A Transatlantic Experience - Student and Teacher Perspective

Caged birds and cloning machines: how student imagery 'speaks' to us about cultures of schooling and student participation

With the advent of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), there is an increasing requirement that schools ensure children and young people's views are voiced, listened to and taken seriously on matters of significance. Encouraging these shifts by law is one thing; changing the culture in schools is another. For a significant proportion of schools, actively engaging students' voices on how they experience education poses a significant challenge and crucial gaps may exist between the rhetoric espoused and a school's readiness for genuine student involvement. This ethnographic study illuminates tensions that persist between headteachers' espoused views of how students are valued and students' creative images of their actual post-primary schooling experience. If cultures of schooling are to nurture the true spirit of democratic pupil participation implied by changes in the law, there is a need to develop genuine processes of student engagement in which students and staff can collaborate towards greater shared understandings of a school's priorities.

'Developing practice learning: student perspectives',

The introduction of the new social work degrees in the UK has further underlined the importance of practice learning in social work education. However, student perceptions of practice learning and their view of quality standards in this area have been under-researched. This paper reports on a two-year study of MSW students at Queen's University, Belfast that examined, from the students' perspective, a number of key quality indicators relating to practice learning. One of the main aims of the study was to identify significant contextual features of the practice environment that affect the quality of the students' learning experience. Northern Ireland provides a useful case study in this context as it is thought to have some advantages in its practice learning provision in comparison to other parts of the UK. The paper concludes with an analysis of the main implications of the research and highlights key issues which need to be considered by academic institutions and employing agencies in further developing quality standards of practice learning.

Reflections on Practice Learning in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Lessons from Student Experiences

Practice learning is viewed as one of the most important components of social work education wherever in the world social work is practised. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland provide an interesting case example of the educational impact on students resulting from their experience of different models of practice learning. Although sharing a common historical legacy, recent developments in policy in both jurisdictions have tended to engender greater divergences in how programmes organise and deliver social work education and practice learning. Drawing on findings from a joint-research project with students in Queen’s University, Belfast and Trinity College, Dublin, the authors highlight significant cross-border similarities as well as differences in the way practice learning is conceptualised, organised and delivered. Through comparing and contrasting student experiences, the authors reflect on how the findings might help to inform the future development of practice learning standards in both jurisdictions.

Attitudes of qualified versus student mental health nurses towards an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia

Aims: This paper is the report of a study which sought to compare the attitudes held by student and qualified mental health nurses towards individuals with schizophrenia in the Republic of Ireland. Background: Media portrayals of individuals with schizophrenia often include images of aggression and violence. With global initiatives aimed at reducing the stigma and exclusion associated with mental illness, the attitudes of those who care for people with schizophrenia are of particular interest. Methods: A survey was administered to 66 student mental health nurses, and 121 qualified mental health nurses. Participants completed the community attitudes to mental illness scale (CAMI) and the social interaction scale (SIS) in 2009. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to test for the effects of qualification, work setting, years of experience and education on the measures. Results: A statistically significant difference was found between community mental health nurses and those employed in an inpatient setting on the social restrictiveness and community mental health ideology subscales of the CAMI and on the SIS. Findings also showed a statistically significant difference between nurses in the 10-14 years of experience group and the 5-9 years of experience group on the SIS. Conclusions: Mental health nurses employed in an inpatient setting are often confronted with patients who have challenging behavioural presentations which may explain their socially restrictive attitudes. However, nurses must be alerted to the fact that such negative attitudes may adversely affect the therapeutic relationship and ultimately lead to stigmatisation and its negative consequences.

Enhancing social work students’ learning experience and readiness to undertake practice learning.

This project set out to evaluate the effectiveness of social work education by analysing student perceptions of the strengths and limitations of their education and training on the Bachelor of Social Work, Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB) at different stages of their ‘learning journey’ through the programme.
The author’s primary aim in undertaking this study was to contribute evidence-based understanding of the challenges and opportunities students identified themselves within contemporary practice environments. A secondary aim was to test the effectiveness of key approaches, theories and learning tools in common usage in social work education. The authors believe the outcomes generated by the project demonstrate the value of systematically researching student perceptions of their learning experience and feel the study provides important lessons which should help to inform the future development of social work education not only locally but in other parts of the UK.

Making geography mobile: using location aware technology to improve student performance in physical geography

With the increased availability of new technologies, geography educators are revisiting their pedagogical approaches to teaching and calling for opportunities to share local and international practices which will enhance the learning experience and improve students’ performance. This paper reports on the use of handheld mobile devices, fitted with GPS, by secondary (high) school pupils in geography. Two location-aware activities were completed over one academic year (one per semester) and pre-test and post-test scores for both topics revealed a statistically significant increase in pupils’ performance as measured by the standard national assessments. A learner centred educational approach was adopted with the first mobile learning activity being created by the teacher as an exemplar of effective mobile learning design. Pupils built on their experiences of using mobile learning when they were required to created their own location aware learning task for peer use. An analysis of the qualitative data from the pupils’ journals, group diaries and focus group interviews revealed the five pillars of learner centred education are addressed when using location aware technologies and the use of handheld mobile devices offered greater flexibility and autonomy to the pupils thus altering the level of power and control away from the teacher. Due to the relatively small number of participants in the study, the results are more informative than generalisable however in light of the growing interest in geo-spatial technologies in geography education, this paper offers encouragement and insight into the use of location aware technology in a compulsory school context

‘Preparing Social Workers for Practice: Re-evaluating Student Learning Needs’

Among the key developmental priorities that have been identified in the current process of reform taking place in social work in the UK is the need to improve social work students' preparedness to meet the challenges they will encounter in practice. This paper contributes to the current debate about this issue by reporting a research study that focused on final year undergraduates' experience of academic and practice learning and considered the impact of demographic factors, including age, gender, disability, previous experience and qualifications, on their perceptions of preparedness. The results indicate that students were satisfied with most aspects of preparatory teaching and learning. However, the findings also highlight areas in which students' preparation could be further enhanced, including their skills in dealing with conflict and managing risk. The results suggest that social work programmes should not overly depend on practice learning to prepare students to address the challenges presented by increasingly complex working environments and that educators need to work closely in collaboration with employing partners to ensure that the curriculum keeps up to date with the changing learning needs of practitioners.

Student teachers' experiences of initial teacher preparation in England:Core themes and variation

Drawing on data generated via large-scale survey and in-depth interview methods, this article reports findings which show that being a student teacher in early-twenty-first-century England is a demanding personal experience which requires considerable engagement and commitment in the face of built-in challenges and risks, and which engenders, for many, highly charged affective responses. Student teachers are centrally concerned during this time with their (changing) identities, their relationships with others and the relevance of course provision. Findings also indicate that, in some respects, student teachers’ accounts of their experiences are systematically differentiated according to a number of factors, notably the initial teacher preparation route being followed, their age, and their prior conceptions and expectations of teaching and of learning to teach. These findings are situated in the broader literature on teacher development and some implications for teacher educators are discussed. © 2008 Taylor & Francis