Through its unique theoretical framework - a cultural understanding of teaching and learning - this book develops a new way of understanding educational improvement, one which focuses on the formation and transformation of the practices through which students learn. Based on detailed ethnographic research of seventeen learning sites in further education colleges, this book generates a unique insight into a wide variety of practices of teaching and learning. Illustrated by case studies, it is structured around three key questions:

• what do learning cultures in FE look like and...

How can opportunities for teaching and learning be improved to ensure that many more people participate, gain qualifications and obtain decent jobs? Will government policies enable us to achieve these goals? What new ideas do we need to ensure a more inclusive, equitable and efficient learning system? These are some of the main concerns which underlie this thought-provoking book coming from a major research project looking at how policies affect learners, tutors, managers and institutional leaders in Further Education Colleges, Adult and Community Learning centres and in Work Based...

Takes a holistic approach to using ICTs to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. It weaves together evidence of teachers’ and learners’ experiences of ICT outside school, how policy and management issues impact on learning, and what actually happens when ICT is fully integrated into teaching and learning.

Improving Classroom Learning with ICT examines the ways in which ICT can be used in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning in different settings and across different subjects.

Weaving together evidence of teachers' and learners' experiences of ICT, the authors:

• explain why the process of integrating ICT is not straightforward;
• discuss whether hardware and infrastructure alone are sufficient to ensure full integration and exploitation of ICT investment;
• emphasise the pivotal role that teachers play...

** Shortlisted for the NASEN Special Educational Needs Academic Book Award 2009 **

Inter-professional collaborations are invaluable relationships which can prevent the social exclusion of children and young people and are now a common feature of welfare policies worldwide.

Drawing on a four year study of the skills and understanding required of practitioners in order to establish the most effective interagency collaborations, this comprehensive text

• Gives examples from practitioners developing inter-professional practices allow readers to reflect on their...

What's the problem with literacy at college? How might everyday literacy be harnessed for educational ends?

Based on the first major study of literacy practices in colleges in the UK, this book explores the reading and writing associated with learning subjects across the college curriculum. It investigates literacy practices in which students engage outside of college, and teaching and learning strategies through which these can help support the curriculum. With insightful analyses of innovative practices, it considers ways of changing teaching practices to enable students...

This timely book addresses the need for increasing multi-agency capacity in schools, as the success of initiatives such as 'Every Child Matters' or 'personalised learning' depends on teachers understanding the challenges faced by young people in learning effectively and happily in their school.

The authors of this thought-provoking book present and analyse case studies of collaborative action research, illustrating what is needed in practice for teachers to engage with inclusion for the benefit of their pupils and themselves. The essential elements of success with inclusion are...

Now that learning is seen as lifelong and lifewide, what specifically makes a learning context? What are the resultant consequences for teaching practices when working in specific contexts? Drawing upon a variety of academic disciplines, Rethinking Contexts for Learning and Teaching explores some of the different means of understanding teaching and learning, both in and across contexts, the issues they raise and their implications for pedagogy and research. It specifically addresses

• What constitutes a context for learning?
• How do we engage the...