Distance travelled : Outcomes and evidence in flexible learning options

Flexible learning options (FLOs) provide individualised learning pathways for disengaged young people with strong emphasis on inclusivity and wellbeing support. Amidst a rapid expansion of Australia’s flexible learning sector, service providers are under increasing pressure to substantiate participant outcomes. This paper stems from a national study of the value of FLOs to young people and the broader Australian community. The study enumerates the outcomes valued by flexible learning practitioners, as well as the various evidence forms they cite to substantiate participant outcomes. Framing success as ‘distance travelled’ (i.e. an individual’s progress relative to his or her own starting point), practitioners demonstrate critical awareness of the social and structural mechanisms by which young people are marginalised from mainstream schooling. Holistic assessment practices also reveal practitioners’ efforts to expand the terms of reference by which educational outcomes may be validated in alternative education settings

Educational Re-engagement as Social Inclusion: the role of flexible learning options in alternative provision in Australia

In Australia, a significant minority of young people do not complete upper secondary education. Whether procedural or enacted through the agency of students, the failure of the education system to accommodate young people through to completion can be regarded as a form of institutionalised social exclusion and injustice. In response, a growing number of flexible learning options (FLOs) are providing marginalised young people with alternative avenues for meaningful educational re-engagement. The authors of this article examine two key characteristics of FLOs: an unconditional acceptance of young people, and the integrated well-being support upon which inclusion is premised. Their discussion draws on in-depth interviews conducted with students and practitioners at a diverse range of sites. They find that FLOs play a key role in the process of re-inclusion, but this contribution to reducing social and educational inequality is predicated on a level of well-being support not ordinarily available in mainstream schooling

Archives of industrial hygiene and occupational medicine

The emergence of mobile technologies has changed the higher education landscape. The expansion of mobile technologies in our classrooms presents new learning opportunities not just for students but also for teachers. While professional development is core business for higher education providers, over the years, increasing attention has been afforded to the growing cohort of casual teachers typically overlooked. Sessional teachers are at the interface of learning, yet have historically experienced limited professional development. A unique opportunity is presented to utilize the flexibly of mobile technologies with the needs of time-poor, provisional sessional teachers. This chapter explores this notion and what this might look like by offering two exemplary cases. These cases demonstrate ways in which to use the affordances of mobile technologies to deliver and customize professional development, thereby embedding professional learning in practice. This is an important strategic, pedagogical, and capacity building movement that currently seems to be lacking in uptake and explication of best practice