Sustainable Professional Practice

The project aims were to examine the ways in which the two distance learning social work programmes (The Open University (OU)and Charles Sturt University(CSU)) operate - looking at pedagogies and in particular how learning and teaching works in the practicum. Exchange visits were organised with Associate Professor Bowles spending 10 days at The Open University in June 2009, and Mick McCormick pending time at CSU in August/September 2009. Our aim was to investigate the different and similar ways in which we approached the teaching of practitioners in social work. We gained many benefits from our contacts and had opportunity to meet and work with social work academics and input to teaching and learning within respective academic institutions. Many of our findings are reflected in recently published work, or work in publication. Findings also have an ongoing impact on the production, delivery and review of our respective practice learning social work programmes

Practice-based doctorates and questions of academic legitimacy

Over the last six years there has been a massive increase in the number of students studying for practice-based doctorates in Art and Design. It is now possible to do a practice-based PhD in over forty departments, although what is expected from doctoral students varies considerably across institutions. In 1997 the United Kingdom Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) addressed the variance between practice-based doctorates in the report Practice-Based Doctorates in the Creative and Performing Arts and Design. This paper examines the recommendations made by the report and asks to what extent does it acknowledge art as a legitimate research practice within the university. The UKCGE report recommends that all practice-based PhDs have a substantial theoretical and contextualising element that will demonstrate general scholarly requirements and render the artwork accessible to judgement. I argue that this proposal is problematic on several counts; it draws a firm line between theory and practice, places academic research in opposition to practice generally and artwork specifically, maintains the stereotype of art as anti-intellectual and forgets the degree to which theory is itself a practice. In addition it suggests that art practice can only be legitimised as research when it is framed by a conventionally academic enquiry. I suggest that instead of trying to make art practice fit academic regulations it would be more productive to use the practice-based PhDs as a way of re-thinking academic conventions and scholarly requirements

Home for Good? Preparing to Support People with Learning Difficulties in Residential Settings when they Develop Dementia

This report explores the findings of a study which investigated the current models of practice for supporting people with learning difficulties and dementia living in care home settings. It looked at the key issues and discovered examples of best practice in relating to providing care homes for this group. The report includes a poster with some quick tips for staff supporting people with learning difficulties and dementia

Good professional development in schools: how does leadership contribute?

"This good practice report considers what makes continuing professional development work so well in successful schools. It identifies four key questions that effective school leaders regularly ask themselves about the quality of their arrangements for professional development. The report then sets out the key characteristics of good practice associated with the four areas and illustrates these to help all schools learn from the examples. It also identifies three barriers that confront schools." - cover

School sport partnerships: a survey of good practice

This report considers the impact of 12 School Sport Partnerships. It identifies key characteristics of good practice and then presents 12 case studies focusing on specific aspects of this good practice

Funding Community Health Worker Programs and Services in Minnesota: Looking to the Future

This report is a supplement to the 2006 report "Advancing Community Health Worker Practice and Utilization: The Focus on Funding"

Enduring Advantage of Settlement Houses

Examines the distinctive practice the settlement house model has generated and illustrates how this practice creates a settlement house advantage that is worthy of attention. The first part of this report describes the principles that frame settlement house practice and the second part illustrates the value of this practice in settlement house programs for disconnected youth and immigrant families