Further Education

Traditionally regarded as the Cinderella sector, further education (FE) is not yet recognized for its research potential and, if researched at all, tends to be 'researched on' rather than proactively enabled to carry out research itself. Although Britain's Learning and Skills Council's FE and Post-16 sector encompasses around six million learners, four thousand providers and £7.3 billion worth of provision, little research in the sector uses the extensive data-rich client base it serves. Few, if any, in-house research findings inform its professional practice. The Learning and Skills Development Agency Research Network and LSC Research Centre have begun to address this gap, mapping out a new blueprint for research developments in the sector, and raising a new capacity for in-house FE-focused research. These exciting national developments form the foundation for this book, which builds on the key importance of research to strengthen the role of further education as the main bridging sector between school and higher education at a time of Britain's increased national investment in raising achievements. This groundbreaking core text in a new field identifies and constructs a new theoretical framework for a specialist FE research culture, recognizing the unique contribution to research of FE practitioner-researchers. The book identifies good practice in this field through a series of in-depth case studies linked to appropriate and innovative research methods. The theoretical framework outlined links the concept of the critical reflective practitioner with the development of knowledge management techniques specific to Further Education research. This book will enable its readers to: 1. Recognize the value of undertaking research in their sector 2. Draw upon their current practice to develop research questions 3. Identify appropriate research questions and design appropriate research techniques accordingly 4. Interrogate other research, from associated fields 5. Undertake literature searches and derive information for a variety of sources 6. Use research -- their own or others' -- to inform their professional practice 7. Have the confidence to create, use and evaluate their sector specific research.

More details
Empowering Researchers in Further Education
By Yvonne Hillier and Jill Jameson
Contributor: Introductory Chapter by Andrew Morris
Published by Trentham Books, 2003
ISBN 1858562856, 9781858562858
194 pages

Internationalization of higher education has influenced the learning environment at many top ranked universities, especially in Western Europe. One of the important marks of internationalization is an increase in international student enrollment, which makes it essential to focus on the learning experiences of international students in such intercultural learning environments. This paper explores the learning experiences of international students at Aalborg University Denmark, which is having a learning environment that is practicing Problem-Oriented and Project Based Learning (POPBL) in all of its engineering programs.

We describe the establishment and development of the Clinical Ethics Advisory Group (CEAG) at Auckland Hospital. The CEAG provides a case-consultation service for clinicians and managers and on request advises on policies and guidelines. Relatively few cases have been referred for consultation despite the fact that 82% of doctors and 98% of nurses see a role for the CEAG in helping to resolve dilemmas in clinical practice. Most clinicians (80%) who have consulted the CEAG have valued the opinions they were given. The majority of doctors (81%) and nurses (76%) indicated that they would value further education in ethics. Based on our experience and a review of the literature, we recommend that all healthcare workers should have access to ethical expertise.

На сегодняшний день большое внимание уделяется проблемам социальной и трудовой адаптации людей с ограниченными возможностями. Важное место в этой проблеме занимают возможности получения высшего или среднего профессио-
нального образования. Данная проблема имеет три аспекта -медицинский (физическая реабилитация и формирование навыков обучения в группе), психологический (преодоления психологических барьеров вхождения в коллектив) и социальный
(восприятие коллективом людей с ограниченными возможностями. В монографии
представлены результаты исследования, в котором был реализован комплексный поход, направленный на решение всех трех названных аспектов.
Для руководителей образовательных организаций и преподавателей вузов и ссузов, реализующих программы инклюзивного профессионального образования, а также для научных работников и аспирантов, выполняющих исследования в данной области.

This study investigated an understanding and use of educational neuroscience in a large Further Education (FE) college. A qualitative methodology was used and results obtained through two collection methods. First, two interviews were carried out with senior managers who both had experience in curriculum design. Following this a focus group was held with five advanced practitioner teachers. Results indicated that the knowledge and understanding of educational neuroscience was limited in Jackson College and that at present there was no conscious effort to focus on neuroscience as a means to improving teaching and learning; suggesting that as a discipline it is unknown to the college. The paper concludes that the ‘neuromyths’ identified in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports (2002 and 2007) are evident, if not prevalent in the college with a recommendation that they may be usefully mitigated through further neurological research into teaching and learning strategies on educational programmes.

This article explores the issue of preparing trainee teachers for the challenges of how to face their students’ ‘disruptive behaviour’ which sometimes marks the beginning and sets the tone for the remainder of sessions. In this paper I explore my work mentoring two trainee teachers, looking at the options available to them on entering classrooms where students displayed disruptive behaviour. There is a context of Ofsted criteria, whereby disruptive behaviour is no longer acceptable and ‘failure’ is allocated as an observation grade where ‘disruptive behaviour’ occurs. This piece offers an exploration of classroom management strategies for preparing trainee teachers who face challenging situations in Further Education (FE) environments and suggests strategies for dealing with the difficulties of disruptive classes. The reason why this is vitally important is because trainee teachers in Cert Ed classes wish to discuss this issue more than any other topic. It affects their self-esteem, confidence and class interaction in delivering the curriculum.

Foucault suggests that there are ‘other spaces’, heterotopias, which are located in the world we live in but are ‘outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality’. Foucault offers examples of this concept by suggesting that prisons, brothels and boats at sea are specific spaces that are linked to, but different from, the societies that create them. In this paper I wish to consider how a further education college might fit Foucault’s six principles to be a heterotopia and consider how this might affect my research within such a place.

Enquêter dans la durée auprès de « jeunes de banlieue » conduit à se poser régulièrement deux types de questions qui tendent à se présenter chacune sous la forme d'alternatives exclusives. Pourtant, leur dépassement constitue l'une des clefs pour aller au-delà des représentations les plus convenues. 1. Comment penser ensemble la pluralité et le commun au sein d'un groupe social dont la consistance et les contours dépendent précisément de la résolution de cette relation dialectique ? Il existe ainsi des « filles », des « garçons », des « cités » et des trajectoires mais qui forment néanmoins un objet d'étude et d'analyse en soi : « la jeunesse de banlieue » ou « des cités ». Et la relation entre un tel objet et ses déclinaisons – qu'elles soient géographiques, historiques, sociales, genrées, individuelles, etc. – fait pré-cisément problème quand, pour parler comme Ian Hacking, les « effets de boucles » entre la catégorie et les individus qu'elle désigne sont perma-nents 1. C'est ce que suggèrent les guillemets de mon titre : ce que et ce qui fait « le jeune de banlieue » ne peut pas être pensé sans ce qui en est dit publiquement. 2. Comment, pour ce faire, articuler dans un même discours l'agencement des propriétés qui forgent la singularité des individus et la force des déterminants et des déterminations sociales qui pèsent collectivement sur eux ? Prendre

FE is large and diverse. Its requirements for staff support, development and professionalism are greater even than those for schools. But the principles of effective teaching and learning are similar in all areas of education. TLRP has published its principles for effective school education widely (James and Pollard, 2006). We restate them here to highlight how a renewed focus on teaching and learning should lie at the heart of future developments in further education.

Studies by physiologists and educationalists have focused their attention to biological differences to explain the disparity between men and women in science and engineering careers. However, initial studies that looked at brain size and different IQ levels of men and ...

“Cinderella” is the dominant metaphor used to describe Further Education (FE) by education ministers, the academy, policy apparatchiks and the press. Generally attributed to the Minister of Education Kenneth Baker, its first use was in 1935 by Oliver Stanley, the President of the Board of Education. Education ministers to this day are unable to resist the allure of Cinderella’s twinkling glass slipper; and in 2012 Michael Gove donned his Fairy Godmother wings to celebrate that FE “colleges do wonderful work. For too long, they have been Cinderellas, but under this government they are at last going to the ball."

The Cinderella story we are now familiar with is a sanitized and Disneyfied version of that published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. The most shockingly unfamiliar aspect of the original story relates to impairment: Cinderella’s sisters are both persuaded by their mother to amputate parts of their feet to fraudulently squeeze into Cinderella’s lost slipper to claim the hand of the prince; and later their eyes are pecked out by Cinderella’s bird familiars: “thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived.”

This CRADLE presentation at the University of Wolverhampton considered the extent to which Senge’s famous contention that organisations learn poorly and have “fundamental learning disabilities... [which] operate despite the best efforts of bright, committed people,” applies to the crippled, Grimm FE sector.

So can FE live happily ever after? Only if FE’s cinders are reignited: if the sector is to be Grimm it should be so on our own terms; typified by Coffield as powerful, democratic professionals.