•  18
    The Divided Brain, Metaphysical Idealism, and Buddhist Mindfulness Practice
    Contemporary Buddhism 23 (1-2): 67-83. 2022.
    ABSTRACT The exponential expansion of mindfulness-based applications in education, psychology and psychotherapy, workplace training and mind/body well-being in general over the last few decades has been accompanied by wide-ranging claims about the impact of mindfulness on the brain. Arguments in this sphere have been supported by data taken from neuroscience reporting changes in the brain structure and function of participants following mindfulness-based courses and personal meditation practice.…Read more
  •  4
    Published in 1999. Lifelong learning is the slogan with which the Labour Government has chosen to publicise and popularise its values and policies for post-16 education and training under the new administration. Dr. Hyland's book subjects New Labour policy - particularly developments surrounding the University for Industry and the New Deal - to searching scrutiny and offers a number of recommendations designed to upgrade vocational education and training. If we are to create a high status and hi…Read more
  •  9
    Given the range of threats currently facing humankind – pandemics resulting from zoonotic infections, catastrophic climate change, and populist post-truth political hate-mongering – this collection...
  •  5
    What are the values and policies which are driving the development of Further Education institutions? The rapid expansion and development of the post-compulsory sector of education means that further education institutions have to cope with ever-evolving government policies. This book comprehensively examines the current trends in further education by means of both policy analysis and research in the field. It offers an insightful evaluation of FE colleges today, set against the background of Ne…Read more
  •  34
    Recent philosophical and neuroscientific writings on the problem of free will have tended to consolidate the deterministic accounts with the upshot that free will is deemed to be illusory and contrary to the scientific facts. Buddhist commentaries on these issues have been concerned in the main with whether karma and dependent origination implies a causal determinism which constrains free human agency or — in more nuanced interpretations allied with Buddhist meditation — whether mindfulness prac…Read more
  •  39
    The result is a one-dimensional, economistic and bleakly utilitarian conception of the educational task.In Mindfulness and Learning: Celebrating the Affective Dimension of Education, Terry Hyland advances the thesis that education stands in ...
  •  28
    Professional Development and Competence‐based Education
    Educational Studies 19 (1): 123-132. 1993.
    The rapid expansion of competence‐based education through the work of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications has now, thanks to generous public funding and official endorsement by the Department for Education, penetrated the theory and practice of professional studies in teacher education at both school and post‐school levels. The NCVQ model of CBE is criticised and alternatives described. The current NCVQ approach is neither the only nor necessarily the most appropriate model of occ…Read more
  •  30
    A case is made here for a secular interpretation of spirituality to place against more orthodox religious versions which are currently gaining ground in English education as part of the government policy designed to encourage schools to apply for ‘academy’ status independent of local authority control. Given the rise of faith-based ‘free’ schools, it is important to provide a secular alternative as a foundation for morality and spirituality in the interests of maintaining state-funded institutio…Read more
  •  1799
    The Limits of Mindfulness: Emerging Issues for Education
    British Journal of Educational Studies 64 (1): 97-117. 2016.
    Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are being actively implemented in a wide range of fields – psychology, mind/body health care and education at all levels – and there is growing evidence of their effectiveness in aiding present-moment focus, fostering emotional stability, and enhancing general mind/body well-being. However, as often happens with popular innovations, the burgeoning interest in and appeal of mindfulness practice has led to a reductionism and commodification – popularly labe…Read more
  •  23
    Lifelong learning and the ‘New Deal’ vocationalism: Vocational Training Qualifications and the Small Business Sector
    with Harry Matlay
    British Journal of Educational Studies 46 (4): 399-414. 1998.
    The success of the New Deal policies of the current Labour administration - particularly the Welfare to Work and University for Industry initiatives - will depend crucially on the cooperation of the vital small and medium-sized enterprises sector of British industry. In turn, the reaction of small employers to the new policies will be structured by the national vocational education and training efforts and the vocational qualifications system. Against the background of our recent research on SME…Read more
  •  15
    Professionalism, ethics and work‐based learning
    British Journal of Educational Studies 44 (2): 168-180. 1996.
    Recent policy developments within the public service sector have led to widespread de-professionalisation and a general loss of motivation and morale within education, health and social work. This state of affairs has been brought about by the imposition of a social market on public sector professions and through the introduction of competence-based education and training strategies into professional studies. These developments are criticised for their failure to capture the essential epistemolo…Read more
  •  17
    Changing Conceptions of Lifelong Learning
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 33 (2): 309-315. 1999.
    Book reviewed in this article:K. H. Lawson, Philosophical Issues in the Education of Adults.
  •  3196
    Mindfulness and the Therapeutic Function of Education
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 43 (1): 119-131. 2009.
    Although it has been given qualified approval by a number of philosophers of education, the so-called ‘therapeutic turn’ in education has been the subject of criticism by several commentators on post-compulsory and adult learning over the last few years. A key feature of this alleged development in recent educational policy is said to be the replacement of the traditional goals of knowledge and understanding with personal and social objectives concerned with enhancing and developing confidence a…Read more
  •  21
    Reconsidering Competence
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 31 (3): 491-503. 1997.
    Attempts by David Bridges and others to justify certain models of competence-based education and training (CBET) are criticised on the grounds that they do not challenge the behaviouristic nature of the functional analysis system which underpins CBET. Competence strategies serve to de-skill and de-professionalise teaching and other public-service occupations by their technicist and reductionist approach to human values and knowledge. Educators committed to liberal values should eschew competence…Read more
  •  53
    Competence, knowledge and education
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 27 (1). 1993.
    Since the establishment of the National Council for Vocational Qualfications (NCVQ) in 1986, the influence of the competence-based approach, which underpins National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), has spread beyond its original remit and now extends into schools and higher education. Competence strategies are criticised for their conceptual imprecision and their behaviourist, foundation. More significantly, it is argued that the competence approach displays confusion and incoherence in its in…Read more
  •  39
    On the Contemporary Applications of Mindfulness: Some Implications for Education
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 49 (2): 170-186. 2015.
    Interest in the Buddhist concept of mindfulness has burgeoned over the last few decades as a result of its application as a therapeutic strategy in mind-body medicine, psychotherapy, psychiatry, education, leadership and management, and a wide range of other theoretical and practical domains. Although many commentators welcome this extension of the range and application of mindfulness—drawing parallels between ancient contemplative traditions and modern secular interpretations—there has been ver…Read more
  •  22
    Vocational Education and Training
    with Paul Hager
    In Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard D. Smith & Paul Standish (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education, Wiley-blackwell. 2002.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Vocational‐Academic Distinctions Criticisms of the Vocational Education/General Education Dichotomy The Front‐end Model and its Increasing Problems Vocational Education and Training: Developments and Strategies Conclusion: Enhancing Vocational Studies.
  • The Changing Face of Further Education: Lifelong Learning, Inclusion and Community Values in Further Education
    with Barbara Merrill
    British Journal of Educational Studies 52 (2): 213-215. 2004.
    What are the values and policies which are driving the development of Further Education institutions? The rapid expansion and development of the post-compulsory sector of education means that further education institutions have to cope with ever-evolving government policies. This book comprehensively examines the current trends in further education by means of both policy analysis and research in the field. It offers an insightful evaluation of FE colleges today, set against the background of Ne…Read more
  •  27
    Exporting Failure: the strange case of NVQs and overseas markets
    Educational Studies 24 (3): 369-380. 1998.
    Summary At a time when Britain's vocational education and training (VET) system and vocational qualifications are undergoing a major review and restructuring in response to critical reports about the model established under the former National Council for Vocational Qualifications, the British Council and associated agencies is currently trying to market National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) overseas. The chief weaknesses and failings of NVQs and the competence?based education and training (…Read more