Work-based Learning Routes in Social Work Education: An Exploration of Student Experiences

This thesis is based upon a study involving 20 work-based learners undertaking social work degrees at two UK universities, one local face-to-face university and one national distance learning university. The aim of this thesis is to offer insights into the experience of work-based learners as they journey from unqualified to qualified practitioner. The thesis is underpinned by a structural symbolic interactionist approach to human behaviour, in particular the work of Stryker on identity theory, where the importance attached to identity and role in ‘identity change processes’ (2008:21) is central to understanding the meanings attributed by work-based learners to their journeys into and through higher education. In order to understand the meanings attributed by work based learners to their experience, narrative inquiry is used as the overarching methodological orientation; narratives of work-based learners’ journeys into and through higher education were collected via focus groups (3) and semi structured interviews (35) and analysed using Braun and Clark’s method of thematic analysis (2006). The data in this thesis highlight how identity impacts upon the educational journey of work-based learners making visible the challenges and opportunities that higher education presents to this group of students. The data also reveal how multiplicity of identity for work-based learners contributes to the complexity of both becoming and being a student. The dual concepts of salience and transition are applied to provide ways of understanding ‘identity change processes’ that occur as work-based learners accommodate multiple roles and corresponding identities within educational, occupational and domestic domains. In the rapidly changing landscape of social work education and a resurgence of work-based learning, this thesis provides an exploration of work-based learning provision within universities based on student experience. The implications of the findings from this study are considered for a range of stakeholders in social work education

Chivalry as Sin in \u3cem\u3eSir Gawain and the Green Knight \u3c/em\u3e

In early criticism of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight it was a commonplace that the poem was the most perfect English example of romance, celebrating and lovingly detailing chivalry—even as chivalry was nearly dead in real life and in works by other, more sophisticated writers, like Chaucer. Perhaps not until Gordon Shedd\u27s 1967 article Knight in Tarnished Armour was the possibility raised that the poet\u27s view of chivalry wasn\u27t straightforward, wasn\u27t simple. Yet Shedd\u27s suggestion has largely been ignored. What I\u27d like to suggest is that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight contains a more wide-ranging, more serious criticism of chivalry than has heretofore been noticed. The poet consistently, though subtly, points out the shortcomings and the pitfalls of chivalric life. Chivalry\u27s limitations are evidenced both in the person of Gawain and in the society as a whole, represented by Arthur\u27s court and Bercilak\u27s castle

The Development of the Visual Education Program in the Omaha Elementary Schools

The main purpose of this study was to trace the origin and gradual growth of the visual education program through the use of motion pictures in the public elementary schools of Omaha. This involved the following problems: 1. To show the early, casual beginnings and period of unorganized use of films in the elementary schools. 2. To show the period of formative growth of an organized program. 3. To describe the first year of administration of that program

Deconvolution and quantitation of severely overlapped chromatographic peaks using high performance liquid chromatography with multi-channel electrochemical detection.

The chemometric approaches employing two-dimensional time-response information were a bit more reliable in providing accurate outcomes. Each of the PCR, PLS, and SIMPLS approaches accurately predicted with 95% certainty the Epi and Dopa levels in 11 out of 20 cases.Our hypothesis was that a simple deconvolution in the potential-response domain at a carefully selected time following injection would yield sufficiently accurate determination of the two analytes to 95% confidence levels using the Student's t-test. Our simple potential-response approach was thus compared to standard and commonly employed alternative approaches.For each method investigated, we determined a mean and standard deviation for the calculated/predicted levels of both Epi and Dopa for each of the five separate mixtures. For the determinations involving only the two standard dimensions of information (i.e., time-response), this procedure was repeated for each of the four electrochemical channels separately. For the chemometric approaches using information from all the dimensions, only one such determination was available for each mixture. Likewise, the simple initially described procedure using potential-response time was only capable of providing a single outcome (mean +/- s.d.) for each of Epi and Dopa for each of the five mixtures. Finally, the individual means were compared to the known standard values in all cases using Student's t-test to determine if the means were the same as the standards at the 95% confidence level.Finally, the initially proposed single analysis of the data using the potential-response domain and Cramer's Rule for deconvolution proved to be much easier and more accurate than any of the alternatives listed above. In particular, this approach accurately predicted the content of both Epi and Dopa in all of the five mixtures examined at the 95% confidence level. At the same time, the deconvolution using matrix algebra was and is substantially simpler than any of the other alternatives examined. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)We wanted to create a simple technique that provided a high degree of accuracy in the deconvolution of two chromatographic peaks which were severely overlapped in the usual time-response domain and substantially overlapped in the potential-response domain. The two compounds we selected for investigation which fulfilled these initial criteria were epinephrine (Epi) and L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (Dopa)

A report on an Arts Adminstration internship with New Orleans Opera Association, New Orleans, LA, Spring, 1992

This report is a description of a three-month internship from January 20, 1992 through April 20, 1992 with the New Orleans Opera Association where the intern was the assistant to the Director of Development/Marketing/Public Relations. The New Orleans Opera celebrates 50 years of financial and artistic success in the 1992/93 season and serves as an example to other arts organizations not only in New Orleans but throughout the United States. Over this fifty-year life, however, the organization has not adjusted its managerial practices sufficiently to compensate for the change throughout the business and arts-related industries; consequently, the Association operates with outdated thoughts and customs. Within the scheme of operations, however, is a very successful fundraising organization buttressed by the support of extremely loyal patrons and sold-out houses. The intern will give an overview of the organization and explain her duties and responsibilities with short and long-term effects on the Association

Assessing learning in the early years’ outdoor classroom: examining challenges in practice

The benefit the outdoor environment has for young children’s development is widely documented. However, there is less literature outlining practitioners’ experiences of assessing learning in the outdoors and factors which impact the level and quality of assessments undertaken. This study, based on a pragmatic mixed methods approach, undertaken in 9 early years’ settings in North Wales, reports the findings of 37 practitioners. The research suggests that assessing children in the outdoors is not used to its potential. Factors impeding the use of the outdoor classroom include: lack of appropriate resources; level of staff expertise; child-staff ratio; adverse weather; and changes to curriculum policy which place emphasis on the formal assessment of children. There appears to be assumptions about learners most likely to benefit from outdoor learning and assessment: boys; children in socio-economically deprived areas; and children with additional learning needs. The paper highlights the need for broader training opportunities for practitioners on planning for learning and assessment in the outdoors that go beyond a single course focus. With creative planning, there is no reason why summative assessments of all areas of learning within the early years’ curriculum cannot be done as effectively outdoors as they may be being done indoors

Camouflage: how the visual arts and sociology make sense of the military

The military is the core institution of state sanctioned violence in Western liberal democracies. In the last decade or so the role of the military has changed and militarism has become an increasingly conspicuous aspect of public life. The idea of camouflage is used and developed to explore how collaboration between the visual arts and sociology can be used to denaturalise the taken-for-granted assumptions and beliefs about the military in Australian society. Camouflage is explained in its military utility, its psychological concept (Gestalt theory) the art camouflage movement and their developed techniques (eg Cubism, Dadaism), and in terms of deconstruction or sociological critique as a tool for making social relations that are culturally camouflaged visible