Iddo Oberski

University continuing education: The role of communications and information technology

Continuing policy initiatives at both National and European levels emphasise the need to increase participation in higher education (HE) through more flexible delivery. One of the key elements of flexible delivery is seen to be the use of communication and information technologies (C&IT). These technologies clearly have the potential to reach a much wider student body, irrespective of geographical and/or social limitations. We briefly explore the role of C&IT in Universities and argue that its use is far less ubiquitous than predicted. We then explore the impact of C&IT on pedagogy in HE as well as on the organisation of teaching and learning, with a particular emphasis on delivery to small companies. We conclude that the current use of C&IT in HE is likely to continue to confirm the already existing gap between those with and those without access to these technologies and predict that the role of multinational corporations in education is likely to increase.

Right at the start: an agenda for research and development in teacher induction

Abstract Recent developments in teacher induction in both England and Scotland are bringing long-overdue improvements, but there is a range of issues in need of further exploration if policy is to be developed. Current evaluations have begun to reveal the absence of some important conceptual aspects of induction in the somewhat hasty implementation. Some of these have been well rehearsed in the literature over the years but have generally failed to make any impact hitherto in induction policy. This article picks up and discusses some of the conceptual tensions and weaknesses that have, or are likely to, become practical issues of quality, in both Scottish and English induction policies. These include the use of competence-based descriptions, the non-formal dimension of learning to teach, open narrative and focused approaches to classroom observation and feedback, individualism and a pupil perspective. The array of concepts is organised into a constructive, topical agenda which, it is argued, brings a much-needed formative dimension to research and development in this crucial area of professional learning.

Assessing problem-based learning with practice portfolios: one innovation too many?

This paper presents and discusses the evaluation of a module on the care for older people in the community, designed through an analysis of educational needs in the local nurse population. The module was problem‐based and students were assessed through practice portfolios. Although the evaluation indicated that it was addressing currently relevant issues, there were some important aspects of the course that needed to be refined. In particular, the combined use of problem‐based learning (PBL) and practice portfolios (PPs) proved to be too demanding of students, most of whom had no prior experience of either. We suggest that this combination can be very valuable, but will be more viable once PPs and PBL have become more integrated into undergraduate nursing curricula.

A Goethean way of seeing inclusively

It can be argued that our contemporary view of the world is not at all based on ‘objective’ observation of ‘what is out there’, but rather the result of the application of existing mental frameworks and ways of seeing to the world around us, including the world of human beings. Goethes way of seeing recognizes the special relationship that exists between parts and wholes, so that, rather than being built up of parts, wholes are indeed non-unified wholes which are fully reflected in the parts. Each part is, as it were, one particular manifestation of the whole. My purpose in this paper is to begin to explore Goethes way of seeing as a tool for new insights into education and to do so by looking at the area of inclusion. Inclusion is a good place to start exploring because it is so obviously based on a notion of parts and wholes. For example, it is based on particular notions of what classes and schools as wholes should look like in terms of their parts: student population, achievement, assessment, curriculum, etc. Thus, examining inclusion from a Goethean perspective may provide new opportunities for thinking about and dealing with exclusion.

Validating a Steiner–Waldorf teacher education programme

Steiner-Waldorf (SW) education is based on the work of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). It provides a distinctive form of education. There are about 900 SW schools worldwide (Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, 2006). SW schools in the UK are in the independent sector, but aspire to be state-maintained to reduce the financial barriers to access. This process has recently begun in England (Woods et al., 2005) and is likely to spread across the UK. There is a shortage of SW teachers and state-funding is likely to result in the expansion of SW education and further teacher shortages, unless SW ITE can expand at the same time. The only teacher training course for SW education in Scotland is currently offered at the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School (ERSS, 2006). Although students are continuously assessed on various assignments, completion of the programme does not currently carry any formal credit.