No abstract

This article is concerned with factors likely to contribute to student withdrawal from vocational courses in colleges of further and higher education. The method involved posting questionnaires to all noncompleting students from colleges across Northern Ireland. The questionnaire was designed to elicit responses in six specific areas: biographical details; motivational disposition; initial interactions; perceived satisfaction with course and college; reasons for terminating; and current status. The aim was to provide an account of students' backgrounds, their expectations, perceptions and experiences of both the vocational course and college, and to compare reasons for withdrawal with previous findings from research. One-hundred-and-sixty-five non-completing students responded. Findings indicated that non-completion was not driven by preentry deterministic factors, but, rather, appears to occur as a result of a complex decision-making process with an array of factors impacting on the student.

It is generally accepted that schools should devote resources to developing and disseminating a health education policy, yet there is little empirical evidence to establish the value of policy in this context. This study examined teachers' perceptions of health education practice in policy and non-policy holding schools. A questionnaire measuring aspects of health education practice was issued to a random sample of schools. This consisted of 276 primary and 119 post-primary schools. In this cross-sectional study, significant differences in teachers' evaluations were found between policy and non-policy holding schools. It was evident that the presence of a health education policy was associated with higher ratings of health education practice. This evidence suggests that policy has intrinsic value in terms of health education practice. The development and dissemination of policy documents were also examined to assess the workload involved.

No abstract

No abstract