Evaluation of University Teaching

The Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) has introduced a new type of evaluation. Unlike traditional types of evaluation, this gives students an opportunity to exercise an on-going influence upon their own situation. For each subject that is evaluated, a co–ordinator, the lecturer and some of the students meet regularly to discuss the way the teaching is progressing. If necessary, other lecturers are present at these meetings. At the end of each semester, all the students in the class fill in a questionnaire. Once every semester, all the pedagogical co–ordinators meet and report to those responsible for academic teaching at NTH. This evaluation procedure was started in September 1986, and has been positively received by students and lecturers alike.     

Disability and adult life: dependence on social security among former students with special educational needs in their late twenties

This article, by Jon Olav Myklebust from Volda University, Norway, presents analyses of social security dependence among students with special educational needs in Norway who at the start of upper secondary school had various disabilities – of a somatic, psychological and/or social nature. They were all educated in ordinary schools, in special or regular classes. These young people have been followed prospectively from their first years in upper secondary school and into their late twenties. The analyses indicate which circumstances contribute to social security dependence, with an emphasis on how the independent variables differently influence social security dependence among men and women.     

Students' self‐regulation and teachers' influences in science: interplay between ethnicity and gender

The purpose of this study is to explore students' self‐regulation and teachers' influence in science and to examine interplay between ethnicity and gender. Analysis of data from seven Oslo schools (1112 sampled students in the first year of high school) shows that the ethnic minority students reported using learning strategies in science more intensively than ethnic majority students and they had a stronger motivation to learn science. Ethnic majority students are defined here as students who were born in Norway and have at least one parent born in Norway. The study also shows that minority students generally evaluate their science teacher's influence on their learning more positively than the majority. The strongest interplay effects between gender and ethnicity are found in students' perceptions of the relevance of science, as well as their degree of negative responses to the pressure to learn science.     

Too early or too late? Transition to parenthood among former students with special educational needs

This is a study of transition to parenthood, one of the least‐studied topics in disability research. More than 250 students with special educational needs are followed from their first year of upper secondary school into their mid‐30s. Their transition into parenthood is analysed by logistic regression at two ages, at 23 years and at 36 years. Five antecedent covariates are used: gender, functional level, transition to upper secondary school, type of class and support in class. The analysis shows that early births are far more frequent among females than males, a pattern similar to that found in Norway 20 years ago. At the age of 36 there is no difference between men and women. However, the probability of childlessness is higher among those with low functional level, among those schooled in special classes and those with a teaching assistant. This pattern is more pronounced among women than among men.     

Does special education predict students’ math and language skills?

A large number of children are today receiving special education in Norway. The high cost to society and possible long-term consequences for the students make it important to understand the interrelationship of the causes and effects related to receiving special education services. Unfortunately, at present there are only few rigorous studies of the effects of receiving special education services. This study examined the interrelationship between receiving special education services and students’ math and language skills in upper secondary school in Norway. Data from 2756 students in the large population-based special education study (SPEED) was used that included information from questionnaires on students’ development, learning environment and family background. Results showed that students receiving special education services had slightly lower scores on their language test but similar scores on their math test compared to the group of students not receiving special education services, when conservative methodological approaches were used to control for possible covariate bias.     

The literacy achievement of Norwegian minority students

The article presents the literacy achievement of Norwegian minority students, their reading habits, and their enjoyment of reading based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000 study. Aspects of their family background and attitudes towards school are related to literacy achievement results. A comparison between Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany shows that the achievement gap between majority and minority students is larger in Denmark and Germany than in Norway and Sweden. A more detailed presentation of the Norwegian reading results shows that 35% of the Norwegian minority students perform at a level indicating that they are able to read in a technical sense, but they are unlikely to be able to use reading as an independent tool in acquiring knowledge and skills. The minority students' responses to questions about socio‐economic family background, reading habits, learning strategies and school motivation give a complex picture of their situation in Norwegian schools. The results indicate that there is some potential for equalising differences between minority students and majority students.     

Part-time studying at Norwegian universities

This article examines the extent of part-time studying among students in ordinary university courses in Norway, the reasons for studying part-time, and its effects on study behaviour, study progression, and academic achievement. The article, based on six surveys among university students, indicates that between one fourth and one third of the student population at Norwegian universities must be regarded as part-time students. There are, however, large differences between fields of study.     

Women's challenge to computer science and technology

In Norway today there are many schemes to recruit women to computer science disciplines. However, statistics indicate that the number of female students in computer technology disciplines is not substantially increasing. It may be that we have reached a limit for the percentage of women willing to enter computer disciplines as they exist today. What is needed to attract more women to enter technological fields is to enter in discussion on how these disciplines must be changed to open them up for women. This assumption is based on the different values women have from men and therefore the difficulty they have in feeling that they belong to this field. The keywords here are value conflicts and role conflicts.     

Student performance in teacher education in Norway: the impact of student,institutional and structural factors

Many education systems face a challenge in recruiting graduates as teachers. This is also the situation in Norway and the newest estimates tell us that we will lack 9000 teachers in 2020. The situation is made even worse by the high number of dropouts and low performance rates in teacher education. There are many factors which have an impact on study performance and progress. Some factors are at student level, some at institutional or programme level and others at structural level. In the present article, we will discuss how students attending two different teacher education programmes at a university college in Norway negotiate between their studies and the need to earn money and the consequences this has for their study performance. We focus on student-level factors and how the university college organises its campus programmes. The findings are based on a quantitative study among 401 student teachers.     

Does the Company Programme have the same impact on young women and men? A study of entrepreneurship education in Norwegian upper secondary schools

This paper asks whether a European entrepreneurship programme called the ‘Company Programme’ (CP) has an impact on young women and men with regard to career preferences, and perceptions of business skills and the likelihood of having a company. CP is taught to 270,000 students in 39 European countries, and approximately 15% of Norwegian students participate in CP during upper secondary school. The data used are from a student survey in Norway with 1160 respondents, who were 17–18 years old. The response rate was 81%. Controlling for competing explanations, CP positively influences young women and men and their perceptions of the knowledge and skills related to starting a business, increases the share of young women that prefer self-employment and increases the share of young women and men that find it probable that they will own a company. It seems that the perceived effect of CP on skills and knowledge and preference for self-employment is somewhat stronger among young women, while the perceived effect on the likelihood of owning a company is somewhat stronger among young men.     

From Policy to Practice in Higher Education: The experiences of disabled students in Norway

Knowledge about disabled students in higher education is fragmented. It is therefore difficult to assess whether policy goals actually promote better conditions for disabled students. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the experiences of disabled students in Norway and, in light of policy goals, to identify obstacles in the higher education system. This study is based on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with disabled students in higher education. The findings indicate that an educational reform in Norwegian higher education seems to have helped to strengthen disabled tertiary students’ potential for learning, but there are a number of critical periods during their studies when it is imperative for disabled students to get the adjustment needed.     

Toward a system of teacher based examinations

Yearly data are collected describing progress in inclusive education. Frequently used criteria are the percentages of students attending special schooling or percentages of students officially labelled as having special educational needs (SEN). However, both criteria have pitfalls. In this study, the social participation of students was used as a criterion. We compared the social participation of students with SEN to the social participation of typically developing students in three countries, i.e. Norway, the Netherlands and the Flemish region of Belgium. In Norway, 37 seventh-grade students with SEN and 461 classmates; in the Netherlands, 29 seventh-grade students with SEN and 187 classmates; and in Flanders, 43 seventh-grade students with SEN and 469 classmates participated in this study. Peer nominations were used to assess students' peer acceptance in class. Results indicated that, across education systems, students with SEN had more social difficulties compared to typically developing students. Contrary to our initial expectations, the social participation of students with SEN in the more inclusive Norwegian education system did not outperform the social participation of the Dutch and Belgian students with SEN. However, these outcomes are an artefact of the sampling methods used. This confirms the complexity of international comparisons.     

Exploring the Attractiveness of a Norwegian Rural Higher Education Institution Using Importance-Performance Analysis

High school graduates in rural counties often move to urban areas to study at higher education institutions (HEIs). Because graduates from HEIs often settle in regions in which they graduate, the result is a permanent out-migration of young talent from rural areas. This study adds to the body of literature on student choice by addressing measures that can make a university located in a rural region more attractive to local high school graduates. Empirical data are gathered from potential students at the University of Nordland, located in northern Norway. Importance-performance analysis and gap analysis are applied to study the factors that are most important for students. As a result, this study serves as a good starting point for small rural universities in understanding local students and devising methods to increase attractiveness for this group so that more young talent might choose to remain in rural areas.     

Education without a shared language: dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in Norwegian introductory classes for newly arrived minority language students

Based upon fieldwork in two upper secondary schools in Norway, this article offers an analysis of inclusion and exclusion processes for newly arrived minority language students. Minority language students are defined by policy as students who have a different mother tongue than the Norwegian and Sami languages, and students who are newly arrived in Norway are considered especially at risk for marginalisation. This article explores processes of inclusion and exclusion in two schools with segregated classes for this group, called introductory classes. The analytical framework is Niklas Luhmann’s theory of autopoietic social systems, where inclusion is defined as the requirements for participation set by a system, and exclusion accordingly as being unable to meet these requirements. The article displays different constellations of inclusions and exclusions for newly arrived students in the educational system: in school organisations, organisation-based interactions and informal networks of students. It will be showed that introductory classes erect several barriers towards newly arrived students’ inclusion, especially towards those students who are placed at the basic level of the schools’ hierarchy of performances. As a consequence of multiple educational exclusions, informal networks emerge as alternative socialities that include and exclude students on the basis of mother tongue.     

Gender and higher education in different national spaces: Female Palestinian students attending Israeli and Jordanian universities

This study examines the higher education experience among Palestinian Arab females in two national spaces and seeks to determine whether studying at an Arab institution of higher learning in a nearby Arab country can alleviate the emotional and economic difficulties that affect Palestinian women at Israeli universities. What can institutions of higher learning in Israel learn or derive from the proposed model to relieve the alienation and exclusion that their female Palestinian students experience? The study will compare two geographically distinct groups of women students. The first is a group of Palestinian women who attend university in Jordan, while the second consists of Palestinian women of Bedouin origin from southern Israel who study in the Jewish Israeli cultural space. The study seeks to shed light on the experience of Muslim students in Western and Muslim universities.     

Exploring Anti-Semitism in the Classroom: A Case Study Among Norwegian Adolescents from Minority Backgrounds

This study explores high school students’ views of Jews in one minority-dominated school in Oslo, Norway. Employing a qualitative approach, semistructured interview guides and classroom-based discussions teased out attitudes toward Jews drawing on questions from a nationwide research conducted by The Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities (2012). The findings are analyzed through the conceptual prism of anti-social capital and the literature on anti-Semitism with a focus on Jean-Paul Sartre’s (1948) analysis. This study warns that failure to pay attention to the increasing fragmentation of the educational landscape in Norway along ethnico-religious lines will serve to undermine teachers’ efforts to combat anti-Semitism.     

Losing All Interest in School: Social Participation as a Predictor of the Intention to Leave Upper Secondary School Early

Early school leaving in upper secondary education is a serious problem for both students and society. Several reviews have shown that there is no simple cause of early school leaving, but it seems to relate to demographic variables, social factors, academic achievement, and school factors. In this study, data from 2,045 students aged 16 from upper secondary schools in Norway were analyzed using a hierarchical regression model. Their intention to leave school was the dependent variable. Our analyses found that teacher support and loneliness in the school context were strong predictors of such intension. The effects of peer acceptance and friendship were minimal.     

Balancing tensions in educational policy reforms: large-scale implementation of Assessment for Learning in Norway

This study investigates how different stakeholders in Norway experienced a government-initiated, large-scale policy implementation programme on Assessment for Learning (AfL). Data were collected through 58 interviews with stakeholders in charge of the policy; Ministers of Education and members of the Directorate of Education and Training in Norway, and the main actors such as municipality leaders, teachers, school leaders and students. Successful implementation of AfL processes was found in municipalities where there were dialogue and trust between the municipality level, school leaders, teachers and students and where the programme was adapted to the local context. Implementation was challenged when the policy was interpreted as a way of controlling the schools. Despite the successful implementation in some municipalities, the programme did not have any effect upon students’ learning outcome, as measured on national tests in reading and mathematics. The results are discussed in relation to how local assessment cultures with particular characteristics influence governing, accountability and trust.     

Patterns in Students’ Argumentation Confronted with a Risk‐focused Socio‐scientific Issue

This paper reports a qualitative study on students’ informal reasoning on a controversial socio‐scientific issue. Twenty‐two students from four science classes in Norway were interviewed about the local construction of new power lines and the possible increased risk of childhood leukaemia. The focus in the study is on what arguments the students employ when asked about their decision‐making and the interplay between knowledge and personal values. Five different types of main arguments are identified: the relative risk argument, the precautionary argument, the uncertainty argument, the small risk argument, and the pros and cons argument. These arguments are presented through case studies, and crucial information and values are identified for each argument. The students made use of a range of both scientific and non‐scientific knowledge. The findings are discussed in relation to possible consequences for teaching models aimed at increasing students’ ability to make thoughtful decisions on socio‐scientific issues.