In Scotland, as in other legislations, the government and its agencies commission educational research to inform policy and practice development. This provides opportunities for academic researchers, who are under pressure to engage in funded research, to carry their interests forward with some assurance of social usefulness and impact. Many…

Innovations in assessment practice have become widespread in Higher Education (HE) throughout the world. Taking a case study approach, this paper examines the nature of students' assessment preferences at one English university, and compares the views of UK students with a sample of learners from a number of other countries studying at the same…

Problem-based learning (PBL) and Context-based learning (CBL) are often cited as having a positive impact on student learning. However, the discourse of these innovative teaching approaches often centres on gifted and/or experienced learners. The aim of this article is to report on the development of resources for a mixed ability cohort of…

The consistency of assessment demands is important to validity. This research investigated the comparability of the demands of college-assessed units within a vocationally related qualification, drawing on methodological approaches that have previously been used to compare assessments. Assessment materials from five colleges were obtained. After…

This practitioner-based case study assessed the effect of a newly introduced academic mentoring system on adult foundation degree students, in terms of opinion, take-up, experience and development of academic skills. Triangulated data were gathered from two separate groups of Early Years students over one academic year, and personal and procedural…

Work-based learning's preoccupation with developing award-bearing programmes has affected the scope and style of work-based research. While offering development opportunities for work-based research, the emphasis of work-based learning programmes on the individual learner has curtailed the use of collaborative research. This article explores how…

The relationship between the workplace, the researcher and the university is of a complex nature and all three stakeholders have their own influences on work-based learning. Defining the relationship between the stakeholders provokes a consideration of the issue of power, since power relations within a workplace can affect the reliability of…

The article is concerned with the research approaches and nature of methodologies and epistemologies used by practitioner-researchers in a range of occupational areas. The authors use the experiences of candidates on a generic Doctorate in Professional Studies who undertake a module on research and development for professional practice. They also…

This article introduces a practice-centred inquiry method called an "ethno-experiment". The method is built on a social constructionist understanding of practice as a social performance rather than as an individual's act. Additionally, it draws on Garfinkel's early ethnomethodological work and Marshall's self-reflective inquiry to construct a…

The paper examines the relationship between research and practice. Its starting point is a consideration of the difference between policy science and scholarship. This leads to an analysis of the current importance attached by the state to evidence-informed practice and systematic review. Such research strategies will, it is claimed, lead to…

This article discusses the research approach adopted by one higher education institution in the United Kingdom (UK) to explore employers' and employees' responses to local skills, recruitment and training issues and how these responses were used to develop a curriculum for Foundation degrees. The article discusses skills issues, the varying…

A research project used critical incident technique to investigate the expertise of staff development leaders in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. Problems inherent in such analyses are considered and the methodology briefly outlined. Interviewees' conceptions of their professional learning and the basis of their expertise are…

Following a damning report on the state of police probationer training in England and Wales by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, entitled "Training Matters" (2002), the Home Office (2003), as part of its modernisation programme for the police service, decided that what police officers were required to know and learn to execute their…

This article reports on a study that is concerned with surveying the aspirations of some students in an Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) College and developing strategies to address issues arising from the surveys. The study is essentially a series of surveys, thought it has an action learning aspect because of its developmental…

In recent years, in both Australia and England, research centres and research policies with regard to vocational education and training (VET) have been introduced. In Australia the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has had responsibility since 1996 for the national VET research and evaluation programme, while in England the…