Children and young people’s voices in employability: Engaging with primary school pupils, student placements and the employability agenda: A report to the national children's research centre March 2015

As a consequence of the UNCRC it is expected that children and young people have a voice in the policies and practices that affect them, yet the ‘employability’ agenda cedes power to employers and government in deciding the skills and qualities required by professionals entering the workforce. This report focuses on student experiences on placement in a primary school setting in the north of England and their engagement of children’s voice in that experience. Focussing on students as upcoming professionals, the discussion considers how placement is organised by the employability agenda and how children’s voices can be marginalised

Shared resource control between human and computer

The advantages of an AI system of actively monitoring human control of a shared resource (such as a telerobotic manipulator) are presented. A system is described in which a simple AI planning program gains efficiency by monitoring human actions and recognizing when the actions cause a change in the system's assumed state of the world. This enables the planner to recognize when an interaction occurs between human actions and system goals, and allows maintenance of an up-to-date knowledge of the state of the world and thus informs the operator when human action would undo a goal achieved by the system, when an action would render a system goal unachievable, and efficiently replans the establishment of goals after human intervention

Redefining ‘Employability’ as something to be achieved: utilising Tronto’s conceptual framework of care to refocus the debate

Purpose – This paper contributes to a broader understanding of the complexity in relationships of power and responsibility in employability in Higher Education contexts and posits a conceptual framework for employability as a process, something to be achieved. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper arises from experience of and research into placement practices and draws upon Joan Tronto’s feminist epistemology (1993, 2012) to argue for a critical understanding of employability. Findings – There is little in the literature that discusses employability as a process involving moral and political work. The conceptual framework offers a process of five phases to provide a foundation for understanding employability that moves beyond a focus on skills and attributes. Research limitations/implications – The conceptual framework enables all employability professionals, including researchers, to think beyond skills and attributes for employment to explore the implications of the relations that shape the need for employability within and outside their sphere. Practical implications – Developing a conceptual framework enables employability professionals to evaluate their practices and assess: if practices are inclusive or excluding; the implications of power and responsibility; the tensions arising from the diverse nature of need in employability work. Originality/value – This paper posits a conceptual framework for understanding the process of employability work as something to be achieved

A HAPA Inspired, Agent-Based Model and Simulation of Activity in an Online Community

This thesis is an examination of a Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) developed originally by R. Schwarzer for use in understanding and effecting health behaviour adoption. Although HAPA provides an integral aspect of formulating health treatment strategies by human practitioners for human patients, at the present time no simulation models suited to computer implementation and usage exist for the study of and support for health behaviour adoption within a HAPA framework. This thesis examines the relevant research with respect to HAPA and the components necessary to build a simulation model and platform for an online, self-managing SCI community. We design an architecture for the platform that satisfies the primary requirements suggested by HAPA and SCI patients, particularly directed at gathering relevant data consisting of health indicators. Also, we develop several algorithms used for analysis of HAPA related health states and transitions between states. Since this research did not involve any human subjects, the intention was to simulate certain critical behaviours and changes using an agent based modeling approach. Inasmuch as agents can provide only approximations to real human behaviour, they are still useful and informative. As part of our results, we show that an automated HAPA classification can reduce the risk of agents dropping a health behaviour or program due to misclassification. Further, findings revealed that 6% of the agents are in danger of dropping the adoption of an individual health behaviour within two weeks and that 14% of the agents are at risk of dropping out of the community without continual HAPA reclassification

Assessing career value of hospitality management curriculum from program alumni

The purpose of this study was to investigate the assessment of hospitality management baccalaureate program alumni from New York Technical College (NYCTC) as being a valuable resource to the Hospitality Management curriculum assessment effort . Through the development of an alumni questionnaire, participants in this study were asked to rate individual courses of their curriculum (both core and elective) by the degree of value each course had been in terms of usefulness to their career development and/or relevance to meeting the demands of their current positions. Although the questionnaire response rate was less than desirable, it is stressed that survey instrument results are most valuable when they inspire those responsible for curriculum assessment to engage in dynamic dialog and on going reevaluation. This is especially of interest and of potential value when program alumni -- who can offer dual perspectives on industry trends (patterns of change) and who are experientially familiar with program curriculum content -- are incorporated into this process. This dynamic viewpoint may offer unique perspectives to consider in the curriculum planning and assessment processes

From University to Classroom: Improving the Student Teaching Experience

Teachers are dropping out of the profession at an alarming rate. Part of this nationwide issue starts with the semester of student teaching. This is a 15-week period of time where full-time students take on the task of full-time teaching without any of the financial benefits. On top of that, the classes they have taken through their universities do not always reflect the classroom realities of working as a teacher. The purpose of this study is to discover what factors help create a positive student teaching experience for the student teacher, the student teaching advisor, and the host teacher. Participants in this study include current teachers, incoming student teachers, student teaching advisors, and current or former host teachers as well as 100 anonymous online survey respondents. The findings of this study have several implications for improving the student teaching experience, and because there have not been many academic studies on creating a successful student teaching experience, this research has the potential to reform how host teachers and student teachers enter the student teaching semester. Student teachers around the world are experiencing similar positives and negatives when it comes to student teaching. To improve student teaching, this study concluded: 1.) Clear expectations should be set by the student teaching advisor, student teaching, and host teacher, 2.) The host teacher needs to take on an active role as not just a host, but also a mentor for the student teacher, and 3.) All three parties need to take individual steps to prepare for the student teaching semester. Our future teachers will enter live classrooms with more confidence in their teaching abilities