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Interviews with 139 secondary teachers, 60 students, and 32 employers showed that employers provided work experience for public relations and recruitment purposes. Teachers felt students developed skills and experience of the world of work. Students gained skills and information and were able to sample jobs. Distinctions between structural and attitudinal limitations on work experience were identified. (SK)

Examines the gender gap in classroom interactions between teachers and students in eight English secondary schools, focusing on the views of teaching staff, the perspectives of Year 11 students, and observations of teacher-student interaction in the classroom. Suggests that boys and girls are treated differently in many classrooms. (CMK)

Provides the results from the Homerton pilot study where year 5/6 pupils were asked about their perceptions of nature and the environment in order to assess the current environmental education policies. Indicates that children overall have a positive attitude, but there are certain limitations and dichotomies involved that environmental education must address. (CMK)

In the United Kingdom, as in many other developed countries, there is an established market in the provision of long-term care-homes for older people. Implicit in the market mechanism is the assumption that homes will close, but it was not until 1999-2000 that closures of care-homes received widespread public attention. This paper draws on a multi-method study that investigated home closures in England from several perspectives. The rate of home closures rose substantially between 1998 and 2000 and, although sources give different estimates, it subsequently appears to have remained at about five per cent each year. The net result has been a reduction in capacity, particularly in smaller homes. While their emphases differed, both regulators and providers broadly pointed to the same factors behind the closures: the local authorities, the majority purchasers of care-home places, were under pressure to keep fees down, and national policies that raised costs were coming into force or were anticipated, notably the National Minimum Wage and the National Care Standards. Other factors, such as problems in recruiting suitable staff, particularly those with nursing qualifications, also played a role. The government's response, driven primarily by concerns about the effect on delayed discharges from acute hospital beds, was to retreat on the Standards and to increase funding to local authorities. While this has been a helpful step, more needs to be done to prevent good homes closing and to provide incentives that will retain and promote diverse provision. KEY WORDS--care-homes for older people, closures, long-term care market, regulation.

Extra care housing enables older people to remain in their 'own home', while providing appropriate housing and access to health and social care services that are responsive to their needs. This type of provision is very much in line with the government policy of fostering people's sense of control and independence, and is a priority area for expansion. We explored the current levels of development and expansion of extra care housing in terms of the numbers of schemes and places and factors that contributed to and were problematic in its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws upon the findings of recent research into school work experience in the Cambridge area. It reports the key findings and also develops an analysis relating to limitations upon the possibilities of developing (a) a more formally rigorous, national system of credentialised work experience, and (b) legitimating such a system by linking it to broader contemporary accounts of socio-economic change. The article distinguishes between 'attitudinal' and 'structural' restrictions upon the possibilities of developing work experience in a more formally assessed and credentialised form. It draws upon the views of pupils, teacher, employers and those concerned with delivering work experience schemes in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a nine of unprecedented levels of investment in ICT in UK schools this article reflects on curriculum issues raised by a recent piece of research into the potential of multimedia authoring to enhance children's learning in the context of a drugs educanon programme with Year 6 children. It is argued that, given proper supporting structures, ICT of this highly interactive kind has the potential to develop qualities of evaluation, independence and responsibility in children's learning and understanding. Its use can also challenge the existing culture of the classroom and stimulate teachers to devise teaching strategies which celebrate a reassertion of liberal educational values which have implications for the role of the teacher in interpreting the curriculum, teacher-pupil interaction and modes of assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies shortcomings in the current British national curriculum policy of delivering educational educatio through traditional subjects. Results of a study on the attitude of school children towards environment; Awareness of environmental problems; Limitations, dichotomies and ambilances in children's environmental attitudes influencing their education.