Search results

This chapter outlines research conducted by Karan Vickers-Hulse (KVH) as part of an educational professional doctorate; Marcus Witt (MW) was one of her supervisory team. Participants were from two initial teacher education (ITE) routes (School Direct and university-led) leading to a PGCE primary teacher qualification. The research was set within the context of continuously evolving policy on the training of teachers and the subsequent impact on developing a professional identity. The introduction of new ITE routes in England (DfE, 2015) aimed to offer a wider range of pathways into teaching, attract more applicants and mitigate the impact of teacher shortages. The research discussed in this chapter explored the experiences of trainees on these routes and the impact on their professional identity formation. This chapter begins with an overview of the literature in the field of professional identity formation, followed by a discussion of the chosen methodology and methods. This chapter concludes with several recommendations for teacher training providers as well as recommendations for future research that may be useful for doctoral students interested in the field of professional identity formation.

This chapter provides an illustration of doctoral case study research and insights to how practitioner research can capture the localised impact of policy shifts.

In illustrating and reflecting on my use of constructivist grounded theory methodology, this chapter explores findings of a study involving perceptions of learning of eight career changing trainee teachers enroled across four one-year primary or secondary postgraduate initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England. Through four sets of unstructured interviews over the course of 10 months, qualitative findings suggest that this group of trainee teachers experience a similar learning process of convergence, change, consciousness and confidence. Diagrammatic modelling of data plays a key role in enacting a constructivist approach to grounded theory by demonstrating coding relationships through constant comparison leading to theory generation. Along with other observations, significant findings include how career changers without prior education experience may adapt and adopt new, professional identities with more confidence more quickly than those with extensive prior education experience, and, alternative teaching placements that occur in the ‘middle’ of a postgraduate course may have a significant effect in a career changers perceived confidence in ‘being a teacher’. Recommendations for ITE programmes, future teacher recruitment policy and researchers employing grounded theory are included. Recommendations for postgraduate researchers in education are scattered throughout this chapter.

Errors are increasingly recognized as beneficial to the learning process and are more frequently integrated into training curriculums. Despite this growing interest, the work carried out so far offers little evidence highlighting the psychological qualities implicit in learning from error. By focussing on the role of specific trainee’s attributes [i.e. learning goal orientation (LGO) motivation to learn and metacognition], this study aims to better understand the reasons why some trainees benefit more (than others) from being confronted with errors during training.

A total of 142 trainees took part in this study by participating in a training on interviewing techniques that also exposed them to various committable errors, and by completing questionnaires at two different times (i.e. before and after training).

Results of bootstrap regression analysis highlights three main findings: LGO is positively linked to learning from errors; a significant portion of the link between LGO and learning from error is explained by motivation to learn and metacognition; and these effects are presented in the form of a double-mediated model which suggests two different explanatory pathways (i.e. motivational and cognitive).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to offer insight on the psychological attributes influencing learning from errors and to bring forward the role of two underlying mechanism that are linked to this specific type of learning. It also invites researchers and practitioners to reflect on the best ways to make use of errors in training and promote the value of personal attributes on trainees’ learning experience.

The purpose of this study was to examine how well a strength-based program grounded in positive psychology principles can advance the practical critical thinking skills of those pursuing the teacher training course.

This study used a single-group pre-test post-test design with 35 teacher-trainees from the Bachelor of Education course. The two-and-a-half-week strength-based program used the values in action survey to identify strengths. Pre- and post-test scores, measured with the Cornell Critical Thinking Test – Level Z, underwent Statistical Package for Social Sciences analysis including paired samples t-test for subcomponent and overall composite analysis.

Analysis of the pre- and post-test scores demonstrated a statistical significance in the critical thinking scores obtained by the teacher-trainees. Post-test scores were consistently significant. Out of the elements of critical thinking, induction, meaning, observation and credibility were more prominent. Deduction and assumption identification were also having a significant effect.

Most critical thinking programs focus on evaluating specific teaching methods for improving critical thinking skills. In education, positive psychology studies often center on students’ well-being, attention spans and academic success, aligning with wellness programs. Despite the importance of strengths in positive psychology, there is a lack of research on using a strength-based approach to boost critical thinking skills. This study aims to enhance teacher-trainees’ critical thinking by leveraging their individual strengths, moving away from traditional instructional strategies.

Research has established that 38%, 56% and 66% of training is not transferred to work immediately, six months and 12 months after training, respectively. This has led scholars to advocate the continuous examination of factors that enhance training transfer to have a comprehensive understanding of the factors that enhance it. As a result, this study aims to examine transfer opportunity as a pretraining factor and its influence on assimilated training content (in-training factor); the influence of assimilated training content on motivation to transfer (post-training factor) and training transfer; the influence of motivation to transfer on training transfer; and the mediating role of motivation to transfer in the relationship between assimilated training content and training transfer.

A structural equation model is developed to test the five hypotheses formulated in this study using survey data obtained from 195 respondents who attended various training programs across different organizations. Following the assessment of the measurement model, the determination of the significance of the hypothesized paths is assessed based on the bias-corrected and accelerated confidence intervals obtained from the bootstrapping of 10,000 subsamples.

The findings of this study are that: transfer opportunity positively influences assimilated training content; assimilated training content positively influences motivation to transfer and training transfer; motivation to transfer positively influences training transfer; and motivation to transfer plays a complementary mediation role between assimilated training content and training transfer.

The nature of the work environment regarding the opportunity to transfer training influences trainees’ assimilation of the training content when they undergo training. Hence, organizations need to ensure that employees are always afforded the opportunity to transfer training content assimilated from previously attended training programs to assimilate the content of subsequent training programs. Furthermore, for training to culminate in training transfer, organizations and, more specifically, learning and development practitioners ought to pay attention to trainees’ assimilation of the content of training programs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically consider transfer opportunity as a direct antecedent of assimilated training content. More so, it is one of few studies to empirically examine the influence of assimilated training content on training transfer.

The purpose of this study is to explore the potential contribution of the metaverse to improve training and development as a function of human resource development (HRD) perspective. The authors explore the benefits and challenges of the metaverse and introduce cases of companies using the metaverse in training.

A narrative literature review was conducted to collect information on the metaverse in training. The authors reviewed peer- and non-peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, white papers, corporate websites and blogs and business magazines.

A total of 75 articles were reviewed, including 14 cases, which were summarized to demonstrate how companies are applying metaverse technology in training contexts. For a more in-depth review, three cases were selected and summarized in terms of context, process and outcomes.

The metaverse is an emergent topic in HRD. It has the potential to revolutionize the functions of training and development through the combination of advanced technologies, including virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. This article is the foundational attempt to provide a comprehensive summary of existing literature and case studies that highlight the potential of the metaverse in training within the context of HRD.

Research shows peer health education programs on university campuses can support students in pursuing sustainable health-related behavior changes. However, few programs deliver peer health education through a nondiet, weight-inclusive framework. Research shows that health educators who challenge the status quo of diet culture and weight-focused health interventions may face unique challenges when sharing this perspective with others. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of peer educators who provided critical health education by introducing a nondiet, weight-inclusive approach to health.

Five health coaches from a university health coaching program at a mid-sized southwestern university participated in a semi-structured interview. The data were analyzed through interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Peer educators faced numerous challenges when introducing nondiet, weight-inclusive approaches such as lacking credibility as a peer to challenge weight-centric messages, feeling conflicted about honoring clients’ autonomy when clients are resistant to a weight-inclusive approach and feeling uncomfortable when discussing client vulnerabilities. Peer educators also identified several strategies that helped them navigate these challenges such as being intentional with social media, using motivational interviewing to unpack clients’ concerns about weight, and seeking group supervision.

Given the reality that health coaches will face challenges sharing weight-inclusive health approaches, educators and supervisors should explicitly incorporate strategies and training methods to help peer health coaches prepare for and cope with such challenges. More research is also needed to examine effective ways to introduce weight-inclusive approaches to college students.

Since research has already shown that social distance affects the relationship between employees and the organization, this study (1) examines job-related resources that contribute to teleworkers’ organizational commitment and (2) works out how internal communication professionals can strategically address them.

A total of 50 problem-centered, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with teleworkers from Austrian and German organizations between March and June 2021.

The interview data resulted in eight job-related resources that contribute to teleworkers’ organizational commitment. By pointing out the communicative aspects of these resources, we discuss how internal communication professionals can strategically engage to maintain the connection between teleworkers and the organization despite the distance. It highlights the communicators’ role as a strategic communicators and networkers, as enabler and as key speaker for employees’ needs.

The data were collected during a health crisis (COVID-19 pandemic) in the context of Austrian and German organizations and refers to the perspective of employees for whom teleworking israther new.

The study provides in-depth insights into teleworkers’ expectations and entails clear implications for the practice of internal communication professionals to strengthen teleworkers’ commitment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on medical education and training, with many medical schools and training programs having to adapt to remote or online learning, social distancing measures and other challenges. This paper aimed to examine the disruption for clinical training, as it has reduced the opportunities for students and trainees to gain hands-on experience and interact with patients in person.

The ethnographic qualitative research design was chosen as the research methodology. Using Gibbs' reflective cycle, the researcher explored the psychiatry clerks' (final-year medical students) reflections on the disruption of their clinical training during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings demonstrated that the students had a significant psychological impact on their coping capacities as the crisis progressed from shock and depression to resilience. The students being the key stakeholders provided a concrete foundation for the development of a framework for improving practices during uncertain times.

Students' reflections provided valuable insight into the pandemic’s impact on their psychosocial lives with uncertainty and incapacity to cope up with changing stressful dynamics. The results will assist in planning how to best support medical students' well-being during interruptions of their educational process brought about by similar future crises.

This chapter explores the theme of symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 2001; Thapar-Björkert et al., 2016), a central theme in my doctoral thesis.

My thesis looked at the experiences of a group of female undergraduate students in their first year of Initial Teacher Education in Primary Education at the university where I teach. I explored the perceived choices my participants made in terms of choosing to become primary school teachers, arguing that symbolic violence is a controlling force in society so powerful and insidious that ‘individuals do not question their own role in the production and reproduction of domination and subordination’ (Thapar-Björkert et al., 2016, p. 9). Through class and gender, primary school teaching has insidiously presented itself to be a suitable profession for young women.

I position myself as a woman from working-class origins who made the choice to become a primary school teacher and who has recognised the impact of symbolic violence. As a result, some of this chapter is written from an autoethnographic perspective. My overarching methodological approach is narrative inquiry and I have used poetry to present my data throughout. My co-author, Catherine, was one of my doctoral supervisors and we were drawn together by our shared investment in narrative and the impact of early experiences on our subsequent selves. For this chapter, we present our own narrative poems describing the impact of symbolic violence on our own lives alongside that of the participants.