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Strydom, Verena Zita. "The support needs of life orientation teachers in the Further Education and Training Band." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6837.
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Thesis (MEdPsych)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African youth are confronted by a range of challenges on a daily basis which can potentially evolve into serious barriers to learning and development. Life Orientation is a critical subject offered by the Further Education and Training (FET) band as it aims to prevent the development of such problems. Furthermore, the role played by the teacher in successfully and meaningfully presenting Life Orientation is a pivotal one. This study therefore aimed at understanding the support needs of Life Orientation teachers in the FET band in order to gain insight into the challenges experienced and what recommendations can be made to improve support to teachers, and consequently, learners. The theoretical framework on which this study was based was positive psychology as its emphasis on the fostering of positive individual traits, emotions and institutions is an appropriate and constructive way of understanding teachers’ support needs within their school communities. This study’s research methodology can be described as basic qualitative research which is embedded within an interpretive paradigm. Purposive sampling was used to select three schools and their Life Orientation departments as research participants. Three methods of data collection were employed, namely written reflective notes and semistructured focus group- and individual interviews. Furthermore, qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The research findings indicated that Life Orientation teachers in the FET band experience a range of support needs across the various levels within the school community. Teachers experience a tension between the expectations of the Department of Education, the needs of the learners, and their own expectations with regards to the facilitation of a community of care within the Life Orientation classroom. Support therefore needs to be aimed at increasing teachers’ competencies and providing opportunities to collaborate with other teachers to develop positive individual traits and foster positive emotions. Furthermore, school communities need to become aware of their attitudes and perceptions towards the subject so as to initiate processes which can lead to the promotion and development of positive, supportive institutions. A critical step in doing so is to consider policies regarding the appointment of Life Orientation teachers and ensure that qualified, specialist teachers who believe in the value of the subject are employed in these posts.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Suid-Afrikaanse jeug word daagliks gekonfronteer met ‘n wye spektrum uitdagings wat potensiëel tot ernstige hindernisse vir leer en ontwikkeling kan ontwikkel. Lewensoriëntering is ’n noodsaaklike vak in die Verdere Onderwys en Opleidingsband (VOO) juis omdat dit poog om die ontwikkeling van hierdie hindernisse te verhoed. Die rol van die opvoeder in die suksesvolle en betekenisvolle aanbieding van Lewensoriëntering is deuslaggewend. Daarom poog hierdie studie om die ondersteuningsbehoeftes van Lewensoriënteringopvoeders te verstaan ten einde insig te verkry in die uitdagings wat hulle ondervind. Sodoende kan aanbevelings gemaak word vir die ondersteuning van opvoeders wat dan sal deurvloei na die leerders. Die teoretiese raamwerk van hierdie studie is positiewe sielkunde, aangesien dit die ontwikkeling van positiewe individuele kenmerke, emosies en organisasies beklemtoon. Dit is dus ’n toepaslike en konstruktiewe manier om die ondersteuningsbehoeftes van opvoeders binne hulle skoolgemeenskappe te verstaan. Die navorsingsmetodologie wat in hierdie studie gebruik is, kan beskryf word as basiese kwalitatiewe navorsing binne ’n interpretivistiese paradigma. ’n Doelgerigte steekproef is gebruik om drie skole en hul Lewensoriënteringdepartemente as deelnemers te identifiseer. Drie metodes van data-insameling is gebruik, naamlik geskrewe reflektiewe notas, semigestruktureerde fokusgroeponderhoude en individuele onderhoude. Verder is kwalitatiewe inhoudsanalise gebruik om die data te analiseer. Die navorsingsbevindinge het aangedui dat Lewensoriënteringopvoeders in die VOO band ’n wye verskeidenheid ondersteuningsbehoeftes binne die verskillende vlakke van die skoolgemeenskap ervaar. Opvoeders ervaar spanning tussen die verwagtinge van die Departement van Onderwys, die behoeftes van leerders en hul eie verwagtinge met betrekking tot die fassilitering van ’n omgeegemeenskap in die Lewensoriënteringklaskamer. Ondersteuning behoort dus te poog om die bevoegdhede van die opvoeder te verbeter en geleenthede daar te stel vir die ontwikkeling van positiewe individuele kenmerke en die vestiging van positiewe emosies. Verder behoort skoolgemeenskappe meer bewus te raak van hul persepsies en houdings teenoor die vak ten einde prosesse in plek te kan stel vir die bevordering en ontwikkeling van positiewe organisasies. ’n Kritiese stap in die bereiking hiervan, is die oorweging van beleide met betrekking tot die aanstelling van Lewensoriënteringopvoeders en die versekering dat gekwalifiseerde, gespesialiseerde opvoeders wat in die waarde van die vak glo, in hierdie poste aangestel word.
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McBeath, Ursula Clare. "Curriculum dissemination in TAFE : a study of the educational change process in the Technical and Further Education sector in Western Australia." Thesis, Curtin University, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2299.
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This research was concerned with identifying and finding solutions to serious dissemination problems existing in the curriculum change process in the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) sector in Western Australia. It explored the hypothesis that much of the frustration and inefficiency which occurs when TAFE courses are reviewed or upgraded can be eradicated by attention given to a well developed dissemination strategy.The research focused initially on four case studies of TAFE curriculum innovation and on the identification of the dissemination factors which the implementers believe affected them most. The difference between the ideal dissemination factors and the actual situation then was measured, and those considered most important in the dissemination process were identified. The findings then were brought together into a new dissemination strategy which was tested in the field with a newly accredited TAFE course.Three stages of research are reported. In the first stage, data for the case studies were collected through semi-structured interviews and then analysed to provide information for a questionnaire survey. The second stage, the survey, used a preferred and actual situation questionnaire, administered to 100 TAFE lecturers to gather measurable data on the factors affecting dissemination. Third, a dissemination strategy, consisting of tactics derived from the survey, the literature and from Curriculum Services staff, was put into place with the new Certificate of Horticultural Skills and its progress was observed and analysed as it affected the lecturers in the horticulture study area.The conclusions point to the importance of lecturer collaboration in the process of change and the need for TAFE administrators to employ a trained ‘change agent’ to encourage the development of teacher meaning and ownership. Shared development of teaching materials needs to be part of the change process. The existing ‘top-down’ mandated curriculum change process needs to exist alongside a ‘bottom-up’ involvement of lecturers, and change must be seen as a shared exercise between administrators and lecturers. It is recommended that the strategy evolved in this thesis be adopted for further TAFE curriculum projects and that it be evaluated and modified for universal application in the TAFE curriculum change process.
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Reid, Adrianne. "Implementing special educational needs and disability policy reform in further education settings : an exploratory case study of named person perceptions." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7057/.
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The addition of the 19-25 age range in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice (2014) presents wide scale change in the post 16 education landscape. Organisational change is a well-established field of psychology and research suggests that the effective management of change is key to effect practice. Within a critical realist paradigm, this research employs a case study design to explore the views of professionals implementing Special Educational Needs and Disability policy reform. Qualitative semi-structured interview data was analysed using thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke (2006)). Implications for the Educational Psychology Service and central and local government are proposed, which take into account both supportive factors and potential constraints of implementing policy reform.
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Otiotio, Mary. "An exploratory study on the preparedness of further education teachers to cope with, manage and implement educational change during a college merger." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2015. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/18075/.
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This study examines the preparedness of FE teachers for educational change with particular focus on a recent merger between two further education colleges in South East England. The merger was conceived three years before implementation with the intention of developing a model that eliminated competition and promoted collaboration between the two colleges. Previous studies on changes in the further education sector (LSIS 2010; LSC 2010) have shown that change whether internally or externally imposed can impact on teachers who are the main fulcrum of educational change but they seem to have very little input in the change process even though they have to constantly adapt their mental framework to cope with the challenges associated with change. The study specifically explored how the merger between both colleges was conducted and whether teachers were prepared to cope with, manage and implement a change of this magnitude. It then goes on to discuss whether teachers require specific skills and knowledge to enable them cope better with change and if so, how such skills should be incorporated into their professional development. The research was designed as a case study which draws on a mixed method approach. Research data were collected through surveys and interviews with six teachers from both merging colleges in order to gain detailed insights into their experiences and how this impacted on their personal and professional lives. The participants who took part in the study were mostly teachers most of who hold additional management responsibilities including course leadership and management. Other participants were curriculum leaders. Data obtained from interviews were transcribed and analysed, with the following themes emerging: integrating cultures and systems, communicating change, motivation, the impact of power and politics during mergers, emotional and psychological issues of change and the pace and timing of the merger. One of the key issues that emerged from the data was teachers’ perception of their role as change agents and their acceptance that change was an intrinsic part of their job that they have to adapt to. The issue however, was the lack of training in change management to prepare and equip them with the skills to manage and cope with change. The non-inclusive, top-down approach to educational change was also an area of concern for teachers because their needs are usually ignored. In developing the case study, selected statistical analyses were conducted to measure the relationship between key variables. The research concludes that, as professionals working in a rapidly changing environment, teachers in the FE sector would benefit from acquiring ‘new knowledge’ in change management which will not only equip them with vital skills to cope with change, but also place them on the same level as other professionals. An alternative framework that empowers teachers for change management and mergers in the FE sector is provided and recommended as a tool that would be of particular use to those responsible for teacher induction, and for coordinating professional development of teachers.
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Bergqvist, Joakim, and Sebastian Breuer. "HIGH SCORE : A qualitative study on how gaming can further awareness in office environments." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-160972.
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Gamification as an educational tool has been explored extensively in traditional academic contexts such as universities and schools. There is however a lack of research on the usage of games for educational purposes in organizations, and even less research has evaluated games’ potential in creating organizational awareness. To understand if companies could benefit from gamification, this study looked at how employees’ professional backgrounds, social interaction and context during a game experience can influence employees’ awareness of the organization. In order to do that, a digital game that portrayed the supply chain process of an industrial company and focused on specific key aspects was built and tested with 17 employees in a large international organization. The results show that digital games can further both awareness of the organization by letting employees play and experience key aspects of the delivery process. The most noticeable increase in awareness were with the participants whose work is not directly involved in the supply chain.
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Sooklal, Sandra Sanyagitha. "The structural and cultural constraints on policy implementation a case study on further education and training colleges in South Africa /." Thesis, Pretoria : [s.n.], 2004. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03302005-114248.
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Parry, Melissa Louise. "An exploratory study of the incorporation of their 'future-self' as part of transition preparation in to and out of further education for young people with learning disabilities." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/24045.
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This research explored the perception of the incorporation of ‘future-self’ for young people (YP) moving from specialist provision for children where the Local Authority have identified the provision as Moderate Learning Difficulties and additional needs, their parent/carers views, and the perspectives of professionals supporting their transition to mainstream further education. The ‘future-self’ approach had its basis in social cognitive theory, as the creation of imagined ‘future-selves’ is thought to influence an individual’s behaviour to aid them to work towards their aspired self (Baker, 2015; Markus & Nurius, 1986; Oysterman & James, 2011). Phase one used a case study methodology using semi-structured interviews to explore the YP and their parent/carer’s experience of transition planning having included the young person’s vision of their ‘future-self’, at aged 16. Materials were designed to aid their understanding using visual support. Phase two gained the views of YP using focus groups as they approach transition out of FE at aged 19 or older into continued training, employment, and on towards adulthood, in relation to inclusion of their vision of their ‘future-self’ in this preparation. This phase also explored the perceptions of the professionals for incorporating the young person’s view of their ‘future-self’ using semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six stage thematic analysis to identify themes in the data. Focus groups were thematically analysed using Ritchie and Spencer’s (1994) five stage analysis. A number of themes were found for the YP at both stages, the parents/carers and the professionals. Findings indicated that the YP are more involved in the transition planning and a range of methods are applied to prepare the YP however there are a number of barriers still limiting the options for the YP such as: lack of choice available, protectiveness of others, low aspirations, failure to explore holistic longer term outcomes, insufficient multi-agency involvement, overreliance on parents, and the need for more effective strategic planning and awareness of the systems around the YP. The findings from this research indicate that applying a ‘future-selves’ approach for YP as a method to generate future aspirations to motivate YP’s behaviour has been effective as a tool to add to existing transition preparations. This could act as a way to overcome the currently existing poorer long term outcomes for YP with this population. Based upon this small scale project, further investigation would be required to assess the benefit for a wider population.
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Corbett, J. "Integration in further education : A case study." Thesis, Open University, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.380054.
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Ojolo, Akin. "Managerial competences and differential performance in further education colleges : a case study of four further education colleges in England." Thesis, Kingston University, 2011. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/25096/.
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The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented attempt to improve performance outputs from public sector organizations as a whole. This has culminated in a range of government reforms across the whole of the public sector based on the principles of accountability, targets and measurements. Underpinning the performance improvement drive within the public sector is an emerged concept of new public management (NPM) regime which mirrors the management practices of the private sector. This work focuses on the Further Education sector as an entity within the public sector services underpinned by the broad theoretical context to understand why FE colleges with similar characteristics perform differently. The OFSTED report, “Why colleges succeed or Fail” (2004) found a strong correlation between Ofsted’s assessment of management effectiveness and performance of the institutions. Those that were awarded Grade 1 for leadership and management recorded outstanding overall performance output and those judged to have weak leadership and management recorded overall poor performance output. It is would seem logical to draw a conclusion that the quality of FE leadership impacts on the quality and value of its service. This work explores this relationship in greater depth. The focus of this study was to explore the extent to which managerial competences within a situated cultural and structural content contributed to the differences in the performance of FE colleges in England and Wales. The overall objective was to analyse how the competences of senior managers, defined as formal qualification, professional experience, professional functional skills and personal attributes interact with organizational factors such as structure and culture to impact on performance. There is a lack of knowledge on the subject and this hinders the ability to place a value on the quality of leadership in the FE sector and its importance in organizational performance. Four colleges were chosen for the study from East London. The four colleges were from the same socio- economic catchment and they fell within the four categories of Ofsted performance measurements: Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory and Poor. The methodology used in this study examined the phenomena of interest in the four colleges through a process of semi-structured interviews which provided an in-depth and contextual understanding of the problem in a case study scenario. In total 27 managers were interviewed for the study, of which 3 were the college principals, 16 senior managers and 8 middle managers. A performance framework was developed from the research findings which provides some of the answers to the key research questions. Broadly, the findings suggest that some elements of managerial competences such as formal qualifications, personal attributes and educational or managerial orientations within a specific cultural climate and structure contributed to the differential performance outputs of the four FE colleges. The performance framework identified three strong relationship links between these elements which collectively would produce a strong performance outcome. The thesis makes two key contributions to existing knowledge. First, it introduces a conceptual framework that could inform managerial decision making in such a way as to achieve effective performance output from an FE college. The findings could also have a possible broader application across public sector organizations. In addition, the work also makes contributions to extant management literature by either providing some evidence of the relevance of some of the existing work or providing an alternative view to the current lines of thinking.
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Knowles, Robert G. "Further education students and the internet : a case study." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2004. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/10115/.
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This research is a case study of the way students at a Further Education College are making use of computer technology, in particular their use of the Internet, both at home and at college. The research used a multi-method approach that involved the collection of data by use of questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire was completed by two hundred students drawn from a range of courses offered at the college. The students invited to complete the questionnaire represented both full time and part time students. From the students who completed the questionnaire twenty were invited to take part in individual interviews. From the data collected the researcher has been able to establish a link between a student's cultural background and their use of computers and the Internet. The researcher has been able to gather data to support the theory that for students from some cultural backgrounds there is a likelihood that they will use Infonnation Technology for certain tasks more than students with a different cultural background. As a means of identifying groups of students who could be described as having the same cultural background the data gathered was analysed by comparing students by gender, ethnic group and religion. This research has shown that the use of computers and the Internet has become part of everyday life and as such part of our society's culture. However the research has shown that different cultural groups within our society are using the Internet in different ways and for different purposes. The data showed that male students had a more positive attitude towards computers than female students; it was also found that male students made more use of email at college than female students. The researcher has found two significant differences regarding students' use of the Internet, namely that males use the Internet more than females for entertainment and that students from a Pakistani ethnic origin use the Internet more than white students for private use. Students from Pakistani ethnic origins were also found to use email at home more than students from other ethnic backgrounds. Part of the questionnaire was used as a student self-assessment of Infonnation Technology (IT) skills and the training they had received. Analysis of this section of data showed that whilst the amount of training of students in the use of IT is independent of gender, religion and ethnicity the level of skills claimed was not. Male students claimed a higher level of IT skills than female students and the level of skill in IT claimed by Christians is significantly less than that claimed by both Muslims and those of no religion. The questionnaire results led the researcher to believe that students from different cultural backgrounds were using computers and the Internet differently. The interviews were used to probe the implications of these differences with students from particular ethnic groups. The results showed that, at the college where the study took place there were Muslim Pakistani females students who were using the Internet as their main means of social interaction, when not at college. For these students this level of social interaction would not have been available to them they did not have access to the Internet. These students were making extensive use of chat rooms on the Internet. They prearranged to talk on line to people they knew, and they did this on a regular basis. This is in contrast to female students from other cultural groups who did not use chat rooms to the same extent, and when they did it was to talk to people they did not know. The research also found that some computer use was independent of a student's cultural background. One such area related to students having difficulties or problems when using the Internet. From the students interviewed the researcher believes that for many of the students the instruction they are receiving, particularly with reference to using the Internet, is inadequate to meet their needs. In addition to the lack of IT training, some students saw the monitoring of computer use as problematic. Parental monitoring students' use of computers at home was mainly done by having the home computer located in a family room. Few of the students said that content monitoring software was being used on these machines. All students accepted this monitoring within the home environment but many were unhappy with the monitoring arrangements that the college had put in place. This research project has shown that it is not sufficient for future education researchers to investigate computer use in terms of type of use alone, as has been the case in many previous studies. This research has shown that how students choose to use computers needs to be interpreted in terms of their gender and cultural background.
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Blythe, Mark. "Resistance to commodification in further education : a case study." Thesis, University of Wolverhampton, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.360873.
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Baughan, Lynn. "Drama in further education : a study in cultural marginality." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1990. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/106900/.
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This study is an attempt to explore and explain tensions and anomalies associated with the role of Drama in Further Education. An initial intuitive framework suggests that there may be a natural antithesis between the expressive ideology of Drama and the instrumental ideology of Further Education. The frameworks proposed for the exploration include cultural reproduction theory, whilst Drama is perceived as carrying the dilemmas and contradictions of its marginal status. A two-by-two dichotomy is proposed which combines an analysis of Further Education milieu as potentially 'transparent' or 'opaque', and the role of Drama as potentially 'instrumental' or 'expressive'. The study moves accumulatively through three case studies. The first is an historical case assessing the extent, through two representative contrasting periods, to which the problems of Drama in Further Education can be said to reflect wider tensions and ambiguities pertaining to the role of Drama in culture at large. The second case study examines whether the legacy of Further Education is one of historical uncertainty and confusion, and whether Drama has responded in a consistent way to the cross-fire of ideas, interests and rhetorics of justification that it has found itself caught in. The third case study is an in-depth ethnography portrayal of the vicissitudes of Drama in a single institution, Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education, placed against a preliminary city-wide perspective concerning Further Education provision in Birmingham. As a contribution to theory, the thesis seeks tentative generalizations from multi-site and cross-time case studies in several areas, including cultural reproduction theory, modified to take account of sub-cultural tensions, and the moral behaviour and practical gambles associated with marginal subject areas in hostile milieu. It also takes an interactionist perspective on the ploys and strategies by which participants in the contested areas manage the problems of their potentially deviant identities, an account in which the collaborators and fifth columnists have their places. A final consideration is the extent to which the forces of social control in the colleges operate by hegemonic consent or by coercion in seeking to curb and contain Dramatic activity.
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Turner, Stanley. "An interrelated approach to teaching mathematics in further education." Thesis, Loughborough University, 1986. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/10505.
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Reports and consultative documents published at national level since about 1980 have indicated that British Industry must look to modern technology and also educate and train its workers on a 'broad base', with an 'integrated' approach. Traditionally, and still very much the mode of operation, teaching has been confined within subject boundaries. A research group was established by Professor Bajpai consisting of the author, Mr Rod Bond (Burleigh Community College, Loughborough) and a few others working overseas to investigate a teaching strategy based on an interrelated approach to teaching mathematics. Measurement was chosen as the first topic of investigation using this approach which then formed the basis for further research undertaken by the two research workers of the group whose work is reported in the form of two theses. This thesis aims to show that mathematics is naturally related to science and technology in industrial practice and that when taught in an interrelated way it would be more interesting and have more relevance to real applications in technology-based employment at craft and technician levels. To help establish the case experiments carried out by the author are referred to; these include a few case studies, a questionnaire survey and results analysed from more than five hundred basic mathematics tests. The various kinds of mathematics taught in further education are described and compared with mathematics in a practical context as seen from a case study within an engineering training school. Next a survey of mathematics at work shows that, like the training school, there is a task associated with the mathematics which is also related to science or technology or both. Another case study in the pharmaceutical industry lends further support to the way mathematics is used in industry. Much of the mathematics also seems to be basic and used in association with measurement and a particular task. It was decided by the research group that a tape/slide programme on measurement for students and educators should be developed by the author and tested in different situations. Teaching modules on relevant mathematical topics based on the interrelated approach were constructed for students with strong support from industry in the form of materials and advice. Testing of these modules, in their original and revised forms after feedback, is described. These trials were also carried out in other establishments. Modules based upon the interrelated approach developed by the author formed a basis for promoting the underlying philosophy behind this approach. These were presented to educators in in-service training and staff development programmes in the north western region of the UK with success. Observations and conclusions drawn clearly indicate that this type of method makes mathematics more interesting and relevant for students of different abilities and backgrounds. Finally pointers are given in the thesis as to the wider use and promotion of this approach for teaching mathematics in further education.
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Hall, Michael D. "The new further education teacher as an agent of change : a case study of initial teacher training in further education." Thesis, Anglia Ruskin University, 2018. http://arro.anglia.ac.uk/703813/.
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The training of Further Education teachers has been debated since the incorporation of Further Education colleges in the UK in 1992 but, to date, moves by governments and their agencies to professionalise the FE teaching sector have been unsuccessful. The continuation of a homogenous initial teacher training programme within the FE sector has resulted in this sector failing to respond to the changing needs of society and the complex needs of the new FE teacher. This study explored the FE teacher training programme within one college in the UK. The research questions focussed on four elements: the concept of professionalism in FE teaching, the FE teacher as an agent of change, the changing professional identity of the participants and the ways new FE teachers managed multiple professional identities. Using a case study approach, twenty-two new FE teachers undertaking the initial teacher training programme participated in the research as they took on their new professional role as FE teachers. The project used mixed methods of data collection including self-completion questionnaires, focus groups, observations and semi-structured interviews. Thematic content analysis identified that the FE teachers experienced changing and multiple professional identities, from vocational experts to qualified educators, whilst retaining elements of their previous professional identities. Through this process of change, new FE teachers acted as change agents and helped FE students realise their own aspirations. This research demonstrates that Further Education teaching can be categorised into three distinct areas based on the subjects taught: the vocational teacher, the professional teacher, and the academic teacher. Teachers from each area require a different focus in their initial teacher training. The study identifies the need for different approaches to Further Education initial teacher training for the three areas and offers opportunities to develop distinct teaching qualifications and career pathways whilst capturing the generic sociological aspects of FE teaching.
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Hall, Michael D. "The new further education teacher as an agent of change: A case study of initial teacher training in further education." Thesis, Anglia Ruskin University, 2018. https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/703813/1/Hall_2018.pdf.
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The training of Further Education teachers has been debated since the incorporation of Further Education colleges in the UK in 1992 but, to date, moves by governments and their agencies to professionalise the FE teaching sector have been unsuccessful. The continuation of a homogenous initial teacher training programme within the FE sector has resulted in this sector failing to respond to the changing needs of society and the complex needs of the new FE teacher. This study explored the FE teacher training programme within one college in the UK. The research questions focussed on four elements: the concept of professionalism in FE teaching, the FE teacher as an agent of change, the changing professional identity of the participants and the ways new FE teachers managed multiple professional identities.
Using a case study approach, twenty-two new FE teachers undertaking the initial teacher training programme participated in the research as they took on their new professional role as FE teachers. The project used mixed methods of data collection including self-completion questionnaires, focus groups, observations and semi-structured interviews.
Thematic content analysis identified that the FE teachers experienced changing and multiple professional identities, from vocational experts to qualified educators, whilst retaining elements of their previous professional identities. Through this process of change, new FE teachers acted as change agents and helped FE students realise their own aspirations.
This research demonstrates that Further Education teaching can be categorised into three distinct areas based on the subjects taught: the vocational teacher, the professional teacher, and the academic teacher. Teachers from each area require a different focus in their initial teacher training. The study identifies the need for different approaches to Further Education initial teacher training for the three areas and offers opportunities to develop distinct teaching qualifications and career pathways whilst capturing the generic sociological aspects of FE teaching.
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Fielding, Gerard. "Change in teacher professionalism in further education : a case study." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2002. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14473/.
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This study explores the effect of policy and funding changes in the further education (FE) sector on the nature of teacher professionalism and the general vocational curriculum. In the last decade there has been tremendous change in the FE sector. It has been argued that this has been the result of fundamental alterations in the organization and distribution of work. The consequence has been that much governmental attention has been paid to the post-school sector. The recent White Paper Learning to Succeed (DfEE, 1999b) has been one of a number of attempts to redress the perceived failure of the sector to provide a skilled workforce for the needs of industry. My thesis seeks to reflect upon the effects of policy and funding changes in one further education college. It concentrates on changes in general vocational education and training. It reflects on the impact of those changes upon teacher professionalism in further education. The research took place in a college of further education using case study methods. The data for my findings are derived from participant observation techniques and semi-structured interviews with teaching staff. It utilized a qualitative critical ethnographic methodology with the aim of giving a voice to those most affected by the changes. Lecturers believe that significant changes to the sector were initiated by the Incorporation of colleges (April, 1993) and have accelerated since. The fieldwork took place in the academic year 1998-99. The literature review part of my research found that, in order to advance the government's vision for a 'learning society', it opined that alterations in the general vocational curriculum were necessary. I believe that changes to the professional lives of college lecturers were required in order to implement that end. It is my conviction that the changes are instrumental. They are about preparing young people for the needs of industry alone. The lecturers in my study believe such changes have had a negative effect on their definitions of the concept of professionalism. Further to this, they feel that the new qualifications and the way they had to be taught, to the backdrop of, for example, cuts in class contact hours, have had a detrimental effect on the education and training of students. These developments, they maintain, will militate against any evolution of a true 'learning society', if such a society would have the aim of producing a future citizenry (not just workers) in a 'reflective participatory democracy'.
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Whiterod, Lindsey Janet. "A case study of coaching in leadership in further education." Thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/2718.
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There have been many complex and contradictory policy changes in further education colleges in the last twenty years. Whilst there has been a focus on the need for good leadership and management in the sector by Ofsted and government agencies little research exists on leadership development and in particular coaching and the impact it can have on improving leadership in the sector. This longitudinal single case (embedded) study explores the implementation of a leadership development programme based on coaching in a general FE college in the North of England. Embedded units of analysis (individual participants on the coaching programme) were studied over the length of the case and my role as participant, manager and researcher provided both opportunities and challenges to the research design and ethics of the study. Questionnaires, semi structured interviews and focus groups were used to gain the perceptions of senior and middle managers in the college over the duration of the coaching programme. The research showed the importance and impact of coaching in leadership development in the college case study. It was also evident that being very clear about the aims of the coaching programme and setting the right ecological conditions in the institution are crucial to ensure that personal development and organisational development do not become out of kilter. The research showed that models of continuing professional development involving coaching can provide challenge and opportunities for new thinking in colleges which can give institutions the capacity to make a strategic leap. My own experience of introducing coaching to support teaching and learning in my new college also supported the findings that this kind of continuing professional development can have a significant impact on the participants. In conclusion, the use of coaching to support leadership and teaching and learning development in FE is still evolving. Against a cultural backdrop of governmentality and performativity, college leadership and teaching and learning can be transformed if managers and teachers are challenged to break old habits and move away from an obsessive focus on targets and policy drivers. Individual and college approaches can be enhanced particularly if the planning of development and the ecology is right in the institution to support both developments.
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Doughty, Hannelore. "Critical perspectives on modern languages in Scottish further education 2000-2002." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/40.
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The research in this thesis focuses on issues surrounding modern language provision within Scottish further education during the period 2000-2002. The study analyses the arguments regarding the place of modern language study within Scottish further education (FE) as expressed in formal and informal discourses, and assesses the influence of socio-cultural and socio-historical assumptions on these discourses. To this end, a multi-strand and multi-level research model was adopted, examining official and other public documents, together with views expressed by stakeholders from five Scottish FE colleges and from industry. These were analysed both on their own terms and by taking into account changes in the external context. The initial focus of the study centred on the motivational characteristics of student participants. However, changes in the external context prompted the inclusion of further data into the research design and a shift of methodological emphasis, exploring the ways in which assumptions underlying data collection procedures related to labour market information and uptake of individual FE subjects may be contributing to a continuous re-affirmation that 'English is enough'. The validity of this assertion and the authority accorded to it are called into question. It is argued that the belief will increasingly limit Scottish FE students' potential to participate as self-confident and self-determining individuals in a global and multilingual economy for which their vocational education and training is ostensibly trying to prepare them. Some suggestions, arising from the research, for a more inclusive language education policy are considered.
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Sheppard, Michael Robert. "An analysis of the factors which determine success in open and flexible delivery systems in secondary schools and FE colleges : a study of Mid Glamorgan." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270529.
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Kedzierska, Doreen. "Governance and public sector work : a case study in further education." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/24760.
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Promises by consecutive governments to ’reform the public services’ carry the implication that few changes have taken place in this sector since its inception, and that the negative image of the public sector still exercises the mind of the people as well as that of successive governments. Despite extensive reform, the transformation of the public sector appears to have produced a form of public service that satisfies no-one. One of the debates about public services has been whether provision is best achieved through a welfare state, which plans and provides services, or through the ‘market’, which is sometimes represented as a more efficient way of allocating resources and delivering services. The way this issue has been address by governments over the past 20 years or so has led to extensive changes within the public sector. Sociologically, this research is located at the intersection of a number of debates that have exercised the sociological imagination for the last decades of the 20th century. These include the forms and exercise of power in modern society, how society should be organised, and concerns about a social world that has become increasingly individualistic. However, the issues surrounding the reform of the public services also involve concepts and theories used in, and developed by, other disciplines from economics, politics, public administration and social policy to management. The argument made in this thesis is that the reform of the public sector is closely tied to issues of governance that stem from particular power relations. Those in power have governed through the development of specific rationalities and the thesis explores the concept of freedom both as a rationality and as a practice of government. These can be seen in the adoption of neo-liberal ideologies and practices in global and local contexts that have led to the introduction of market principles and mechanisms to aspects of social life that have changed the notion of collective provision for citizens to that of meeting the needs of individuals as consumers. In the research, Further Education is used as a case study to examine particular aspects of arguments. The incorporation of Further Education colleges in Scotland in 1993 demonstrated the application of the ideas and policies of the New Right through the introduction of market principles and as a result democratic representation, control, management, and governance within FE have changed in significant ways. To ascertain the significance of the reforms and ensuing changes, the merits and demerits of markets versus hierarchy; the extent and effects of decentralisation; new forms of control and scrutiny and the way processes and changes have been interpreted by key players will be evaluated. The forms of organisation that have emerged will be examined in terms of their intended and unintended consequences and it will be argued that despite the negative perceptions of reform, Further Education has used modifications in organisation to its own advantage. Finally, it will be shown that the particular form of governance that has been established can be used by different political administrations to meet their own objectives and that although Further Education has been criticised as some as being too adaptable, this very characteristic has, thus far, ensured its survival.
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Bradley, Don. "The impact of incorporation on further education colleges : a case study." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.389160.
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Pyle, N. T. "Principalship in colleges offering non-advanced further education in the northwest of England and technical and further education in Queensland : An illuminative study." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.374152.
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Thomen, Eva Christine Salzmann. "Policy and practice : an activity systems' analysis of a further diploma in education (technology)." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004525.
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This research examines, within the interpretive paradigm, how emerging educational policy in an in-service educator education programme, namely, a Further Diploma in Education (Technology), is implemented and practiced by educators in the classroom. Technology is a new learning area in the South African curriculum that aims to develop learners' technological skills and promote the practical application of Science and Mathematics. Technology is seen as a way of developing a productive workforce that can design, realise and evaluate technological problems in a global economy. Engestrom's version of Activity Theory was used as the conceptual framework. Activity Theory focuses on 'activity' as a unit of analysis that captures the individual in context. This research focuses on the lecturers' and the students' actions in the programme, and the educators' and the learners' actions in the classroom. The research design was an eclectic case study consisting of two embedded cases within a single larger case namely, in-service educator education. Multiple single cases were selected within the two embedded cases. Trustworthiness and authenticity were addressed through the triangulation of data using mUltiple sources and methods of data collection. Data were analysed and interpreted in a hermeneutic-like process that emerged through gradual induction over time. The findings of the research suggest that the in-service educator education programme did not promote the effective implementation of educational policy. Major challenges to the effective implementation of educational policy include: the formulation and implementation of an INSET programme during rapid educational policy change, the under-preparedness and language difficulties of the participating educators that constrained policy implementation in the INSET programme and the classroom, the role of organisational rules in shaping the activities in the INSET programme and the classroom, and the broader community'S contribution to resource constraints in the classroom. This research suggests that the participating educators are not likely to be major change agents in the transformation of education in South Africa. This concurs with other research findings that suggest that educator education is a weak intervention incapable of overcoming the shortcomings of the educators' own personal schooling or the impact of work experience.
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Skeggs, Beverley E. "Young women and further education : a case study of young women's experience of caring courses in a local college." Thesis, Keele University, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.329612.
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Holtzhausen, S. M., and H. Venter. "A performance management system for a further education and training college : a Cinderella case study." Journal for New Generation Sciences, Vol 8, Issue 3: Central University of Technology, Free State, Bloemfontein, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11462/568.
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Published ArticleThe complexity, uniqueness and importance of performance management systems provide the milieu for the author's demonstration that staff performance remains at the heart of an institution. However, the trick is whether institutions have developed the skill of unleashing this potential. This requires a comprehensive approach, which stresses the merits of improving individual and institutional performance. This article explores one institution's perspective, experiences and challenges that were discovered during the Cinderella case study of a Further Education and Training College in South Africa. One of the distinctive features of a performance management system is that it can become a crucial quality assurance tool to ensure results.
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Walford, Robert. "Professional 'lived' experiences of middle managers in Further Education (FE) colleges in Wales : a study of the impact of major change." Thesis, University of Chester, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10034/621869.
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Merger organizational change has been prolific across Wales and has significantly affected all Further Education (FE) colleges. The main merger driver was to reduce operational costs, whilst in the pursuit of increased organizational and departmental efficiencies and effectiveness. An imperative to widening access to education, an increase in the quality of curriculum provision and a need to reduce duplication of curriculum programmes were also important considerations. It is these changes that have shaped college organizations and the college middle manager role, post-merger, with a resulting impact on middle managers professional 'lived' experiences. The author's research examines the effect of merger on the middle manager role and the influence of the college context on the 'lived' experiences of middle managers managing curriculum departments. The review of the literature highlights key relationships between mainstream management and the college middle manager role, as well as the influences likely to have an impact on this role. The author has developed a conceptual model with key elements consisting of professional 'lived' experiences of middle managers and role construct and behaviour, management and leadership. This study is exploratory in nature and uses a social constructionist philosophical approach. A subjectivist epistemology was adopted for this study, with the researcher applying a thematic analysis and an investigation of multiple realities. Data for this research was collected from in-depth semi-structured interviewees, which gave interviewees the opportunity to highlight their specific day-to-day professional 'lived' work experiences. The research study outlines a number of conclusions, which accord with this study's specific research objectives and recommendations. In the post-merger era, the middle manager role has become more complex and challenging. Conclusions indicate a broader role for the middle manager, and a role defined by the college's professional context, which contributes to influencing the college middle manager role. This study contributes to the field of academic study, and to professional practice. It provides insights to understanding the role of middle managers in the FE sector and also offers recommendations for college strategy and policy. Finally, it highlights opportunities for further research in Wales and beyond.
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Wright, Anne-Marie. "A reflexive study of students with severe learning disabilities in further education." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2007. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/6352/.
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This thesis explores the effectiveness of discrete courses designed to prepare young adults with severe learning disabilities for the next stage in their lives, broadly assumed to be independent living and employment. It focuses particularly on the ways a small group of students in one college are prepared for supported employment. It captures the views of some of these students and of the significant adults who work with them. The thesis does not reject work as an option for young adults with severe learning disabilities; rather it promotes the view that work is one of the significant places where the adult community congregates. Inclusion in mainstream work, as is inclusion in mainstream school, is an important way to achieve first, public visibility and then, social acceptance for those with severe learning disabilities. In its final analysis, the thesis adopts a Foucauldian perspective and invites the further education sector to reconsider entrenched thinking which promotes normalised notions of work linked to the ability to perform a set of functional skills. Whilst inclusion in the workplace for people with severe learning disabilities is dependent on a normalised set of skills and behaviours and moreover, that these can be learned through behaviourist principles, this inclusion will not be achieved. The thesis suggest that a more positive way forward, may be to explore ways to harness the innate vocational aptitudes and aspirations of young adults with severe learning difficulties, and to support them in contributing to adult society, not judged by normalised measures of competence, but as valued participants whose particular talents are celebrated.
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Leathwood, Carole. "Gender and the marketisation of further education : a study of two colleges." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2001. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10007415/.
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This thesis investigates the marketisation of further education (FE) in England in the 1990s with specific reference to gender. A major restructuring of the public sector has taken place in recent years, and colleges have undergone significant changes, with reductions in funding, an increased emphasis on efficiency and accountability, and a new business ethos all evident. This research was conducted in two inner-city colleges m 1997-98, usmg a combination of in-depth interviews, observation, and the examination of documents. The main aim was to identify dominant discourses and practices in the newly corporatised colleges, and to investigate the impact of these on gendered (raced, and classed) power relations. The thesis explores issues of funding and quality, new managerialism, and the restructuring of staffing, spaces and spatial relations. The importance given to new technological developments and their perceived role in the reconstruction of learning, learner and professional identities are also discussed. A further chapter explores the attention paid to equality concerns. A Foucauldian concept of discourse is used to examine the knowledges and perspectives that are legitimised or suppressed within the new FE, and the research draws upon feminist and other critical analyses of marketisation, organisation and management. It is argued that the Cartesian mind-body dichotomy, with its reification of 'rationality' and gendered implications, can be 3 seen to underpin the dominant discourses of the market, managerialism and new learning technologies in further education, and the thesis explores the processes by which gendered identities and power relations are maintained and reconstructed in this context. Differences within and between the colleges are discussed, and oppositional discourses which assert professional educational values, an ethic of care and a commitment to challenging inequalities are all identified. The thesis concludes with an analysis of resistance, and an account of more recent policy developments in the sector.
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Hobson, Margaret Mary. "Effective management of change in further education : a study of six colleges." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.421074.
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Franklin, William Leslie. "Change in further education : a case study with particular reference to education for a multicultural society." Thesis, Birmingham City University, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.293271.
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Further Education (F.E) has undergone some dramatic changes in the last decade. Many colleges began by swinging away from a narrow correspondence with the needs of industry, took on the mantle of the 'new F.E', and now find themselves obsessed with Total Quality Management (T.Q.M). Changes have taken place both in organisational structures within colleges and in their relationships with local authorities, employers and the community in general. An important concern of the thesis is to understand the effect that all of this has had on Education for a Multicultural Society (E.M.S) and how the developments have affected equal opportunity outcomes. The research then is a case study of organisational change, conducted via an in depth study of a Birmingham F.E college, the researcher's own place of work. It uses a variety of research methodologies including participant observation and action research. As a contribution to knowledge the research attempts to analyse a college applying innovatory organisational arrangements as a response to changed demand. For this reason it is seen as a step on the way to developing a more complete understanding of the impact of current and future college involvement in T.Q.M with particular reference to E.M.S.
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Mettler, Edwina Michelle. "Science teachers' experience of the transition process from general education and training to further education and training : a multiple case study." Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86568.
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Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This qualitative multiple case study explored the subjective experiences of four science teachers during the transition process from Natural Sciences in the General Education and Training (GET) band to Life Sciences in the Further Education and Training (FET) band. The study was guided by one main research question and four sub-questions. Data were collected using simple observation, an open-ended questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and photographic evidence. The study revealed that the experiences of the teachers are dependent upon their years of teaching experience, the quality of in-service training and workshops, available resources, the support the teacher receives from the school and the Department of Education and how each school is individually managed. The findings in this study further revealed that teachers feel alone and abandoned by the Department of Education, as there is very little to no support and communication between the teachers and the Department. The teachers reported that there is a misalignment between the content and assessment requirements in Grade 9 and Grade 10, which causes learners to struggle to adapt in Grade 10. Teachers then resort to measures such as structuring the GET more like the FET and reorganising and modifying the content of Natural Sciences across grades 8 and 9 in an effort to better prepare learners for Grade 10 Life Sciences. All the teachers who participated in the study revealed that they did not receive sufficient training to assist them with the transition process from GET to FET. Reasons offered included that in-service training and workshops focused more on administration instead of providing teachers with the necessary context-specific training required to implement the National Curriculum Statement. It is therefore evident that highly skilled teachers are needed to ensure a smooth transition from GET to FET. Teachers need to participate in curriculum initiatives, as it is the teachers who are ultimately responsible for implementing new curriculum initiatives.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie kwalitatiewe veelvuldige gevallestudie is die subjektiewe ervarings van vier wetenskaponderwysers tydens die oorgangsproses van Natuurwetenskappe in die Algemene Onderwys en Opleiding (AOO-)band na Lewenswetenskappe in die Verdere Onderwys en Opleiding (VOO-)band ondersoek. Die studie is deur een hoofnavorsingsvraag en vier subvrae gerig. Data is deur eenvoudige waarneming, ’n oopeinde-vraelys, semigestruktureerde onderhoude en fotografiese bewyse ingesamel. Die studie het aan die lig gebring dat die ervarings van onderwysers afhang van hul onderwyservaring, die gehalte van indiensopleiding en werkswinkels, beskikbare hulpbronne, die ondersteuning wat die onderwyser van die skool en die Departement van Onderwys ontvang, en hoe elke skool individueel bestuur word. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie toon voorts dat onderwysers vervreem en afgesonder van die Departement van Onderwys voel, aangesien daar baie min of geen ondersteuning en kommunikasie tussen die onderwysers en die Departement is nie. Die onderwysers voer aan dat daar nie ooreenstemming is tussen die inhoud en assesseringsvereistes in graad 9 en 10 nie, wat meebring dat leerders sukkel om in graad 10 aan te pas. Onderwysers wend hulle dan na maatreëls soos om die AOO meer soos die VOO te struktureer en die inhoud van Natuurwetenskappe in graad 8 en 9 te herorganiseer en te wysig in ’n poging om leerders beter vir Lewenswetenskappe in graad 10 voor te berei. Al die onderwysers wat aan hierdie studie deelgeneem het, het aangedui dat hulle nie genoegsame opleiding ontvang het om hulle met die oorgangsproses van AOO na VOO te help nie. Redes hiervoor het ingesluit dat indiensopleiding en werkswinkels meer op administrasie fokus as wat dit onderwysers van die nodige konteksspesifieke opleiding voorsien om die Nasionale Kurrikulumverklaring te implementeer. Dit is duidelik dat hoogs opgeleide onderwysers nodig is om ’n suksesvolle oorgang van AOO na VOO te verseker. Onderwysers behoort toegelaat te word om insette tot kurrikuluminisiatiewe te lewer, aangesien dit uiteindelik die onderwysers is wat verantwoordelik is vir die implementering van nuwe kurrikuluminisiatiewe.
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Rogers, D. A. "Performance related pay : a study in a further education college using action research." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.419205.
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Page, Damien. "Change, resistance and coping : a study of first tier managers in further education." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 2011. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/8081/.
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This thesis presents findings from a study of first tier managers (FTMs) in Further Education colleges, a role that has been largely neglected by the extant literature. The study investigated the role in four general FE colleges and adopted a case study approach, employing semi-structured interviews as the main research method. The findings suggest that the FTM role is extremely diverse and heterogeneous, elastic and poorly understood. Yet FTMs themselves enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in how they performed their roles. Within colleges, FTMs worked within a trialectic of students, team and organisation and could be identified in one of four positions defined here in terms of metaphors of faith: for fundamentalists, students were the priority; priests put their teams first; converts prioritised the organisation; martyrs attempted to meet the demands of all three elements of the trialectic and suffered the highest degree of home invasion by work. Within the resistant context of FE, FTMs found themselves the audience for a variety of forms of routine resistance by lecturers, from gossip and rumours to making out and withholding enthusiasm. However, as they were rarely the target of resistance, a number of FTMs colluded with their teams or turned a blind eye in the hope of continued cooperation; few were willing to challenge resistance. FTMs were also highly active in their own resistance, expressing principled dissent overtly to senior managers as well as manipulating data and even fiddling paperwork. Yet while change management within colleges appeared generally poor, resistance was not to change but to managerialism, surveillance and the culture of performativity. Despite the challenges of the role – the stress, the immediate gratification needs of senior managers and the fire-fighting – FTMs were found to be highly committed and highly motivated. Where the stress became too much, the articipants employed a range of coping strategies including non-compliant coping, strategies intended to resist stressors rather than manage them. Finally, a new approach to job design with FE is suggested, one that involves idiosyncratic deals, a process of negotiating roles that potentially meets the needs of both the organisation and the employee.
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Riley, Christopher John. "Internal and external pressures on further education : a case study of a college." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.289469.
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Mohammad, Javed Khizer, and S. N. Imenda. "A study of factors contributing to underachievement in exponential and logarithmic functions in the Further Education and Training school phase." Thesis, University of Zululand, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1760.
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A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree
of Master of Education in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2019.This study sought to determine the NSC learners’ level of understandings of exponential and logarithmic functions; grade twelve teachers’ self- assessment of their readiness to teach exponential and logarithmic functions; the relationship between the educators’ self-concept about their ability to teach exponential and logarithmic functions and the actual performance of their learners; and whether or not the educators’ MCK and PCK impacted learner achievement in exponential and logarithmic functions. The study developed a conceptual framework from literature which consisted of two major components depicting learner and educator readiness. These models illustrated factors that could possibly affect the ability of the learner to succeed in understanding instruction related to exponential equations and logarithmic functions, as well as those that would prevent educators from delivering optimum instruction to learners. This study used a mixed-methods research paradigm, as there was need to collect both quantitative and qualitative data in order to adequately answer the four research questions. The survey research design was used, and data were collected through a researcher-designed test (for learners) and a researcher-designed questionnaire for educators, focusing on their MCK and PCK. The research sample, consisting of nine school principals, nine mathematics educators, and 242 mathematics learners based in nine randomly selected schools, was drawn from a target population of high schools in the uMkhanyakude education district, KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Analysis was done using the SPSS version 23 software programme. The results revealed that learners had basic understanding of exponential and logarithmic functions in most aspects of the topic, although their performance was border line. For the educators, although all they were suitably qualified in terms of their minimum requirements for registration with the South African Council for Educators (SACE), their performance on the same test taken by their learners was only marginally above the performance of their learners. The educators’ responses to the question about their readiness to teach exponential equations and logarithmic functions were v mixed shedding some light on why many of them were unable to solve the same problems given to their learners. On the relationship between educators’ self-concept about their ability to teach exponential and logarithmic functions and their learners’ performance, the results showed that learners whose teachers considered themselves to be suitably qualified, knowledgeable and able to teach exponential and logarithmic functions performed significantly lower than learners whose teachers considered themselves not to be suitably qualified, knowledgeable and able to teach exponential and logarithmic functions. The results of the questions which sought to establish the impact of educators’ MCK and PCK on learner performance in exponential and logarithmic functions drew a blank, suggesting that there was no relationship between teachers’ MCK and PCK, on one hand, and learner performance, on another.
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Murray, David Williamson. "Drowning under unintended consequences : a specific example of policy mess." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/15940.
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The research focused on public policy implementation, unintended consequences of government action and policy mess, using the particular example of West Lothian College's Private Finance Initiative procured Livingstone campus as a case study. A public policy change led to the college becoming financially insecure, undermined the college's business case and the the college's ability to meet its contractual and financial obligations. If left unresolved, the college would have run out of money, defaulted on the contract and threatened the very existence of the institution. The college estate was taken into public ownership as the result of a negotiated settlement with the private sector owners of the campus. The importance of the research lay in adding to the body of knowledge around public policy implementation theory, which is not well researched or understood in the context of further education. The research design led to an in-depth interpretive, instrumental, single case study that explored, described and explained public policy implementation from the perspective of participants in a public policy network. The techniques of semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis were used. Using a policy networks approach, the research identified: how policy gets modified; how unintended consequences arose; how the unintended consequences resulted in policy mess; what policy learning took place as a result of policy mess; what policy change occurred as a result of policy mess; my role as an interested researcher and agent of change in the situation. In the West Lothian College case it was found that an ensemble of public policy had been at play rather than simply one policy. This ensemble of top-down policies comprised the UK-wide private finance initiative and two Scotland-wide further education funding policies. The research was timely as the literature suggests that policy networks are increasingly identified as an important governance mechanism in the areas of public policy implementation and new public management. The findings show that in respect of the West Lothian College case, networks have reconfigured relationship between government and other actors. They have also linked previously separate central, vertical, policy makers with an array of horizontal policy implementation actors.
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Lowe, Janet. "Integrating learning with life : a study of higher education students in a further education college : 2000-2003." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/66.
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In Scotland, further education colleges provide 28% of all higher education; this includes over half of part-time undergraduate higher education. This provision has contributed to wider participation in higher education in Scotland by “non traditional” students and to progress towards a mass system of higher education within a learning society. This thesis is a case study of higher education students in a Scottish further education college. It explores the nature of the students’ experience and its relevance to institutional management and higher education policy. Evidence is drawn from the college’s records, from focus groups and from a questionnaire survey of whole year groups (full-time and part-time students) over three successive years. The theoretical focus is upon a new definition of lifelong learning as learning integrated with life, drawn from literature on motive, motivation, participation and retention. The research explores the students’ experiences of combining study with work and family life. The student experience is found to be heterogeneous, complex and distinct from the stereotype of a young full-time university student. Vocational motives predominate and there is evidence of a significant investment of meaning, expectation and purpose in the experience of higher education. The students’ ability to balance and integrate learning with life is a determining factor in the achievement of sustained participation. The quality of support networks both in college and in the students’ work and family lives are found to be more significant than personal or demographic characteristics. The case study contributes to current thinking about the professional role of college senior managers in creating a student-centred institutional culture that responds to the complexity of the students’ experience. A case is made for a review of the current inequity of financial support for full-time and part-time higher education students and of the marginal status of colleges in the development of higher education policy.
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Johnston, Craig E. "The other side of the bridge : a study of social capital in further education provision for young disabled people." Thesis, Brunel University, 2011. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5190.
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This thesis is a detailed account and analysis of young disabled people‟s inclusions within one Further Education College. These inclusions were tied to a number of complex interactions between the people who exist there and key reforms to Further Education systems which aim to support an individual‟s capacity to offer entrepreneurial performances. Central to these reforms is alternative provision, which offer places in college to school aged students who risk failing to invest in the work-related skills and knowledge that apparently has measurable consequences for future earnings and social justice. This thesis shows how the inclusion of young disabled people in a contemporary college community has some unintended effects and consequences, and how their lives were differentially affected by social capital arising from social networks based on trust. An emancipatory, qualitative methodology was used to gather data. The findings provide important insights into how young disabled people possess, produce and utilise social capital, to build new relationships, to develop identity, to resist or manipulate pre-assigned social roles, networks and resources and to make the transition from school to college. In their own words, young disabled people question the sense of optimism often attributed to alternative provision and the extent to which their existence in college has overcome the social barriers and closed networks that can be associated with disabled people as a marginalised group. To harness such existences and to further develop social capital theory, my conclusions set out a young disabled person‟s negotiation of college as an ethical project in which everyone - college students, teaching staff and researchers - have work to do on themselves. This makes alternative provision not something that is just done to many young disabled people but a project for which everyone is responsible. This thesis, therefore, re-reads the story of alternative provision with a wary eye, using a critical approach to social capital theory. In doing so, the research not only confirms the significance of social capital as a crucial analytical tool for young disabled people, but also confronts the overly positive underpinnings of the social capital debate in education.
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Blomme, Paul. "A study of the models and trends in information science education and their implications for Tafe curriculum planning, computing lecturers and learners." Thesis, Curtin University, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1029.
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This chapter provides an introduction to two contrasting vocational course: the Associate Diploma in Applied Science (Computing) award, based on the content driven curriculum model and the first year Diploma of Information Technology award, based on the National Information Technology curriculum model. It develops the research questions pertaining to each model. It provides a full description of the present study and the adoption of a system approach in evaluating two contrasting curriculum models. Finally, this chapter justifies the study in terms of the significant impact the Information Technology has on society.Chapter Two reviews the literature on the theories from different disciplines and research findings in order to guide the present study. This eclectic section discusses theories related to Cognitive Science, Instructional Theories, Information Technology (IT) and Science Education, and Vocational Curriculum Models.Chapter Three describes the environment in which the content driven model has developed. It examines the historical changes and influences that have occurred in the Western Australian Technical and Further Education (WA TAFE) computing curriculum in terms of educational goals, content mix and profile, and assessments types. It investigates the relevance of the curriculum and the syllabi to meet the changing needs of industry; and assess the desirable and undesirable consequences of the content driven curriculum model.Chapter Four evaluates the effect of the content driven model. It examines the degree of satisfaction of the graduates with aspects of their Associate Diploma of Applied Science (Computing) courses in 1991/2/3 based on the NCVER study (1993), Dawe (1993) and Arrowsmith (1993/4) surveys. The results from each relevant question are provided, discussed and evaluated. This evaluation provides an in-depth view of graduates educational backgrounds prior to enrolment in the course, their satisfaction levels of teaching effectiveness and course organisation, present employment status, their preferences for further studies and their demographic profile.Chapter Five evaluates the current state of affairs under the new policy directions of the National Curriculum based on the CBT approach. Through classroom surveys, this chapter provides an evaluation of learners degree of satisfaction with aspects of their Advanced Certificate IV of the National IT Curriculum. For comparison purposes, these surveys also provide information on students educational backgrounds, level of satisfaction, their present employment status and preferences for further studies. It is most useful for curriculum planners, wanting to be cognisant in implement a CBT driven curriculum model.Chapter Six compares, evaluates and summarises the differences between the content and the CBT driven curriculum models. This chapter pays particular attention to the shifting of graduates and students satisfaction levels with their two different courses and the effects of moving from a content to a CBT driven curriculum model. It examines the changes in learners satisfaction levels and explains the reasons of patterns of changes, given that learners educational backgrounds, teachers effectiveness and other factors have remained constant over the last five years. This comparison is useful for curriculum planners, computing lecturers and employers as it makes them aware of the strength and weaknesses of these two contrasting curriculum models.Chapter Seven answers the question of the effectiveness of these two contrasting models. This has considerable implication for curriculum planners, computing lecturers and employers in terms of the ability of students to transfer skills and adapt to the rapidly changing IT environment. This study cannot predict the future, however, it makes long and short term recommendations for the sector based on historical evidence, research findings from the literature, surveys and interviews.
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Kiewiets, Winifred Margaret. "Perceptions relating to students performance in small business management at further education and training colleges." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/463.
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The perceptions of both students and teachers are vital to improve performance and to ensure a positive teaching and learning climate at a college. This study examines the perceptions of staff at three recently merged campuses and students regarding student performance. The research focuses specifically on the performance of students registered for the Small Business Management N3 and NSC (National Senior Certificate) curriculum. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods was employed to investigate the desired result. Staff teaching the subject (Small Business Management) were given semi-structured interviews, while students who are currently studying the subject were given questionnaires to complete. Data was collected and analysed. This study reveals amongst other findings that management in FET institutions needs to take cognisance of the perceptions of staff and students regarding the improvement of student performance. Opinions, attitudes, insights and recommendations expressed concerning student performance can help institutions improve their culture of teaching and learning.
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MacKenzie, Tyler Christine. "Implementing Key Skills Policy in Further Education : a study of curriculum interpretation and management." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.527149.
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Curtis, William Jesse. "A-level learning cultures in further education : an ethnographic study of learning and teaching." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.444499.
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The study examines the learning cultures of A-level within the contexts of further education. By focusing on the settings between institutional structures and individual perceptions, it explores the shared cultural spaces that students and lecturers inhabit. It is argued that these spaces both shape and are shaped by the experiences, interpretations and actions of lecturers and students, as they construct, negotiate and maintain their college identities. The thesis is based on eighteen months of ethnographic research in a further education college in the south-west of England. The researcher had extensive knowledge of this college, having worked there for five years prior to commencing the study. Data was gathered through a range of methods: group and individual semi-structured interviews (with a core sample of eighteen students and lecturers) constituted the main source of data, while formal and informal observations, student surveys and analysis of college documents, provided stimulus, context and further data. The study is influenced by postmodern theorisations and the notion of contingent fields is developed to understand the fragmented, transient, fluid and plural cultural spaces that students and lecturers inhabit. Making extensive use of interview data, dimensions of learning cultures are outlined and discussed. Six characters of studentship and four characters of lectureship are identified in the data and these are examined in relation to changing FE contexts and notions of hopeful and fearful learning and teaching settings. The thesis concludes by exploring the concepts of hopeful learning cultures and learning identities and by considering what policy makers, college managers, students and lecturers might do to encourage these cultures and identities to develop in A-level and further education.
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McLaren, Elizabeth. "An investigation into student self-perceptions of their approaches to study in further education." Thesis, Durham University, 1999. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4593/.
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The thesis opens with a consideration and critical analysis of the theoretical bases influencing my early teaching, i.e. Piaget, Skinner and Rogers, which is, in a real sense, my personal and intellectual starting point. This leads to a review of pertinent literature which identifies some key concepts of teaching, learning and study approaches, i.e. Biggs's Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ)(1987), Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ)(1986), and Buzan's ideas on such study techniques as mind-mapping. The Q-sort, an approach devised by Stephenson (1953) and used by Rogers to assess growth and change in a client's self-esteem, is then adapted and used as a basis for the empirical investigation in this thesis. This technique is used to elicit information from further education students about their individual, and unique, ideas on their approaches to learning. Inferences about the data collected from the first cohorts (the 1996-8 'A' level and 1997-9 GCSE students) result in further refinements to the Q-sort for its administration with the second cohorts (the 1997-9 'A' level and 1997-8 GCSE students). Students' Q-sorts, combined with lecturer predictions of examination outcome, will be concurrently validated by comparing them with SPQ and LSQ scores to establish concurrent validity. Q-sort scores and lecturer predictions will also be compared with examination grades actually achieved, to establish predictive validity. The thesis closes by drawing defensible inferences from the data and presenting suggestions for further research and educational practice.
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Doherty, G. D. C. "A study of the development of the Diploma of Higher Education in public sector advanced further education institutions." Thesis, Keele University, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.380255.
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Mpofu, Nombulelo Patience. "An investigation into challenges facing Further Education Training (FET) leaners in the study of Isixhosa in the Port Elizabeth district." Thesis, University of Fort Hare, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1013389.
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The essential function of a language is communication. Effective communication takes place when speakers understand each other‟s language. Speakers of different languages these days stay with each other. This kind of setting results into multilingualism. Multilingualism refers to the use or maintenance of more than one language in a certain context. In this regard it may refer to the fact that many languages are spoken in South Africa. It serves as a natural solution to the problem of language contact that is extremely widespread throughout South Africa and the world at large. The recognition of the multilingual nature of South African society by the Constitution of this country , as (Made 2010) puts it, necessitates the creation of tools of implementation and redress, in the form of appropriate language policies. Such language policies are designed to correct the universal tendency to practise monolingualism in multilingual societies which disempowers non-mother tongue speakers of the dominant language, to the detriment of both their rights as citizens and in communicative equity in exercising these rights. Many Black South Africans took employment in the industrial centres through urbanization, where they learnt many languages such as Fanakalo, English, Afrikaans and many other languages in the African continent. This resulted into linguistic heterogeneity. Heterogeneity brings speakers of languages together at different workplaces, schools and even places of abode.
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Robinson, Denise. "Further and Higher Education partnerships in England, 1997-2010 : a study of cultures and perceptions." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2010. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/10182/.
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This study identifies and analyses issues pertinent to the expanding Higher Education (HE) in Further Education (FE) provision through partnerships as they relate to policy implementation, particularly of the widening participation agenda of the New Labour government, 1997 - 2010, and the resulting impact on the actors in such partnerships. It explores the perceptions of the students and FE staff who are participants in partnerships and the role partnerships play in the government’s policy objectives in responding to the perceived demands of the economy within a neo-liberalist policy position. The function of how such partnerships have contributed to the positioning of HE in FE and how HE in FE is positioned within the emerging stratified HE landscape; an envisioned model of this landscape is produced. It focuses on foundation degree students as these are said to epitomise the type of students that are found within such partnership provision during this period. Student perceptions of their studies are highlighted, revealing some differences between younger, full-time students and those who are older and part-time. The study uses a critical approach, and in particular critical hermeneutics, to inform the research, frame questions and analyse both the present landscape of partnerships between HE and FE, as well as the findings from the empirical study. The application of a critical approach to this domain will be interrogated and the value of such an approach will be evaluated, including future possibilities and dissemination.
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Barr, Glenn Andrew. "The application of phronesis to teaching and quality management : a case study in further education." Thesis, University of Hull, 2011. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:4451.
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Over the last twenty years Further Education colleges in England have expanded their Higher Education provision significantly. Higher Education in Further Education is a major force accounting for approximately ten percent of Higher Education students (Parry 2005). The thesis takes a concept from Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and applies it to Higher Education in Further Education in England. The notion of phronesis adopted for this study differs from literal interpretations of Aristotle such as adopted by Kristyansson, (2005) but accords with adaptations of the concept by such as Eisner (2002), Birmingham (2003, 2004) and Hagar (2000). The interpretation adopted for the thesis is that phronesis is wise, practical knowledge which is deliberative, depends on judgement and is based on circumstances. It is about practicalities and the interaction between the universal and the particular. When applied to teaching it can be briefly summarised as an approach which bases the profession of teaching on practical knowledge and recognises the artistry of the teaching activity (Eisner, 2002). The argument of the thesis is that phronesis could provide a model for the teaching and quality management of Higher Education (HE) in Further Education (FE) at Hull College. The thesis demonstrates that in the face of pressures of commodification, performativity and vocationalisation in the national and global environment, students, staff and managers at the College hold beliefs more in tune with an approach based on phronesis rather than with that of The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) or The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). As a result phronesis could provide a more effective foundation for teaching and quality management. After an analysis of the academic and official literature, the empirical research adopted a case study method based on semi structured interviews with students, teaching staff and managers. The empirical evidence reinforced the academic evidence that there is a managerial imperative in colleges which leads to teaching staff and managers facing a range of pressures. There are pressures on their beliefs and what they identified as their proper professional activity: teaching, reflecting, debating, updating their subject knowledge and engaging in scholarship. However, these pressures are moderated by the commitment of the teaching staff and managers to delivering a particular HE in FE experience, in partnership with their students, in accordance with the features of phronesis. Empirical and theoretical evidence supports the conjecture that phronesis could provide a model for the teaching and quality management of HE in FE, at Hull College. The views of students, staff and managers were broadly in accord with the main features of phronesis, rather than those of performativity and commodification. Their views were also consistent with a vocational education situated in phronesis, rather than with a vocationalism which is part of the 5 managerialist, performative and commodificationist agendas. Although there are pressures from all of these agendas threatening the application of phronesis, there is evidence that it is phronesis which should underpin the teaching, management and indeed, the profession for teachers of HE in FE. Recommendations focus on acknowledging the distinct role of HE in FE: its quality management; staff participation in reflection, scholarly activity and vocational updating; the recognition of students as partners in learning.
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Baldwin, John. "The management styles of Further Education managers during rapid and extensive change : a case study." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.397285.
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Smith, Paul R. "A study of the uses of a blog-based Critical Incident Questionnaire in Further Education." Thesis, University of Derby, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10545/623083.
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This study examines the use of a digital Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ), which was originally developed by Professor Stephen Brookfield, to extract perspectives of students on the lecture/lesson they had just conducted. Three FE colleges in the UK took part in the study and utilised a blog for students to post their comments. Students conducting media production courses at level three and four were the focus groups that submitted approaching two thousand CIQ responses over two academic years. The aim of utilising the CIQ was for a course tutor to receive additional perspectives on their practice and instant on-event feedback, resulting in identifying whether the learners mimicked the course tutor’s perspective. The findings indicate that the other perspectives gathered from the CIQ provided the course tutor with a greater understanding of their practice and assisted them in becoming more critically reflective. Additionally, some CIQ comments were different from the assumptions of the course tutor, which allowed them to adapt the delivery of the programme. Furthermore, utilising the data from the CIQ has identified that some of the comments students provide to the course tutor in-class do not mimic the comments of the CIQ. Moreover, comments received through the CIQ identify that there are also managerial implications, such as the usefulness and reliability of teaching observations, student induction and exit questionnaires. Utilising a blog format allowed students to submit their responses on a variety of digital devices, but some problems remained similar to Brookfield’s carbon paper-based system. There appears to be a definite place for using the CIQ in FE educational practice, and many best practice recommendations are constructed.
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Watts, Michael Kenneth. "Language and identity : a study of adult second-language learners in a further education context." Thesis, Durham University, 2000. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1653/.
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