The purpose of this article is to introduce a design-based research (DBR) approach developed in the field of vocational and continuing education, which is grounded in a pragmatic and phenomenologically inspired enactivist approach to activity. As a design-based methodology, our activity-centered and enactive DBR approach aims to generate knowledge…

Can research on disciplinary socialization and imprinting help us understand the extent to which educational developers bring aspects of their disciplinary training to their educational development research? In this paper, we explore the relationship between the research approaches developers associate with their original disciplinary training and…

Research competencies are pertinent to academic researchers. Due to increasingly demanding work situations, academic researchers are forced to rapidly develop competencies in both qualitative and quantitative research. However, studies on how doctoral candidates develop competencies to complete their PhD theses are limited. This study, therefore,…

Feedback from students on a Level 1 Research Methods and Statistics module, studied as a core part of a BSc Psychology programme, highlighted demand for additional tutorials to help them to understand basic concepts. Students in their final year of study commonly request work experience to enhance their employability. All students on the Level 1…

The idea of experiential learning is based on the simple idea so eloquently stated in the familiar quote from Confucius, "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." The best way to help students to truly understand concepts is to have them actually using the concepts in real world settings. The key to an experiential…

Purpose: The influx of migrant workers in the UK has widespread interest. This group's experience of the British work place has evoked considerable debate ranging from the potential to be exploited through unscrupulous practices to allegations about taking away jobs from British workers. The purpose of this paper is to extend knowledge about the…

This report presents selected findings from the school principal data files of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The public school…

Most empirical analyses of earnings measure work experience as years since school graduation and cannot, therefore, separate age and experience effects. This study demonstrates that the return to work experience is highly significant in the presence of age variables, but that the returns to experience and schooling are sensitive to the way…

This article focuses on earnings inequality within education-experience groups, demonstrating that two simple demographic explanations are not sufficient to explain the trend. The article also shows that the proportion of people with zero earnings also increased within education-experience categories. (CT)

In this article, experiences of beginning primary teachers on an English employment-based route into teaching, called the Graduate Teacher Programme, are presented and evaluated. Factors affecting the progress of trainee teachers on the programme are explored, including prior work experience, expectations of the participants and levels of support…

This paper is concerned with the challenges of qualitative research on workplace learning that occurs within co-operative (co-op) education. Co-op education is extensive in Canada, with an estimated 10% of the student population enrolled in co-op secondary education each year. The context for this study was a veterinary clinic in which four co-op…

Describes the role of writing fiction as a mode of inquiry into work experience. Contends that the writing of stories is a way of learning about one's experiences. Proposes a cross-professional group to explore putting into practice such modes of inquiry. (DB)

Research on work-related stress has tended to focus on males and to neglect gender as a variable; often, findings from studies of men are incorrectly generalized to women. This article focuses on the assumptions, gaps, and biases in the literature in this area. (Author/LHW)

It was hypothesized that teachers who were primarily self-supporting and those with blue collar work experience only prior to graduation would have lower rates of attrition, and that those with high occupational aspirations would show a high rate of attrition. (Author/RK)

A rebuttal to Schenck's 1979 study which asserts that occupational competency is not necessarily a function of occupational experience. Hux focuses on three areas: Schenk's sampling method, the inherent threats to both internal and external validity, and possible directions that may be taken to examine the problem. (CT)