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This paper has two main aims: to present the current position of information literacy education (ILE) in UK-based academic institutions, and to propose a strategy that ensures the integration of ILE in learning and teaching practices. The first part of the paper offers an insight into the perceptions of information literacy by exploring four distinct perspectives: those of the institution, the faculty, the library staff, and the students. From an institutional perspective, information literacy is dominated by the need to measure information skills within the context of information as a discipline in its own right. Also, there is a great deal of misinformation regarding information literacy, and as a result, a clear marketing strategy must be adopted by information professionals to address the misconceptions held by faculty staff and students alike. This article aims to address these points by drawing on recent scholarship and research in the field, which demonstrates the validity of information literacy as a process for fostering independent learning. The second part of the paper explains how a fellowship project has placed information literacy on the pedagogical agenda of the University of Staffordshire in the UK by promoting information literacy education as an integrated element of the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the current assumptions behind vocational training for graduate teaching assistants at a large, urban, research-led UK university. Through qualitative evaluation it reflects on the perceptions of participants on a graduate teaching assistant 'learning and teaching module' in terms of an interpretation of their views on pedagogic practice. These reflections suggest that three of the assumptions upon which GTA training has been, and still is, predicated view the process in a relatively simplistic manner. The paper suggests that the pedagogic socialization process has been inaccurately homogenized as a postgraduate issue, ignoring the possibility that relatively sophisticated perceptions of good teaching practice are already firmly in place when a graduate enters a doctoral programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is inspired by, and constructed around, a number of fundamental questions that are relevant to teacher educators working within the context of the government policy initiatives and implementations that are influencing Higher Education in the UK at the present time. Using teacher education practices as sites of inquiry, and a number of figures from the work of Deleuze, the paper investigates approaches to teaching and learning that are described as having an aesthetic and ethically sensitive character. Mindful of such approaches and of the pervasiveness of policy influences, the paper also encourages a careful and thorough re-thinking of the theory and practice of teacher education as a terrain of complexity, multiplicity and interconnectedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the ways in which UK higher education (HE) has become increasingly commercialised and commodified in the post-1980s. It critiques the strategies adopted by successive UK governments to reinvigorate the relationship between educational and economic life, and to facilitate a more corporate and entrepreneurial spirit within the academy in line with the pressures of a 'knowledge-based economy'. Arguing for a more critical exploration of teaching and learning within HE, the paper presents evidence from work carried out by the Reinvention Centre for Undergraduate Research, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching in Learning (CETL) which adopts a research-based learning approach to teaching and learning at undergraduate level.1 Within the context of ongoing debates surrounding the relationship between teaching, learning and research in UK HE, the paper advocates a reinvention of curriculum design through an engagement with the broader principles of critical pedagogy, and in so doing, presents a critical engagement with the commercialisation of HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the sociological issues raised by a recent study on school councils in England. This study revealed a lack of clarity among policy-makers and schools regarding the purpose of provision for pupil voice. The paper argues that this allows important questions about the functions of pupil voice to be avoided. While suggesting ways in which schools could refine their provision, the paper asks whether more effective pupil voice would make the concept less attractive to policy-makers and schools in the first place. It goes on to highlight more fundamental questions raised by critiques of notions of 'voice'. Connected to this, the paper outlines the potential for pupil voice to support neo-liberal as well as progressive ends. It concludes by arguing that teachers must grasp the opportunities provided by pupil voice to ensure that it serves 'collaborative' rather than 'managerial' professionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses using action learning with different professional groups in the UK—nurses and educators. It addresses the question: To what extent is action learning an effective approach in relation to professional development, and, if so, in what way/s? The formulation and developmental processes of action learning sets are examined. The paper provides examples of the professional and personal development of these individuals as a result of experiencing the action learning process, as well as some positive impacts (outcomes) they achieved at an organisational level. It is also argued, however, that current tensions and challenges within professional groupings, cultures and contexts can impede action learning and, hence, have a negative impact on professional development. For example, political agendas and the psychodynamics of organisational life were found to hinder, or discourage, the learning process, i.e. the likelihood of bringing about change, in favour of maintaining the status quo for the individuals themselves and within their organisational structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Courses in product design are offered within the United Kingdom at the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex and in both cases are run within engineering departments alongside traditional engineering courses. This paper outlines some of the intrinsic pedagogic practices that are employed by these, and other, design courses. It highlights why creativity is a central tenet within these courses, which has underpinned the successful bid by the universities to jointly become the UK Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Creativity (CETL in C), and why, in particular, creativity is a key requirement in sustainable design. It supposes why these practices might, and should, offer a suitable role model for more traditional engineering courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing concern throughout the UK and beyond about the lack of suitably qualified post-primary teachers in some subject areas, particularly mathematics, design and technology and the sciences. This paper reports on a survey of teacher qualifications in Northern Ireland which indicates that a significant percentage of teachers are unqualified in the areas of mathematics, physics, ICT, history and Irish, and that Key Stage 3 teachers tend to be less well-qualified than those at Key Stage 4 or post-16. Unqualified teachers are less likely to be found in the grammar sector than the non-grammar sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first describes a range of uses of observational training and the learning to which it can give rise. It goes on to describe in detail a specific project that was undertaken by the authors with a selected group of social work trainers. The range of observations undertaken by the participants is described and their own comments provide first-hand evaluations of the experience. Observation is seen by the authors as one of the most important foundation skills in social work practice. They conclude by sketching out the possible place of such training in the social work career continuum in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]