Towards a situated media practice: Reflections on the implementation of project-led problem-based learning

In the field of media practice education, project-based learning is utilized as a major pedagogic paradigm with the aim of mirroring professional practice within the curriculum. However, if the use of project-based learning is to be considered as more than just a way of administrating student activity, then educators need a critical understanding of how problem encounters order practice within the life cycle of a project. The drawing together of practice-based, project-based and problem-based approaches allows us to see the overlapping nature of these approaches and also differentiate them as unique pedagogies in their own right. It is argued here that this tension between similarity and difference requires a new way of thinking about mirroring professional practice within higher education, one which offers a theory of project-based learning as a productive pedagogy which places problem encounters at its heart

Different Aspects of the Emerging OER Discipline

The more recent interpretation of open education is related to open education resources (OER), open education practice (OEP), and open access publishing. Although related to the original, distance education based interpretation, there is a distinct community around these areas. The inception of the OER movement, which can be dated as 2001, can be viewed as the basis for the open education movement. Although still relatively recent, this provides a sufficient timeframe for different sub- communities to develop with a range of priorities and interests. Based upon a content analysis of the OER Knowledge Cloud repository, this article examines the emerging sub-cultures within open education practice. Ten types of research article are identified that represent different approaches and issues for the groups involved

Professional discourse, quality assurance and a practice integrated pre-service teacher education course: The Open University PGCE

The Open University (UK) Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme is a distance learning pre-service course in teacher education which integrates learning in the practice setting with university-based learning. This programme, which has flexible start and finish points and either training or assessment only routes, uses a web-based Needs Analysis process to reflect on prior experience and to determine individualized university and practice-based curriculum and assessment and is set in the context of an external regulatory framework which demands that teacher education courses in England fulfil certain national requirements and that student-teachers meet identified standards or competences. These requirements and standards are inspected by the Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED) and the outcomes of inspection lead to a 'Quality Grade' which determines government funding. This PGCE course, therefore, presents a radically flexible, practice integrated programme which faces both internal, University based quality assurance processes and procedures and 'high stakes' external inspection. This paper reflects on the tensions between quality compliance and quality assurance in practice integrated learning and suggests that quality assurance processes which open up a discourse of personal and professional development and which might support the exploration of dissonance between and within practices can improve, rather than merely maintain, programme quality

Learning about Professionalism within Practice-based Education: what are we looking for?

Health and social care professions are being held to account concerning their professionalism in ways that would have been unprecedented in the recent past. Students of the School of Health Sciences (HSC) within the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the United Kingdom have professionalism taught and assessed in a number of ways and have overt opportunities to develop their professional performance during practice education. In order to augment this further, a UEA Professionalism Charter has been developed, which helps students to define, learn and apply professionalism in a particular way. Since professionalism is being scrutinised by a number of bodies it is important that there is agreement about its nature. Without an overt definition of professionalism from the Health and Care Professions Council (the regulatory body for occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy) this study set out to explore what could be learned about this body’s perspective through analysis of its Fitness to Practice hearings. The outcome revealed that a definition could be identified and that this bears a close resemblance to that used within the UEA Professionalism Charter. The study therefore supports the continued use of the Charte

Team-Based Competencies: Building a Shared Foundation for Education and Clinical Practice

Highlights discussions from a February 2011 conference on the need for collaborative health care, factors supporting and restraining change, and strategies for advancing interprofessional collaboration in education and practice

The enhancement of technology education classroom practice in New Zealand

This paper reports on a number of New Zealand technology education research studies undertaken over seven years by researchers in the Centre for Science and Technology Education Research centred upon examining and enhancing classroom practice. Early classroom research undertaken in 1992-1994 showed that key aspects for teacher development programmes related to teachers’ developing robust concepts of technology and technology education, as well as developing an understanding of technological practice in a variety of contexts. Based on these aspects a national Technology Teacher Development Resource Programme was developed during 1995-1996. This programme included video material of technological practice and classroom practice, accompanying explanatory text and workshop activities. Further research undertaken in 1997 indicated that although teachers developed broader and more consistent concepts about the nature of technology through an examination of technological practice, they experienced difficulties effectively translating this into appropriate classroom strategies for sustaining student learning. The media based resources only took the teachers so far in their understanding of teaching technology. In 1998-2000 a research and intervention programme was undertaken in primary school classrooms aimed towards improving teachers’ understanding of teaching, learning and assessing in technology. A planning framework for assisting teachers to detail student technological learning outcomes in different domains was developed. The articulation of the learning outcomes enhanced teacher knowledges in technology education and assisted teachers’ formative interactions and summative assessment practices. Subsequently student learning was enhanced

Thinking from Experience in Psychosocial Practice: Reclaiming and Teaching ‘Use of Self’

A course based on psychosocial theory and students' experiences in practice has been taught in the UK, Norway and Quebec. It departs from the classical social work concept ‘use of self’ and aims to help novices in health and social work to understand how the social world is internalised and re-produced and the value of thinking from experience. International developments such as, competency-based education, New Public Management and evidence-based practice reduce opportunities for experiential learning. This trend has been exacerbated by a focus on anti-oppressive practice without a corresponding understanding of how oppressive relations are internalized and enacted by defended and conflicted subjects. Attempts to rectify a relational deficit through traditions of reflective practice and critical reflection are important developments, but could be further strengthened by psychosocial and psychodynamic perspectives. The course combines critical, contextual and relational thinking for students in caring profession

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

Ethical and Political Implications of Reflective Practice among Preservice Teachers

This study investigates the ethical and political implications of reflective practice among preservice teachers. The author reviewed previous research which suggests the need for a more critical analysis of teacher education programs to implement more intensive reflective methodologies that foster authentic, caring, dispositional development as a moral obligation toward socially just practice rather than mere audited compliance with standards-based technical training. This position paper then analyzes preservice teacher education as an interdependent process of methodological development, perceptive development, and cognitive/affective development. Finally, the author makes recommendations for program modification to better prepare preservice teachers to conceptualize their transformative role in society

Holding Government to Account -- Advocacy in an Emerging Democracy: The Story of Black Sash

Describes the evolution and structure of a South African human rights organization's best practice advocacy model, which combines legislative lobbying, submission, litigation, monitoring, rights-based public education, legal advice, and trends analysis