Search

The objectives, curriculum, and role of higher education and key policy and practice issues were reassessed against the backdrop of recent and predicted demographic, economic, and political changes and trends in Great Britain. Special consideration was given to the fact that "mature" learners now constitute the majority of entrants into British higher education. A model was proposed that calls for supporting a learning society by combining the strengths of the following two traditions of British higher education: (1) the pastoral/tutorial models of Oxford, Cambridge, and the new universities of the 1960s; and (2) the vocational and community-based traditions of civic universities and polytechnics. Also developed was an agenda of actions to create a culture where learning is recognized as a universal lifelong activity, empowerment of individuals is seen as key to economic and social development, accreditation seeks to include rather than exclude, higher education is an active contributor to economic activity, diversity is recognized as strength, and the outcomes and achievements of higher education are made explicit. The action agenda contained specific actions regarding the following areas of policy/practice: learner support, curriculum, credit, quality, and resources. Appended is a list of policy group members. (Contains 52 references.) (MN)

This working paper is a product of a regional study in industrial South Wales of the determinants of participation and non-participation in post-compulsory education and training, with special reference to processes of change in the patterns of these determinants over time and to variations between geographical areas. Discussion begins with an examination of the way in which the official discourse of the learning society is dominated by a particular social theory of lifelong learning, called human capital theory. It demonstrates that human capital theory involves an unwarranted abstraction of economic behavior from social relations more widely, maintaining that participation in lifetime learning cannot be understood in terms of the narrow calculation of utility maximization. This critique provides the basis for the development of the lineaments of a theoretical account in which learning behavior is conceived as the product of individual calculation and active choice, but within parameters set by both access to learning opportunities and collective norms--parameters that vary systematically over space and time so that place and history must accordingly play a central role in any adequate theorization. The paper concludes that this kind of theoretical approach has important implications for empirical research and strategies aimed at creating a learning society. (Contains 49 references and 16 notes.) (YLB)

Since the 1960s, the world has undergone transformations in trade, industry, and technology. Some assert that the postmodern society needs organizational structures that allow for diversity, instability, unpredictability, and mobility. However, this paper argues that the headlong rush toward such organizational forms may well encourage the abandonment of commitments to longer term, more stable, and absolutely fundamental social and cultural objectives. During the last decade Australia has been greatly influenced by conservative English think tanks that advocate market solutions to social problems and the abdication of government from social responsibilities in favor of a competitive model of society in which the unfortunate would be supported by the most meager safety nets. Education in Australia is undergoing a battle for control of content, pedagogy, and assessment. The paper focuses on the reconstitution of the schools in Victoria, as it exemplifies tendencies elsewhere. The paper describes how a combination of current developments point toward great problems in the achievement of quality education: the vocationalization of the curriculum; the shifts toward competency-based education and assessment; the nationalization of curriculum and assessment; the nomination of the educational content that excludes notions of cultural difference and social justice; the reduction of resources through benchmarking; the devolution of responsibility for budget shortfalls but the centralization of control through managerial yardsticks in standards and frameworks; and the failures to recognize the complexity of learning, teaching, and schooling. Simultaneously, the reduction of collective mechanisms makes protest and the reassertion of our collective responsibilities that much more difficult. These developments constitute a major challenge to educators concerned with the construction of a culturally diverse, socially just, quality education for all. (Contains 36 references.) (LMI)

This collection of papers examines the role of adult education in encouraging active citizenship throughout Europe. "Introduction: The Project" (John Field) discusses the context in which the other papers were written and briefly discusses citizenship education and research in Great Britain. "Learning, Education, Citizenship: What Connections?" (Chris Duke) discusses the relationships between education and citizenship, the British experience in citizenship education, and possible strategies for adult educators to use to help produce competent citizens. "The Future as a Challenge and the Role of Adult Education--The Example of Poland" (Mieczyslaw Malewski) discusses the relationship between citizenship education and the consciousness of Polish society. The historical development of citizenship education in Sweden, current practices in adult education programs, and a methodology and theory for further research are examined in "Education for Citizenship in Sweden" (Agnieska Bron-Wojciechowska). "Education: A Resource in Social Movements?" (John Field) outlines a resource mobilization theory, discusses the concept of education as a resource, and presents a case study of the use and development of educational resources for purposes of citizenship education. (MN)

There is widespread agreement in Great Britain that the work force must receive more skills training if the country is to be competitive in the future. Of special concern is the 70 percent of the work force who left school at the earliest possible opportunity, and the (overlapping) 70 percent of the work force who have not received training for a long time. Barriers to training are seen as lack of time, lack of money, and negative attitudes toward learning. Recommendations can be made to government, to employers, to training and enterprise councils, and to educational institutions to improve access to skills training for all workers. Recommendations offered in this paper include the following: (1) the government should support paid learning for 30 hours per year for all adults and grant them the right to an additional unpaid 30 hours per year for study; (2) government should require employers to spend a minimum amount on employee development programs; (3) government should support adults seeking to reenter the labor market; (4) employers should audit skills of their existing staff, analyze organizational needs, and offer more job training opportunities to employees, including part-time employees; and (5) educational institutions should provide more accessibility for classes and more flexible requirements for entry and program completion. (KC)

The institutional view of literature in the National Curriculum of Great Britain shows a dramatic belittlement in its revised version. It lacks a coherent literary or pedagogical rationale and substitutes a functional one in which over-simplification purports to be clarification. The institution is primarily concerned to define English literary heritage; it is more interested in control than in curriculum. For this reason, the issues of literature and learning are ignored; tests of levels of attainments are the levers of control. Opposition to Great Britain's National Curriculum could focus on three basic issues that have been the subject of advances in literary studies over the past 25 years and are either neglected or misunderstood in the National Curriculum. First, policy makers must understand that texts are no longer autonomous but are rather fluid, conditioned by the culture and personal inclinations and experience of the reader. Second, a child's reading ability is not systematic but idiosyncratic and serendipitous. Third, a prescribed canon of books is not workable. Current literary scholars regard the canon as evolutionary, subject to the shifting values being negotiated by a culture. (Contains 40 references.) (TB)

Resource-based learning (RBL) is one of the most useful, successful, and acceptable approaches to curriculum delivery, easily adapted to different styles of teaching and learning. It brings together all of the resource elements--tutor, learning resources, and student--into a learning partnership. Two essential aspects of RBL are its flexibility--that is, its ability to cope with a variety of learning styles--and its promotion of student autonomy. The introduction of RBL has practical implications for further education colleges (technical institutes). Students need to develop more autonomy in the way they study and use information, through guidance from tutors. Tutors need to develop technical, human, and conceptual skills to be able to empower students with autonomy. A framework of learning resources and space in which to use them is needed to support students and tutors, upon which students can rely for all their learning needs. The college library is central to the learning process as the provider of a wide-ranging service based on a comprehensive collection of fully integrated learning resources. The issues and problems related to the implementation of RBL are partnership, quality issues, staff development, student autonomy, learning resources framework, technology of delivery, introduction and use of forms of RBL, and provision of RBL guides. Each requires a strategy to deal with it involving tutors, nonteaching staff, students, and senior college management. (Appendixes include 20 references and sample 5-year strategic plan for a further education college.) (YLB)

The relationship between lifelong learning, active citizenship, and neighborhood renewal was explored in the context of the British government's declared intention to address the consequences of poverty through neighborhood renewal, encourage public participation in renewal, and make lifelong learning a central strategy for ensuring future prosperity and economic competitiveness. The cases of four English cities--Derry, Hull, Oxford, and Portsmouth--and the stories of three individuals on the receiving end of neighborhood renewal and educational policies were examined to identify relevant issues and specific implications of British government policies for lifelong learning. The following were among the implications for lifelong learning that emerged: (1) policymakers should shift their focus away from short-term initiatives targeting the socially excluded and serving institutional interests and toward sustained alliances between education workers and local people; (2) lifelong learning must reclaim its social purpose and become a critical resource to local people in ways that help build their self-confidence and activism; (3) lifelong learning practitioners must establish a committed dialogue with residents of deprived neighborhoods to develop the kinds of educational resourcing that makes sense to them and that can begin to make a difference in their lives; and (4) people must be put before systems. Nine discussion questions are included. (MN)

Great Britain's National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) generally accepts the vision and analysis in the British government green paper "The Learning Age." The NIACE accepts the paper's analysis of the challenges facing Great Britain if it is to become a learning society, and it welcomes the government's commitment to expand further and higher education by 500,000 places. The following principles underpinning the green paper are also endorsed: investing in learning to benefit everyone; lifting barriers to learning; putting people first; sharing responsibility with employers, employees, and the community; achieving world class standards and value for money; and working together as a key to success. The following initiatives are also endorsed by the NIACE: university for industry, individual learning accounts, credit, and widening participation. However, the NIACE also believes that the green paper should have included more attention to such issues as the following: clear allocation of responsibility for creation and resourcing of a coherent network of local advice and guidance provision for adults; challenges in meeting the learning aspirations of people living in inner cities or rural communities; and ways provision can be scaled up to implement and deliver training through the use of new technologies. (MN)

The term "cooperative and mutual enterprises" (CMEs) was developed in 1999 by a mutuality task force in Oxfordshire, England, as a modern way of reasserting the notion of the adult education movement as a cooperative movement for social (democratic) inclusion. CMEs recall the tradition of learning through clubs, unions, mechanics' institutes, and evening classes. The tradition was epitomized in mutual improvement societies. The structures in the Learning and Skills Council "Prospectus" and in the Learning and Skills Act have hardened since the arrangements proposed in the policy paper "Learning to Succeed" and now run the risk of being so top-down that they will necessitate arrangements that are more cooperative and more mutual. The term "organic learning" has been developed as a label for what cooperative and mutual enterprise could do for and with the new structures proposed for adult and lifelong learning. The term is intended to contest the separation between learning and "real life" and to connect with the term "organic intellectuals" that was favored by 1970s new social movements and new cooperators. Eighteen specific proposals for action by policymakers were proposed to meet the increased demand for organic learning opportunities described by such familiar terms as informal, flexible, learner-driven, vocational, lifelong, accountable, and partnership. (MN)

Although employment has increased, Great Britain faces rising unemployment due to the large number of school leavers. New jobs are there, but many are in the service sector, traditionally for women and mostly part-time. Unions demand high starting wages that are a disincentive for employers to hire young people and pay raises that make job creation more difficult. The United Kingdom has been complacent about training. Firms are not keen to invest in training and cut back funding for training programs during recessions, and the government is skeptical about formal training systems. Four approaches are now underday to clarify what employers should be doing and to identify where training needs are and where the skilled requirements of the future may lie. These approaches are: (1) to convince managers to assume a greater role in training, (2) to improve students' perception of their future and of the jobs and skills they will need, (3) to meet specific requirements to prevent specific shortfalls in skills, and (4) to ensure the adaptability of the work force. (Questions and answers are appended.) (YLB)

A comparison of the vocational education and training (VET) offered in Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United States revealed that programs in all three nations emphasized the following aims: competence at work, commitment of all to achieve excellence, and capacity to contribute to change. Organizations in all three nations were increasingly looking for, and prepared to help develop, people with the ability to use acquired knowledge and skills effectively in changing circumstances and in an integrated system. Although the United States appeared to be well tuned to a climate of moderate change, it appeared much less reflective about the future and appeared to lack an educational strategy, especially at the secondary level. Germany had systems that work well and in a stable environment; however, change appeared to be slow. Although Japan's VET strategies have given the country a highly educated working population, the downside of its success in corporate organization and individual service for the greater good is probably an underdevelopment in the kind of creativity that flourishes with wayward individual opportunities. Great Britain's imperial past, on the other hand, appears to continue to hamper the country's progress in the area of VET. (MN)

Reviews key ideas of action research in the past 15 years, particularly those of John Elliott. Describes and comments on the main characteristics of action research. Focuses on methodological and epistemological issues related to its practice. (CFR)

Both the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) and Open College Networks or Federations (OCNs) have the objective of creating nationally coherent frameworks of qualification and training in Britain. However, they are very different organizations and have distinct, though potentially complementary, roles. Issues where the two organizations share similar aims and practices are clarifying learning outcomes, assessment, criteria for assessment, accreditation of prior learning, modularization, and credit accumulation and transfer. Several important areas of difference remain between them: accreditation, definitions of outcomes, accreditation of prior learning, and processes and outcomes. Both OCNs and NVQs provide frameworks that facilitate credit accumulation and transfer, but there are considerable differences between the two systems. The principal differences relate to notions of value (measured in "credits" or "units") and level. Potentially, OCNs offer access routes into NVQs for groups of learners for whom traditional programs delivering NVQs may not be appropriate as a first step; they offer a mechanism for NVQ units of competence to be combined flexibly with other learning to meet local and individual needs, whether of employers or of local groups and communities. Learners would be able to obtain NVQs in their local environment, with additional skills appropriate to their particular needs. (YLB)

The Workers' Educational Association (WEA) developed a series of recommendations in response to the British government consultation paper "The Learning Age: A Renaissance for a New Britain." The recommendations addressed the following areas: individual learning revolution; investing in learning; learning at work; realizing the learning age; ensuring standards, quality, and accountability; and recognizing achievement. Specific recommendations to Britain's government included the following: support and encourage participation and contribution of voluntary sector and community-based organizations in the University for Industry's service provision; strengthen the funding base for community and related provision for adult learners; end discrimination against older learners operating in current public funding practices; support trade unions' role and contribution in development of workplace learning; issue a code of good practice in workplace learning; require educational guidance and careers services and the University for Industry to develop appropriate advice, guidance, and support systems to meet adult learners' needs; establish direct funding arrangements for training of part-time and full-time teachers of adults; commission comparative research to identify the benefits and added value to individuals and society of all forms of postcompulsory education and training; and develop a credit accumulation and transfer system that fully recognizes the value of qualifications offered by the National Open College Network. (MN)

The 1973 British Green Paper on post-school education is considered with respect to emphasis in higher and further education, the structure of higher and further education, the comprehensive principle, and recurrent education principles. The Green Paper recommended the restructuring of the education of the post-16-year-olds into two sectors based on age alone: (1) 16-18 years, and (2) adults. The Green Paper recommended that greatly increased emphasis should be given to 16-to-18-year-olds, and especially to those who leave formal education as soon as compulsory schooling is completed and do not return for any further courses. It was recommended that increased emphasis should be given to adult education and "nonadvanced education." The implementation of Green Paper recommendations and comments on implementation by study group members are considered. The writing of the Green Paper is also considered. (SW)

This document presents the British government's response to the report "Learning Works," which was written by a committee charged with identifying ways of engaging individuals who have traditionally not taken advantage of educational opportunities. Chapter 1 outlines the following steps that the government proposes to take to promote lifelong learning: extend learning opportunities; make education and training more flexible and accessible; remove barriers to learning; invest in young people; improve the quality, responsiveness, and local accountability of further education colleges; secure improvements in information on learning; and rebalance the partnership for investment in learning. The following government strategies for promoting lifelong learning are discussed in chapters 2-7: widen participation in lifelong learning based on increasing access to learning and providing opportunities for success and progression; form strong partnerships to develop efficient local strategies for learning; factor the need to widen post-16 learning into the Comprehensive Spending Review; develop more equitable mechanisms for financing further education; promote and encourage good practice in widening participation and keep the qualifications framework for post-16 under close review; and stimulate the demand for learning through a coherent system of information, advice, and guidance. (MN)

If vocational preparation is to become a central educational process, available to all young people whether or not they are involved in other study or training, then it must be recognized as such. While there appears to be a growing acceptance of prevocational courses from both the educational and training systems, there remain at least three major problem areas to be solved before a comprehensive and fair system of vocational preparation can be operated. These are the existing financial award system, the current danger of restricting vocational preparation to a specific group, and the inaccessibility of some participants to opportunities to progress to more advanced education and training. Educators must work to link the characteristics of vocational preparation to all programs of study and training, whether grouped or modular. Among various points in the program from which learning could progress are the following: a teaching/learning approach dealing initially with essential core skills, an approach based on vocational motivation, an approach based on experience in another occupational area, and an approach based on significant expertise. Particularly needed are efforts to enable students to apply, with discernment, school-based competencies to day-to-day working problems. (MN)

This occasional paper appraises the implications of occupational training families (OTF) for further education (FE) in Great Britain. In the early sections, the document sketches the background of OTFs and appraises the advantages and disadvantages of the concept. In so doing, four possible approaches to helping young people acquire flexibility, versatility, and the ability to learn are described: through general education, occupational grouping, occupationally based training, and basic skills. The paper identifies OTFs as a variant that groups jobs by 11 key purposes and concludes that in providing a broad-based youth training, OTFs have no particular merit. The report also discusses the usefulness of OTFs to job competence, progression, and skill ownership; the conclusion is that OTFs could be disadvantageous to skill development. The report describes the ways in which FE relates to OTFs. It is felt that in some cases there is little to be gained by using the OTF listings, but that there is some value in using the concepts related to training for skill ownership. The document is intended to place OTFs in perspective and to assist FE teachers and others in evaluating the usefulness of OTFs. (KC)

This occasional paper describes the development of physical education (PE) in further education (FE) in Great Britain since 1945, and suggests the need for a more systematic approach to curriculum development in this area. Section I reviews the development of PE in FE and identifies major issues and possible future developments. The document traces the growth of the subject from its original recreative/competitive basis through its specific courses, health education, its service and community roles, vocational preparation, and leisure courses. The complexity of tasks now confronting PE teachers, the paper argues, makes staff development a critical issue. Section II of the paper, by describing a possible approach to curriculum development, is a staff development document for those interested in innovation in this area. Three main categories of PE work are postulated: specialist, servicing/educational, and recreative. The document presents these categories in an operational model of curriculum development and describes the implications and skills arising from the model. Rationale, constraints, provision, and evaluation make up the suggested framework that surrounds the three main categories of work. The paper concludes with the hope that those involved in PE curriculum will find this model a useful introduction. (KC)

The first paper, "Pupils--Panaceas and Pragmatism," provides background on computer-assisted instruction and national programs in Great Britain for introducing computers into the schools. The second paper (untitled) looks at the status of computers in education in Great Britain, the effects of the national curriculum on computer use, and some of the activities undertaken as part of a 5-year national program highlighting the uses of instructional technology in the curriculum. In examining problems and strategies related to the integration of the computer into the learning process, the third paper, "Provoking, Supporting, and Sustaining Classroom Change," focuses on the role of advisory teachers, i.e., teachers with curriculum expertise and training in instructional technology. (MES)

Drawing on the practices and experiences of universities in developed countries, this paper reviews and discusses the major issues and questions involved in the building of a library school teaching faculty. The nature and function of the university are briefly discussed; the factors affecting the acceptance of a teaching position by potential faculty members are outlined; the impact of, and reasons for, a library school's academic reputation are described; and the major considerations to be made during the recruitment, selection, and appointment of new faculty members are examined. Also discussed are sources of faculty, functions of faculty members, faculty development, the retention of faculty members, and financing a library school program. Accompanying the text are: a set of three diagrams illustrating (1) university-based patterns of education for public service, (2) the structure of certification for library education in Britain prior to 1981, and (3) the proposed structure for certification of library education in Britain after 1981. A set of three tables lists library degrees granted in Britain on the basis of educational attainment or research experience, and degrees in librarianship granted in the United States. A 64-item reference list is also attached. (JL)

Intended as a first-aid kit for personnel managers, this working paper is a broad attempt to relate motivation and career, with specific reference to the current career development difficulties facing staff in further and higher education. The first section reviews current knowledge about people's career expectations and perceptions to discover any possible cues for future action. In section 2 attention is focused on a reappraisal of the current concepts about motivation and its application to work. The final section is a reappraisal of the concept of career. A summary attempts to link, in a practical way, the two concepts of motivation and career by examining the potential offered by recently developed ideas and information about the interrelationships among age, its series of issues, and changing abilities. Two appendixes offer tables regarding career perceptions and expectations and materials on four views of man. (YLB)

This paper is intended to help supervisors, trainers, and teachers involved in Great Britain's Youth Training Scheme (YTS) understand the principles of participative learning and use them in teaching core skills to YTS trainees. Participative learning is discussed in terms of its emphasis on individual activity in learning and recognition of the importance of motivating students and making them responsible for their own learning. Addressed next is the role of participatory learning in helping students develop competence in job, core, and personal effectiveness skills and learn to transfer these skills to new situations. One YTS instructor's analysis of the 12 core skills involved in the task of slab laying is presented. Next, guidelines are provided for performing similar analyses in other YTS courses. Three examples of participative learning in action are provided. In each example, one group of students performs a typical learning activity (they make a tool box, go on a field trip, or file some documents) in a way that allows for very little planning and decision making on the students' parts, and a second group of students performs the same activity in a way that requires the students to make decisions, formulate strategies, and solve problems. Each example ends with a comparison of the two approaches in terms of the skills and knowledge gained by students taught by each of the techniques. (MN)

At the national level, there is ample evidence of considerable racial inequality in employment in Britain. The two main components of this inequality are discrimination and disadvantage. Under the Race Relations Act of 1976, industrial tribunals are empowered to impose penalties on those who discriminate unlawfully, but the Act does not impose an obligation on employers to actively prevent discrimination. It is in the context of preventing discrimination that an Equal Employment Opportunity Policy (EEOP) is considered necessary. Very few employers in Britain have formulated EEOPs, unlike the situation in the United States where active government intervention and harsh penalties for offenders have made EEOP a reality. In Britain, however, statutory penalties are so light that most employers can budget for the risk. Employers vary in the degree of their commitment to equal employment opportunity. The most complete strategy is pursued by the employer who has recognized that his is not a white company with a multiracial workforce, but rather a multiracial organization. Ideally, an EEOP should refer to women as well as racial minorities, and should create procedures for bringing about change within the organization, indicating the direction in which the change should occur. (RLV)

State education in Great Britain is monolingual. With increases in immigration and the proliferation of bilingual non-state schools, the desire of minority groups to be educated bilingually is growing apparent. The author of this article begins with a discussion of the relative merits of bilingualism by reviewing the research that has endorsed arguments on both sides of the issue. He then reviews bilingual education programs in other countries with an emphasis on the political and attitudinal contexts of different programs. In the final section, the author encourages British schools to set a long-term goal of full bilingual education (students become both biliterate and bilingual and are taught all subjects in both languages) and establishes six criteria by which changes in the schools can be assessed. (MK)

The document examines the relationships between multi-ethnic and development education in Great Britain. Multi-ethnic education, initially with a national focus, has a global dimension, and development education, initially with a global focus, has a national and even local dimension. A common interest in human diversity and human inequalities would seem to unite development and multi-ethnic education. Both approaches are engaged in helping the pupil to make sense of an essentially hierarchical world and have adopted a cross-curriculum strategy of education. Were it not for the importance of the concept of "self-image" within multi-ethnic education, its aims would be happily complementary with those of development education. From a multi-ethnic viewpoint, development education is criticized for: inculcating or reinforcing attitudes of white Western superiority; for damaging the self-image of the black or brown child within Western society; for its preoccupation with poverty, disasters, and catastrophes; and for being more successful in formulating questions than in devising solutions. However, it appears that a complete accommodation of multi-ethnic sensitivities would necessarily eliminate the welfare focus of development education. Such a strategy would constitute a futile attempt to disguise the real nature of the contemporary world and could only reinforce complacency. (NEC)

The recent microelectronics developments are having, and will continue to have, a sharp impact on various industries in Great Britain, and thus on the capacity of the Further Education System to produce qualified graduates. To maintain a high quality of education, instructors must learn of these new developments and teach them to their vocational students, who generally will require more skills to cope with changing jobs and technologies. Technology-based students need to widen their range of skills to include computer-based techniques in engineering, business and management, stores, hotels, and restaurants, public service utilities, trade unions and professional associations, and education and accrediting agencies. Universally, employers are calling for improved basic skills, such as use of good English and good mathematical skills; the ability to communicate and translate data to and from consumers; the establishment of productive work values; the ability to work effectively with others; and, a knowledge of the basic structure of industry and commerce. The need exists to bring closer together technical and basic skills, which the Further Education Programs are currently planning to accomplish. (KC)

Open learning systems require the development of learning materials. Potential economies of scale and quality control advantages argue in favor of the central development of materials packages. Instructors would be free to concentrate upon the provision of tutorial and counseling support and laboratory and workshop hands-on experience. Some method is needed for calculating the equivalent of the student-staff ratio, the most extensively used resource utilization performance indicator in further education. One method depends upon (1) identification of an equivalent conventional mode of study--the analogue, (2) negotiation of notional weekly hours and target class sizes, and (3) management of the deployment of open learning tutors on the basis of the class contact equivalent derived by dividing the target class size by the notional weekly hours. Since the nature of open learning emphasizes the importance of initial counseling and a secure, up-to-date student record, a slightly higher level of administrative support is required. Fees of open learning students should be expected to be comparable with the rest of further education and would provide in full for maintenance of their learning materials. Their fees, however, would not recover the full cost of counseling and tutorial support. (Some data analyses are appended.) (YLB)

Focusing on why computer-controlled videodiscs are not more widely available in British schools, this brief essay considers questions considering the issues of funding for hardware, videodisc production costs, and technological difficulties. Promotion of such technology by the National Interactive Video Centre, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Colin Mably of North East London Poly is noted. The potential for videodisc technology in the schools is examined, and strategies for making the technology more widely available in the schools are suggested. (EW)

A structure for the accreditation of Britain's third Youth Training Scheme outcome, ability to transfer, must be developed immediately. By all indications, the outcome cannot be graded in a way that matches the levels proposed for the National Vocational Qualification structure. Instead, ability to transfer should be seen as a component of occupational competence. It can be achieved in ways that are sufficient or insufficient for individual jobs or movement between jobs. Different types of ability to transfer can be identified. They can be used as a framework for reporting a range of performances, in conjunction with categories of information used to verify that trainees were, in fact, using their ability to transfer. The framework is to be developed in the Work Based Learning Project at the Further Education Staff College, primarily as a means of investigating work-based learning strategies and their effectiveness. (YLB)

The Core Skills Project has developed in the "core skills" an instrument that can be used in the analysis of occupational competence. Any development of accreditation of work-based learning entails assessment of learning in the workplace. The success of such assessment depends on identifying the outcomes of experience in terms of competence and the work role of the learner. A linkage needs to be found between the raw observation or measurement of the individual events of a learner's program and the eventual interpretation of a certificate plus supporting evidence. The means chosen by the Core Skills Project has been to describe skills used in any situation in a way that could be related to any other. The core skills have been defined as being common to a wide variety of tasks and essential to carrying out those tasks. They are particularly important in helping to deal with two of the problems involved in using the workplace as a source of assessment information--difficulty of generalization and inequality of opportunity. The analytical and descriptive capacity of the core skills enables the significant workplace element within the Youth Training Scheme to be part of a coherent accreditation system. (YLB)

Assessment of student achievement in the workplace identifies workplace skills students may not demonstrate in course work. It also induces a continuous sensitivity to industry needs. On-job training tends to have sufficient formality to encourage organized assessment and off-job learning can involve assessment to the point of excess. However, within the assessment of work-based learning, assessment of learning in the workplace is the most neglected. The remedy for this neglect requires two methodologies or strategies--one strategy for assessment in the workplace and another overall strategy for assessment of work-based learning with assessment in the workplace as one part. Focus of workplace assessment should be the three complementary components of job competence--skills of tasks, task management, and the role/job environment. The elaboration of the three in different workplaces is a matter for joint exploration between course team members and staff in the workplace. Standards of performance need to be developed, which should be thought of as criteria of performance rather than standards of competence. Information can be obtained from staff in the workplace who record whatever a learner has performed to workplace standard on an assessment map. Portfolios may be a preferred method to offer measured performances rather than profiles that provide generalizations. (YLB)

In 1981 four supervisors at a chemical company in Great Britain were each fined 100 pounds under the country's 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act after a fifth supervisor was injured because of a faulty interlock guard. The supervisors were convicted because they had all known about but had done nothing to rectify the potential safety hazard. The incident underscores supervisors' legally mandated responsibilities for maintaining a safe system at work. When safety at work is viewed in terms of a unitary system it becomes clear that all managers, especially those having direct contact with employees, have safety responsibilities. Recent health and safety legislation in Britain seems to underline the need to give a wider meaning to the concept of a safe system at work. Besides being expected to ensure that all functional elements at their work site are safe, employers are expected to guarentee safe development of the work process in all stages and an efficient system of safety controls. The total safety system should consist of the following five stages: design and planning, construction, work operation, a monitoring system, and procedures for dealing with an emergency. The issue of the individual supervisor's legal responsibility for creating and maintaining a safe system of work is partly dependent on what the law affirms and partly upon the supervisor's contract of employment. Depending on the type of contract involved, there are two sections of the 1974 safety act that may divert some or all of the responsibility for safety from employers to their supervisors. The law also provides some protection for supervisors, but their getting justice depends on their vigilance and understanding of their rights and responsibilities. (MN)

Competence is one of the outcomes of learning. Competence embraces both specific task skills and the understanding, knowledge, attitude, and personal skills required to carry out that task effectively. An education and training system built on a broad definition of competence would give greater control to the users of the system (the individuals and the employers); and less to the deliverers (teachers, trainers, institutions, and awarding and accrediting bodies). Such a system is likely to serve the interests of learners better but could meet resistance from a variety of sources. Although the National Council for Vocational Qualifications of Great Britain has been set up to develop a national, competence-based framework specifically for vocational qualifications, the ideas are likely to have a significant influence on nonvocational and higher education. The methodology of functional analysis to define competence in vocational areas is broader than traditional approaches to skill assessment; however, it does not address such questions as personal effectiveness, transferability, and potential. There are alternative approaches to building competence models, such as those based on the techniques of job competence assessment developed in the United States and explored in educational contexts in Britain by the Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education (UDACE). (CML)

This paper sets out career-related stories of people and their struggle to make sense of a life through work. They show that career management is not primarily a matching process but, for most, the making of a life the best way one can. The nine stories from five continents have these focuses: a feeling for a career; a career is other people or peer attachment; career and culture which frames belief about how things work and what is important; career over time; cultural capital or the processes of working out how things work begins in the toddler years; points of view on a career move; the inner life of a career; career as purpose knowing what to do to survive, escape, thrive, and flourish; and career learning as learning for action. The paper then argues the power of complexity, including that matching is not the first thing to do; deeper understanding is needed of what is going in the lives of people; and more ways are needed to get to grips with what is happening and what might be done to help. The paper concludes with this implication: among the many things needed to be done is local research for action, so one knows what to do, alongside people, in their communities. There are 28 references. (YLB)

This paper reviews four currently recognized modes of inquiry available to reading researchers, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The paper discusses empiricism, interpretive research, critical science/theory, and action research, briefly describing the purposes, goals, and assumptions underlying each mode of inquiry. The paper concludes that reading research must broaden its methodology and work towards shifting paradigms of traditional research. It argues that the most significant aspect of the research activity is to ask the right questions--questions which are pertinent, researchable, and with outcomes directed at a process of change within appropriate social contexts--and notes that a suitable paradigm can be chosen from these questions. (One figure is included and 12 references are attached.) (SR)

The Further Education Unit (FEU) believes that young school leavers should be able to check their achievements against a core of entitlement. Therefore, the FEU is proposing a core curriculum to support the successful transition of the school leaver aged 16 or older to adult life. The core, which is intended to serve as a diagnostic and planning checklist from which individual programs can be constructed, addresses the following areas: adaptability, role transition, physical skills, interpersonal skills; values, communication and numeracy, problem solving, information technology, society, learning skills, health education, creativity, environment, science and technology, and coping. Teachers should incorporate such pupil learning strategies as experiential learning, participation and negotiation, and community involvement into transition programs based on core objectives to encourage pupils to internalize and apply their learning, take responsibility for it, and recognize a variety of experiences as a part of it. Preservice and inservice training that reflect the broadening of the role of teachers to become managers of learning should be provided, and school organization should be reappraised to support the achievement of core aims. Extensive publicity will also be necessary so that practitioners, parents, and industry will accept the new core. (MN)

This paper explores the traditional European model of vocational training in light of a new focus on employability and lifelong learning that is becoming more common in Europe. It includes the following four sections: (1) an overview of some examples of vocational training systems in Europe and the proposal that they share enough to be considered a European model that includes a consensus that all young people should be given a basic vocational qualification, the involvement of all companies in vocational training, and social dialogue and a tripartite (trade unions, employer associations, government) approach to regulation of the system; (2) a description of some European trends in industries and companies that are of importance for vocational training; (3) discussion about the question of lifelong access to vocational training provisions; and (4) suggestions about the need for change in the European model of vocational training. (KC)

An overview of the achievements and limitations in British school effectiveness research is provided in this paper. In contrast to educational research conducted in the United States, school effectiveness and school improvement disciplines in Great Britain have only begun to emerge within the last 13 years. Topics discussed in this study include the effect of school size on students, differential effectiveness, the consistency of effectiveness over time, school effectiveness characteristics, the future of school effectiveness research in Great Britain, and the lack of integration between school effectiveness research and school improvement practice. A conclusion is that school effectiveness findings have been poorly translated into British school improvement programs. Both disciplines need each other, in that school improvement programs offer empirical tests of school effectiveness research, and school effectiveness research can provide sensitive descriptions of good practice. (98 references) (LMI)

This paper argues that the essential task of English Teachers, since the debut of the National Curriculum English, is not to make qualitative distinctions between literary and media texts nor to place them on some form of hierarchical scale. Media reading should be on equal footing with written literature reading; both involve active engagement with institutions. Rather, the aim should be to help students learn how to evaluate for themselves any kind of text according to content and context. Issues surrounding imaginative engagement with texts are examined, and the threats imposed by dangerous texts, such as video "nasties" and comics, or by unchallenging complacent texts are discussed. New methods are reviewed in which the development of literary response can be deployed with media texts with ease. The purpose of the National Curriculum English Attainment Target 2 (Reading) (Levels 5-10) is presented, and the impact of television soap opera dramas on audiences, particularly children, is highlighted. Non-literary texts must be as accepted as challenging for readers as literary texts. (Contains 23 references.) (NAV)

This paper reviews the current crisis in reading ability decline in British primary schools and how modern language teaching methods are remedying this crisis, specifically the problems in exam and syllabus design. It is suggested that the juxtaposition of phonic and psycholinguistic methods in teaching reading are the root of the continuing question of primacy of structure and meaning. In addition, casual reading may not be a normal pastime of modern students, they may be given insufficient time for reading lessons, and they may not be taught how to read in the first place. Texts used for reading may not allow the full development of comprehension skills. A more refined teaching approach to reading is presented in which reading is based on the type of reading that learners should be doing and when and how, rather than organized around a multitude of activities and exercises. The practical application of reading in the modern languages classroom is discussed, in particular, ways of reading and the content and form of a modern languages program. (Contains 18 references.) (NAV)

This document contains 12 papers about lifelong learning in rural communities in Great Britain. The papers, which are intended for lecturers, tutors, and guidance professionals but may also prove useful to organizations providing lifelong learning and policymakers, include conceptual tools as well as empirical case studies documenting lifelong learning policies, practices, and teaching and learning strategies that have proved successful in rural communities. The following papers are included: "Introduction: Learning and the Countryside" (Fred Gray); "Rural Society, Social Change and Continuing Education: From Wild Wales to the Aga Saga" (Ian Davidson); "Social Exclusion and Lifelong Learning in Rural Areas" (Peter Ryley); "Rural Education in Britain: A Historical Survey" (William R. Jones); "Combating Rural Social Exclusion: Adult Guidance and Lifelong Learning in Mid and West Wales" (Sue Pester); "Stimulating Science in Rural Areas" (John R. Nicholson); "Learning within Reach" (Roseanne Benn); "Rural Broadnet and the Electronic Village Hall" (Len Graham, John O'Donoghue); "A Third-Age Rural Learners' Project" (Marie Askam); "The Fenland Oral History Project" (Susan Oosthuizen); "The University of the Highlands and Islands Project: A Rural Curriculum Delivered Remotely" (Jane Plendereleith, Veronica Adamson); and "Towards a University of the Moors: Widening Participation in North Yorkshire" (Peter Ryley). Many papers include substantial endnotes. (MN)

Some new work is good work. Quality is ultimately defined by the individual. However, these perceptions are inevitably colored by the circumstances in which people find themselves, by the time, place, and wide range of motivations for having to do a particular job in the first place. One person's quality may be another's purgatory and vice versa. Four important changes in Great Britain's labor market are a major decline in the number of people in manual employment; a rise in skilled employment of people performing managerial, professional, and technical jobs; a rise in mixed but essentially low formal skilled employment performed by "personal and protective" workers; and the continued increase of women in the labor force. The point may be not that newer work is bad or worse because it has replaced older, more traditional industrial and manual jobs but that women do these emerging jobs. Retail has been one of the most maligned types of work, but popular perceptions have been misplaced. ASDA/Walmart has been voted the best place to work in Britain. Some reasons are its approach to its employees or colleagues and the vast range of benefits on offer to them. Retailers like ASDA have been at the forefront of business in restoring job opportunities to parts of Britain that need them the most. Britain needs more good jobs because Britains need to perform better as an entire labor market. (Contains 47 references.) (YLB)