A Review of Work Based Learning in Higher Education

The idea of work based learning in higher education might sound like a contradiction in terms. Work based learning is surely in the the workplace. The senses in which it might also, under certain conditions, be in higher education are explored in this review. There are increasing arrangements whereby people can obtain academic recognition for learning which has taken place outside of educational institutions. In addition to traditional forms of professional education and sandwich courses, one can add a host of relationships between employers and higher education institutions which involve quite fundamental questioning of the roles and responsibilities of each in the continuing education and training of adults. Such developments can be related to broader themes concerning the organisation of knowledge in society, the changing nature of work and career, the learning society and the implications they hold for individual workers, their employers and educational providers. The Department for Education and Employment sponsored the study to produce a substantial literature review of progress and issues raised in the field of work based learning in higher education. The first part of the book provides a contextual and conceptual backdrop against which more practical aspects of work based learning are then considered in part two. The final part considers strategic issues of implementation for higher education institutions, employers and individuals, before turning to more wide ranging issues of policy

A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education

This review focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. It provides a synthesis of the research literature in the field and a series of illustrative examples of how these tools are being used in learning and teaching. It draws out the perceived benefits that these new technologies appear to offer, and highlights some of the challenges and issues surrounding their use. The review forms the basis for a HE Academy funded project, ‘Peals in the Cloud’, which is exploring how Web 2.0 tools can be used to support evidence-based practices in learning and teaching. The project has also produced two in-depth case studies, which are reported elsewhere (Galley et al., 2010, Alevizou et al., 2010). The case studies focus on evaluation of a recently developed site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks, which harnesses Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate the sharing and discussion of educational practice. The case studies aim to explore to what extent the Web 2.0 affordances of the site are successfully promoting the sharing of ideas, as well as scholarly reflections, on learning and teaching

Comprehension and performance in second language acquisition : a study of second language learners' production of modified comprehensible output.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D95515 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Advances in Technology Enhanced Learning

‘Advances in Technology Enhanced Learning’ presents a range of research projects which aim to explore how to make engagement in learning (and teaching) more passionate. This interactive and experimental resource discusses innovations which pave the way to open collaboration at scale. The book introduces methodological and technological breakthroughs via twelve chapters to learners, instructors, and decision-makers in schools, universities, and workplaces. The Open University's Knowledge Media Institute and the EU TELMap project have brought together the luminaries from the European research area to showcase their vision of the future of learning with technology via their recent research project work. The projects discussed range widely over the Technology Enhanced Learning area from: environments for responsive open learning, work-based reflection, work-based social creativity, serious games and many more

Learning Identity: The Transition to Tertiary Education for School and College Leavers

The focus of this research is the re-conceptualisation of learning in higher education. By theorising the university as a group of interconnected discourses I have been able to develop an understanding of student learning identity which goes beyond the formal academic settings of the university and which explores the influence of both the social and academic spheres of the university in terms of student transition and engagement in learning. Data were gathered in three phases: through in-depth interviews with sixty nine students entering their first year at three British universities, the collection of three day diaries from forty four of these students and follow up interviews with thirty students from the original sample. By negotiating positions on continua of continuity and discontinuity of experience with interlocutors in identified discourse settings, students were found to experience learning as an integral and transformative aspect of their identities

Computer education: new perspectives

Computer technologies were introduced into educational contexts over two decades ago and while there is some argument about the extent to which computers have realised their potential, they have undoubtedly had a significant impact on education. A look into any school will reveal computers being used widely by clerical staff, teachers and children. It is clear that computers are here to stay, but it is less clear as to how effectively they are being used in the learning process. Teachers not only need to use computers but they need to use them well, and in order to do this they must understand what computer technology can offer and the ways in which such technology can be used in teaching and learning

Managing to care, the emotional dimensions of formative assessment: sustainability of teacher learner relationships in four case studies

This study is concerned with how educators, and their students, in different adult teaching and learning environments, engage in formative assessment and how development of capacities to perform a more holistic formative pedagogy might enhance educational processes potentially weakened by exclusive focus on rational processes alone. This thesis suggests that formative assessment could be enriched by affective approaches such as developing the use-of-self, emotional intelligence and relational skills. The central argument proposes that lecturers in Higher Education, expected to behave in emotionally neutral, predominantly rational, ways experience stressful paradoxical demands that unintentionally generate suboptimal environments for take up of feedback. The emergent concept of formative pedagogy which promotes deliberate engagement with emotions, feelings and mood to “refine principles of effective formative assessment, identify gaps and gather further evidence about the potential of formative assessment and feedback to support self-regulation” (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick 2006:215) is explored as one means of enhancing sustainable assessment for learning. It aims to create and maintain reciprocal, collaborative tutor-learner relationships which generate trust that feedback will enhance short term achievements and develop learner capacities for self-regulation. A significant factor likely to enhance conditions for sustainable formative assessment is the promotion of teacher-learner relationships as caring collaborative spaces where shared commitment to learning outcomes and processes are authentic rather than emotionally neutral. Four case studies, utilising mixed methodologies of observation, survey and interview generate broad descriptors of manifestations and expressions of reciprocal caring between teachers and learners in General Practice; 5Rhythms dance; Shaolin Kungfu and undergraduate medical lectures. Comparison between them illuminates potential staff-development needs and strategies for enabling medical (or other professional) educators and students to maximise effective use-of-self. The findings endorse the introduction of balanced epistemologies into ‘spiral developmental curricula’ and the need for universities and medical communities of practice to adapt away from ‘emotionally silent orthodoxies’. Concluding chapters suggest staff development programmes could “filch” (Newman 2006) curriculum ideas for educating educators in holistic formative pedagogies and promoting self-regulatory learners, most likely to make use of feedback

The silent experiences of young bilingual learners : a small scale sociocultural study into the silent period

This ethnographic study focuses upon the experiences of a small number of early years bilingual learners' during the emergent stage of English language acquisition - the silent period. Building upon historical understandings of sociocultural theory, Vygotsky (1986), Lave and Wenger (1991), Wenger (1998), Rogoff (2003) and Gee (2004) provide the platform upon which the evolution of sociocultural learning theory is applied and tested out in relation to the interconnectedness of the spoken mother tongue, thought, and learning. Legitimate peripheral participation is examined as a workable concept through which to explore the initial learning trajectory of an emergent bilingual learner whilst negotiating participation within, through and beyond the early years community of practice during the silent period. A multi-method ethnographic approach to data gathering adopts Flewitt's (2005) `gaze following', as an alternative means of participant observation through which to identify silent participation within an early years setting. Additional ethnographic methods include unstructured interviews with bilingual and monolingual participants, which are interspersed with significant auto-ethnographic accounts. Funnelling the data through thematic analysis facilitates both the emergence of significant patterns and the `encapsulation' of significant data within vignettes. Sociocultural theory is tested out against the research findings through the analysis of nine selected vignettes. The findings present the silent period as a crucial time for learning; distributed through a synthesis of close observation, intense listening and copying. Examining the silent period through a sociocultural lens tentatively reveals silent participation as a significant but lesser acknowledged contribution to the early years community of practice