Advice, guidance and “the overlooked middle” in English secondary education

Policymakers in Europe have devoted considerable resources and attention to low achievers in education, especially those who are or who are at risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) (Tomlinson 2013:102). At the other end of the spectrum British and American governments, amonst others, have also focused on high educational achievers who are considered to be ‘gifted’ (Balchin et al 2008). In contrast, Roberts (2012: 203) argues, “‘ordinariness’ tends to remain overlooked in contemporary research and policy discourses”. This paper addresses that neglect by specifically focusing on the group of ‘ordinary’ middle attainers in the context of English 14-19 education, who Hodgson and Spours (2013) have termed “the overlooked middle”. It draws on an analysis of statistical data from the government-funded Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) in order to quantify and identify this group of young people. In particular the data is analysed to investigate the relationship between the advice and guidance that these middle attainers receive and the post-16 qualifications that they select. Advice and guidance has a particularly important role in promoting social justice within the English context, where education and training are characterised by a plethora of highly differentiated courses for young people from 14 to 19. This diversity is the result of what Higham and Yeomans (2011: 217) refer to as “the hyperactivity of English policy and provision for 14- to 19-year-olds." The qualifications to which many of these courses lead are, however, of uncertain equivalence and uneven value, especially in vocational education and training (VET). Some of these qualifications have proved to be very short-lived. Data collection for the LSYPE covered a period (2004-2010) when new VET qualifications were being introduced in England with much publicity and when advice and guidance services were undergoing significant change. This paper uses the rich LSYPE dataset to address three research questions: • How many young people fall into the group of middle attainers and what, if anything, characterises them? • What formal advice and guidance does this group of young people receive? • What is the relationship between this advice and the post-16 qualifications they select

A Relationship Study Comparing Satisfaction, Participation, and Commitment to Intramural and Club Sports with Students\u27 Intention to Return to Campus

Recruitment and retention is a crucial and central goal for almost all higher education institutions. Therefore, it is important for universities and colleges to provide diverse activities and events to keep the students and prospective students interested and engaged. Previous research suggests that intramural and club sports programs are activities that could help increase recruitment and retention (McElveen & Rossow, 2014; Kampf & Teske, 2013). There is still a need, however, to show the impact of participation in intramural and club sports on a student’s intention to return to campus. This study examined how participation, commitment, and satisfaction levels effect a student’s intention to return to campus the following semester. The sample consisted of 140 students that responded to the questionnaire but only 82 (58.6%) of those were usable (57.3% male and 42.7% female). Results of this study showed that participation levels had no significant effect on retention of the student for both intramural and club sports (.067 and .162 respectively). However, commitment and satisfaction had a significant impact on the student’s intention to return for the intramural and club sports programs (intramural = .035 & .012; club sports = .016 & .017 respectively). These results show that overall experience of intramural and club sports matter much more to the student’s behavior than level of participation. Universities/colleges should be focusing more on the satisfaction of their participants to keep them committed to continue playing and coming back to campus the following year

Going the Distance with Distance Learning: An analysis of Motivational Factors that Influence E-Learning Course Completion Rates

This research asked the following question: is there a correlation between types of organizational culture and factors influencing knowledge transfer? It hypothesized that organizations scoring high on the cultural factors of openness to change/innovation, and task-oriented organizational growth would be fertile to knowledge transfer. Second, it hypothesized that organizations scoring high on the factors of bureaucratic and competition/confrontation would be infertile to knowledge transfer. The research looked at Air Force squadrons, surveying a representative sample of the 1,495 active-duty squadrons included in the study with a 62-item, 5-point Likert-type instrument. Overall, 51 squadrons were surveyed, and 22 produced usable results. Both squadron and individual results were analyzed and both were similar. Squadron results showed that organizations scoring high on the factors of openness to change/innovation and task-oriented organizational growth appeared to score consistently high on three of the four measures of fertility to knowledge transfer. Organizations scoring high on the factors of competition/confrontation appeared to score consistently low on three of the four measures of fertility to knowledge transfer. The factor bureaucratic produced no significant correlations. In every case, the measure of fertility to knowledge transfer known as partner similarity did not behave as expected. The research concluded that there appears to be a correlation between organizational culture and factors influencing the transfer of knowledge, but concludes that the factors influencing the transfer of knowledge should be further explored, and a longitudinal study performed, before inferring any causal relationship

Novel method for non‐traumatic creation of a colostomy

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93530/1/ans6160.pd

Novel method for non‐traumatic creation of a colostomy

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/93530/1/ans6160.pd

Fifty years on . . .

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