Two-year Course Research Articles

Technology Teacher Training: The North-West Consortium Articled Teacher Scheme in England

The UK government has for some time been considering various alternative methods of teacher training to be used in England and Wales. Over a number of years two major routes have evolved. The first of these is an education degree course, Bachelor of Education (BEd), which integrates the subject knowledge and education in a single three-year or four-year course. Entry nowadays is normally by success in Advanced level (18+) examinations. The main alternative is a one-year education course, usually known as the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), which follows on from a degree (BSc, BA, etc.) in a field relevant to the subject in which the teacher wishes to specialise. These routes are used for both primary and secondary teacher training. The option of graduate entry to the teaching profession without teacher training was discounted approximately two decades ago. Independent schools are not required to employ trained teachers, though the majority in fact do so. The UK government is now carrying out action research to evaluate alternative methods of training. The two principal experiments at present are those of Licensed Teachers and Articled Teachers. The Licensed Teacher scheme permits direct entry into the profession, subject to certain controls and support, with an extended probationary period. Clearly this is of value to teachers from other countries moving to teach in the UK, for whom full retraining would be inappropriate. The Articled Teacher Scheme (ATS), the subject of this paper, is an enhanced two-year PGCE course, 80%

Sharing Teaching Ideas: A New Look For Some Old Algebra Concepts

During the past two years, our school district has adopted a different approach for teaching algebra to the “average” students. This change was made on the basis of the premise that these students do not need more work in arithmetic but need more time in algebra. Rather than offer a one-year prealgebra course and a one-year algebra course, we decided to offer a two-year algebra course. Students choosing the two-year course spend approximately one year on the first half of the text (the same text as the one used in the one-year algebra course) and the second year covering the other half of the text.

A first-year problem-based curriculum in health promotion and disease prevention.

This paper describes Harvard Medical School's integration of a curriculum on health promotion and disease prevention into the first year of its New Pathway to General Medical Education. The goals of the curriculum were to develop in each student (1) the knowledge and skills necessary to evaluate critically the major issues in prevention and (2) an attitude that acknowledges the pertinence of prevention in virtually every clinical encounter. The case method was used for all teaching in the curriculum, as it is throughout the New Pathway. Students worked together in small groups, addressing the issues raised by each case under the direction of faculty preceptors. The component was taught by clinicians as part of a two-year course in which students learned clinical skills and addressed topics from the social sciences and medical humanities. In addition, issues in health promotion and disease prevention were integrated into the cases used to teach the other components of the New Pathway curriculum.

Foreign-Language Study for Graduate English Majors

In 1964, Robert Lado could write with confidence that learning of foreign contributes significantly to true education, even claiming that insofar as we test ability to read foreign we are testing mark of the educated man (231). Now, such confidence longer seems warranted. As David DeCamp reports in the International Encyclopedia of Higher Education (1977), 10% of American colleges and universities now demand foreign (FL) for admission, and many of them reduced or even eliminated the foreign-language requirement for (2429). Similarly, 1978 MLA Task Force found that only 10% of all [college] students presently study foreign language and that, moreover, no comprehensive information exists regarding their proficiency at graduation (2). Nor is this shrinkage confined to the lower university levels: the 1988 edition of Graduate Programs in the Humanities and Social Sciences shows that, among U.S. universities granting doctoral degrees in English, 45% still require two (or more) foreign languages, while 12% have shifted to variable FL requirement, 29% demand one foreign language, and 14% have FL requirement at all (Moore and Sacchetti 1444-69). Perhaps those concerned about this trend in the United States can take some consolation from the fact that it seems to be pervasive in other parts of the English-speaking world as well. As J. A. Large points out in The Language Barrier, British surveys of researchers in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences indicate a quite discernible decrease in proficiency, with both numbers and levels of FL competence noticeably higher among older researchers than among their younger colleagues (39). In the face of this reductive trend, number of universities do, of course, continue to require their master's and doctoral candidates to offer proof of FL study. Since ETS ceased publication of its GSFL tests some years ago, such proof often takes the form of either enrollment and stipulated grade in regular two-year FL course, or translation examination developed and administered

RDC alcoholism in patients with major affective syndromes: two-year course.

The authors examined the 2-year course of alcoholism as defined by Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) in 127 newly admitted patients with major affective syndromes and concurrent alcoholism at intake. The cumulative probability of remission (at least 6 months free of alcohol problems) in these patients was 0.67. Many of the remissions began within a few weeks of intake; the remaining were distributed over the follow-up period. Of the patients without remissions, 17% died, half by suicide. Diagnoses of schizoaffective disorder, indicators of alcohol dependence, and previous chronicity of alcohol problems predicted poor outcome of alcoholism, but none of these variables predicted subsequent relapse.

The American community colleges: A time of reappraisal

ABSTRACT The paper describes the current extent of the American community colleges and analyses their principal functions: the offering of credit ‘transfer˚s programmes, including two-year courses leading to associate degrees, which enable students who successfully complete them to obtain baccalaureate degrees by two more years' study in four-year colleges and universities; the provision of job-specific courses in a wide variety of vocational fields; and the provision of community, lifelong and adult education, including language and citizen training for immigrants, basic education skills for adults, and cultural enrichment for their communities. It describes the most striking development in the role of the colleges during the past two decades, namely that they have moved away from being primarily concerned with ‘transfer˚s courses to become predominantly vocational training institutions. The current criticisms of the community colleges are described and analysed, including concern about the declining pro...

‘2 + 2’ instead of ‘3’?

Seventeen years ago Professor Sir Brian Pippard suggested that much benefit would be derived from the standard three-year physics honours degree course being replaced by a two-year course leading to (say) an ordinary/pass degree, followed by a further two-year course leading to an honours degree. He proposed that the latter course could be followed at a different institution from the former; indeed, my recollection is that he had in mind the transfer of the brightest students to the more prestigious research institutions.

Starting Life as a Dramatherapist

John Casson successfully completed the two-year post professional Dramatherapy course at York in 1983. Since then he has regularly attended psychodrama groups run by Joel Badaines at York, completed a year's introduction to Group Analytic Psychotherapy in Manchester and is at present on an Advanced Dramatherapy course run by Gordon Wiseman and Kath Wilkinson. His previous experience had been as an academic, a teacher, an actor, a community artist and sculptor. He specialised in puppetry, especially giant figures for carnivals and street theatre. He has also worked with mentally handicapped people and been a prison visitor. During the last year he has established the North Western Branch of the British Association for Dramatherapists. Which has a full programme of workshops. In April, 1984, he started work at Brindle House in Hyde, Cheshire, as a full-time Dramatherapist. The following are some notes on the experience of his first two years as a Dramatherapist.

Two-year Course of Visual Acuity in Severe Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy with Conventional Management: Diabetic Retinopathy Vitrectomy Study (DRVS) Report #1

Seven hundred forty-four eyes with very severe proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) were followed with conventional management over a two-year period. Decreases in visual acuity were more frequent during the first year of follow-up than during the second, and were related to baseline visual acuity level and retinopathy severity. After two years, visual acuity was less than 5/200 in 45% of eyes with more than four disc areas of new vessels and visual acuity of 10/30 to 10/50 at baseline, but in only 14% of eyes with traction retinal detachment not involving the center of the macula and without active new vessels or fresh vitreous hemorrhage at baseline. Vitrectomy, which was undertaken only if retinal detachment involving the center of the macula occurred or if severe vitreous hemorrhage failed to clear after a one-year waiting period, had been carried out in 25% of eyes after two years of follow-up.

Psykoterapi og geografi

During recent decades, Norwegian psychiatry has been progressively influenced by psychodynamic theory, and the resulting need for education of psychotherapists in such a sparsely populated country as Norway could only be met in the Oslo area. For the last 15 years, the Institute for Psychotherapy in Oslo has offered two-year introductory courses in psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy in all main regional centres. The advanced courses, not discussed in this article, requiring personal analysis and qualified supervision, still take place in Oslo. The introductory courses consist of either weekly seminars with 80 hours a year or 16 weekend seminars each of 10 hours duration, containing a combination of theoretical studies and case presentations. Qualified psychotherapists - psychiatrists and clinical psychologists - mostly from the Oslo area, have conducted the courses, while the participants from the local professional community have been psychiatric residents or clinical psychologists with a minimum ...

Social work education: a training in pessimism or parable?

ABSTRACT Much concern has been expressed of late with regard to the low morale and pessimism prevalent amongst social workers. In this paper the conventional wisdom about the origins of what has been termed social work's “professional melancholia” is challenged and an alternative interpretation is advanced to explain the apparent transmission of such ideas via the educational process. Rather than this pessimism being an inevitable reaction to an impossible job it can be understood as an attempt to reconcile the perceived demands of training with social work recruits' self-image as caring people. The data on which this analysis is based were collected by participant observation and interviewing of one cohort of social work students throughout a two-year postgraduate course.

Specialisation and post-qualifying training in social work

ABSTRACT This article is primarily about the issue of specialisation in social work, and especially the training needs which are associated with it. It argues in favour of the strengthening of specialist roles and skills in social work, and holds that social work will not be able to develop a distinctive body of ‘intellectual capital’ (or professional confidence and respect) without the greater encouragement of its specialisms. Its main concerns are, however, with training, and the article recommends that priority be given to establishing two-year part-time programmes of post-qualifying social work education. The need for these follows from the unavoidable limitations of two-year basic social work courses, but their object would also be to further the development of specialist expertise and practice in the field.

Social Work Education: Tackling The Theory—Practice Dilemma

SUMMARY The integration of theory and practice has long been a topic for debate and concern amongst social work educators. A longitudinal participant observation study of one cohort of social work students confirmed that the ideal of theory-practice integration was also high on their own list of self-established priorities. Students' efforts towards attaining this goal were also hampered by the perspectives which they themselves brought to bear on their training. Attempting to resolve the conflict between their own perspectives and their perceived demands of professional education students appealed to and reconstructed afresh various models of theory application endorsed both by social work educators and practitioners. These models, however, are essentially contradictory and pose serious problems for the development and maintenance of social work standards. This paper is based on the findings of a longitudinal study which charted the subjective experience of 20 postgraduate social work students on a two-year CQSW course. The research methods used were participant observation and semi-structured interviews, conducted at four points during training. Participant observation involved formal meetings, classes and informal gatherings and the interviews focused on students' profes sional development and attitude changes. The social work course chosen for study was under the control of CCETSW and reiterated the concern of this body to integrate theory and practice in social work eduction. In accordance with CCETSW's stipula tion that 40% or more of students' time be spent in placement agencies students were required to undertake one three-month concurrent fieldwork placement and one six-month bloc placement. Students were also required to demonstrate their competence in theory application by means of a written assessment paper, known as a 'situational study'. Students were instructed to:

Teaching a Women's Rights Course in a Secondary School

In view of the growing concern with sexism in education and the recognition by many teachers that women's contribution to society is invisible in most areas of school knowledge, t am surprized that more women's studies courses have not been set up in secondary schools. lllis may be due to the enormous amount of work involved in setting up new courses, cuts in educational expenditure, and the conservatism of many examination boards as to what counts as legitimate school knowledge. However, what dves seem to be taking place is the incorporation of the subject matter of women's studies into other areas of the curriculum, notably the social sciencess history and English, and also a general emphasis on acquainting pupils with the problems of sexism. (C.L.t.O.: 1981). It could be claimed that this incorporation of the content of women's studies into wider areas of the curriculum is more valuable than actually setting up a separate course. A women's studies course could be said to 'ghettoize' such knowledge, leading to its being regarded as the school's gesture to anti-sexism, thereby avoiding the necessity of persuading teachers to consider their content and practice and make the relevant changes. Ideally, anti-sexist content and practice should pervade the whole curriculum and the entire social relations of schools. However, like black studies, women's studies can be a necessary first step to changing the whole curriculum and getting recognition for formerly ignored areas of knowledge. ln this article t will outline my experience of teaching a women's rights course at Starcross School, give details of content and useful resources, and then make some general comments about teaching women's studies, drawing on research that t conducted at part of an MA dissertation. (Kirton: 1982) Starcross is a girls' comprehensive school in Islington, London. All the members of the social sciences department are feminists, and we have worked collaboratively to develop most of the courses we teach. In the early seventies all fou.<hand fifth-year pupils followed a non-examination course called Communit Education. lt was plagued with problems: being compulsory but unexamined, it tended to be too general and vague and was not popular with pupils. Out of this course we developed a community rights course (now called Community Law), and made it optional for fourth-years ( 15-16 year olds). After some difficulties (though no objections were made to the women's rights section), it was accepted as a two-year examination course by the Metropolitan Region Examination Board. It is a Mode Three Certificate of Secondary Education, which means that the teachers set and mark the examination paper and the projects, which are however moderated by the Board. The marks for the

Unifocal eosinophilic granuloma of the temporal lobe

The clinical features, treatment, and two-year postoperative course of a 14-year-old boy with unifocal eosinophilic granuloma of the temporal lobe are presented. A literature review of unifocal eosinophilic granuloma of the brain revealed 11 additional cases, 9 of which involved the hypothalamus and 1 each the frontal and temporal lobes. Four of the 9 patients with involvement of the hypothalamus developed multifocal disease, whereas none of the 3 who had frontal or temporal lobe involvement developed multifocal lesions. Effective therapy for eosinophilic granuloma in a single resectable site in the brain appears to be total excision. Low-dose radiation has been used to eradicate locally recurrent disease.

A fitness course for dental students

A great deal has been written about the hazards of dental practice and the stressful nature of dental school. While efforts are underway to assist practitioners in stress management and general health improvement, little work has been done with dental students. Dental educators should assist students in managing dental school pressures and in preparing for the potential burdens of practice. This paper describes an elective course that is designed to create student awareness of the potential adverse effects of dental school and dental practice, and of methods to avoid and cope with such problems. A detailed course outline and results from one- and two-year course evaluations are included.

General professional training in psychiatry in the South-west Thames Region.

General professional training in psychiatry usually requires a minimum of three years' in-service training in senior house officer and registrar posts, leading to membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych) by examination. In 1974 the postgraduate dean of this region and his adviser from the Royal College of Psychiatrists set up a psychiatric subcommittee of the regional postgraduate medical committee, to consider and advise on the planning of training in psychiatry in the region. At that time, four clinical tutors ran well-known weekend and week-long block release courses which took place every six months, either at Brookwood psychiatric hospital or at the University of Surrey, in addition to their local teaching responsibilities. These courses were intended to prepare candidates for the professional examination, which occurred twice yearly. In addition one of the tutors had organised a two-term day release basic medical science course for Part A of the Diploma of Psychological Medicine (which be came also suitable for the preliminary MRCPsych examination). Early on, the subcommittee recommended the setting up of a regional two-year day release course (consisting of six seven-week terms), which was designed to equip candidates for the final part of the MRCPsych examination. After two years the entire course was held at St George's Hospital Medical

An evaluation of the role and clinical contribution of New Cross dental therapists.

The first dental therapists (previously called dental auxiliaries), started their training in 1960 and, by the end of 1976, 792 women had qualified after a two-year course. In the present study the role of all dental therapists was investigated by means of a postal survey. The clinical contribution made by these ancillaries was assessed by means of a retrospective analysis of clinic day sheets recorded by 55 dental therapists employed in the community dental services. It was found that dental therapists, in terms of their working pattern and family profile, are typical of women of their age and level of qualification in Britain. The return to work by therapists, after a break from practice because of family commitments, will depend mainly on the availability of posts, particularly part-time posts. Dental therapists provide treatment predominantly for younger children. Compared with previous studies, a noticeable increase in the clinical preventive care provided by therapists was observed.

Hyperthyroidism in the Land of Graves: Results of Treatment by Surgery, Radio-iodine and Carbimazole in 837 Cases

A review of the outcome of treatment by subtotal thyroidectomy, radio-iodine and carbimazole of 837 patients with hyperthyroidism seen consecutively over the period 1954--78 inclusive is presented. The age and sex distribution, the male to female ratio, the ABO blood group distribution and the prevalence of pernicious anaemia and diabetes mellitus in these patients was also analysed. Life-table data showed that the five-year and ten-year cumulative relapse rates following a two-year course of carbimazole (n = 162) were 56 per cent and 62 per cent; following surgery (n = 266), 6 per cent and 10 per cent and following radio-iodine (n = 43), 3 per cent and 14 per cent. Five-year and ten-year cumulative hypothyroid rates after surgery were 10 per cent and 18 per cent, and after radio-iodine 10 per cent and 30 per cent. Hypothyroidism did not occur after carbimazole therapy. Of 31 patients who took carbimazole for less than two years (mean 11 months, range 6--19 months), 91 per cent had relapsed at five years. Of 79 patients treated for longer than two years (mean 3.8 years, range 2 1/2--14 years), relapse rates at five and eight years were 49 per cent and 62 per cent. Nine patients (3.4 per cent) suffered permanent vocal cord paralysis and five (1.9 per cent) had permanent hypocalcaemia. The male/female ratio was 9.9 to 1, with a peak female prevalence between 25 and 30 years and a peak male prevalence between 40 and 45 years. The ABO blood group distribution among patients did not differ significantly from the distribution in the general population (chi 2 = 13.4, p = 0.2). Forty-seven patients (5.6 per cent) had diabetes mellitus and thyrotoxicosis whilst two patients (0.23 per cent) had diabetes, thyrotoxicosis and pernicious anaemia.

British business schools

The evolution of business schools in the UK is reviewed: three relationships exist: with the schools students, with their employers, and with on-going research to provide broader insights into the processes of management. Activities range from the comprehensive two-year multidisciplinary MBA Course, through those of shorter periods or part-time, to specialist modules in such fields as personnel management, marketing and operational research. There has been a move away from open courses in favour of bespoke programmes, which provide more immediate impact for a particular firm. In these, projects and in-company studies are prominent, supervised jointly with the firms managers. The stages of management studies should be related to stages in the career of the individual and to company requirements. There is now convergence in technological and business studies, further linked in postgraduate programmes. Senior programmes are available internationally. In the long term, a combination of reasearch projects and special programmes is likely to offer the most constructive basis for continuous education in management.