The South West Thames Regional Library Service (England) uses contracts for library service to encourage library cooperation, liberate staff, and focus on the quality of information services. The South Thames Regional Library Service facilitates access to and promotes the use of health care literature and is responsible for planning and…

Describes Southtek, a group of 14 colleges and 14 companies which have formed partnerships with local education authorities to produce effective vocational distance training materials. Topics discussed include the need that precipitated Southtek, its material development and testing methods, and its network of support centers for local users and…

The Increased Flexibility for 14-16 year olds Programme (IFP) was introduced in 2002 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to provide vocational learning opportunities at key stage 4 for those young people who would benefit most. The programme, which entailed FE colleges and training providers working in partnership with schools to…

This report describes a joint project among two U.S. universities, a university in the Netherlands, and one in London, England, designed to prepare U.S. students of higher education policy with an understanding, appreciation, and analytic knowledge of the effect of the unification of Europe on higher education policy, as well as give European…

Asserts that increasing inter-agency conflict is detrimental to needs of children and families. Presents example of one agency (Educational Psychology Service), suggesting that its pressures are common to all agencies and that recent policies conspire to enhance the power of systems rather than of children and families. Discusses effective…

Used participant observation, formal interviews, and policy documents to study the relationships between Fairground and Gypsy Traveler parents and the children's teachers in England. Teachers in the schools, which children attended only in the winter, were quite important to traveling families. Case study results suggest that power-sharing…

Given the drive in higher education institutions to employ web-based learning (WBL) technologies in their curricula, this article sets out to address the question of how staff experience the incorporation of such technologies into their educational practice. The study focuses on an initiative involving four institutions in South and West England…

This chapter presents five case histories that describe literacy education practices in rural areas of England. All programs include the use of action research and the concept of open learning. Open learning is a nontraditional approach to education that includes the use of learning centers, computers, audio- and videotapes, and distance…

Five of the world's largest libraries have joined Google in a herculean effort to digitize millions of books and make every sentence searchable. The project involves libraries at Harvard and Stanford Universities, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of Oxford, in England, as well as the New York Public Library. It could…

The Increased Flexibility Programme for 14 to 16 year olds (IFP) was introduced in 2002. The aim of the programme was to "create enhanced vocational and work-related learning opportunities for 14 to 16 year olds of all abilities who can benefit most", including supporting provision of the GCSEs in vocational subjects. The first cohort of…

This paper discusses the "School of the Twenty-First Century" concept and its implementation in three schools in Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The "School of the Twenty-First Century" idea was first promulgated in 1987, by Edward Zigler of the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University. The…

This ongoing study is designed to examine the quality of early childhood education in England and Wales, identifying key aspects of professional ability crucial to the quality of children's learning. It also seeks to generate criteria for promoting the development of these aspects of professional ability and to develop consequent criteria for…

This study examined the views of English citizens and community leaders regarding problems related to disaffected, disadvantaged, culturally diverse groups. The Community Cohesion Review Team (CCRT) investigated issues needing to be addressed to bring about social cohesion. Communities were deeply polarized, with separate educational systems,…

This document summarizes the goals for learning to be achieved by English children by the time they enter compulsory education after their fifth birthday. The goals emphasize early literacy, numeracy, and the development of personal and social skills. Presented as six areas of learning, the goals provide a foundation for later achievement in Key…

Teacher education in England has evolved to a practice-theory model, in which trainees on a one-year postgraduate certificate of education spend 24 weeks of a 36 week course in schools, rather than on the more traditional and comfortable, theory driven, predominantly Higher Education Institute (HEI) based programme. Partnership between the HEIs…