Post 16 Education in the United Kingdom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Post 16 Education in the United Kingdom - Essay Example Simultaneously, the organizational structure of the post 16 education is rather complex and can be delivered through several different means: (Lea, 2003) According to Walkin (2000), 'young adults must realize their full potential as active and effective members of society at large, and at all kinds of public and voluntary bodies, thus it is the state responsibility to provide the necessary models for young adults' action and participation'. To follow this task and to provide effective and efficient post 16 education, there has been developed a national and local system of post 16 educational establishments. On the national level, the main organization responsible for the post 16 education is the national Learning and Skills Council. Its main responsibilities lie in 'funding and planning education and training for over 16-year-olds in England'. (Learning and Skills Council, 2003) The strategic aim of the organization is to give the young 16-year-old adults in England the best skills for further education and work in the world. The work of the LSC is made more efficient through the well developed operating structure, which has its offices in 47 local areas. The LSC is not responsible for the post 16 education in the Universities. ... prise Councils and the knowledge of the Further Education Funding Council, together with making the cooperation with employers, community groups and learning providers closer and more effective. From the critical viewpoint, the LSC should be also involved into the area of University education for 16-year-old, as the centralization of functions will bring the desired high control over the whole system of post-16 education and the realization of the most urgent needs and means of achieving the strategic goals. The LSC is divided into the four different groups which are learning, skills, resources and strategy and communications. The 47 local offices represent the local structure responsible for the post 16 education, together with the following local institutions, being integral of the state educational system in the country. Sixth Form Colleges There are 103 sixth form colleges in England, some of them are related to secondary schools, and some are absolutely independent. To make the organizational structure close to perfect, in some local areas all post 16 provisions, related to different secondary schools, have been merged into one local college. These kinds of colleges usually offer wider ranges of options and curriculums for the students, than it is in usual secondary schools during the two last years of education. (Huddleston, 1997) Further education colleges The main similarity of the further education colleges and the sixth form colleges lies in the fact that they provide programs, which are much alike, but in addition also offer a range of vocational training programs and opportunities for their students. The critical role of these entities is in attracting students from secondary schools, who didn't wish to continue their study in the same environment and

Personal narrative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Personal narrative - Essay Example He wanted to study English to help with his university coursework. My motivation was more casual. I was simply interested in learning a little spoken Thai and a little about Thai culture. I wasn't interested in learning to read or to write Thai. This narrative will concentrate on the application of Cambourne's prerequisites of learning to my language exchange experience. These prerequisites, or conditions of learning, are immersion, demonstration, expectation, responsibility, approximation, employment, response and engagement. As noted by Cambourne, these conditions of learning do not exist in isolation. Rather, these conditions are intertwined. A learner's ability to approximate the target behavior, for instance, may be difficult or impossible absent immersion or demonstration. That said, the eight conditions set forth a clear analytical framework for assessing my Thai-English language exchange. Immersion refers to the depth and the comprehensiveness of the learning or literacy experience. It refers to the extent to which the learner is saturated by the learning experience. It also involves, in important ways, questions of authenticity. In my case, immersion was gravely lacking. As a result, it was difficult to approximate the modeled behavior, the spoken Thai, and my expectations were consequently diminished. My instructor was a native-speaker of Thai. He was well-educated and well-prepared for our lessons. From the point of view of immersion, however, he was my sole authentic connection to the Thai language. In the background, during our lessons at the coffee shop, there was English music playing on the radio. Everything, from menus to posters on the wall to the conversations at adjoining tables, was in English. Trying to focus on my Thai lessons was at times a distraction. It seemed external to the physical and cultural environment. In short, the lack of the immersion element affected in a significant way my total learning experience. The lack of authenticity and the lack of a broader learning exposure to the learning goals left me feeling a bit hopeless about learning to speak Thai. Demonstration: Creating Realistic and Practical Situations The second condition of learning, the demonstration prerequisite, concerns the modeling of the target behavior. This modeling may be formal or informal. My Thai instructor was rather creative in this respect. He brought magazines to our meetings and used them as teaching aids. I recall one lesson where we studied shopping and prices. He brought a clothing catalogue, a Thai silk catalogue, and a Thai cooking book as teaching aids. He handed me a worksheet in which he had typed English inquiries such as, "How much is a coke", with the Thai equivalent written alongside in English script. He modeled the correct pronunciation, made relevant grammatical distinctions, and created a salesperson-customer role-play for the clothing and silk catalogues and a waiter-customer role-play for the Thai cooking book. We took turns playing each of the roles. This was one of the most beneficial aspects of my learning experience. I was able to demonstrate what I had learned in a fairly realistic way. The context in which I was able to demonstrate my knowledge, based upon my instructor's models, was also quite practical. My instructor downplayed the theory in his presentation and modeling. As we were