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Rapidly changing policy contexts in England have dramatically affected the provision of career guidance, and the training and development of its practitioners. This paper takes an autoethnographic and self-reflexive approach to exploring the experience of a Senior Lecturer in Career Guidance who manages a centre that offers the Qualification in Career Guidance (QCG), and the Level 6 Diploma in Career Guidance and Development. Key questions are considered, such as: the effects of policy context on the type of qualification and curriculum offered, and their differences; the challenges of engaging learners in theoretical concepts and reflective approaches; and the tensions between ‘training’ practitioners and ‘educating’ them to develop a strong core of professionalism. The paper also considers the extent to which the learners develop as ‘knowledgeable social actors’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a reflection on the reflections of pupils about being ‘reflective learners’, one of the Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills of the secondary National Curriculum for England. A teacher and a lecturer worked together in a collaborative action research project generating co-constructed knowledge of practice across a two-year period, with reflective practice at the core of our action research endeavours. Key data were generated with a case-study group of 20 pupils who analysed their actions as ‘reflective learners’. We also asked the pupils their opinions of reflecting on their learning. These data are discussed in the paper along with the reflective process engaged in by the teacher-researchers. Teacher Tami shared that previously she had only been concerned with examinations results and not developing cross-curricular learning. The culture of performativity was influential in her previous conceptions of teaching and learning. Our reflections were also concerned with catering for a diversity of learners including pupils who speak English as an additional language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on an ESRC-funded study (Payler, 2005) of the sociocultural influences on learning processes of 10 four-year-old children in their second year of the Foundation Stage in England (DfEE, 2000). The children, very close in age, were in one of two early years settings: a pre-school playgroup with a largely invisible pedagogy (Bernstein, 1996) and a reception class in a primary school with a more visible pedagogy. In this paper, children's experiences in specific teaching and learning episodes are used to examine how the pedagogies of the settings created open or closed interactive spaces; inviting, building on or limiting children's contributions. The study considers a range of communicative modes (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001) used in creating interactive space. It draws on diagrams, outline drawings from video stills and detailed transcription incorporating gaze, body positioning, tone of voice and use of resources to explore factors involved in shaping children's interactive learning experiences. The findings suggest that although both early years settings worked to the same Foundation Stage curriculum, their sub-cultures of pedagogy ensured that the curriculum was differently enacted in each, offering quite distinct interactive opportunities for children in which learning was mediated in different ways. This resulted in different learning outcomes according to children's positions as the youngest or oldest in a cohort and to adults' perceptions of their abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the role played by universal, school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programmes in addressing the mental health needs of children and young people. Theory and research in the field are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) programme in England, a flagship National Strategy under the New Labour government whose outcomes were mixed. We examine the findings of the various evaluations of SEAL and consider what learning can be taken forward to inform future attempts to prevent emotional and behavioural problems in school settings. Recommendations include proper trialling of SEL initiatives before they are brought to scale, the use of research to inform and improve programme design, the need to temper expectations, and the importance of educating implementers about the importance of implementation quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summer 2009 saw the introduction in England of the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL). Funded in full by the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the MTL aims to improve the quality of teaching and to raise standards in schools. In this paper we discuss what the MTL might mean both for in-service teacher education and initial teacher training. We explore issues relating to the structure and delivery of MTL including the tension between standardisation and personalisation of its content as well as the lack of focus on research and the costs of this to its reputation and appeal of the qualification. Furthermore, we question the extent to which newly qualified teachers are ready to benefit from undertaking the MTL and consider how availability criteria may give rise to equity issues. With these concerns in mind we discuss the future of the MTL and whether this Labour initiative will have a chance to prove itself under a Conservative-led coalition government at a time of severe austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from the Literacies for Learning in Further Education research project, funded through the Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Drawing on the empirical study of literacy practices in eight childcare courses in Scotland and England, we seek to demonstrate that, integral to the learning careers of students are literacy careers through which their learning is mediated. In the process, by drawing upon the lens of literacy, we also challenge some of the common-sense understandings of learning in childcare. In particular, we suggest that the literacy practices of lower level courses can be more diverse than those of higher level courses, producing potentially confusing literacy careers for the students involved. We also highlight the complexity of the range of literacy practices in childcare, which can go unrecognised as requiring explicit tuition, and unacknowledged even when students use them appropriately. Courses in childcare are textually mediated in many different ways, which vary depending on the level of study. A greater acknowledgement of this multiplicity and diversity could lead to more appropriate forms of assessment, and more relevant ways of interpreting the curriculum. We argue that students on vocational courses have more complex literacy careers than is often assumed and that a literacies approach to learning helps to reveal this complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 14–19 proposals brought work-related learning to the forefront of educational policy. We look at how the tenets, which underpin them, can be interpreted and applied for students with significant learning difficulties. We examine the nature of vocational or work-related learning for students with severe and or profound and multiple learning difficulties as currently reported by schools in England. Its relevance for this group of learners is discussed in the light of the proposals and we consider the reality of current practice in relation to the slippery concept of vocational learning. Finally, we reflect on important recent policy commitments relevant to our research, but published after its completion, outlined in the White Paper 14–19 education and skills. We note and welcome its explicit consideration of the needs of students with significant learning difficulties. At the same time we remain concerned and perturbed about its affirmation of educational aims that are narrowly conceived in relation to an economic imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher Specialist Training (HST) has been radically reformed in the last decade, and specialties have been urged to conduct further reform. This paper reports on an explorative investigation into curriculum provision and assessment within four specialties in the West Midlands. Methods include analysis of curriculum documents; observation of the RITA process; and interviews with consultants (4), specialist registrars (5) and members of the regional higher specialist training management team (3). Three major themes identified within the interviews are discussed: the content and use of the curriculum; the impact of service-based learning; and issues around assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study took place in a climate of an intensified focus on approaches to whole school improvement through 'embedding' technology in teaching, learning and management. It examined the evolution over time of classroom practice supported by information and communication technology (ICT) and its wider implementation within and outside of subject departments. Three years earlier a group of teachers in five secondary schools in England had participated in a collaborative programme of ten small-scale research projects in which they developed a range of pedagogical strategies involving use of ICT. These spanned six main Curriculum areas: English, classics, geography, history, science and technology, plus a language support group. The present study investigated the extent of development and dissemination of these practices over time, and identified the underlying mechanisms and supportive or constraining factors. This follow-up study comprised an interview survey of the 16 teachers and nine of their colleagues. Pedagogical approaches to using new technologies proved to be robust over time, to be spreading from subject teachers to their colleagues, and to be integrated into departmental schemes of work. However, findings indicated that evolution of practice depends on adequate access to reliable resources, and development of ICT as a school priority in turn leads to soliciting further resources and expanding practice. Individual teachers' confidence, skills and motivation towards using ICT to promote learning develop in response to other contextual factors, most prominently a supportive organizational culture and a collegial environment, and they play a critical role in the processes of developing and disseminating new practice. These processes are thus complex and iterative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]