Personality,approaches to learning and achievement

The present study investigated the relationships between the five‐factor model of personality, approaches to learning and academic achievement. Based on the previous research, we expected approaches to have a mediating effect between personality and academic achievement. Six hundred and eighty‐seven business students participated in a survey; 56% were female and 44% were male. Their average age was 24.8 years. The results showed that conscientiousness and openness were mediated by the strategic and the deep approach, respectively, in relation to achievement. Additionally, neuroticism had both a direct and an indirect effect on achievement through the surface approach. We also found that the three approaches to learning explained variance in achievement beyond personality when using hierarchical regression analysis. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

Technique analysis in elite athletes using principal component analysis

The aim of this study was to advance current movement analysis methodology to enable a technique analysis in sports facilitating (1) concurrent comparison of the techniques between several athletes; (2) identification of potentially beneficial technique modifications and (3) a visual representation of the findings for feedback to the athletes. Six elite cross-country skiers, three world cup winners and three national elite, roller ski skated using the V2 technique on a treadmill while their movement patterns were recorded using 41 reflective markers. A principal component analysis performed on the marker positions resulted in multi-segmental “principal” movement components (PMs). A novel normalisation facilitated comparability of the PMs between athletes. Additionally, centre of mass (COM) trajectories were modelled. We found correlations between the athletes’ performance levels (judged from race points) and specific features in the PMs and in the COM trajectories. Plausible links between COM trajectories and PMs were observed, suggesting that better performing skiers exhibited a different, possibly more efficient use of their body mass for propulsion. The analysis presented in the current study revealed specific technique features that appeared to relate to the skiers’ performance levels. How changing these features would affect an individual athlete’s technique was visualised with animated stick figures.     

‘The teacher sees my absence,not my participation’. Pupils’ experiences of being seen by their teacher in physical education class

Previous research shows that understanding pupils’ emotional affiliations with content in physical education (PE) is important. Findings point out the importance of the teacher signaling that the pupil is seen beyond the skill and knowledge aspects in class. However, the research literature does not offer very many detailed elaborations on the pupil’s own experiences of being seen. Contrasting interview data material from 26 pupils (age 17–18) in upper secondary school has been analysed to categorize the concept of ‘being seen’ by the PE teacher in class. In the analysis we found two main themes from the interviews that highlight a wide range of emotions the pupils might have. The first theme illuminates the positive experience of being seen, and such related aspects as learning-promoting feedback, respect and trust. The second theme demonstrates extremes when it comes to being seen: Not being seen at all or seen too much. Either way, PE classes will be experienced as demanding and in part difficult, albeit in different ways. We found that the feeling of being seen—or, for some pupils, ignored—appears to be a relatively stable feeling once it has taken root, eventually becoming an understanding. Moreover, being ignored means there will be low expectations of being seen in the future, unless the teaching practice is changed, and this emotion gives a poor foundation for well-being and learning. The analysis also shows that even if the sense of being seen is the pupil’s property and indisputable, teachers (and researchers) must have a critical attitude to the pupils’ narratives of being seen, as this feeling may be based on a skewed pre-understanding of the teacher.     

Self-concept,Attributional Style and Depression

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how self-concept and attributional style are related to depression in a student group. On the basis of an inventory, 166 advanced teacher students were scored on general and academic self-esteem, attribution for positive and negative events, and depression. The two self-esteem variables were found to constitute important predictors of depression, while the contributions of the attributional variables were of minor importance. In addition, pessimistic attributions to both positive and negative events resulted in higher depression than pessimistic attributions to either kind of events, and to neither kind of events. Finally, factor analysis resulted in interpretable solutions.     

Confronting the Dark Side of Higher Education

In this paper we philosophically explore the notion of darkness within higher education teaching and learning. Within the present‐day discourse of how to make visible and to explicate teaching and learning strategies through alignment procedures and evidence‐based intellectual leadership, we argue that dark spots and blind angles grow too. As we struggle to make visible and to evaluate, assess, manage and organise higher education, the darkness of the institution actually expands. We use the term ‘dark’ to comprehend challenges, situations, reactions, aims and goals, which cannot easily be understood and solved by agendas of quality assurance and professionalisation of higher education. We need to understand better why gender issues or ethnic conflicts emerge, and why students take up arms, within an institution which is thought to be inclusive, inviting and open to all kinds of people and cultures. And we need to study the educational potential of days of boredom or isolation, caught up in daily routines of teaching or studying which do not lead anywhere or give way to any productive work. These matters have not been sufficiently researched and conceptualised as meaningful in themselves. We aim here to open a space for insights through the concept of darkness presented in this paper. In order to make educational darkness palpable we draw on the philosophies of darkness found in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Emmanuel Levinas. Through those philosophies we argue that the growing darkness within higher education is not a symptom we should fear and avoid. Having the ability and courage to face these darker educational aspects of everyday higher education practice will enable students and teachers to find renewed hope in the university as an institution for personal as well as professional imagination and growth.     

Facilitators and Barriers to the Implementation of EMOTION: An Indicated Intervention for Young Schoolchildren

ABSTRACT

Research on implementation of school-based transdiagnostic interventions, conducted by personnel from the municipal services is limited. We investigated facilitators and barriers regarding implementation of EMOTION, an intervention targeting symptoms of anxiety and depression in children 8–12 years. Trained health- and childcare professionals completed one questionnaire before (N?=?63) and a separate questionnaire after running an EMOTION group (N?=?66). Twelve of the group leaders were interviewed to provide additional information regarding implementation. Results indicated that factors such as a perceived need for the intervention and positive attitudes from the group leaders facilitated implementation. Hindering factors were related to time constraints, workload, unsupportive leaders, and lack of cooperation from the schools. Allocating resources to implementation specifically could promote future use of the program.     

Sustaining affective resonance: Co-constructing care in a school-based digital design studio

Based on two years of ethnographic engagement in a school-based digital design studio in a high school on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, this paper conceptualizes the development and maintenance of an ethos of care in teaching and learning through sustaining affective resonance. Adopting musical metaphors as a vocabulary for affective movements, we operationalize practical and practiced methods for sustaining (actively extending) affective (care-giving and care-taking intensities) resonance (shared meaning making and cultural production). Sharing examples across years, we show the specific ways that mentors and students in the digital design studio built and nurtured care-full practices. The purpose of the paper is to explicate the development and enactment of mentoring practices that we observed in the design studio and then to consider how these practices might be shared, spread, and adapted across contexts of teaching and learning.