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The primary aim of institutional learning outcomes assessment is the creation of a culture of assessment where faculty use evidence-based data to validate and improve teaching and learning for the benefit of students. Faculty are key to these processes and yet, they are often woefully disengaged from them. This paper presents findings from an action research project that utilized a collaborative self-study approach to engage faculty in the strategic assessment of institutional learning (SAIL). SAIL is an immersive professional development opportunity that bridged quality assurance with meaningful improvements in the classroom. Findings indicated that cross-disciplinary dialogue about assessment increased faculty awareness of the (mis)alignment between course, program, and institutional learning aims while also identifying and informing potential gaps in curriculum and program design. SAIL is an excellent mechanism to engage faculty in an immersive assessment of student achievement that may then lead to meaningful improvement in teaching and learning.

Post-secondary institutions are required to complete a variety of quality assurance activities including external program review, a process of inviting external reviewers from outside the institution to provide constructive feedback on all aspects of an academic program. While external program reviews have been completed for decades, there has been little work to ensure that meaningful change occurs as a result. Assessment of outcomes at the department level are limited and research specifically considering external academic program review as a primary quality assurance activity is scant. Each of these limitations is even more significant when considered at the institutional level. From our experience, there is minimal consideration in research or practice to ensure that external review recommendations have an impact on educational planning at the institutional level. To help address this concern, in this paper we describe an approach involving secondary research and thematic document analysis that can be leveraged to enhance institutional decision-making processes by uncovering institutional themes evident across external reviews. We suggest that our approach may be helpful for other higher education institutions striving to make sense of program review recommendations from an institutional perspective.

There is emergent evidence of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale's utility in the Global South. The present research provides evidence about the measurement properties of a Bahasa Indonesia language version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale and comparator measures, the Career Futures Inventory-Revised and the Self-perceived Employability Scale, using a sample of students (N = 277) enrolled in Indonesian college degrees. Furthermore, for the purpose of cross-cultural comparisons, the measurement properties of the Indonesian version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale were compared with an independent dataset (N = 387) using an Australian English language version. The Indonesian version had acceptable measurement properties.

Beryl Gilroy (1924-2001) is often referred to as one of the first Black primary school headteachers in London, England. Her refusal to continue teaching in schools once she reached her fifties has not been explored in recent publications. Her interest in sound, pedagogy and therapeutic recovery can be revisited retrospectively. She strove to counter racism through the power of communication as a teacher, radio broadcaster, headteacher, therapist and published writer of memoir, novels and children's reading books. The unifying thread in this article interweaves different perspectives on why Beryl Gilroy tried to create colloquial and phonetic speech in her published writings. It is argued that perhaps this was devised to help the reader share in her own reimagining of "poignant veridicality" -- an appreciation of truth as something reached through sonic immersion in valuable and contrasting interpretations and feelings that do not always have to have rational explanations.

External program review is often considered the "gold standard" approach to evaluating academic programs in higher education. Despite the importance of program review, skepticism persists regarding its ability to meaningfully engage faculty and have sustaining impact on program improvement. This paper builds on the academic Program Review Learning Community conceptual model and presents a process for applying a project management facilitation technique that leverages a course structure. The Program Review Course allows for multiple programs to be reviewed concurrently as part of an interdisciplinary cohort. Within the cohort, faculty teams gain access to templates, information sessions, workshops, and discussion forums, with opportunities for engagement both within and across multiple disciplines. Using learning modules, this approach is designed to create efficiency and collaboration in delivering program review tools and customized supports. Utilizing a course structure for program review fits well with a new way to think about program review because successful learning communities are often embedded within institutional structures. Use of this approach is expected to increase clarity and consistency, improve administrative feasibility, provide guidance for those new to program review, promote collegiality within and across programs, and involve team members in the creation of action planning. The authors propose that a course-based approach for conducting program review, with teams of disciplinary faculty joining an interdisciplinary cohort and supported by quality assurance practitioners and educational developers is a novel way to provide structure and academic development while meeting legislative requirements.

The Work Volition Scale (WVS) is a brief measure of the perceived capacity to make career decisions despite constraints; however, systematic validation of item responses to the scale is still in its infancy. The present article reports on research conducted to investigate the latent structure of WVS, its invariance across gender, and mean differences in work volition across income in a sample of retail workers. A bifactor structure of the WVS accounted for construct-relevant multidimensionality in scores due to the presence of general and specific volition dimensions. Tests of gender invariance revealed the equivalence of item loadings, thresholds, uniquenesses, and factor means. Support was also found for plausible latent mean differences in general volition across income, with retail workers earning high wages reporting greater volition than those earning low wages. Finally, evidence was obtained for theoretically meaningful relations of the general and specific volition dimensions with career control.

Student success has multiple meanings; however, the quantitative bias prevalent in the northwest American and Western Canadian postsecondary education sector restricts how student success is defined and measured. Standardised measures of student success assume that the student experience is homogeneous and risk the implementation of policies and programmes based on insufficient information. Findings from several small student focus groups suggest that unless new evaluation approaches are adopted, it is unlikely postsecondary institutions will generate the knowledge and wisdom needed to serve the goals of a diverse array of students. This article presents findings from three small student focus groups (n = 14), in an attempt to understand how students themselves define student success and how it should be measured. The results contributed to the development of five principles for culturally responsive postsecondary performance measurement that include participatory, emergent and appreciative processes and qualitative evaluation methodologies.

Emerging public discourse about making a "tree change", "green change", or "sea change" emphasizes the putative benefits of working and residing in regional Australia. Yet, attracting and retaining workers in the regions is a challenge for policymakers, governments, and industries. The present research involved two separate surveys of people residing in regional Australian communities to discern demographic and psychological predictors of their intent to stay in their region: income, years in the region, family, life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and place identity. Multiple regression analyses found incremental evidence of place identity as a predictor of intent to stay. The findings regarding place identity have implications for career development practice, human resources recruitment strategies, and public policy focused on regional Australia.

Purpose: Higher education institutions are required to evaluate program quality through cyclical program review processes. Despite often being considered the "gold standard" of academic review, there persists dissatisfaction with the lack of integration of program review findings into other planning processes, such as budgeting, assessment and strategic planning. As a result, the notion of program review action plans "collecting dust on the shelf" is so ubiquitous that the concept is normalized as an expected outcome. The purpose of this paper is to describe a conceptual model whereby teams of faculty members receive education and training from quality assurance practitioners and educational developers, access to institutional resources, opportunities for cross-departmental collaborations and collective advocacy to increase the capacity of faculty members to implement improvement goals resulting from program reviews. Design/methodology/approach: The authors theorize that a professional learning community is a meaningful approach to program review and present a conceptual model -- the Academic Program Review Learning Community (PRLC): as an antidote to hierarchical, fragmented, compliance-oriented processes. The authors suggest that the PRLC offers a reliable institutional framework for learning through formalized structures and nested support services, including peer learning and external coaching, which can enhance the catalytic capacity of reviews. Findings: The authors argue that postsecondary institutions should create formal structures for incorporating learning communities because, without a reliable infrastructure for collective learning, decision-making may be fragmented oridiosyncratic because of shifting demands, priorities or disconnected faculty. Originality/value: A learning community model for program review fits well with a new way to think about program review because faculty are most engaged when they feel ownership over the process. Furthermore, few models exist for conducting program review; as a result, chairs and academics often struggle to conduct reviews without a coherent framework to draw upon.

Purpose: This article aims to explore the meanings of positionality and demonstrate how reflective memos can illustrate positionality in a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) study. Design/methodology/approach: Acknowledging the positionality of the researcher through a reflective approach is an essential element of CGT studies. The first author (IS) used reflective memoing in her CGT study on Indian immigrant children's asthma to practice reflexivity and make her positionality explicit. Through memos, IS acknowledges her knowledge, beliefs, practices, experience and pre-existing assumptions about the research topic. This article is a compilation of the reflective memos that IS wrote during the initial phase of her research and draws on her motivations as they relate to the topic under study in the context of current literature. Findings: The reflective accounts of a researcher's background and experience can act as a lens for understanding the research question and the choice of methodology. Practical implications: This article may be useful to novice qualitative researchers who are struggling to define and establish their own positionality. John Dewey's and David Schon's works on reflective thinking serve as valuable tools to practice reflexivity. Philosophically underpinned reflections in the form of memos, employed from the outset and throughout the study, can enhance the study rigour by making research decisions transparent. Originality/value: This article provides practical guidance on how to outline positionality at the outset of a CGT study.

Purpose: Academics and administrators frequently lament the bureaucracy in higher education, which diverts attention from teaching and research. Heightened monitoring of institutions as a result of dominant neoliberal ideologies shapes perceptions of accreditation as a bureaucratic burden rather than a value-added tool for continuous quality improvement. This paper aims to identify factors that positively and negatively impact a culture of quality in North American accredited postsecondary institutions to address issues of equity and inform policy changes that are relevant to community needs. Design/methodology/approach: Academics' and administrators' perceptions of accreditation processes are explored through an interpretivist mixed-methods study that combined focus group and survey results from over 200 participants representative of four-year private and four- and two-year public institutions and tribal colleges in North America. Findings: Findings suggest that a utilitarian and exclusionary mindset perpetuated by neoliberal logics restricts participatory decision-making processes in postsecondary institutions. Furthermore, the research identified a noticeable gap between those who are invited to participate in accreditation processes and those who contribute to decision-making. This lack of inclusive governance inhibits the ability of institutions to respond appropriately to the needs of its community. Originality/value: The scope of the study and prioritization of qualitative data offers a comprehensive picture of academics' and administrators' perceptions and positions them as the experts in their own learning and development. Through participant narratives, strategies for increasing the value of quality assurance processes are illuminated. As a result, the study participants become the change agents who provide the solutions for ameliorating academics' and administrators' resistance to quality assurance.

The role of the Adventure Sports Coach (ASC) has recently become the focus of academic interest. Although research emerging from the field is beginning to diversify, the majority is limited in terms of sampling and methodology. The current study broadened the participant base by providing a demographic analysis of ASCs. An online survey of 504 participants captured key demographics, 'coaching category' and 'coaching level'. Chi-square analysis investigated differences between genders. ASCs were predominantly male, relatively young, well-educated and well qualified. Despite many coaches holding high-level awards, their main practice was coaching beginners. A marked asymmetry existed between genders, with two-thirds of the sample being male. Female coaches were younger, less well qualified, and significantly under-represented in the higher coaching echelons. The lack of female coaches, and their clear under-representation in higher coaching categories is concerning. Recruitment, retention, and development of female ASCs is therefore a priority.

The English folk rhyme 'Monday's Child' predicts a fortune for children based on the day of the week on which they were born. Line 4 reads 'Thursday's Child has far to go.' This article explores whether Lindsay Anderson and Guy Brenton edited the documentary film "Thursday's Children" (1954) to convince the viewer that deaf children educated in the oral method at the residential Royal School for the Deaf, Margate, Kent, England, would go far. Alternatively, perhaps the filmmakers were presenting the educational experiences on offer with a film-title tinged with doubt. The film's voice-over, scripted by Anderson, states: 'without words there can be no thoughts, only feelings.' We are also told that only one in three deaf children will achieve 'speech'. This tension is presented in the documentary with a curious mixture of visual and verbal contradictions. The author argues that the seeds of Anderson's other filmmaking can be found in this early documentary. His ultimate interest was not a 'tender' portrayal of children submitting to a particular pedagogy, but instead to show the power and camaraderie of children who, however, they might be taught, should not be made to feel dis-empowered.

This article attempts to reconstruct the life and work of Roger Noel Armfelt with a particular emphasis on his role in watching the development and implementation of educational legislation relating to secondary education. Armfelt focussed on observing practice and steering secondary education reform in local communities during the 1920s and 1930s. He held significant posts whilst legislation was being developed. He has not been the subject of any biographies or peer reviewed articles. There are no extensive collections of his papers held in archives accessible to researchers. A small selection of materials can be found in various archival collections and these have been drawn on for this study. This article is structured around three themes: monitoring the development of secondary education for all; think tanks, committees and reflecting on secondary educational reform in print; and media intersections with educational reform. The article revisits Armfelt's circle of friends including publishers and broadcasting administrators. It reconstructs some aspects of the overlapping worlds of education and broadcasting, which shaped Armfelt's struggles and opportunities. Alongside archival collections consulted, oral history interviews were also conducted, including discussions with Armfelt's elder daughter Robinetta Gaze and granddaughter Harriet Gaze.

Research on migration and health is gaining significant ground, with a focus on the adverse physical and mental health outcomes experienced by migrants. The health-related experiences of children and young people who migrate, however, are relatively absent, with children's migration and health status often conflated with that of their parents. The omission of children's own perspectives limits knowledge about how health is understood and experienced by child migrants, including the identification of best ways to support their health. Drawing on the empirical literature on child migrants and health from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Western Pacific Region, we adopt a critical perspective to examine how the research to date supports a particular way of understanding and investigating the health of children and young people who migrate. Specifically, we highlight how a dominant focus on parents' migration status, (negative) health outcomes and patterns of risk behaviours limits, rather than aids, the understanding of migrant children's health. In doing so, we illustrate how much of the evidence base upholds Westernised biomedical notions of health and privileges the use of particular methodologies to assess health outcomes and reduce health risks. These preferences, in turn, shape the subsequent range of 'appropriate' forms of health education for, rather than with, children. We conclude by drawing on some exceptions and consider the opportunities these provide for developing health education in line with children's own understandings of health -- crucially underscoring the importance migrant children and young people attach to the more social aspects of their health and migration experiences.

Classroom interaction, as a core practice of teaching and learning, remains a "taken-for-granted" and under-examined dimension of teacher education. This paper reports preliminary findings from an empirical investigation of pre-service teacher's development of skills in classroom interaction as core educational practice. Specifically, the paper presents findings from a faculty-wide initiative involving first year Bachelor of Education students from one rural/regional university in NSW, Australia. The research investigated the impact that a focus on the role of dialogue for learning--both in university subjects and practising in classroom sites--has on 124 first year education pre-service teachers' interaction practices with students in their professional experience placements. Findings show that if pre-service teachers experience classroom interactive practices as the object of overt focus during their undergraduate studies, understandings about effective pedagogy and teacher development will develop from beyond a "taken-for-granted" dimension of teaching practice. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper examines controversy concerning the televising of the documentary "This Is the BBC" (1959) and situates the dispute in a wider cultural context of media criticism of Oxford University in particular, and academic educators more generally, in the period 1956-1960. Technological change, increased television ownership and a growing interest in the irreverent portrayal of educators in popular culture all need to be considered when examining what the philosopher and historian of ideas Isaiah Berlin and the filmmaker Richard Cawston considered to be at stake when they squabbled over the right to use a few seconds of film footage of Berlin. Berlin objected to his voice and moving image being edited to present him not as a don but as a clown. The article also addresses the ongoing silences that become apparent when the montage is broken down frame by frame and the visual rhetoric is translated into written argument.

This article examines John Newsom's contributions to non-fiction BBC radio and television coverage of education, poverty, and social disadvantage from 1934 to 1971. The correspondence and scripts concerning his BBC broadcasts for a domestic UK-based audience and an overseas audience are used as source material. Newsom is well known among educational historians as Chief Education Officer for Hertfordshire (1940-1957) and the chair of the Central Advisory Council for Education, which compiled the Newsom Report in 1963. He is associated with the aesthetic and cultural experience of pupils in the physical environment of their schools, rather than with the use of words and sound broadcast to encourage reflection amongst adult listeners on the experience of an educated nation. Newsom's role in shaping the discussion of education on the airwaves and on screen has been excluded as a significant sphere for researchers. Broadcasting was the space in which Newsom and many other education officers and head teachers spoke most directly to the public and beyond their local realms of responsibility. This article argues that in some of his forays into broadcasting, Newsom was introduced as a stabilising influence on programmes with a subject matter, which it was feared, may have the potential to become too radical. From World War II onwards he acted as an advisor, an editor, and author of scripts and sometimes a chair or a participant in broadcast discussion on the subjects of education, democracy, and the unfolding of the 1944 Education Act. The article explores how despite many colleagues at the BBC being unimpressed with Newsom as a broadcaster, he maintained a sustained involvement in programmes for more than 30 years. The article identifies sensitive issues where Newsom's choices were occasionally curtailed.

The United Kingdom's Department for Education has recently changed the nature of the AS-level examinations normally taken by students aspiring to enter higher education degree courses one year into their post-compulsory education. In the face of protests from universities and other institutions that this would both harm students' progression towards the A-level qualifications, on which entry to English universities is normally based, and make it difficult for universities determining which of their applicants were best placed to benefit from their degree courses, the Department conducted research which it claimed showed that degree outcome could be predicted as well from the results of GCSE examinations taken one year before AS-levels as from AS-levels themselves. This paper critiques those analyses and their conclusions showing, through a re-analysis and extended interpretation of the Department's data, that AS-levels provide a more reliable predictor of degree performance in 2011 than GCSEs and that many students who performed better at AS-level than at GCSE gained a place, and performed well, at a university with high entrance standards.

Background: Although many with intellectual disability come to the attention of services for fire setting, research in this area is scarce, which poses challenges for management. Method: In this paper we examined those with a fire-setting history (n = 30), identified from a sample of 138 patients treated in a UK forensic intellectual disability service. Those with a fire-setting history were compared to those without this history on various clinical, forensic, and treatment outcome variables. Results: Fire-setting was associated with significant psychopathology, including psychosis and personality disorders. Only half of the fire setters had a formal arson conviction. Fire setters were more likely to have a violence conviction and criminal sections/restriction orders. Conclusions: Half of those with fire-setting histories did not have formal arson convictions, highlighting the need for thorough history taking. Prevalent comorbidity suggests interventions should focus on treating psychopathology before commencing offence-specific arson therapies.

The implementation of troubleshooting within a pre-existing expository laboratory is described and evaluated. Student feedback indicated that troubleshooting activities are highly effective in providing a hands-on opportunity to exercise problem-solving skills and gain a better understanding of the whole process in addition to effectively promoting engagement and interactions within the laboratory group. However, the timing, evaluation, and scope of the activity need to be carefully considered to ensure optimal educational value.

There is a dearth of research on the work-life balance experiences of academics who undertake short-term international teaching assignments. Academics who teach offshore are also accountable for onshore activities including lecturing, research, supervision of higher degree students, mentoring, publishing and administrative obligations "inter alia". These responsibilities pose further challenges to work and life. Within the context of a qualitative design, 11 academics were interviewed in depth regarding their short-term international teaching experiences. Specific issues relating to family separation, excessive work hours, poor assignment planning and lack of organisational recognition were identified. Findings have important implications for academics, and university policy and practice.

Skin infections are a major cause of preventable hospitalization, with young people being particularly susceptible. Community-associated methicillin-resistant "Staphylococcus aureus" (CA-MRSA) infection typically presents as skin infection. CA-MRSA infection rates have increased rapidly in the past decade. Exploration of literature specific to young people aged 14-18 years is therefore timely. Integrative review using the methods described by Whittemore and Knafl was undertaken. Electronic databases of Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Google databases were searched for English-language articles published after 1990. Twenty primary studies were included and the findings are reported here. Data analysis revealed factors influencing skin infections in young people may be host-, transmission-, or pathogen-specific. Strategies to address host and transmission factors may be effective in controlling skin infection rates in young people.

Handover of patient care is a time of particular risk and it is important that accurate and relevant information is clearly communicated. The hospital discharge letter is an important part of handover. However, the quality of hospital discharge letters is variable and letters frequently omit important information. The Cork Letter-Writing Assessment Scale (CLAS) checklist is an itemized checklist developed to improve the quality of discharge letters. The CLAS checklist, with an inbuilt scoring system, is available as the CLAS mobile application. Mobile applications offer an exciting opportunity for "point of practice" knowledge acquisition and are widely used by medical students. Content quality is integral to the success of educational mobile applications. In a recent study, the CLAS checklist improved the quality (content, structure and clarity) of discharge letters written by medical students. Though retention of these skills into the work-place and effects on patient safety have yet to be demonstrated, the development of standardized electronic discharge letters allows faster and safer transfer of information between healthcare providers and is a welcome advance. Using Near Field Communication for mobile applications to seamlessly transfer discharge letters between devices is another important feature.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has potential to contribute to career counselling. In this paper, the theoretical tenets of ACT and a selection of its counselling techniques are overviewed along with a descriptive case vignette. There is limited empirical research into ACT's application in career counselling. Accordingly, a research agenda is presented for the aim of integrating ACT with career counselling. This agenda includes suggestions for addressing conceptual convergence, practitioners' perspectives, counselling processes, measurement of impact, and applications in counselling.

The intensity of provision of transnational education (TNE) in the Asian region by Australian universities has been increasing over the past three decades. Although much is claimed, little is actually known about the outcomes and opinions of students enrolled in TNE programs. This article investigates student experiences through the longitudinal extension of an ethnographic study of one TNE program in Singapore. Student motivations, career paths, and adaptations are considered in the context of "second chance" and lifelong learning in Singapore. Analysis reveals something of a good news story in the face of much negativity about transnational education at the current time. The study reveals that TNE students are achieving high-level positional outcomes and developing transformative learning habits. Recommendations are made for the use of global comparative studies in TNE programs to facilitate mutual learning through respect for local knowledge.

This paper investigates the development of academic language proficiency through immersion in middle school programmes in Hong Kong and Xi'an. The study reveals that in both contexts students have exposure to complex academic language through teacher talk and textbooks; however, there is not sufficient support for students' academic language use in writing. The paper discusses the possible causes and suggests how students can be helped to develop better academic language proficiency in these immersion contexts. (Contains 2 notes, 7 extracts, and 8 tables.)

As a former comprehensive school pupil herself, the author wanted to know more about the women who had pioneered comprehensive schools in England. Therefore, she chose the headmistress and comprehensive school campaigner Dame Margaret Miles (1911-1994) as the subject of a dissertation for her History of Education MA at the Institute of Education, University of London. This article attempts to rebuild the story of Margaret Miles' networks of influence from 1911-1955 and explains how she gathered ideas that she hoped to transplant into the comprehensive school system after 1955. The author then move on to examine how seeds of doubt about Miles' particular vision and comprehensive education in general were introduced to a nervous public in documentary film between 1955 and 1963. (Contains 39 notes.)

Australian children from disadvantaged families are at increased risk of delays in acquiring fundamental movement skills, with physical inactivity and increased risk of the potential consequences of obesity. The aims of this pilot study were to: 1) assess the fundamental movement skills of disadvantaged children; 2) evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of adapting an existing parenting and child development program to incorporate additional weekly play activities (the intervention); and 3) examine the acceptability of the intervention. Children aged 1.5-5 years were assessed pre-intervention (n = 26) and post-intervention (n = 16) over a period of 22 weeks using the gross motor component of the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2nd Edition (PDMS-2) (Folio & Fewell, 2000). Parents completed a demographic and environmental survey and those implementing the intervention were interviewed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. Pre-intervention the children from disadvantaged families had locomotion, object manipulation and Gross Motor Quotient (GMQ) scores significantly below the norm-referenced standards of the PDMS-2 (p less than 0.05). The intervention was associated with improvements in the locomotion (8.35 to 9.5; p = 0.009), and object manipulation (8.6 to 9.6; p = 0.04) subtest scores and the GMQ scores (92.6 to 99.3; p less than 0.01). The intervention was deemed feasible and acceptable by those implementing the program. Low levels of physical activity in disadvantaged communities may be related to delayed acquisition of fundamental movement skills in childhood. This pilot study raises the possibility of correcting this deficit in early childhood, and improving the potential for all children to lead an active life. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

This article reports a study of aspects of pedagogy that can bring about students' cognitive engagement with academic content and, thus, use of the academic language in content-based language lessons in three middle schools in Xi'an, China. Two criteria--academic content level and depth of processing--were used to determine cognitive content engagement by students. A detailed analysis of three lessons taught by the same teacher is presented in this article. These are selected to highlight the differences between teaching that facilitated engagement and the use of the academic language and teaching that failed to do so. The analysis shows that engagement seemed to occur when the teacher focused the content on challenging technical academic knowledge and helped students explore this content in depth. She focused on relationships between meanings rather than facts in isolation and demanded the processing of knowledge in different ways, which created the space for the use of academic language. She structured her lessons in a cyclical manner and exploited the feedback moves in the predominantly initiation-response-feedback (IRF) classroom interaction pattern to facilitate deep processing. She also had clear content and language learning objectives. (Contains 3 tables and 1 note.)

This paper investigates the views of immersion teachers in Hong Kong and Xi'an towards the immersion curriculum they are teaching. Teachers are important stakeholders in any curriculum implementation and their views are significant in both evaluating progress and determining future directions. The teachers' views were gathered from questionnaires and interviews. Topics include their understanding of the objectives of immersion education, their preparedness for their roles as immersion teachers, the main challenges in immersion teaching they identify and the support they receive from their schools. The responses are discussed to identify areas of concern which may be future priorities for professional development.

It has been widely claimed that UK students from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds but nevertheless having the potential to benefit from a degree programme are being denied higher education places because of their relatively poor paper qualifications. As a consequence, the claim continues, students from independent schools have an advantage in the competition for such places. Universities have responded to such claims, and incentives from the government to do so, by introducing widening participation programmes, but very little research has been done which explores whether students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are admitted to elite universities perform as well as their counterparts with better entry qualifications. Using a large data set from one university, this article explores performance by students at A-level and their first and final university years. Students from independent schools performed better at A-level than those from state schools, but not at their university examinations, other things being equal. (Contains 5 tables.)

There is a clear need for new research into the work and life outcomes for graduates of Australian international education. Drawing upon divergent post-study transitions, this article aims to present a multi-faceted, qualitative foundation for the consideration of both positional and transformative impacts of international education on graduates' post study lives and careers. We compare three divergent study and life pathways for international students via three case studies of different models of Australian international and transnational education provision. The findings show that positional and transformative outcomes were often intertwined in surprising ways in participants' stories. The pathways that they followed after graduation were strongly influenced by their engagement with international education as a life as well as a learning experience. All three case studies also suggest that concepts of the prestige of the Western degree need further consideration. (Contains 1 note.)

Aim: To establish any differences between patients with and without a diagnosis of personality disorders, being treated in a secure inpatient service for offenders with intellectual disability (ID) in the UK. Method: A cohort study involving a selected population of people with ID and offending behaviours. Results: The study included a total of 138 patients, treated over a 6 year period--77 with a dissocial or emotionally unstable personality disorder and 61 without. Women were more likely to be in the personality disorder group. Both groups had high prevalence of abuse with no significant differences. Depressive disorders and substance abuse were more common in the personality disorder group, while epilepsy and autistic spectrum disorders were more common in the non-personality disorder group. Rather than differences, what was more striking was the rate and range of these comorbidities across both groups. Although past histories of violence and institutional aggression were no different, compulsory detention under criminal sections and restriction orders were more common in the personality disorder group. There were no differences in treatment outcomes. Conclusions: Although about half of patients detained in secure units for offenders with ID have a personality disorder, there were more similarities than differences between this group and the rest. While good treatment outcomes supported the case for specialised secure treatment units for people with ID, the case for establishing a more specialised ID-personality disorder unit was less convincing. There is also a need to explore whether there are alternative diagnostic models that can delineate better the group with personality difficulties in this population.

This paper reports a study of how context influences a content-based language teaching (CBLT) project in China, an approach which is fairly new in the country, in its implementation in three middle schools. It identifies three aspects of the context which have a crucial effect on classroom practice. These are the perceptions of the project and its objectives, as seen by the school principals, the parents and the teachers, who are stakeholders in the project; the curriculum content and resources; and the selection and development of the teachers. Following a discussion of these factors, the paper describes and discusses one CBLT lesson from the project. It shows how the opportunities and constraints imposed by these aspects of the context interact to bring about a mode of implementation that may be seen as unsatisfactory from a CBLT lesson perspective. It argues, however, that the implementation may be more appropriately seen in contrast to mainstream English lessons and, as such, is a legitimate and worthwhile response to the context within which the approach is implemented. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper presents a summary of some of the implications gleaned from a research project which investigated the psychological influences on the experience of unemployment. Drawing from deprivation theory and the stress and coping literature, the research project explored coping resources, cognitive appraisals, coping behaviours, mental health and re-employment. The results highlight the importance of considering a range of factors that could impact on the psychological wellbeing, job search behaviour and re-employment prospects for unemployed individuals. Some of those factors include core self-evaluations, appraisals of deprivation or hardship, and activities that individuals pursue in their spare time. Suggestions are made for intervention strategies that can be tailored to the specific needs of the individual.

The intention to introduce a form of post qualification application (PQA) for entry to UK universities has provoked considerable interest, debate and controversy, not least over its impact on diversifying the intake of undergraduates gaining entry to the allegedly most prestigious universities and courses. We review the arguments and evidence advanced so far in this national debate and then subject its hoped-for impacts to empirical testing with a novel and extensive dataset of successful university applications. The results are discouraging for the supporters of the PQA initiative, although much rests on the validity of using current experience to predict the post-PQA outcomes. This underlying assumption is examined in detail and we conclude it is unlikely to be a major factor behind the "disappointing" empirical results. (Contains 5 tables, 5 figures and 8 notes.)

A team-taught interdisciplinary undergraduate unit in Sustainable Development has been developed and run over the past two years at the University of Bristol. This has been a unique initiative for this university to take. As in most other research-intensive higher education institutions, teaching generally follows rather traditional disciplinary conventions, operating within departmental bounds. The initiative was unusual--and indeed ambitious--enough to gain the Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement (HEEPI) Green Gown Award in teaching for 2007 (HEEPI is a project supported by the Higher Education Founding Council for England; http://www.heepi.org.uk/green_gown_awards.htm). There are both challenges and pleasures in designing and delivering a team-taught unit in a traditional university setting. This experience is outlined and evaluated here, giving consideration to both the practical and the more fundamentally philosophical issues encountered in the process. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper reports a study of adult clients' experience of "My Career Chapter," which is a theoretically-informed, qualitative career assessment and counselling procedure. "My Career Chapter" engenders personal exploration through a client's writing and reading aloud a career-related autobiography, which is formulated on the basis of structured steps and a sentence-completion process. In a predominantly qualitative, mixed method design (i.e., QUAL+quan), interpretative phenomenological analysis of six interview transcripts constructed three major clusters representative of clients' experiences: implications for instructions and guidelines; induction of personal contemplation and self-reflection; and positive emotional experience. Secondary quantitative data aligned with the primary qualitative results. The results of this study were consistent with and extend upon previous research; and were indicative of the safety and potential of "My Career Chapter" as a narrative career assessment and counselling procedure for adults. (Contains 3 tables.)

This paper provides a case study of the use of language objectives within a newly developed English language teacher education programme in Hong Kong. The programme development team decided to adopt a content-based language teaching approach to support students' second language development through content learning. The teacher education programme (the content) prepares Chinese-speaking students to become secondary level English teachers. Because of students' level of English language proficiency upon entry, the programme must provide substantial support for students' English language development in addition to their learning of subject content knowledge and ELT pedagogy. There is also a government-stipulated proficiency level for all qualified English language teachers, which essentially becomes the language syllabus for the programme. The language objectives serve as a medium for mapping the language syllabus on to the content curriculum. There are reasons to believe that the approach adopted has been successful in supporting students' language and content learning. This paper describes the programme development and implementation process and the problems and constraints met. The paper also shares the lessons learnt from the curriculum development and implementation process.

This article presents an investigation into the properties of a new narrative technique for career assessment and counselling, "My Career Chapter: A Dialogical Autobiography". This technique is used to facilitate clients' construction of a meaningful career-related autobiography. Previous research indicates the usefulness of My Career Chapter for adult clients and its alignment with recommendations for the development and application of qualitative assessment and counselling techniques. This study specifically commences research into the technique's applicability for adolescents. A focus group, comprised of guidance counselling professionals whose work primarily pertained to the needs of adolescents, found that there is potential to develop a version of My Career Chapter that is suitable for adolescents.

A survey of 371 unemployed people in South East Queensland explored whether deprivation of the latent benefits of employment was able to predict psychological distress after controlling for other key correlates. A standard multiple regression found that the latent benefits (time structure, social contact, collective purpose, enforced activity, and status) accounted for a significant 13 per cent of the variance in psychological distress, with time structure being the most important unique predictor. However, after controlling for self-esteem, positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), satisfaction with employment status, employment commitment, and financial strain, the latent benefits did not significantly add to the prediction of distress. The results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for career development. (Contains 3 tables.)

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a 9-week career intervention program on at-risk middle school students' career maturity levels, self-esteem, and academic achievement. This study was based on a pretest and posttest design using a control group. Data were collected from 27 at-risk middle school students representing the experimental group and 30 at-risk middle school students making up the control group. Modes of measurement consisted of the Crites Career Maturity Inventory (measuring attitude and competency levels), the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, and grades. Data for this study were coded numerically and analyzed using inferential t tests and analysis of covariance. Qualitative interviews were conducted with teachers of 5 randomly selected participants from the experimental group to compare self-esteem and academic achievement prior and subsequent to the treatment. Although results revealed that the sample's career maturity attitude and competency levels and academic achievement improved, such increases were not statistically significant. Recommendations for future research and implications for school counselors are discussed.

This study explored the attitudes of young people in Brittany towards Breton and French, including questions of identity and perceptions of the future of the Breton language. Combined several different techniques within the same project to gain different insights into the issues and established techniques for gathering data on language attitudes as expressed in spontaneous discourse. (Author/VWL)

Outlines a research project conducted in Brittany in 1994 and 1995. The object was to investigate the attitudes of young people in Brittany (ages 8-18) toward varieties of language in the region, using a questionnaire survey and interviews. A brief description of the project is followed by a discussion of the sociolinguistic situation in France. (Author/VWL)

Contends that identity is constituted differently depending on the culture of origin. Against backdrop of U.S. individualism, explores cultural relativity of identity and pseudospeciation (false sense of cultural specialness). Notes that this literature grounds prejudice in evolution itself and provides reasons for movement beyond individualism to more mature form of relational identity that includes cultural others. (Author/NB)

A model of regional competition among universities in the United Kingdom is proposed, from which a number of indexes of relative competitiveness are derived. The model is applied to data from groups of neighboring universities and then extended to other aspects of higher education and the economy in general. (Author/MSE)