Professional Educational Psychology and Community Relations Education in Northern Ireland.

This article provides an account of practice-based research of, at least, one-star quality in terms of its contribution to both theory and practice. Aimed at practitioner (as opposed to academic) psychologists, the article addresses a dimension of the practitioner role that has remained silent in the literature. The article makes creative and original connections between school effectiveness, school improvement and education in a divided society. Post 11th September, the article was described as being highly original, significant and relevant to all practising educational psychologists. Concrete evidence for this is gained from, eg: hits on the online electronic version (2002-2003 Annual Report of the Association of Educational Psychologists), citations in reviews of research, and author invitations to present his work at UK and international practitioner psychology conferences. The article is published in the premier journal reporting on quality applied educational research and practice within the United Kingdom and beyond.

The general and specific effects of educational programmes aimed at promoting awareness of and respect for diversity among young children

This article reports the findings of a mixed-method evaluation of a pilot educational programme undertaken with 6-7 year olds in a sample of primary schools in England with the aim of increasing their awareness of and respect for diversity through theatre, workshops and related teacher-led classroom activities. The qualitative feedback from the teachers involved was extremely positive and encouraging and an analysis of the actual impact of the pilot programme on the children’s attitudes and awareness, using an experimental design, demonstrated some positive effects. In particular, the programme was found to increase the children’s general awareness of diversity and their ability to recognise instances of exclusion. While not a planned objective of the pilot programme, the evaluation also examined whether it had any effects on the children’s attitudes to specific differences, in this particular case racial differences. Interestingly, however, no evidence was found of any change in the children’s racial attitudes. With this in mind the article suggests that there is a need to distinguish between the general and specific effects of such educational programmes. The article considers the implications of this for future work in the area and also stresses the need to undertake more thorough and rigorous evaluations of such initiatives.

Possible futures for social work with children and families in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States

There has been considerable interest in recent years in comparing the operation of social work services to children and families internationally, particularly between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Reviewing the respective policy environments and drawing on recent research experience in these three nations the author speculates as to how such services may be placed to respond to a converging agenda to tackle the high social and economic costs of social exclusion. It is argued that a conspiracy of circumstances have led child and family social work away from its more general child welfare objectives of the past and created consolidation of functions in relation to child protection work. This has left services ill prepared to play a central role within a new and resurgent child welfare agenda.

'Research Training and Professional Social Work Education: Developing Research-Minded Practice' Social Work Education, .

The movement towards developing practice more firmly grounded on empirical research has, arguably, been one of the most significant international trends in social work during the past decade. However, in the UK the implications of this trend for pedagogical practices and the design of educational programmes have still to be fully explored. This paper reports on the findings of a repeated cross-sectional survey of MSW students in Queen's University Belfast which focused on their perceptions of the value of research training to professional practice. The study, conducted over a four year period, explored students' awareness of the relationship between research and practice and their readiness to engage with research training. The findings suggested that the majority of students perceived research training as a valuable component of professional development. However, the study also found a level of scepticism among students about its practical utility along with some resistance towards actively embracing a research agenda. The paper evaluates the significance of these findings for developing research and evidence-based practice as integral components of the new degrees in social work in the UK and for social work education programmes in other countries aiming to develop research-minded practice.

Do dynamic work instructions provide an advantage over static instructions in a small scale assembly task?

Recent studies exploring the effects of instructional animations on learning compared to static graphics have yielded mixed results. Few studies have explored their effectiveness in portraying procedural-motor information. Opportunities exist within an applied (manufacturing) context for instructional animations to be used to facilitate build performance on an assembly line. The present study compares build time performance across successive builds when using animation, static diagrams or text instructions to convey an assembly sequence for a handheld device. Although an immediate facilitating effect of animation was found, yielding a significantly faster build time for Build 1, this advantage had disappeared by Build 3. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Crossing borders through cyberspace: a discussion of a social work education electronic exchange pilot project across the Atlantic

This article discusses a trial electronic exchange project developed between social work education departments in the Republic of Ireland and the USA. It outlines the contemporary significance and challenges of integrating global content into national social work curricula, which are often strongly tied to statutory or accreditation requirements. The mechanics of the exchange are explained and critiqued in detail. An illustrative example of how the transnational students discussed two questions is analyzed. The article finds that an international electronic exchange has great potential to make global social work real to students by allowing them to cross borders through cyberspace, however it requires careful planning and attention to cultural and educational system differences.

An Educational Initative in Anaesthetic Nursing Practice

The National Board for Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors in Northern Ireland (NBNI) has adopted the principles of the UKCC's recommendations for specialist nursing practice and Incorporated these within their continuing education framework. Stage two of this framework decrees the standard required for specialist nursing practice (NBNI, 1995) and, as a result, a specialist anaesthetic nursing course has been instigated. The course extends over 44 weeks and includes 8 weeks of consolidation practice, comprising seven modules at degree and diploma level. The course gives the students an opportunity to deepen their knowledge, skills and attitudes in the field of anaesthetic nursing. Nurses were taught the necessary skills to work in collaboration with other professionals, patients and families in order to coordinate a patient-centred approach to perianaesthetic care. The role of the anaesthetic nurse specialist should be viewed as complementary to that of the anaesthetist. This course facilitates and encourages practitioners to move beyond registered practice on qualifying to a more specialized role where care is delivered in an innovative and creative manner.

Advanced educational parallel DSP system based on TMS320C25 processors

This paper describes the design, application, and evaluation of a user friendly, flexible, scalable and inexpensive Advanced Educational Parallel (AdEPar) digital signal processing (DSP) system based on TMS320C25 digital processors to implement DSP algorithms. This system will be used in the DSP laboratory by graduate students to work on advanced topics such as developing parallel DSP algorithms. The graduating senior students who have gained some experience in DSP can also use the system. The DSP laboratory has proved to be a useful tool in the hands of the instructor to teach the mathematically oriented topics of DSP that are often difficult for students to grasp. The DSP laboratory with assigned projects has greatly improved the ability of the students to understand such complex topics as the fast Fourier transform algorithm, linear and circular convolution, the theory and design of infinite impulse response (IIR) and finite impulse response (FIR) filters. The user friendly PC software support of the AdEPar system makes it easy to develop DSP programs for students. This paper gives the architecture of the AdEPar DSP system. The communication between processors and the PC-DSP processor communication are explained. The parallel debugger kernels and the restrictions of the system are described. The programming in the AdEPar is explained, and two benchmarks (parallel FFT and DES) are presented to show the system performance.

Social Work Students Learn about Social Work Values from Service Users and Carers

Teaching on social work values is centrally important in social work education as a core aspect of underpinning knowledge in preparing students for practice. This paper describes an innovative project occurring within the first year of the degree in social work, where service users and carers have assisted students with their understanding of social work values. The positive contribution of service users and carers in facilitating students to make links between theory and practice is now well documented. Applying this user perspective to the educational domain of values, however, is relatively uncharted territory given the challenges that have traditionally accompanied the teaching of values. Importantly, this paper describes the ‘value talk’ which occurred when first-year students sought further meaning from service-user and carer groups in their community settings following classroom teaching on values. The paper not only discusses the detailed preparations involved in the project but also the learning which resulted, drawing on the evaluation findings from the students and participating groups. Whilst the findings show that the students' understanding of social work values has been most significantly influenced by the contributions from service users and carers, it is recognized that further research is needed to monitor the longer term impact on social work students' practice after they qualify.

Developing Social Work Education: Academic Perspectives

During the past decade, a new culture of pedagogic research has emerged in social work in the UK. A succession of child-care tragedies that have led to government and public criticism of social work have highlighted the need for improvements to professional standards and stimulated renewed interest in social work education. Research aimed at developing knowledge of ‘what works’ in the educational process have included studies of student experiences and the perspectives of other stakeholders including service users and practice teachers. However, there has been little systematic investigation of the role of academics in social work education and their perceptions of what needs to be done to improve the quality of provision. This paper aims to address this gap in research by examining the perceptions of academics about their work. The authors utilise an adaptation of the conceptual model developed by Fraser and Bosanquet (2006) as a theoretical framework for analysing the findings and exploring the complex interrelationship between academic perspectives and the variety of concepts, ideas and stakeholder expectations that shape pedagogical practice. The findings should provide important lessons of relevance to educators in the UK and in other countries seeking to develop social work education.

Social work education and political conflict: preparing students to address the needs of victims and survivors of the Troubles in Northern Ireland

This paper reports on the evaluation of a European PEACE III sponsored teaching and learning project that was designed to enable social work students to better understand the needs of victims and survivors of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The paper begins with an introduction to policy, practice and educational contexts before reviewing the literature on social work, conflict and trauma. It also summarises key, innovative pedagogical approaches used in the teaching, including the use of ground rules, teaching teams consisting of lecturer and service user dyads, learning exercises and case studies. The paper then explains the evaluation methodology. This involved two surveys which returned 144 student and 34 practice teacher questionnaires. The findings revealed that
students were generally committed to this form of teaching and engagement with victims and survivors of the conflict, although some students reported that their attitudes towards this subject had were not changed. Some students also discussed how the conflict had affected their lives and the lives of families and friends; it is argued that such biographical details are crucial in developing new pedagogical approaches in this area.
Practice teachers who supervised some of these students on placement reported general levels of satisfaction with preparedness to work with conflict related situations but were less convinced that organisations were so committed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the study limitations and a recommendation for more robust methods of teaching and evaluation in this area of social work education and practice.