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This paper examines the possible relationship between religious education and social justice. A consideration of what it is that education in the public sphere should seek to achieve, in a normative sense, is followed by an explanation of how we conceptualise social justice in this paper. This leads us to be able to explain why the relationship between teacher and child or young person is significant and why it is insufficient to conceptualise religious education only in terms of knowledge. Instead, we propose that the teacher's first responsibility when beginning any course of study is to bring the child to attend to their experience and that of their wider community. We argue that curriculum cannot be made in isolation of the context of the child and that education is not something that takes place in abstraction. Rather, it requires the teacher to be attentive to this particular child, the one who is here now, and in this particular place. Having begun to set out the educational position of our argument, we show how this is working practically guided by a Locally Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education: Living Difference IV, in religious education taught in a school in an area of high deprivation in the southeast of Hampshire. UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccines and treatments produced during the global coronavirus crisis demonstrated the importance of university research and teaching. There was widespread celebration of university–industry partnerships and collaborations across disciplines and geographical locations. However, simultaneously, higher education institutions in England faced serious financial and organisational challenges throughout the pandemic, which has implications for the relationship between teaching and research, for who undertakes each, and for the students' experience of teaching and learning (some of whom become the next generation of researchers). The rapid movement to online learning created further tensions within an already demoralised, precarious and divided workforce. This paper considers the potential social good of universities' two core missions, research and teaching in a post-pandemic world, exploring the inherently political nature of the link, as well as its encoded inequalities and dysfunctions. Drawing on documentary and secondary data analysis, this paper explores, first, the long-standing sectoral and institutional discrepancies through analysing trends in student recruitment rates and research funding. Second, it investigates how student and staff experiences of the link between research and teaching were changing in the pandemic, pointing to substantive equity issues in how the pandemic response affected access to research opportunities and to research-led teaching. The paper argues that a more equitable and inclusive university that appreciates the research-teaching nexus and is flexible and collaborative in nature is key to contribute to tackling global and local challenges, such as environmental destruction, climate change, conflict and socio-economic inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemistry education of future researchers is crucial if we are to decarbonise economies and reach targets for net zero, and this arguably begins with education in electrochemistry within undergraduate degrees. This paper reviews the teaching of electrochemistry in UK universities at the undergraduate degree level. We review where and how electrochemical concepts are introduced into chemistry, chemical engineering and materials science programmes. We provide some motivation for this review, which was stimulated by discussions from a workshop on the 'Future of Fundamental Electrochemistry Research in the UK', held in 2022. We summarise briefly how consensus on UK degree programme course content has been reached and inconsistencies that remain. Electrochemistry curriculum content from a convenience sample of UK universities, and disciplines, has been collected and is summarised, with a reflection on some trends. Finally, we present some implications for policy. A roadmap is suggested to ensure that the teaching of electrochemical fundamentals is addressed in the curriculum at an appropriate level to underpin the many technically relevant applications of electrochemistry that graduates will encounter in their further education or employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the ways in which drawing is taught and assessed in post‐16 UK schools and colleges, with a particular focus on A Level art and design courses. Through an historical survey of the development of syllabi and assessment methods, it traces how the role of drawing in the curriculum has changed over the past sixty years. From a series of prescribed observational drawing exercises, the A level exam has evolved into a holistic exploration of each student's creative process, and drawing is now seen mainly as an integral part of that process. The article demonstrates how the art history element of the syllabus has also been gradually integrated into practice, and thus into the drawing process itself. Questions are raised about how these changes have influenced the nature of the portfolios which students entering higher education bring to interview. In short, this article seeks to answer the question: do we now teach and assess observational drawing skills 'through a glass darkly', obscured by other considerations within the art educational curriculum? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on the relationship between educational research and the practice of teaching in Great Britain. There has been pressure on teachers to ensure that their work is informed by research. The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, whereby practicing teachers are helped to come together to share their thinking about their practice, both among themselves and with researchers who seek to offer relevant and helpful research-based ideas. Teachers need a knowledge of, at least a respect for and a readiness to learn about, their students' community cultures. According to the author that the knowledge that educational research can offer teachers can at best only complement the other kinds of knowledge upon which teachers need to draw.

In this paper, the author considers the contribution of creativity to pastoral care in education. Since its advent in English schools in the early 1970s, pastoral care has placed the affective realm and individual enrichment centre stage in both its curriculum aims and teaching approaches. These principles have, however, had much to contend with over the past 50 years; from the obtrusive effects of state intervention in schools, to the challenges confronting young people growing up in increasingly complex societies. For many teachers and practitioners, engaging young people in creative pursuits has come to be regarded as a necessary counterpoint to increasingly performative school cultures and an essential means to enabling vibrant forms of positive self-expression. The power of creative activities has received new impetus as a pastoral concern in light of two national trends. The first as creative arts provision in the curriculum in English state secondary schools declines as a consequence of Government qualification reforms, and second as an increasing number of young people are referred to Alternative Educational Provision with mental health issues. As a consequence, many pastoral educators have turned or, indeed, returned to creativity and creative practices as a primary means of supporting and enriching the lives of young people, particularly for those who now struggle in contemporary school environments. In light of these developments and drawing on research and practice in the field of creativity and pastoral care, this paper aims to cast further light on creativity in pastoral education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor learning experiences in Higher Education (HE) provide students with the opportunity for emotional development, cognitive development and learning. Despite this, the literature exploring the impact of emotive outdoor learning experiences on students’ development and learning is scarce. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the key factors important for the delivery of outdoor learning experiences in HE. The paper will also incorporate the authors personal experience of delivering emotive outdoor learning in HE (visiting Holocaust sites with undergraduate students). Broad recommendations for the future design and delivery of emotive outdoor learning experiences is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioner research, as one example of research supported by universities, has developed in unexpected ways, some of them unhelpful and has not always generated the benefits predicted. This paper argues that practitioner research has become shaped more by the needs of universities than by the schools and teachers it was hoped it would serve. The paper goes on to explore the idea that the promise of practitioner research has been so beguiling that it has commandeered more than a wise share of attention in universities and that this has been at the expense of exploring some other avenues of engagement with schools. The paper notes that the evolution of practitioner inquiry has taken place at a time when regimes of accountability driven by central government have been visible globally and when universities and schools each had significant pressures to fulfil policy imperatives. The pressure towards performance has in England drawn the attention of universities and schools away from, rather than towards, each other: schools to revised curricula and performance, universities to research and funding. Practitioner research became developed as a skeleton for higher degrees and in that arena universities came to have a role in promoting and at the same time inhibiting and possibly damaging its development. Hopes that practitioner research would come to contribute to mainstream research were not fulfilled and both educational and more especially practitioner research remain problematic in the wider university research agenda. One response is to renew efforts to improve existing approaches and examples of this are now widespread. However, the paper observes that, at present universities’ support for schools seems to reflect only a small part of their much wider expertise and argues that education departments in universities might think much more radically about the range of expertise that they can offer schools, a more imaginative exploration. The paper continues by noting that the challenge for university departments of education of working together equally with schools and teachers is easy to aspire to, but not to fulfil, and this impacts on working with the authentic concerns of schools and on sharing expertise. Further opportunities are available: beyond education departments: for example, other university departments have expertise that education departments might link with which has hitherto remained unexplored. Additional areas which remain under-researched are the processes of incorporating educational change and in making judgments about educational initiatives. Readers are reminded that the accidental barriers produced by the categories of research, teaching and administration are accountancy categories and may demand creative and determined responses. The paper concludes that there is too much to lose by not exploring these or other wider possibilities and much to gain by doing so including opportunities in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operative and non-technical skills exposure of urology trainees has reduced due to a number of factors, including the European Working Time Directive, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Simulation-based education (SBE) is an innovative addition to clinical experience which can begin to address the skills-based learning deficiency in order to help trainees meet their curriculum requirements and optimise the exposure required for a trainee to become a competent general urology consultant. Surgical simulation is an effective training tool but has a complex implementation process, requiring considerable planning tailored to specific educational targets, to ensure it is sustainable and reproducible. Methodology from the field of implementation science offers an invaluable approach to design an effective simulation-based training adjunct, as exemplified by the example of the UK Urology Simulation Boot Camp (USBC), a comprehensive training course which incorporates core technical and non-technical skills based on the current Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST) urological training curriculum to equip newly appointed urology trainees to work as competent junior registrars. Delivered annually in Leeds since 2015, the course has had excellent feedback and results in improving the urological knowledge of trainees, as well as increases in trainees' confidence. This paper will provide a summary of how the course was designed, delivered, reproduced, sustained and evaluated. Its success is demonstrated by its incorporation into the UK urology training programme, and since 2018, it is now recommended to all new urology residents in the UK. The course implementation model would be applicable to other surgical specialties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) on academic identity within the context of a UK-based research-intensive higher education institution. TEF is the latest in a series of changes that have impacted upon the UK's HE sector and it is highly likely to have a significant impact upon academic identity. Collecting evidence through sixteen qualitative interviews, findings show that while TEF may not alter the broad substance of what it means to be an academic in terms of engagement with research, education and citizenship activities, it has the potential to have profound implications in terms of exacerbating conflicts within identity. This paper argues that negative work outcomes result where role conflicts, and mismatches between expectation and reward, create difficulties in realising our desired versions of ourselves. Theoretical contributions relevant to debates around identity conflict are discussed, with practical contributions exploring the importance of resource allocations and the need to align expectations and rewards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Enabling entrepreneurial creativity is a key aim of UK Government; however, there is a dearth of constructively aligned models of teaching and assessment. This paper aims to introduce design-based pedagogies and to highlight cognitive approaches that develop innovative mindsets; it seeks to indicate their propensity for adoption in entrepreneurship education. Design/methodology/approach - A literature review plus empirical evidence from pedagogical approaches developed through the extended collaboration of specialists in creative design, financial management and brain-related occupational therapy inform this paper. Findings - Neuroimaging studies challenge the thesis that learning for creative output is entirely algorithmic; diverse ideas occur when the brain's right cortex has opportunity to bring its findings to the fore, usually via "relaxed cognition". Design-based entrepreneurship pedagogies embed these concepts. Research limitations/implications - The paper offers initial insights into how these understandings can be applied in transdisciplinary entrepreneurship-education contexts. Practical implications - Predicable assessment outcomes equal predictable students; which needs more working practices, behaviours and cultural environments that encourage innovation. Any educational environment that excludes these understandings is inherently flawed. Social implications - The case study/project "Free time is thinking time" implies that traditional 9-5 working practices are inappropriate for creative mindsets. Originality/value - This paper links emerging bodies of evidence; it provides a first response to calls for a more creative enterprise curriculum and offers constructively aligned assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions in the UK are required, by law, to make anticipatory reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities. Inclusive teaching practice, if adopted across the sector, would ensure that the needs of students with disabilities are considered and provided for, before they even arrive on campus. This paper sets out the background and key findings from an institutional research project at a UK university that aimed to discover if academic staff's attitudes would be problematic or conducive to the implementation of inclusive teaching practice. The paper concludes that there is little evidence of widespread “resistance” but rather, the research discovered a prevailing belief in the rights of students with disabilities to education, albeit a belief which is limited in its practical application in the classroom. The paper also reports on a number of recommendations made to the case study university as a result of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of an audit of research teaching in UK-qualifying social work education. The audit was part of a wider ESRC-funded study that provides baseline data for setting progress objectives towards building research capacity in the discipline and profession. This paper offers observations from the audit, based on a survey of undergraduate and postgraduate (Masters) qualifying social work programmes across all four countries, with in-depth enquiry into a smaller sample from each. The survey examined what research methods were taught, how, where, when and by whom. Most importantly, it considered why these choices were made, and the challenges and possibilities were presented for building research capacity and research-mindedness at qualifying level. The audit highlighted a range of factors that contributed to the marginalisation of research teaching. These included not only lack of time, staff skill and resource, but also more fundamental reservations and resistance on the part of educators, students and practitioners towards engaging with research. It is suggested that at the heart of such ambivalence lies a fundamental debate about the nature of the social work discipline, and the relationship between research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

abstract In this paper the author argues that psychoanalytic education is enhanced when (a) it attends seriously to the affective, relational and social processes that frame the experience of teaching and of learning, fostering a critical engagement with both, and (b) it engages candidates in exploring what they do (technique) in the context of the articulation of their model of working (theory). The features of the 'teaching attitude' that are relevant to psychoanalytic education are illustrated though a 'teaching case study' detailing the rationale, process and content for a curriculum on the concept of transference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to explore how creative disciplines education is taught, delivered, and assessed, and how this might inform the development of enterprise education UK. Design/methodology/approach - The paper makes use of empirical data from three main sources across creative disciplines: interviews with entrepreneurs; job adverts for lecturing staff; and a survey of educators. This approach offers multiple perspectives on hypothesis development as well as the validation of emergent result. Findings - The analysis of the three strands of data highlights the benefits of contextualized enterprise education. It confirms that ideas assessment techniques within creative disciplines are well embedded in practice and applied consistently within the context of an academic framework. Practical implications - An exploration of delivery styles and ideas assessment in the creative sector has highlighted a potential model which could be adopted by generic enterprise education in business schools and other faculties. Potentially, it offers educators a template for assessment of entrepreneurial ideas. Originality/value - This paper highlights characteristics of creative discipline education and ideas assessment, which might potentially be a model for teaching enterprise within an academic framework, which could be adopted by enterprise educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context This paper sets out to analyse and interpret the complex events of the last 20 years in order to understand how the teaching and learning of clinical communication has emerged as a core part of the modern undergraduate medical curriculum in most medical schools in the UK. Methods The paper analyses the effects of key political, sociological, historical and policy influences on clinical communication development. Results Political influences include: the effects of neo-liberalism on society and on the professions in general; the challenging of traditional notions of professionalism in medicine; the creation of an internal market within the National Health Service, and the disempowerment of the medical lobby. Sociological influences include: the effects of a ‘marketised’ society on medicine and subtle shifts in the doctor−patient relationship because of this; the emergence of globalised information through the Internet, and the influence of increased litigation against doctors. Historical influences include: the effects of a change in emphasis for medical education away from an inflated factual curriculum towards a curriculum that recognises the importance of student attitudes and the teaching and learning of clinical communication skills. Policy influences include the important effects of Tomorrow's Doctors and the Dearing Report on the modern medical curriculum. Conclusions The paper concludes with a developmental map that charts the complex influences on clinical communication teaching and learning and a brief commentary on the growing body of teachers who deliver and develop the subject today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

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

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

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

The paper examines aspects of the relationship between teaching and research in higher education in social science research methods, with particular reference to the subject area of Education. There are three main themes: reflections on how social science research methods should be (or are) taught; a review of current debates about the relationship between teaching and research, both in higher education and for school teachers; and finally, reporting how a group of educational practitioners (mainly school teachers) studying at Masters level experience learned about research methods. The paper is illustrated by qualitative data from a case study of student experiences of research methods teaching on a Masters degree in Education in a research-intensive UK university. It is suggested that studying the journey embarked upon by taught postgraduate students inexperienced in research is helpful in understanding how learning about research methods takes place, which in turn can assist future research methods teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of productivity on pay within academia, drawing upon a detailed dataset of academics from five old established universities. Results outline the importance of publication; grant receipt and teaching quality in the determination of pay. A large financial penalty to time out of the profession is revealed, which, with productivity variables, explains away the gender salary gap. The relationship between teaching and research is investigated, and we find some evidence in support of the hypothesis that productive researchers are successful teachers. Results on reservation salary suggest that the best academics are willing to stay within the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The paper plots some shifts in educational policy between 1988 and 2009 in England that launched the rhetoric of a ‘gender gap’ as a key political and social concern. The rhetoric was fuelled by a rise in the importance of quantification in technologies of accountability and global comparisons of achievement. A focus on boys and attainment emerged, along with new requirements for measuring educational achievement in the context of debates about standards and the growing marketisation of education following the 1988 Educational Reform Act (ERA) in England and Wales. Purpose: Theoretically, the paper explores the effect of ‘gender gap’ rhetoric on pedagogy. The arguments about pedagogy presented here are based on the premise that sex-group is different from gender. Sex-group is a form of labelling and categorising persons as either male or female with reference to a biological classification that focuses on genitalia and reproductive organs. The emergence of ‘gender gap’ rhetoric is investigated within a temporal perspective, through an overview of guidance to teachers about pedagogy published between 1932 and 2007. This temporal lens becomes a heuristic for presenting the main point of the paper, which is that technologies of measurement construct reified representations of the learner. This is used to demonstrate how gender, as a sociocultural and political phenomenon, morphed into sex-group, a biological categorisation, and how this has had unintended effects of pedagogy. Sources of evidence: Analysis of three landmark educational documents focuses on changes in representations of society, the learner and pedagogy. The documents are the Hadow Report (1931), the Plowden Report (1967) and a guidance document for teachers called ‘Confident, Capable and Creative: supporting boys’ achievements’ (Department for Children, Schools and Families 2007,http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Confident_Capable_Boys.pdf). Main argument:Analysis demonstrates the way that technologies of measurement construct reified or ‘ideal’ representations of the learner and how technologies used for measuring sex-group difference have changed across time. Shifts in representations of the learner, from the ‘bone child’ to the ‘gene child’ and eventually to the ‘masculine child’ were detected. These shifts represent a gradual decline in the emphasis on pedagogy as nurture, towards a heightened focus on the supposedly innate characteristics of individuals, in line with neoliberalism. Conclusions:The discussion points to some of the unintended effects on pedagogy and practice that take place when gender becomes sex. If teachers are constantly presented with the message that boys and girls learn differently due to innate genetic make-up, they may assume that whatever pedagogic strategies they employ, these will be ineffective in the face of what some educational consultants tell them are boys’ and girls’ innate genetic features. In effect, teachers are being told that biology controls learning and that social and cultural contexts, and thus their own classroom environments, cannot counter the forces of nature. Some methodological implications of studying gender as opposed to sex-group are discussed. The conclusion advocates a shift back to the study of gender as a historical, sociocultural phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The advent of a new inspection system in January 2012 has created new challenges for both the teaching profession and for the inspectors of education given the task of implementing it, as the new framework demands increased involvement by serving teachers and head teachers as part of the inspection process. This paper draws on evidence from a current funded research project to examine the implications of engaging current practitioners in the inspection role. It explores the professional values and skills that are required in order to successfully effect the new framework and considers whether these may conflict with professional teaching identities, thus raising the possibility of further tensions in the inspection – and governance – of education in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first situates King Alfred in Winchester, in Wessex, in Anglo-Saxon England, and in the Christendom of the ninth century. Attention is drawn to Alfred’s education, which included experience of court life in Wessex, Rome and Francia. The paper argues that Alfred prioritised vernacular literacy as a means of educating elites in a shared culture of service. This project required the attraction to his kingdom of scholars from abroad, the translating of foundational Christian texts into Old English, and the use of the court as a school. The king provided the context, and the resources, for supporting craftsmen engaged in the manufacture of, among other items, book-pointers, small high-value objects intimately associated with literacy and at the same time badges of service as well as of honour. The concluding section assesses Alfred’s sustained promotion of his educational project as connected to the rest of his political and ideological agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Remarkably, little academic attention has been given to the phenomenon of Chinese language schools in the UK. This paper aims to address this important gap in knowledge through the development of a detailed mapping of the population and practise of Chinese complementary schooling in England. The paper draws on ethnographically informed observations and interviews with 60 pupils, 21 teachers and 24 parents conducted in six Chinese schools as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (UK) funded study. The mapping is presented in terms of three core questions: what are Chinese schools like? (how they are funded, resourced and organised); who attends? (characteristics of the pupils' population); and what is taught there? Analyses highlight the social political implications arising and raise issues for education policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports and discusses some of the practical and contextual difficulties facing the teaching of Islamic studies within the British higher education environment. The main problems in the author's view stem from the haziness surrounding the discipline definition and the methodology employed in teaching it. This is particularly observed when 'Islamic Studies' is taught within an academic environment which does not recognise the fusion that Islam holds between the spiritual and material. The paper also examines contrasting voices debating the subject and its methodology. Finally the paper provides suggestions for how Islamic Studies could be more effective in the West and particularly in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper is a reflection upon the genesis of a conceptual model for 'intelligent deployment' of technologies to enhance students' learning. It developed from a creative epiphany stimulated by a 'model' used to support the teaching of a range of genres of writing to school children, which focussed on the importance of teaching about alignment of the form of writing for its particular purpose and audience. Explanation is given of how this has been elaborated and refined as a dialogic tool for planning for 'intelligent deployment of technologies' in one of the UK's Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The SOLSTICE Centre has a particular focus on learning technologies. The SOLSTICE 'intelligence informed dialogue' concept, which is derived from the above is shared and exemplified through the notion of 'New Academic Teamwork' grounded in trans-disciplinary, multi-professional pedagogic design approaches. The paper concludes with insights into how the SOLSTICE 'Purpose, Audience and Form' model has been used to creatively stimulate discussion and definition of trans-disciplinary research with potential to engage multiple international partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Interactive whole-class teaching is championed by the English National Curriculum and the accompanying National Literacy and National Numeracy Strategies. Inspection of the related literature, however, reveals no corresponding pedagogy, which is also lacking in earlier 'interactive' initiatives. The paper considers how traditional 'hierarchical' perceptions have undermined the 'practical' prescriptions given and neglected attitudinal influences. It argues that this practical deficit, aspects of teacher education and institutional leadership/culture have historically made it difficult for teachers to fully 'unlearn' authoritarian 'transmission' practices which the UK Government recognizes work against inclusion and performance at all education levels. Research undertaken in the 1970s provides a practical model of inclusive interactive teaching, training and leadership and this is considered to be one of three related requirements necessary to overcome the reported implementation failure of an interactive approach. Finally, the paper considers the example of a headteacher whose collaborative 'interactive' attitudes enabled an inclusive learning ethos, increasing accessibility and pioneering routes to widen participation for the traditionally excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Background: There is a global need to expand palliative care services to reach the increasing number requiring end of life care. In developing countries where the incidences of cancer are rising there is an urgent need to develop the palliative care workforce. This paper reports on a UK Department for international development (DFID) initiative funded through the Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) where palliative care staff, both clinical and academic, volunteered to help to develop, support and deliver a degree in palliative care in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of the study was to explore the personal impact on the health care professionals of being part of this initiative.Methods: An evaluation approach using a confidential electronic survey containing quantitative and qualitative questions was distributed to all 17 volunteers on the programme, three months after completion of the first cohort. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and content thematic analysis. Ethical review deemed the study to be service evaluation.Results: 82 % (14) responded and several themes emerged from the data including the positive impact on teaching and educational skills; clinical practice and finally personal development. Using a score of 1-10 (1-no impact, 10 maximum impact) 'Lifestyle choices - life work balance' (rating 7.83) had the most impact.Conclusions: This approach to supporting the development of palliative care in Sub-Saharan Africa through skill sharing in supporting the delivery of a degree programme in palliative care was successful in terms of delivery of the degree programme, material development and mentorship of local staff. Additionally, this study shows it provided a range of positive impacts on the volunteer health care professionals from the UK. Professional impacts including increased management skills, and being better prepared to undertake a senior role. However it is the personal impact including lifestyle choices which the volunteers reported as the highest impact. Interestingly, several of the faculty have joined other volunteer programmes to continue to support the international development of palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Health and social care professionals are ideally placed to identify and address gender-based violence (GBV), yet research continues to demonstrate that the subject is being poorly covered at undergraduate level. This qualitative study explored health and social care students' and educators' views on GBV education, with a view to identifying 'best practice'. We aimed to capture students' and educators' experiences and perceptions of GBV education across participating countries; how participants thought GBV should be taught/learned within their curricula; and their views on how GBV education might be 'optimized'. Methods: We conducted nine focus group discussions and one semi-structured interview with 23 students and 21 academic staff across the UK, Australia and Chile. Results: Thematic analysis yielded three themes: (1) GBV addressed in all but name, (2) Introduce sooner, explore later and (3) A qualitative approach to learning. Educators and students indicated that GBV is largely being overlooked or incompletely addressed within curricula. Many participants expressed a wish for the subject to be introduced early and revisited throughout their study, with content evolving as cohorts mature. Lastly, our findings indicate that GBV education could benefit from adopting a 'qualitative' approach, prioritizing survivor narratives and incorporating dialogue to facilitate student engagement. Conclusion: Though time constraints and competing demands within undergraduate curricula are frequently cited as barriers to moving away from traditional didactic methods, our findings suggest that teacher-centered strategies are insufficient and, in some regards, inappropriate for GBV education. The need for a paradigm shift in GBV education is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rwandan genocide was perhaps the most paradigmatic human rights catastrophe in the post-Holocaust era, which challenged the mantra of ‘never again’. Yet as we approach the twentieth anniversary, it remains a relatively marginalised entity within mainstream English education. This paper argues that a study of the Rwandan genocide introduces a number of important issues, which are not emphasised within Holocaust education. It also draws upon a small-scale empirical study of 41 teachers’ attitudes in England, perceptions and experiences of teaching the genocide in a range of disciplines and demonstrates emerging patterns on how it is integrated into curricula and individual lessons. It concludes by advocating the study of the Rwandan genocide in its own right and the importance of students appreciating its contemporary relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: ENT presentations are prevalent in clinical practice but feature little in undergraduate curricula. Consequently, most medical graduates are not confident managing common ENT conditions. In 2014, the first evidence-based ENT undergraduate curriculum was published to guide medical schools. Objective: To assess the extent that current UK medical school learning outcomes correlate with the syllabus of the ENT undergraduate curriculum. Method: Two students from each participating medical school independently reviewed all ENT-related curriculum documents to determine whether learning outcomes from the suggested curriculum were met. Results: Sixteen of 34 curricula were reviewed. Only a minority of medical schools delivered teaching on laryngectomy or tracheostomy, nasal packing or cautery, and ENT medications or surgical procedures. Conclusion: There is wide variability in ENT undergraduate education in UK medical schools. Careful consideration of which topics are prioritised, and the teaching modalities utilised, is essential. In addition, ENT learning opportunities for undergraduates outside of the medical school curriculum should be augmented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reprint of the paper "Is Personal Tutoring Sustainable? Comparing the Trajectory of the Personal Tutor With That of the Residential Warden." It analyzes the varying roles being played by academics in terms of giving aid to students. It specifically presents a comparison of the functions performed by residential wardens and personal tutors in higher education in Great Britain.

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

Counselling is increasingly seen as a way of addressing the psychological needs of young people with emotional, behavioural and academic problems. This paper explores the existing counselling landscape regarding inclusion of young people with learning disabilities in counselling. The research findings are based on data collected from an empirical study ( n = 396) and a series of interviews ( n = 15) with counsellors. Findings identify inclusion in counselling as a process and highlight inclusive strategies, namely: creative counselling approaches, non‐verbal forms of communication and the use of simple adapted language. The most inclusive counsellors were highly qualified with greater knowledge and experience of this group of young people; awareness of disability issues; eclectic in practice; imaginative and creative; open‐minded, reflective, pragmatic; and proactive in promoting their services. Inclusive counselling practices adopt a person‐centred, psychodynamic or integrative therapeutic approach; take referrals through teachers, parents, carers, care managers and family doctors; have a welcoming attitude towards the young people, their parents and carers; are flexible regarding times and appointments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims This paper describes the process of validating the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) for use with postgraduate health care professionals. Context The RIPLS questionnaire has proved useful in the undergraduate context, enabling tutors to assess the readiness of students to engage in interprofessional learning (IPL). With the drive in the National Health Service (NHS) to deliver health care in interprofessional teams, it seems logical to ask whether postgraduate education should, or could, be delivered successfully in interprofessional contexts. As a preliminary to undertaking an extended IPL project, the researchers tested the validity of the RIPLS tool in the postgraduate health care context. Method A modified version of the RIPLS questionnaire was administered to all general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals in the Dundee Local Health Care Cooperative (LHCC) ( n = 799). A total of 546 staff responded (68%). Results Three factors, comprising 23 statements, emerged from the statistical analysis of the survey data, namely, teamwork and collaboration, sense of professional identity and patient-centredness. The internal consistency measure was 0.76. Analysis of variance suggested some key differences between the different professions in respect of the factors. Conclusions The RIPLS questionnaire was validated for use in the postgraduate context, thus providing researchers with a tool for assessing health professionals' attitudes towards interprofessional learning at practice level, community health partnership level or at a national level of education and training. Significant differences between professional groups should be taken into account in designing any interprofessional learning programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores and attempts to rectify current conceptual confusion found in secondary art education in the UK between procedural knowledge or ‘knowing how’ and declarative knowledge or ‘knowing that’. The paper argues that current practice confuses procedural knowledge with declarative knowledge. A corollary is that assessment evidence for ‘knowing how’, which is shown or demonstrated, is confused with assessment evidence for ‘knowing that’, which requires spoken or written forms of reporting. The confusion is replicated in the national examination, the General Certificate of Secondary Education, taken by students at the age of 16. The article traces this confusion to three dualisms: the Cartesian dualisms of mind and body, an individual mind and the distributed mind of culture, and the more recent mind‐in‐brain hemisphere dualism. The article advocates a Wittgensteinian embodied, socio‐cultural view of mind as a way of solving the current conceptual confusion that prevails in art education in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we will reflect upon some of the experiences that the author had whilst supporting the embedding of Information Technology (I.T.) into a U.K. mathematics department's undergraduate teaching. The paper includes some examples of the kinds of problems that can occur, and some potential solutions to these problems, in particular with the regards to issues on the expectations of staff and the effects of the discipline's and the department's own culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent UK House of Commons report on Science 14-19 identified problems with coursework and argued for a greater emphasis on teaching and assessment of scientific literacy. This paper describes a written test for procedural understanding, given to 15 year olds, that addresses both of these issues. Comparisons are made between the scores on a written test of procedural understanding with both assessments made of subject knowledge and pupil accounts of investigations. The potential advantages of assessing procedural understanding by written tests are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note reports on a questionnaire-based survey of the teaching of social and environmental accounting (SEA) in undergraduate accounting degrees throughout the British Isles in 1998. The study is a replication and extension of Owen et al.'s (1994) survey in 1993 and analyses the significant changes from that study. The results suggest that environmental accounting is still the most prevalent SEA topic taught; and educators teach SEA because of the political prominence of SEA issues. Any absence of SEA teaching appears to be due to lack of time and space in crowded curricula. SEA appears not to be taught in some universities despite sustained interest in, and debate about, the development of environmental and social responsibility agendas throughout the 1990s. As the accounting literature speaks of the failure of teaching to reflect business and practitioner needs (AECC, 1990b), the paper posits that the lack of SEA teaching may be seen as an illustration of this failing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists suggests that sociology should be included within the speech and language therapy curriculum. However, in spite of this, sociology is seldom given priority. Although the role of sociology with the curricula of other professions has been discussed, the role of sociology within speech and language therapy has not. Given the contemporary climate of competence-based training, the position of subjects such as sociology is being compromised. This paper sets out three reasons in support of including sociology within speech and language therapy by drawing on the distinction between a ''personal education'' and a ''semantic conjunction'' model of the relationship between theory and professional practice. First, it is argued that sociology makes a valid contribution to an holistic approach to care—which is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of speech and language therapy practice. Second, this paper suggests that the inherent reflexivity within the discipline provides health professionals with an invaluable tool with which to engage in reflexive practice. Finally, it is argued that given the global emphasis on evidence-based practice, the study of sociology and sociological research methods equips therapists to interpret and conduct empirical research. This paper concludes by arguing that sociology should be viewed as an essential component of the speech and language therapy curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two short paragraphs, 42 and 43, in the White Paper, Excellence in Schools, published in July 1997, announced the UK government's intention to educate for citizenship:Schools can help to ensure that young people feel that they have a stake in our society and the community in which they live by teaching them the nature of democracy and the duties, responsibilities and rights of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]