Careers 2020: options for future careers work in English schools.

Careers work in English schools has endured much turbulence recently. The government has now established a statutory duty on schools to secure provision, placing commissioning of careers advice and guidance in the hands of schools rather than local authorities or central government. But the duty is framed very loosely, comes with no funding and offers no clear model of provision. The previous funding for face-to-face guidance from qualified careers advisers has been removed, as has the duty for schools to provide careers education. So what should schools’ careers offers look like in future? How can schools ensure the quality of the career development support that is so vital for young people, and particularly so for those who cannot rely on their existing networks for advice and opportunities?Pearson Think Tan

The effect of an intervention to improve newly qualified teachers’ interpersonal style, students motivation and psychological need satisfaction in sport-based physical education

Recent developments in self-determination theory research in the educational setting (e.g., Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004), suggest that teachers’ interpersonal style should be considered as consisting of three dimensions: autonomy-support, structure and interpersonal involvement. Based on this theoretical proposition, the purpose of the present study was to test the effects of a training program for three physical education newly qualified teachers on the aforementioned teachers’ overt behaviors and students’ psychological needs satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in sport-based physical education. After a baseline period of four lessons, the teachers attended an informational session on adaptive student motivation and how to support it. The training program also included individualized guidance during the last four lessons of the cycle. Results revealed that from pre- to post-intervention: (1) teachers managed to improve their teaching style in terms of all three dimensions, and (2) students were receptive to these changes, as shown by increases in their reported need satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in the class

Operational Research: Methods and Applications

Throughout its history, Operational Research has evolved to include a variety of methods, models and algorithms that have been applied to a diverse and wide range of contexts. This encyclopedic article consists of two main sections: methods and applications. The first aims to summarise the up-to-date knowledge and provide an overview of the state-of-the-art methods and key developments in the various subdomains of the field. The second offers a wide-ranging list of areas where Operational Research has been applied. The article is meant to be read in a nonlinear fashion. It should be used as a point of reference or first-port-of-call for a diverse pool of readers: academics, researchers, students, and practitioners. The entries within the methods and applications sections are presented in alphabetical order. The authors dedicate this paper to the 2023 Turkey/Syria earthquake victims. We sincerely hope that advances in OR will play a role towards minimising the pain and suffering caused by this and future catastrophes

A systemic study of learners' knowledge sharing and collaborative skills development : a case study in a British business school

Knowledge management, as Leistner (2010) argues, is a “misnomer”. Knowledge cannot be managed since it relates to prior experience and is present merely in the mind of individuals (p. 4). We can manage knowledge flow, but not the knowledge itself. Leistner states that ‘‘you can enable a flow by creating an environment that people find safe, attractive, and efficient, and that motivates them to share their knowledge. This could be either face-to-face or by recording relevant information that can be used by others to re-create knowledge in their own frame of reference’’ (p. 10). Therefore, managing the flow is “as much about creating conditions that will make sharing more likely as it is about trying to have a direct influence on people’’ (pp. 17-18).In the arena of creating such conditions, operational research (OR) is assumed to offer special capacities to lead the advancements in knowledge management and knowledge sharing research. However, the role of OR is not clear in knowledge management. There is also very little account of OR studies concerning knowledge management in combination with social network analysis. This situation has not changed over past years. In addition, although soft-OR tools promote specific solutions with which to tackle complexity management in organisations, there are very few studies concerning the use of action research and soft-OR tools such as the Viable System Model, which are designed specifically for knowledge sharing projects and simulating social networks.This research intends to design, develop and implement a soft canonical operational research (SCOR) methodological framework for the processes of knowledge sharing. The researcher combines Davison et al.’s (2012) canonical action research and Checkland’s (1985) F-M-A soft account of action research. The framework has, in itself, an embedded solution for skill development and performance improvement through collaborative knowledge sharing and experiential learning/practising. In this research, a combinative perspective of VSM and SNA is considered.Adopting a pragmatic philosophy with an interpretivist ontology and relativist epistemology, the researcher inductively conducted two cycles of action research and analysed the outcomes. Four types of transformations occurred in (1) individuals’ skill level, (2) performance, (3) knowledge network and (4) gradual development of strategies across levels. This research elucidates said transformations and explains the key mechanisms for facilitating collective knowledge sharing in order to develop skills and to improve performance. It also brings to light the evidence regarding two unplanned phenomena that occurred in both cycles: leadership development and autopoiesis.Reflection is provided on the design of the soft-OR multi-methodology and on how this design has been useful and effective in the present research. In addition, the study’s contributions to knowledge and practice are also explained. This research suggests that guided self-organisation is a more effective approach for skill development than traditional methods and that it can create an effective context in which a knowledge network is able to reproduce itself. Finally, the limitations of the research and implications for future studies are clarified

National review of school music education: Augmenting the diminished

This study included a literature review, call for submissions, site visits, national survey and curriculum mapping to determine the current quality and status of music education in Australian schools. It provides an examination of the challenges facing schools in providing music education and highlights opportunities for strengthening music education in schools

Management of educational innovation : the case of computer aided administration

This thesis is concerned with the process of managing an educational innovation - computer-aided administration (CAA) for schools. From literature reviews in the areas of management of change and computer assisted school administration, together with findings from an observer case study in the United Kingdom, a model was generated for the CAA innovation process as a contribution to theory. The model was then put into practice as the framework for the CAA innovation process in a secondary school in Hong Kong. The innovation was successfully assimilated by the school in a period of about three years with the researcher acting as the change facilitator, and the model of the innovation process was subsequently refined. This refined "SIX-A" model it is hoped will be a contribution to practical change management. Before making conclusions, findings about the process of innovation as well as findings specific to CAA from the case school are compared and contrasted to data collected from three other schools' CAA innovations in Hong Kong

An approach from a Vygotskian viewpoint to the teaching of poetry in German in the Irish primary school. An Empirical Study.

This study attempts to explore an approach to the appreciation of poetry in a foreign language, in this case German, by children with a limited competency in that language. The study focuses on the child in the context of the present curriculum for Irish primary schools. Based on a socio-cultural constructivist ethos, it examines a step by step mediated approach to the appropriation of poetry in which group interaction and dialogue play an important role. The study contains a review of the history of the introduction of foreign language learning into the primary sector, from the introduction of the Curaclam na Bunscoile (The New Curriculum) of 1971, until the release in November 2009 of the NCCA 2008 report ‘Modern Languages in the Primary school curriculum Feasibilities and Futures’. The study argues against the main premise of the report, the substitution of a language awareness approach in place of language competency. The study is based on the socio-cultural theories of consciousness of Lev Vygotsky and Piotr Gal’perin, with particular reference to Concept Formation, the Genetic Method, Mediation, Internalization, The Zone of Proximal Development and Object-Orientated Activity Theory. The theoretical and practical implications of a constructivist classroom approach are discussed and evaluated. Theoretical assumptions on the teaching of poetry in general are discussed. There is a critical review of current literature on the uses of poetry in foreign language learning, and a clarification of the methodology proposed for the empirical study. Based on a year’s work on the appropriation of poetry with primary students, the empirical study selects six poems on which the children work in a step-by-step, mediated approach, enabling them to achieve aesthetic response and personal appropriation of the poetry. It uses teacher’s notes, children’s work and detailed descriptions of the methods used, to clarify, assess and evaluate qualitatively the work undertaken. It concludes with suggestions for the further application of the methods involved and possible future research areas

Factors influencing the design and implementation of EAP content-based courses for second-language underprepared students at tertiary level : a Southern African perspective.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of EducationThis study explores the factors which influence the design and implementation of EAP content-based courses for second language learners at tertiary level. It draws upon international experience in this area, information from a case study of an adjunct EAP, content-based engineering course at the University of the Witwatersrand and the experience of other EAP practitioners in Soutllern Africa. A set of key, comprehensive factors which affect the success and effectiveness of EAP content-based courses are identified.Andrew Chakane 201

Factors influencing the design and implementation of EAP content-based courses for second-language underprepared students at tertiary level : a Southern African perspective.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of EducationThis study explores the factors which influence the design and implementation of EAP content-based courses for second-language learners at tertiary level. It draws upon international experience in this area, information from a case study of an adjunct EAP, content-based engineering course at the University of the Witwatersrand and the experience of other EAP practitioners in Southern Africa. A set of key ,comprehensive factors which affect the success and effectiveness of EAP content based courses are identified.Andrew Chakane 201