Teachers are forced to use state-adopted texts, approved materials and methods in order to facilitate learning. The creativity of designing a lesson plan that meets the needs of each student, while fostering the imagination and creativity, can be all but lost when constrained by such parameters. So what can teachers do to enhance the learning…

Learning how to plan is recognised as a key skill that beginning teachers have to develop but there has been little research examining "how" they may actually learn to plan. This paper, based on the analysis of 10 post-lesson interviews with 17 secondary school teachers across three years (the PGCE year and the first two years in…

The strategic development of an academic library website is an ongoing process. The methods available to libraries in their efforts to understand the use of their website are also changing. A pilot survey of a group of UK academic libraries provided an insight into the approaches and methods adopted by this group. The study also revealed some of…

There are a number of different forms of inter-organisational collaborative arrangements between universities at international, national and sub-national levels. This paper focuses on a particular form of inter-university collaboration mechanisms, which represents one of the key recent policy developments in Scotland. Research pooling initiatives…

This paper summarises the implications for practice arising from the "International review of the evidence on best practice in educational provision for children on the autism spectrum" and it focuses on key priorities for policy makers, families, practitioners and researchers. Findings highlight that there is little evidence to indicate…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify and critically evaluate key issues faced by an institution in the quest to implement higher education internationalization. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research is conducted in a post-1992 UK university. A total of 20 interviewees from three key departments participated in this…

"Ambition 2020: World Class Skills and Jobs" is the UK Commission for Employment and Skills' annual assessment, to the four UK nations, of their progress towards becoming "world class" in productivity, employment and skills by 2020. "Ambition 2020" provides a robust independent account of economic and skills…

The business models under which most public universities in the U.S. operate have become unsustainable. They were put in place when state economies were stronger and there were fewer programs making competing claims on state funds. The current Great Recession has made things worse, but the unsustainability of current business models derives from…

Challenged both by funding cuts and by changes in legislation, local authorities are at very different stages in taking forward the strategic planning of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Planning has been further complicated by the coalition's slowness to set out a definition of the "settled communities" priority group for…

The objective of the study reported here was to ascertain the impact on small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owner-managers of simulating having and being a non-executive director (NED) within the GOLD programme at Lancaster University, the purpose of which is to help owner-managers of SMEs to become better strategic leaders of their companies.…

Over the last two decades, considerable progress has been made in establishing and implementing robust, comparable quality assurance processes throughout much of the European higher education sector. However, concerns persist over degree portability and recognition as current systems are rooted in national contexts. In particular, specialised…

This article examines interview data from 12 mentors/coaches and eight of their clients in order to explore a mentoring and coaching service among UK university staff. Both mentors/coaches and clients were administrative or academic employees of the Institute of Education or affiliated colleges at London University, UK. Their roles related to the…

This paper reports on findings derived as part of a two-year project funded by the European Union's Daphne III scheme, involving collaboration between seven partner organisations across six European countries. The project involved an evaluation, using questionnaires and focus groups, of domestic abuse prevention education programmes delivered in…

Most universities in Australia have established at least one organizational unit with a responsibility for academic development. While "academic" could embrace all aspects of the role of academics, including research, innovation, and contributions to community and professional bodies, the expectation is that the focus will be on learning…

Continuing professional development (CPD) is increasingly seen as an essential driver in raising the standards of teaching and learning in post-16 education and training. Requirements and processes have been set in place by Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) and Institute for Learning (IfL) to ensure that every teacher engages in CPD--but is it getting…