Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present findings derived from research work carried out by a team of six university lecturers who are members of a teaching quality improvement network. The aim is to increase the motivation of the lecturers involved, so that better performance can be achieved, and the teaching-learning process enriched.…

Purpose: To explore social dialogue over vocational education and training in Europe, comparing the role of the social partners in different national training systems and different industrial relations contexts. Design/methodology/approach: A survey of European member states (EU15 before enlargement) and two EFTA countries addressed to the…

Much has been written in recent decades about the importance of community in education. According to some of the literature, a solution to the lack of community in preservice education might lie in the creation of "cohort programs," in which a relatively small number of student teachers engage in their coursework and (insofar as possible) their…

This article is based on the authors' experiences and understandings of a schools-university partnership between eight secondary schools and the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. The focus of the partnership is the development of useful practice-based research within, across and between the schools and the university. The authors…

This paper presents an interactive educational environment for use over both "in situ" and distance-based modalities of teaching. Several technological issues relating to the design and development of the distributed virtual learning environment have also been raised. The PROVIDE framework proposed in this paper is a seamless distributed…

Despite reporting greater needs for career planning information, African American students are often less likely to use the services available to them. Understanding the factors influencing the career development of African American students is therefore critical if these students are to succeed both academically and in the world of work. This…

Researchers investigating network-based language teaching (NBLT) seldom relate to computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), an important field in educational research which strongly stresses the value of group learning, adopting Vygotskian and Brunerian sociocultural views. As a result, the concept of collaboration is scarcely considered…

Language production of Spanish students using synchronous CMC (chat) during class time was compared with that of students meeting outside of class. The study included about 100 participants enrolled in 10 sections of a first-quarter Spanish course at a US university. Students in the control group spent 30 minutes of their weekly class time in…

This paper is an essay on the discursive politics of education. Data from a small study, combined with a review of the related literature, suggest that the overarching concept "community" lacks coherence when used in online education. At least three contrasting forms of connection can be discerned: communion among participants, exchange…

A Mellon workshop created teams including faculty, librarians, instructional technologists, and students from nine educational institutions to incorporate technology into curricula. Instructional technologists and librarians from Mount Holyoke and the University of Massachusetts Amherst recount initial and subsequent collaborative efforts in…

Building joint-use libraries to foster new types of learning and collaboration is a growing phenomenon that is of great interest to academic library planners around the world. Noteworthy among these efforts, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, California, is a collaboration of a metropolitan university library and a major public…

Over the past six years, the University of Utah libraries have developed an extensive international presence through digital resource sharing. Services include instruction, electronic document delivery, shared catalogs, and full-text databases. This paper will describe the process of establishing, extending, and improving these services through…

Background: As part of a UK programme of work focusing on older people with intellectual disabilities, the circumstance of those who reside in generic services for older people were investigated. Materials and methods: Questionnaires were sent to 2570 residential and nursing homes in 53 local authorities across the UK. Results: Five hundred and…

The goal of this project is to develop a unique simulation environment that can be used to increase students' interest and expertise in Computer Science curriculum. Hands-on experience with physical or simulated equipment is an essential ingredient for learning, but many approaches to training develop a separate piece of equipment or software for…

The author believes that information technologies are powerfully heuristic in addressing one of education's deepest ambitions. Following Engelbart's paradigm, he sees these technologies as augmenting human intellect, not simply because they permit high-speed calculations but also because they externalize our own cognitive processes in a way that…