local and global dimensions. At this level, diversity of mission, location, status etc. becomes irrelevant. Universities with different cultures can learn much from each other since inclusion should be the response of all institutions recruiting international and/or students from a diversity of cultural, ethnic, religious, socio-economic etc. backgrounds ā€¢ Awareness of tensions at policy and practice levels, which might be eased by appropriate organisational structures and processes designed specifically to embed synergy across institutions ā€¢ Acknowledgement of the need to embed the concept of synergy at three levels of diversity: structural (demographic mix); classroom (curriculum and pedagogies) and interactional (informal and social settings) ā€¢ The significance of readily accessible research-informed and evidence-based practice to raise awareness, build confidence, promote engagement and inform future direction within cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional context

    Web 2.0 technologies for learning: the current landscape : opportunities, challenges and tensions

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    Active citizenship and late-life learning in the community

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    In an age where the official, adult-education component of lifelong learning is dominated by the discourse of employability and performativity, reclaiming the radical agenda of critical, adult, active citizenship is not only urgent but indispensable for morally sound and democratically viable societies. The crisis in capitalism is showing us, adult educators, that unless adult education is employed to interrogate, challenge and resist the accesses of a system that privileges profit at all cost, rampant individualism and privatisation of social goods, it will reproduce asymmetrical and predatory, social economic relations. This paper problematises dominant notions of active citizenship in later life and provides a framework for an alternative view of active citizenship. It also illustrates how adult educators can facilitate learning processes where late-life learners, reflect on the impact of the neoliberal value system and on the consequences of its hegemonic practices on personal and community life, before engaging in transformative action.peer-reviewe

    Recovery From Design

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    Through research, inquiry, and an evaluation of Recovery By Design, a ā€˜design therapyā€™ program that serves people with mental illness, substance use disorders, and developmental disabilities, it is my assertion that the practice of design has therapeutic potential and can aid in the process of recovery. To the novice, the practices of conception, shaping form, and praxis have empowering benefit especially when guided by Conditional and Transformation Design methods together with an emphasis on materiality and vernacular form

    Student Voice: Embracing Student Activism as a Quality Improvement Tool in Higher Education

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    This chapter illustrates how student activism, taken in the context of the student voice, can be harnessed as a way of enhancing the quality of educational provision in higher education. Agenda 2063 of the African Commission recognizes equitable access to quality higher education as critical for national development. In the face of an increase in student protests and the resultant destruction of infrastructure and human life, it becomes imperative to find ways of creating positive and innovative teaching and learning environments that take full advantage of student activism. The chapter draws on existing literature on student activism and the value of student voice to inform the development of a model for incorporating the ā€œstudent voiceā€ as a way of harnessing the positive aspects of student activism

    Documenting Sociopolitical Development via Participatory Action Research (PAR) With Women of Color Student Activists in the Neoliberal University

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    Political activism attests to the sociopolitical development and agency of young people. Yet the literature sparingly engages the intersectional subjectivities that inform the sociopolitical development of young people, especially women of color. Important questions remain in the theorizing of sociopolitical development among youth engaged in political activism within higher education settings. Thus, we focus on the following question: What experiences informed or catalyzed the sociopolitical development of women of color student activists within a racialized neoliberal university in the United States? In addressing this question we demonstrate how student-led participatory action research (PAR) within the neoliberal university can facilitate and support sociopolitical development. Of most value, this paper demonstrates how PAR can be used as a tool to support the intersectional sociopolitical development of student activists organizing within racialized neoliberal settings of higher education that threaten the academic thriving and overall wellbeing of students of color, specifically women of color. Sociopolitical development theorizing must engage elements of relational healing as a dimension of wellbeing. Therefore, our work contributes to these conversations by centering the experiences of women of color student activists
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