Teaching Horse Riding: Is the Role of the Horse Recognized?

There is international acknowledgement that the ability of industry and nations to meet the competitive challenges of a growing global economy is often determined by the acquired industry relevant, knowledge, skills and attitudes of its workforce. A significant factor impacting on the level of success achieved by individuals can be directly related to the quality of the teaching experienced in formal Tertiary Vocational Education and Training (TVET) educational settings. The purpose of this paper is to explore, through a documented Chinese case-study of Tianjin City Vocational College, how quality teaching can be measured. The project methodology used was based on an intuitive-rational approach segmented into three (3) phases; preparation, process and reporting. The preparation phase focused on defining quality teaching and developing four research instruments to investigate quality teaching practices. The process phase involved gathering and analysing data generated from questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews. The reporting phase presented the findings of the research to relevant stakeholders. In reviewing the initial findings, it was acknowledged that the framework proposed does not match other quality evaluation methodologies in this area. This is partially because this evaluation methodology used focused on the actual teaching and learning experienced by participants. This measurement of the process at the point of delivery, rather than the outcomes at the point of completion, provides a detailed overview of the current educational climate and teaching practices of the institution being investigated. The data generated allows institutional response to improving teaching quality to be pro-active, impacting on current teaching practices, rather than reactive, focusing on past teaching practices. It was concluded that the evaluation framework created, and the associated research instruments developed, were robust and reliable. It was argued that they could be used with confidence by TVET institutions who want to pro-actively improve the teaching quality experienced by their learners.

Inquiry-based teaching promotes students’ engagement in problem-solving and investigation as they learn science concepts. Current practice in science teacher education promotes the use of inquiry in the teaching of science. However, the literature suggests that many science teachers hold incomplete or incorrect conceptions of inquiry. Teachers, therefore, may believe they are providing more inquiry experiences than they are, reducing the positive impact of inquiry on science interest and skills. Given the prominence of inquiry in professional development experiences, educational evaluators need strong tools to detect intended use in the classroom. The current study focuses on the validity of assessments developed for evaluating teachers’ use of inquiry strategies and classroom orientations. We explored the relationships between self-reported inquiry strategy use, preferences for inquiry, knowledge of inquiry practices, and related pedagogical content knowledge. Finally, we contrasted students’ and teachers’ reports of the levels of inquiry-based teaching in the classroom. Self-reports of inquiry use, especially one specific to the 5E instructional model, were useful, but should be interpreted with caution. Teachers tended to self-report higher levels of inquiry strategy use than their students perceived. Further, there were no significant correlations between either knowledge of inquiry practices or PCK and self-reported inquiry strategy use.

The relationship between prior field experience and professional development has been frequently documented in teacher education (Denton, 1982; Calderhead, 1988). There is less research, however, which has explored the relationship between students' prior experiences and their initial images of teaching and professional development. This paper outlines some, findings from a UFC research project into experiential learning in higher education. It concentrates specifically on teacher education and focuses primarily upon the experiences of student teachers prior to their professional training. The paper examines the extent to which prior experiences influence students' images of teaching and professional development. It describes the nature of those experiences and explores the relationship between prior experience and students' preconceptions about professional development.

Prior research has reported that experience in undergraduate anatomy did not significantly affect students' grades in professional schools, yet students would still recommend anatomy experience prior to medical school. It has been further posited that this prior experience may have benefits that do not appear in grade outcomes, such as decreased stress levels or different study strategies. The present study investigated whether different study strategies in anatomy were reported between students with and without prior experience. The data were collected using surveys administered near the beginning and the end of the medical anatomy course. The surveys included questions about study strategies used for the course, basic demographics, and prior experience in anatomy and/or physiology. Results confirmed very few differences in course outcomes between students with and without prior experience in anatomy and/or physiology; however, differences were noted in the study strategies reported. Students with prior experience in anatomy were more likely to report use of a wider variety of strategies and less changes in strategies between the surveys. However, these differences were only noted with prior courses of a certain number and level. It is posited that students with prior experience may have already created a basic scaffold of information in their mind that they could then plug additional information into rather than creating an entirely new knowledge structure. While this did not largely change course outcomes, it is likely to have positive effects on students' perceptions of stress and feelings of being overwhelmed during the course.

This action research study explored the change in face-to-face teaching practices as a result of faculty professional development for online teaching. Faculty’s initial teaching model is typically born from that of their own teachers, and they teach as they were taught. However, few have any online experience as a student or a teacher. Learning to teach online may be a catalyst for faculty to reflect on and evaluate their current teaching practices. Data was collected through three rounds of action research that included individual interviews, participants’ reflective journalling activities, researcher’s journal and field notes, and classroom observations. The qualitative data analysis steps included data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. The results of the study indicated that learning to teach online has the potential to transform faculty’s assumptions and beliefs about teaching, changing their face-to-face teaching practices. The identification of the aspects of professional development activities that were most effective in helping faculty to reflect on and question their previously held assumptions and beliefs about teaching will assist administrators and faculty development specialists move from one-size-fits-all programs to a redesign within an adult learning framework that supports opportunities for change.

This study explores the perceptions of four visual art teacher educators of what constitutes good visual art teaching in a Malaysian higher education setting. The aim of this study is to deepen our understanding of the characteristic features of good visual art teaching in a higher education setting. The study explores the beliefs, values, and life shaping factors that underpin and inform the teaching practice of these visual art teacher educators. What constitutes good visual teaching in higher education has intrigued and challenged those concerned with this sector for many decades and is subject to on-going inquiry and debate. Perspectives of what constitutes good visual art teaching practices are shaped by individual, social and cultural factors, including those pathways taken through visual art education and training. Consequently there is little consensus about what good visual art teaching really looks like. Whilst the characteristic features of good teaching in higher education have been the subject of recent inquiry, the literature concerning good visual art teaching in higher education is limited. This study aims to address this gap. This study adopts a qualitative case study approach and draws on the principles and practices of narrative inquiry. In this study, four visual art teacher educators who have different backgrounds and areas of specialisation from the Art Department of the 'University of Education Malaysia' were interviewed and observed. Each visual art teacher educator participated in a series of three interviews in order to interrogate their beliefs, values and experiences, and access their accounts of good visual art teaching. Observations of each visual art teacher educator's teaching served to triangulate the data generated through interview. In order to obtain a better understanding of the phenomenon, 12 student teachers consisting of six pre-service and six in-service final year student teachers from the same department were interviewed using individual and group interview. Narrative analysis and analysis of narrative techniques were employed in the examination of the data. From this analysis four narrative accounts of these visual art teacher educators' perception of good visual art teaching in a higher education setting were developed. Findings suggest that teaching is shaped by prior experiences as learners in school, community, and tertiary settings, and understandings of the professional teaching situation. For these participants the personal and professional are connected in their lives. This connection is illustrated through the distinctive ways that each visual art teacher educator approaches their teaching and the different beliefs and values they hold. For those participants whose education and/or current practice is studio-based, mastery of art skills and knowledge is of primary importance in good visual art teaching. For these participants good visual art teaching is a specialised area which requires specific knowledge and skills. For those participants whose education and/or current practice is theory based, good visual art teaching is not only about mastery of art skills and knowledge but also involves mastery of pedagogical content knowledge and practical knowledge. Despite these apparent differences in beliefs and practices, concern for pedagogical content knowledge is a feature of the work of all four participants. For all visual art teacher educator participants, lifelong learning through self-reflection, inquiry, peer reviewing, involvement in on-going professional development and continuing education is a hallmark of good visual art teaching. In addition all visual art teacher educator participants view good visual art teaching as a relational activity. This study provides us with insights into the complexity of good visual art teaching from the perspective of the visual art teacher educator. This study has developed ways to listen to visual art teacher educators' voices and to hear them in their own terms, to observe them, to enter their realities, and to see the world from their perspectives. This is deemed as important because in the Malaysian experience, more often than not, visual art teacher educators' teaching practice and their lives have been largely unexamined and taken for granted. The worldviews, stories, and teaching practices we enact are cultural constructions that have become part of the fabric of our everyday lives. Through this study an understanding of the beliefs, values and life-shaping factors that underpin and inform these visual art teacher educators' teaching practices provides us with new understandings of their work in Malaysian teacher education.

This study investigated the influence of teachers’ experience with research‐related activities on their current grammar teaching practice and research engagement for second language (L2) grammar instruction. Survey responses were collected from 701 Korean L2 English teachers and were analyzed with exploratory factor analyses and logistic regressions. This study found four major findings, irrespective of the level of teachers’ prior experience with research‐related activities. First, there was a marked discrepancy between teachers’ grammar instruction and pedagogical recommendations of form‐focused instruction studies. Second, in‐class environment was the most influential element in shaping their grammar instruction. Third, more research‐related activities in the past did not lead to noticeable research engagement in the present. Fourth, lack of external support was the biggest hindrance to teachers’ research engagement to implement evidence‐based grammar instruction. However, prior research‐related experience appeared to nudge teachers into acknowledging the value of research while also causing them to be more cognizant of the limited relevance of research to their grammar teaching practice. I argue that the irrelevance of research can be a more serious obstacle to teachers’ research engagement in the long term and L2 pedagogy literacy of researchers is a prerequisite for research‐informed pedagogy to be achievable.

IntroductionIn regional Australia and New Zealand, museums and art galleries are increasingly becoming primary sites of cultural engagement. They are one of the key tourist attractions for regional towns and expected to generate much needed tourism revenue. In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were three million visitors to regional galleries and museums (MGNSW 13). However, apart from those (partially) funded by local councils, they are often run on donations, good will, and the enthusiasm of volunteers. Regional museums and galleries provide some paid, and more unpaid, employment for ageing populations. While two-thirds of Australia’s population lives in capital cities, the remainder who live in regional towns are likely to be in the 60+ age cohort because people are choosing to retire away from the bustling, growing cities (ABS). At last count, there were about 3000 museums and galleries in Australia with about 80% of them located in regional areas (Scott). Over the last 40 years, this figure has tripled from the 1000 regional and provincial museums estimated by Peter Piggott in his 1975 report (24). According to a 2014 survey (Shaw and Davidson), New Zealand has about 470 museums and galleries and about 70% are located outside capital cities. The vast majority, 85%, have less than five, full-time paid staff, and more than half of these were run entirely by ageing volunteers. They are entrusted with managing the vast majority of the history and heritage collections of Australia and New Zealand. These ageing volunteers need a diverse range of skills and experience to care for and interpret collections. How do you find the time and budget for professional development for both paid staff and volunteers? Many professional development events are held in capital cities, which are often a significant distance from the regional museum—this adds substantially to the costs of attending and the time commitment required to get there. In addition, it is not uncommon for people working in regional museums to be responsible for everything—from security, collection management, conservation, research, interpretation and public programs to changing the light bulbs. While there are a large number of resources available online, following a manual is often more difficult than learning from other colleagues or learning in a more formal educational or vocational environment where you can receive timely feedback on your work. Further, a foundational level of prior knowledge and experience is often required to follow written instructions. This article will suggest some strategies for low cost professional development and networking. It involves planning, thinking strategically and forming partnerships with others in the region. It is time to harness the power of modern communications technology and use it as a tool for professional development. Some models of professional development in regional areas that have been implemented in the past will also be reviewed. The focus for this article is on training and professional development for workers in regional museums, heritage sites and keeping places. Regional art galleries have not been included because they tend to have separate regional networks and training opportunities. For example, there are professional development opportunities provided through the Art Galleries Association of Australia and their state branches. Regional galleries are also far more likely to have one or more paid staff members (Winkworth, “Fixing the Slums” 2). Regional Museums, Volunteers, and Social CapitalIt is widely accepted that regional museums and galleries enhance social capital and reduce social isolation (Kelly 32; Burton and Griffin 328). However, while working in a regional museum or gallery can help to build friendship networks, it can also be professionally isolating. How do you benchmark what you do against other places if you are two or more hours drive from those places? How do you learn from other colleagues if all your colleagues are also isolated by the ‘tyranny of distance’ and struggling with the same lack of access to training? In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were 8,629 active volunteers working in regional museums and galleries giving almost five million hours, which Museums and Galleries NSW calculated was worth over $150 million per annum in unpaid labour (MGNSW 1). Providing training and professional development to this group is an investment in Australia’s social and cultural capital.Unlike other community-run groups, the museums and heritage places which have emerged in regional Australia and New Zealand are not part of a national or state branch network. Volunteers who work for the Red Cross, Scouts or Landcare benefit from being part of a national organisation which provides funding, support workers, a website, governance structure, marketing, political advocacy and training (Winkworth, “Let a Thousand Flowers” 11). In Australia and New Zealand, this role is undertaken by the Australian Museums and Galleries Association AMaGA (formerly Museums Australia) and Museums Aotearoa respectively. However, both of these groups operate at the macro policy level, for example organising annual conferences, publishing a journal and developing Indigenous policy frameworks, rather than the local, practical level. In 1995, due to their advocacy work, Landcare Australia received $500 million over five years from the federal government to fund 5000 Landcare groups, which are run by 120,000 volunteers (Oppenheimer 177). They argued successfully that the sustainable development of land resources started at the local level. What do we need to do to convince government of the need for sustainable development of our local and regional museum and heritage resources?Training for Volunteers Working in Regional Museums: The Current SituationAnother barrier to training for regional museum workers is the assumption that the 70:20:10 model of professional development should apply. That is, 70% of one’s professional development is done ‘on the job’ by completing tasks and problem-solving; 20% is achieved by learning from mentors, coaches and role models and 10% is learnt from attending conferences and symposia and enrolling in formal courses of study. However, this model pre-supposes that there are people in your workplace whom you can learn from and who can show you how to complete a task, and that you are not destroying or damaging a precious, unique object if you happen to make a mistake.Some museum volunteers come with skills in research, marketing, administration, customer service or photography, but very few come with specific museum skills like writing exhibition text, registering an acquisition or conserving artefacts. These skills need to be taught. As Kylie Winkworth has written, museum management now requires a [...] skills set, which is not so readily found in small communities, and which in many ways is less rewarding for the available volunteers, who may have left school at 15. We do not expect volunteer librarians to catalogue books, which are in any case of low intrinsic value, but we still expect volunteers in their 70s and 80s to catalogue irreplaceable heritage collections and meet ever more onerous museum standards. That so many volunteers manage to do this is extraordinary. (“Let a Thousand Flowers” 13)Workers in regional museums are constantly required to step outside their comfort zones and learn new skills with minimal professional support. While these challenging experiences can be very rewarding, they are also potentially damaging for our irreplaceable material cultural heritage.Training for museum professionals has been on the agenda of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1947 (Boylan 62). However, until 1996, their work focused on recommending curricula for new museum professionals and did not include life-long learning and on-going professional development. ICOM’s International Committee for the Training of Personnel (ICTOP) and the ICOM Executive has responded to this in their new curricula—ICOM Curricula Guidelines for Professional Museum Development, but this does not address the difficulties staff or volunteers working in regional areas face in accessing training.In some parts of Australia, there are regional support and professional development programs in place. For example, in Queensland, there is the Museum Development Officer (MDO) network. However, because of the geographic size of the state and the spread of the museums, these five regionally based staff often have 60-80 museums or keeping places in their region needing support and so their time and expertise is spread very thinly. It is also predominantly a fee-for-service arrangement. That is, the museums have to pay for the MDO to come and deliver training. Usually this is done by the MDO working with a local museum to apply for a Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) grant. In Victoria there is a roving curator program where eligible regional museums can apply to have a professional curator come and work with them for a few days to help the volunteers curate exhibitions. The roving curator can also provide advice on “develop[ing] high quality exhibitions for diverse audiences” via email, telephone and networking events. Tasmania operates a similar scheme but their two roving curators are available for up to 25 days of work each year with eligible museums, provided the local council makes a financial contribution. The New South Wales government supports the museum advisor program through which a museum professional will come to your museum for up to 20 days/year to give advice and hands-on training—provided your local council pays $7000, an amount that is matched by the state government—for this service. In 2010, in response to recommendations in the Dunn Report (2007), the Collections Council of Australia (CCA) established a pilot project with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in West

Questionnaires surveys were conducted to 343 students and 20 teachers from three of the largest Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) institutions in Hong Kong for the identification of specific instructional strategies to derive innovative pedagogical practices for effective learning and teaching in VPET. Findings revealed that in current learning and teaching practices, lecture and the use of lecture notes were prevailing while the least conducted learning and teaching activities were e-learning / use of technology. Students preferred great flexibility, accessibility and convenience when studying. Reponses also indicated that the use of mobile devices in study became very popular. Results of this study imply that technology enhanced learning and teaching activities would benefit both teachers and students. While multiple learning channels would enable students to self-regulate their learning, there are needs to blend face-to-face teaching with e-learning or mobile learning to further enhance students' motivation and timely interaction via online social media. After all, the readiness and preparation of the teachers is another pressing issue awaiting to be addressed.

The article deals with the peculiarities of the usage cloud technologies for the organization of students-philologists' individual and group work in studying the discipline ``Scientific Research Basics''. The relevance of the introduction of cloud technologies for formation the readiness of the future teachers of Ukrainian language and literature to the professional activity is substantiated. Analysis of the scientific sources suggested that the quality of professional training process of future teachers-philologists has reached a new level by the means of cloud technologies. The domestic and foreign experience of cloud technologies implementation into current educational practices is generalized. The features of blended learning organization for professional training students-philologists at the Mykhailo Stelmakh Faculty of Philology and Journalism of Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University during the studying the discipline ``Scientific Research Basics'' by using cloud technologies are described. The practical aspects and experience of preparation the future teachers of Ukrainian language and literature to a fluent usage of innovative cloud-based means are detailed. It is specified that the educational process is based on the communication by Gmail, Viber and Telegram messengers, store on Google Drive resource, work with educational video on YouTube, conducting online classes in Google Meet, creation publication in any of the social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok), formation the different styles of references design on The Cite This for Me resource, conducting literature search on various search engines, namely Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, creating multimedia presentation at Prezi or Canva, making MindMaps on Mindomo, infographics on interactive board Google Jamboard or Padlet, on services for graphic design Canva and Visme, etc. Prospects for experimental studying the effectiveness of using cloud technologies in learning discipline ``Scientific Research Basics'' are determined.

One attempt to revitalise undergraduate education has been by shifting the dominant pedagogy to a learner‐centred focus and supporting an emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and learning. The discussion regarding efforts to refocus undergraduate education to be more intentional by moving towards a learner‐centred paradigm is encouraging, yet it is crucial to acknowledge that most of the effort and literature on the learner‐centred paradigm and the scholarship of teaching and learning have necessarily focused on strategies for the classroom. It is equally important for administrators to consider the impact of the paradigm shift on their roles. Assessment and evaluation are the very core of the learner‐centred paradigm. Assessment is both the single‐most important gage of learning that drives the educational process and the most effective means of implementing institutional change. In this article, the authors offer a means of assessing the degree of learner‐centredness in current teaching practices through a systematic review of course syllabi. Using a rubric developed for this purpose the authors have reviewed course syllabi in order to develop a benchmark for the degree of learner‐centredness present in current teaching practices and employed the results as a vehicle for planning professional development.

Research into teacher inservice in primary science generally focuses on evaluating the objectives of each program in terms of the immediate outcomes. Little research appears to have been conducted into the long term effects of interactive inservice programs on the classroom practice of the participants. During 1993 the long term effects of participation in the Primary Science/Technology Project (Sci-Tec), as perceived by the teacher participants, were investigated. Focus teachers who had participated in Sci-Tec between 1988–1991 were asked to provide information about their current science teaching practice, and about the influence that Sci-Tec had had on their current practice. Six of these teachers were then interviewed to determine which specific aspects of the project they believed had most influenced the development of their current classroom practice in teaching science.

BackgroundFor critically ill and injured patients, timely access to definitive care is associated with a reduction in avoidable mortality. Access to definitive care is significantly affected by geographic remoteness. To overcome this disparity, a robust critical care transport (CCT) or retrieval system is essential to support the equity of care and overcome the tyranny of distance. While critical care transport or retrieval systems have evolved over the years, there is no universally accepted system or standard, which has led to considerable variation in practices. The objective of this mixed-methods study was to identify and explore the current clinical, operational, and educational practices of government and charity-funded critical care transport and retrieval organizations operating across access- and weather- challenged geography.MethodsThis study utilized a mixed-methods approach comprising a rapid review of the literature and semi-structured interviews with identified subject matter experts (SME).ResultsA total of 44 articles and 14 interviews with SMEs from six different countries, 12 different services/systems, and seven operational roles, including clinicians (physician, paramedic, and nurse), educator, quality improvement, clinical governance, clinical informatics and research, operations manager, and medical director were included in the narrative analysis. The study identified several themes including deployment, crew composition, selection and education, clinical governance, quality assurance and quality improvement and research.ConclusionThis mixed-methods study underscores the paucity of literature describing current clinical, operational, and educational practices of government or charity-funded CCT or retrieval programs operating across access- and weather- challenged geography. While many common themes were identified including clearly defined mission profiles, use of dedicated or specialized transport teams, central coordination, rigorous selection processes, service-sponsored graduate education, and strong clinical governance, there is little consensus and considerable variation in current practices. Further research is needed to identify and harmonize best practices within the CCT and retrieval environments.

In our informational society, the progress leaded by the new technologies demands quick changes and the schools needs to adjust and reform their politics and educational approaches promptly. The professional development of teachers is the most important tool for adapting and improving the education to the continuous changes. Boosted by the high evaluation criteria of the teachers, a lot of professional developments programs have emerged in training institutions and organizations, adding more pressure on Romanian teachers. As a direct effect, teachers perceive the professional development as another source of stress and frustration in their work, because they feel that such programs are ineffective and time consuming. Some of the programs have received an official or informal recognition. Unfortunately, a lot of these programs lack quality, producing only slight effects and spending lots of resources and time. Our intervention highlights the importance of online professional development, which can be a platform for creativity and innovation, emphasizing good practices. In the past years, the research about the professional development in online learning environment has kept growing. Most of papers only describe the programs, without offering a clear evaluation on the impact of the respective programs on the teachers' current practices. Our proposal shows the need for empirical research that provides program models for online teacher training and objective criteria, in order to estimate which kind of program can offer better support for creativity and changes in teacher's practices. Based on the empirical research, the online training programs can become a way to exploring new patterns of collaboration and creative teaching. Recommendations for future research on the influence of online learning environments in the professional teacher's development are offered.

The teaching of qualitative methods is now a required element of degree courses in the UK which seek to gain professional accreditation. This paper reports the work of a network group focused on enhancing the teaching of qualitative methods at the undergraduate level. Following a brief summary of the results of a survey into current teaching practices we indicate potential areas of resource support with linked references to examples produced by the network group.