Explicit, latent and meta-criteria : types of criteria at play in professional judgement practice

This paper engages with debates about whether comprehensive prior specification of criteria and standards is sufficient for informed professional judgement. A preoccupation has emerged with the specificity and explication of criteria intended to regulate judgement. This has resulted in criteria-compliance in the use of defined standards to validate judgements and improve reliability and consistency. Compliance has become a priority, the consequence being the prominence of explicit criteria, to the lack of acknowledgement of the operation of latent and meta-criteria within judgement practice. This paper examines judgement as a process involving three categories of assessment criteria in the context of standards-referenced systems: explicit, latent and meta-criteria. These are understood to be wholly interrelated and interdependent. A conceptualisation of judgement involving the interplay of the three criteria types is presented with an exploration of how they function to focus or alter assessments of quality in judgements of achievement in English and Mathematics.

Giving voice to lifelong learning in professional nursing practice

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to uncover the meaning of lifelong learning to nurses in an Academic Health Care setting. Six female pediatric nurses were interviewed and audiotaped in response to 2 main questions of interpretation and engagement in lifelong learning with respect to their nursing practice. Four additional probing questions elicited responses of further qualities and characteristics of the meaning of lifelong learning. The emergent themes uncovered the characteristics and nature of the journey of lifelong learning. The themes evolved into parallel characteristics developing into the concepts of personal empowerment and occupational authorship. The personal empowerment concept involved processes whereby the participants overcame or removed barriers to engage in personal lifelong learning. Participants utilized personal power and internal motivators to sustain their engagement in lifelong learning. The occupational authorship concept involved participants controlling their exploration into lifelong learning through collaboration and recognition of occupational demands to be met as a professional. The remaining themes revealed a seasoning journey. This journey entailed a process of mastery through the themes of engagement discord, discovery pilgrimage, transforming, and maturation. The engagement in this journey resulted in their lifelong learning to becoming more intuitive and a part oftheir being. The overall theme uncovered from the journeys was one of a vocation described as a call to thinking critically of nursing practice. The participants responded to lifelong learning as a call to be a good nurse by using critical thinking through reflection, transformative and constructionist learning processes. This study gave voice to the meaning of lifelong learning in their nursing practice as interpreted by -ao the nurse participants.

From pregnancy to palliative care: advancing professional midwifery practice?

Historically midwives may have not considered palliative care as a part of their professional role. Enhanced technologies and antenatal screening have broadened the boundaries of care. However do midwives truly embrace the philosophy of palliative care into their practice? This paper presents the discussion round a case study that demonstrates the evolving area of advanced practice: perinatal palliative care. What we highlight is that midwives in fact have an important collaborative role to play in ensuring that palliative care for the baby and family starts as soon as a life-limiting condition is recognised, thus ensuring best care and support are provided for those parents and families for whom pregnancy sadly leads to palliative care. Five key lessons for practice are outlined.

Recognizing appropriate representation of Indigenous knowledge in professional design practice

This paper focuses on the need for designers to follow clear, concise, workable practises to engage appropriately and ethically with indigenous knowledge on projects involving the graphical depiction of indigenous culture. Incorporating indigenous symbols into visual communication design strategies impacts a wide range of stakeholders and therefore requires a sensitive approach with broad consultation in regard to permissions and intellectual property rights; issues can be worked through if respectful practice methods are applied. This paper acknowledges cultural appropriation is not new and that creative, cross cultural interpretation and expressions of hybridity should be encouraged. However respectful communication, consultation, and collaboration are required whenever commercial application of indigenous culture is attempted. To demonstrate the need for clarity, three case study examples will be presented, each with design solutions involving the use of graphical depictions of indigenous culture and each selected due to the varying degrees of stakeholder engagement undertaken in the design process. The introduction of the ladder of stakeholder engagement theory is a new concept introduced in this paper that can be employed to better consider the appropriate and ethical engagement of designers with indigenous knowledge.

Reflective positioning : the impact of conversations in the social and cultural environment of midwifery practice settings on professional learning for students

Literature reviews on the topic of reflection and reflective practice encompassed midwifery, nursing, medicine, allied health, education and professional education. This investigation also included socio-psychological theories by leading authors such as Benner (nursing), Sch&ouml;n (professional education) and positioning theory by Harr&eacute; and others. Positioning is a psycho-sociological ontology in which individuals metaphorically position themselves within three entities: people, institutions, and societies, where conversations are constructed and make an impact upon the social world. The social and cultural structures and interactions developed in Archer&rsquo;s morphogenesis were examined in terms of the impact of possible encounters and the transformational effects of learning experiences in practice settings. These bodies of work provided the theoretical framework for the author&rsquo;s research of students&rsquo; experiences in midwifery education for postgraduate students from which selected excerpts with three participating students and their supervising midwives are presented. These excerpts are related to reflective practices and the professional conversations conducted between students and midwives. It was found that reflective positioning applied in midwifery education by students can serve as an analytical tool in explaining social and cultural elements of clinical placements to influence and transform their learning. The potency of conversations that occur in everyday moment-to-moment interactions do contribute to students&rsquo; induction in professional midwifery practice and their identity formation as a midwife.<br />

Using practice theory to investigate professional engineers' workplace learning

This paper reports on the first phase of an Australian inter-disciplinary partnership study concerned with professional learning of experienced engineers. It is a theoretically motivated, qualitative paper that aims to produce detailed descriptions of professional learning that arise within professional engineering work. The paper uses practice theory to conceptualise professional learning. By using 'practices' as the units of analysis, professional learning is understood as an integral part of everyday work practices that is embodied, relational and material rather than an individual attribute. The paper concludes by suggesting that practice theory may provide organisations with an alternative perspective of workplace learning, inviting them to reconsider how professional learning is acknowledged, rewarded and fostered in organisations. &copy; 2012 IEEE.

Examination of relationships and mediating effects of self-efficacy, locus of control, coping and the practice environment on caring efficacy and job satisfaction in Australian registered nurses

Background to the Problem: Improving nurses' self-efficacy and job satisfaction may improve the quality of nursing care to patients. Moreover, to work effectively and consistently with professional nursing standards, nurses have to believe they are able to make decisions about their practice. In order to identify what strategies and professional development programmes should be developed and implemented for registered nurses in the Australian context, a comprehensive profile of registered nurses and factors that affect nursing care in Australia needs to be available. However, at present, there is limited information available on a) the perceived caring efficacy and job satisfaction of registered nurses in Australia, and b) the relationships between the demographic variables general self-efficacy, work locus of control, coping styles, the professional nursing practice environment and caring efficacy and job satisfaction of registered nurses in Australia. This is the first study to 1) investigate relationships between caring efficacy and job satisfaction with factors such as general self-efficacy, locus of control and coping, 2) the nursing practice environment in the Australian context and 3) conceptualise a model of caring efficacy and job satisfaction in the Australian context. Research Design and Methods: This study used a two-phase cross-sectional survey design. A pilot study was conducted in order to determine the validity and reliability of the survey instruments and to assess the effectiveness of the participant recruitment process. The second study of the research involved investigating the relationships between the socio-demographic, dependent and independent variables. Socio-demographic variables included age, gender, level of education, years of experience, years in current job, employment status, geographical location, specialty area, health sector, state and marital status. Other independent variables in this study included general self-efficacy, work locus of control, coping styles and the professional nursing practice environment. The dependent variables were job satisfaction and caring efficacy. Results: A confirmatory factor analysis of the Brisbane Practice Environment Measure (B-PEM) was conducted. A five-factor structure of the B-PEM was confirmed. Relationships between socio-demographic variables, caring efficacy and job satisfaction, were identified at the bivariate and multivariable levels. Further, examination using structural equation modelling revealed general self-efficacy, work locus of control, coping style and the professional nursing practice environment contributed to caring efficacy and job satisfaction of registered nurses in Australia. Conclusion: This research contributes to the literature on how socio-demographic, personal and environmental variables (work locus of control, general self-efficacy and the nursing practice environment) influence caring efficacy and job satisfaction in registered nurses in Australia. Caring efficacy and job satisfaction may be improved if general self-efficacy is high in those that have an internal work locus of control. The study has also shown that practice environments that provide the necessary resources improve job satisfaction in nurses. The results have identified that the development and implementation of strategies for professional development and orientation programmes that enhance self-efficacy and work locus of control may contribute to better quality nursing practice and job satisfaction. This may further assist registered nurses towards focusing on improving their practice abilities. These strategies along with practice environments that provide the necessary resources for nurses to practice effectively may lead to better job satisfaction. This information is important for nursing leaders, healthcare organisations and policymakers, as the development and implementation of these strategies may lead to better recruitment and retention of nurses. The study results will contribute to the national and international literature on self-efficacy, job satisfaction and nursing practice.

'Going live' : establishing the creative attributes of the live multi-camera television professional

In my capacity as a television professional and teacher specialising in multi-camera live television production for over 40 years, I was drawn to the conclusion that opaque or inadequately formed understandings of how creativity applies to the field of live television, have impeded the development of pedagogies suitable to the teaching of live television in universities. In the pursuit of this hypothesis, the thesis shows that television degrees were born out of film studies degrees, where intellectual creativity was aligned to single camera production, and the 'creative roles' of producers, directors and scriptwriters. At the same time, multi-camera live television production was subsumed under the 'mass communication' banner, leading to an understanding that roles other than producer and director are simply technical, and bereft of creative intent or acumen. The thesis goes on to show that this attitude to other television production personnel, for example, the vision mixer, videotape operator and camera operator, relegates their roles to that of 'button pusher'. This has resulted in university teaching models with inappropriate resources and unsuitable teaching practices. As a result, the industry is struggling to find people with the skills to fill the demands of the multi-camera live television sector. In specific terms the central hypothesis is pursued through the following sequenced approach. Firstly, the thesis sets out to outline the problems, and traces the origins of the misconceptions that hold with the notion that intellectual creativity does not exist in live multi-camera television. Secondly, this more adequately conceptualised rendition, of the origins particular to the misconceptions of live television and creativity, is then anchored to the field of examination by presentation of the foundations of the roles involved in making live television programs, using multicamera production techniques. Thirdly, this more nuanced rendition of the field sets the stage for a thorough analysis of education and training in the industry, and teaching models at Australian universities. The findings clearly establish that the pedagogical models are aimed at single camera production, a position that deemphasises the creative aspects of multi-camera live television production. Informed by an examination of theories of learning, qualitative interviews, professional reflective practice and observations, the roles of four multi-camera live production crewmembers (camera operator, vision mixer, EVS/videotape operator and director's assistant), demonstrate the existence of intellectual creativity during live production. Finally, supported by the theories of learning, and the development and explication of a successful teaching model, a new approach to teaching students how to work in live television is proposed and substantiated.

How to promote professional competence and identity in social work students

Background: Field placement experiences are frequently cited in the literature as having most impact on a student social worker���s learning as they emerge into the profession. Placements are integral to the development of practice competence and in acquiring a sense of social work identity. However research on the effectiveness of educational strategies used to deliver learning and assess competence during placement are scarce. Internationally, pressures to meet increasing numbers of student enrolments have raised concerns about the potential impact on the quality of placements and practice teaching provided. These pressures may also impact on the appropriate transfer and application of learning to the student���s practice.<br/>Aim: To identify learning activities rated most useful for developing professional practice competence and professional identity of social work students.<br/>Method: Data were collected from 396 students who successfully completed their first or final placement during 2013-2014 and were registered at one of two Universities in Northern Ireland. Students completed a self-administered questionnaire which covered: placement setting and service user group; type of supervision model; frequency of undertaking specific learning activities; who provided the learning; which activities contributed to their developing professional competence and identity and their overall satisfaction. <br/>Our findings confirmed the centrality of the supervisory relationship as the vehicle to enable quality student learning. Shadowing others, receiving regular supervision and receiving constructive feedback were the tasks that students reported as ���most useful��� to developing professional identity, competence and readiness to practice. Disturbingly over 50% of students reported that linking practice to the professional codes, practice foci and key roles were not valued as ���useful��� in terms of readiness to practice, feeling competent and developing professional social work identity. These results offer strong insights into how both the University and the practice placement environment needs to better prepare, assess and support students during practice placements in the field. <br/>

Student responses to activities designed to develop generic professional skills

This paper reports on student responses to a range of assessment activities in a final-year engineering unit. Existing assessment activities were supplemented with new activities, the overall aim being to link the assessment activities more effectively to the material being studied, and to develop a range of generic skills important in professional engineering practice. A class survey was undertaken at the beginning of the semester to establish the initial attitudes to the new assessment activities. This was followed up with an end-of-semester survey to determine the change in perceived value of the assessment activities, and to collect student feedback regarding the activities. The perceived value of the assessment activities was determined using a Likert rating scale, while student feedback was collected using open-ended questions. The assessment activities evaluated were group work, case study investigation, report writing, oral presentation, group self-assessment, industrial interviews, and written reflective journals. The responses indicate that engineering students value a range of assessment activities. They value highly visits to real engineering organizations, and&mdash;contrary to popular belief &mdash;value and enjoy oral presentation exercises.<br />

DE CONTADOR A PROFESSOR DE CI��NCIAS CONT��BEIS: UMA INVESTIGA����O (AUTO)BIOGR��FICA A PARTIR DAS PROBLEM��TICAS DA PR��TICA PEDAG��GICA E DA PESQUISA

Devido �� prolifera����o dos Cursos do Ensino Superior de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, o Conselho Federal de Contabilidade CFC criou o Exame de Sufici��ncia, por ter constatado que a qualidade do ensino deixava a desejar, procurando, nas provas, dar ��nfase ��s quest��es ��ticas. Atualmente, o profissional contador possui um conhecimento pr��tico-mec��nico da contabilidade muito maior do que um racioc��nio cont��bil. Este trabalho, mediante o estudo de minha trajet��ria (auto)biogr��fica na perspectiva da forma����o profissional, busca identificar os elementos mais determinantes na forma����o de um professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis e verificar em que medida o exerc��cio da pesquisa esteve presente nesta forma����o, bem como examinar se a pesquisa, enquanto princ��pio educativo, se reflete na pr��tica docente. �� necess��rio entender que na trajet��ria de Contador a professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, este movimento se d��, na maioria das vezes, pelo convite a profissionais que deram certo no mercado de trabalho e que, portanto, nem sempre possuem forma����o pedag��gica adequada para o exerc��cio docente. �� tamb��m finalidade deste estudo, ao compreender melhor a experi��ncia de um percurso de Contador a professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, sugerir alguns poss��veis caminhos para a forma����o continuada dos professores deste campo do conhecimento. Para tanto, do ponto de vista da Educa����o e Forma����o de Educadores, assumi como refer��ncias Freire, Demo e Sch��n; do ponto de vista do Ensino Superior, Cunha e Buarque; do ponto de vista das Ci��ncias Cont��beis, Iud��cibus e Marion. A metodologia utilizada na elabora����o deste trabalho foi a pesquisa (auto)biogr��fica com refer��ncia, principalmente, em N��voa e Josso. Os resultados sugerem que a tend��ncia a reproduzir a abordagem banc��ria, recebida nos bancos escolares, do prim��rio ao ensino superior, s�� pode ser revertida na medida em que o sujeito, sem abandonar o trabalho pr��tico de doc��ncia, tem a oportunidade de estudar os fundamentos te��ricos dos processos educativos formais e traz os mesmos para a sua reflex��o sobre a pr��tica. �� percept��vel, tamb��m, o quanto a investiga����o (auto)biogr��fica, com finalidade formativa, pode ser de grande ajuda neste processo reflexivo. Por isto mesmo, sugere-se, ao concluir, que no processo de forma����o continuada dos professores de Ci��ncias Cont��beis sejam utilizadas estas estrat��gias.(AU)

DE CONTADOR A PROFESSOR DE CI��NCIAS CONT��BEIS: UMA INVESTIGA����O (AUTO)BIOGR��FICA A PARTIR DAS PROBLEM��TICAS DA PR��TICA PEDAG��GICA E DA PESQUISA

Devido �� prolifera����o dos Cursos do Ensino Superior de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, o Conselho Federal de Contabilidade CFC criou o Exame de Sufici��ncia, por ter constatado que a qualidade do ensino deixava a desejar, procurando, nas provas, dar ��nfase ��s quest��es ��ticas. Atualmente, o profissional contador possui um conhecimento pr��tico-mec��nico da contabilidade muito maior do que um racioc��nio cont��bil. Este trabalho, mediante o estudo de minha trajet��ria (auto)biogr��fica na perspectiva da forma����o profissional, busca identificar os elementos mais determinantes na forma����o de um professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis e verificar em que medida o exerc��cio da pesquisa esteve presente nesta forma����o, bem como examinar se a pesquisa, enquanto princ��pio educativo, se reflete na pr��tica docente. �� necess��rio entender que na trajet��ria de Contador a professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, este movimento se d��, na maioria das vezes, pelo convite a profissionais que deram certo no mercado de trabalho e que, portanto, nem sempre possuem forma����o pedag��gica adequada para o exerc��cio docente. �� tamb��m finalidade deste estudo, ao compreender melhor a experi��ncia de um percurso de Contador a professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, sugerir alguns poss��veis caminhos para a forma����o continuada dos professores deste campo do conhecimento. Para tanto, do ponto de vista da Educa����o e Forma����o de Educadores, assumi como refer��ncias Freire, Demo e Sch��n; do ponto de vista do Ensino Superior, Cunha e Buarque; do ponto de vista das Ci��ncias Cont��beis, Iud��cibus e Marion. A metodologia utilizada na elabora����o deste trabalho foi a pesquisa (auto)biogr��fica com refer��ncia, principalmente, em N��voa e Josso. Os resultados sugerem que a tend��ncia a reproduzir a abordagem banc��ria, recebida nos bancos escolares, do prim��rio ao ensino superior, s�� pode ser revertida na medida em que o sujeito, sem abandonar o trabalho pr��tico de doc��ncia, tem a oportunidade de estudar os fundamentos te��ricos dos processos educativos formais e traz os mesmos para a sua reflex��o sobre a pr��tica. �� percept��vel, tamb��m, o quanto a investiga����o (auto)biogr��fica, com finalidade formativa, pode ser de grande ajuda neste processo reflexivo. Por isto mesmo, sugere-se, ao concluir, que no processo de forma����o continuada dos professores de Ci��ncias Cont��beis sejam utilizadas estas estrat��gias.(AU)

DE CONTADOR A PROFESSOR DE CI��NCIAS CONT��BEIS: UMA INVESTIGA����O (AUTO)BIOGR��FICA A PARTIR DAS PROBLEM��TICAS DA PR��TICA PEDAG��GICA E DA PESQUISA

Devido �� prolifera����o dos Cursos do Ensino Superior de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, o Conselho Federal de Contabilidade CFC criou o Exame de Sufici��ncia, por ter constatado que a qualidade do ensino deixava a desejar, procurando, nas provas, dar ��nfase ��s quest��es ��ticas. Atualmente, o profissional contador possui um conhecimento pr��tico-mec��nico da contabilidade muito maior do que um racioc��nio cont��bil. Este trabalho, mediante o estudo de minha trajet��ria (auto)biogr��fica na perspectiva da forma����o profissional, busca identificar os elementos mais determinantes na forma����o de um professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis e verificar em que medida o exerc��cio da pesquisa esteve presente nesta forma����o, bem como examinar se a pesquisa, enquanto princ��pio educativo, se reflete na pr��tica docente. �� necess��rio entender que na trajet��ria de Contador a professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, este movimento se d��, na maioria das vezes, pelo convite a profissionais que deram certo no mercado de trabalho e que, portanto, nem sempre possuem forma����o pedag��gica adequada para o exerc��cio docente. �� tamb��m finalidade deste estudo, ao compreender melhor a experi��ncia de um percurso de Contador a professor de Ci��ncias Cont��beis, sugerir alguns poss��veis caminhos para a forma����o continuada dos professores deste campo do conhecimento. Para tanto, do ponto de vista da Educa����o e Forma����o de Educadores, assumi como refer��ncias Freire, Demo e Sch��n; do ponto de vista do Ensino Superior, Cunha e Buarque; do ponto de vista das Ci��ncias Cont��beis, Iud��cibus e Marion. A metodologia utilizada na elabora����o deste trabalho foi a pesquisa (auto)biogr��fica com refer��ncia, principalmente, em N��voa e Josso. Os resultados sugerem que a tend��ncia a reproduzir a abordagem banc��ria, recebida nos bancos escolares, do prim��rio ao ensino superior, s�� pode ser revertida na medida em que o sujeito, sem abandonar o trabalho pr��tico de doc��ncia, tem a oportunidade de estudar os fundamentos te��ricos dos processos educativos formais e traz os mesmos para a sua reflex��o sobre a pr��tica. �� percept��vel, tamb��m, o quanto a investiga����o (auto)biogr��fica, com finalidade formativa, pode ser de grande ajuda neste processo reflexivo. Por isto mesmo, sugere-se, ao concluir, que no processo de forma����o continuada dos professores de Ci��ncias Cont��beis sejam utilizadas estas estrat��gias.(AU)