What do upper secondary school teachers want to know from research on the use of ICT and how does this inform a research design?

This study investigates what teachers taking part in a longitudinal research project on the use of ICT for teaching and learning in three upper secondary schools in Sweden want to learn more about. At the beginning of the project eighty-four teachers were invited to respond to a questionnaire relating to what teachers wanted to learn more about during their participation in a research project, both for themselves, their colleagues and their students. The questionnaire consisted of Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Sixty teachers responded, thereby yielding a response rate of 71%. In focus in this paper is a qualitative content analysis of the open-ended questions. The analysis revealed six desired areas of learning: (a) technological aspects, (b) how to use ICT for teaching and learning, (c) the Learning Management System (LMS), (d) safety and plagiarism, (e) best practice and (f) collaboration and professional development. The aspects of knowledge addressed in these themes were analysed and discussed in relation to the TPACK model. A conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis is that the teachers inquired different forms of knowledge and that interpretation of ‘technological pedagogical content knowledge’ only emerged in one of the themes. This study then informed the research design in multiple ways, the two most apparent being a survey of students acknowledging teachers’ expressed research interests and the design and implementation of a formative intervention group interview.     

No particular way to go

This article aims to deepen understanding of the trajectories through school and into adulthood of people who did not attain valued qualifications from upper secondary school (‘non-completers’), and explore the fruitfulness of careership theory for such analysis. It is based on interviews with 100 young Swedes: 81 non-completers and 19 who had attended special upper secondary schools catering for young people with mild cognitive disability. Their narratives portray sparse socio-economic resources and difficult family situations, learning problems and marginalisation processes in school. They commonly learned to perceive themselves as failures and ‘different’. Framed by narrow horizons of action, these young people’s careers were mostly characterised by enforced rather than self-initiated turning points. Often leading to unemployment and economic problems, leaving secondary school was less of a turning point than a continuation of failure, even if completing adult education and getting a job were regarded as self-initiated, positive shifts. We conclude that careership theory was useful for analysing and understanding the careers of the young people concerned. However, distinguishing between ‘routines’ and ‘turning points’ became especially difficult when studying lives of these young people hemmed in by sparser resources, fewer choices and less stable career trajectories than their peers.     

Geometrical optimization of microstripe arrays for microbead magnetophoresis

Manipulation of magnetic beads plays an increasingly important role in molecular diagnostics. Magnetophoresis is a promising technique for selective transportation of magnetic beads in lab-on-a-chip systems. We investigate periodic arrays of exchange-biased permalloy microstripes fabricated using a single lithography step. Magnetic beads can be continuously moved across such arrays by combining the spatially periodic magnetic field from microstripes with a rotating external magnetic field. By measuring and modeling the magnetophoresis properties of thirteen different stripe designs, we study the effect of the stripe geometry on the magnetophoretic transport properties of the magnetic microbeads between the stripes. We show that a symmetric geometry with equal width of and spacing between the microstripes facilitates faster transportation and that the optimal period of the periodic stripe array is approximately three times the height of the bead center over the microstripes.     

Managerial Implications of Cultural Factors That Influence the Success of TQM Programs in Mexican Maquiladoras

Maquiladoras, border factories and assembly operations in Mexico, are an important source of foreign direct investment and jobs. In the past decade, there has been rapid growth in the number of maquiladoras. It is estimated that in 1999 there were 3,219 maquiladoras employing over 1 million workers. Along with this growth, there has been a structural transformation of the industry. As a result of major investments in the automobile and electronics sectors, there has been a shift from low‐wage manufacturing towards total quality manufacturing [TQM], including flexible manufacturing and just‐in‐time inventory systems. Since their inception maquiladoras have suffered from high turnover and absenteeism. These two problems serve as major obstacles to the successful implementation of TQM programs and increase the cost of recruitment and training. This paper surveys the literature and presents a theory that relates the success of TQM programs to cross‐cultural management. Our hypothesis is that strategic quality initiatives like TQM work best when they incorporate top leadership involvement and worker‐focused human resources policies integrated to provide both salary and non‐salary benefits that increase worker satisfaction. We hold that effective cross‐cultural management based upon top leadership involvement responds to deep‐seated cultural needs by constructing approximations of traditional elements of Mexican culture. Therefore, incorporating and respecting traditional culture and the worker's need for community will positively influence worker acceptance of TQM programs and reduce turnover.     

Power and pacing calculations based on real-time locating data from a cross-country skiing sprint race

Pacing strategies in cross-country skiing have been investigated in several studies. However, none of the previous studies have been verified by collected skiing data giving the skiing velocities along a measured track. These can be used to calculate the propulsive power output. Collected real-time positioning data from a cross-country sprint skiing race were used to estimate the propulsive power by applying a power balance model. Analyses were made for the time-trial and the final for one female and one male skier. The average propulsive power over the whole race times were 311 and 296 W during the time trial and 400 and 386 W during the final, for the female and male skier, respectively. Compared to the average propulsive power over the whole race, the average active propulsive phases were calculated as 33 and 44% higher in the time trials and 36 and 37% higher in the finals for the female and male, respectively. The current study presents a novel approach to use real-time positioning data to estimate continuous propulsive power during cross-country sprint skiing, enabling in-depth analyses of power output and pacing strategies.     

Effects of varying laboratory conditions on behavioral-state organization in two- and eight-week-old infants.

Previous studies have found that laboratory conditions influence sleep-waking behavior in older infants, children, and adults. The present study employed videotape recordings to monitor continuous 24-hr sleep-waking activity in 2- and 8-week-old infants before, during, and after 12 hr of polygraphic recordings. Sleep- and waking-state organization were affected by laboratory conditions. At both age levels, increased fussy-crying and decreased alertness occurred during the first 4 hr in the laboratory when they were video recorded only and during the first 4 hr that the leads were in place. Decreased fussy-crying and increased alertness were noted in the following periods, indicating adaptation. Latency to sleep was shorter, and drowsiness increased and active sleep decreased while the leads were in place. At 8 weeks, quiet sleep increased and active sleep decreased while the leads were in place. These data suggest that the unfamiliar laboratory conditions inherent in both observational and polygraphic studies are stressful and that time for adaptation is needed.     

Grading of Student's Attainment: Purposes and Functions

Abstract

Lysne, A. 1984. Grading of Students' Attainment: Purposes and Functions. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 28, 149‐165. The article discusses the complex problem of evaluation and grading of students' achievement. During the 1970's a strong movement against the traditional formal grading and use of marks came up in many countries in the western world. The basic problem under question has been what type of reference measures should be used in grading students' achievement — measures of individual potentials or comprehensive norms or standards for attainment of skills and knowledge? The answer to this question depends, of course, on the type of functions the grades are supposed to serve. For individual guidance, it might be sufficient to give information about progress in relation to personal potentials, but that type of evaluation and grading can certainly not be used for selective purposes. A number of factors and viewpoints have to be taken into consideration when new reforms of grading systems for our schools are under discussion and planning.     

Internal and external influences on vocabulary development in preschool children

Competency in society's lingua franca plays a major role in the emergence of social disparities within education. Therefore, the present longitudinal study investigates vocabulary development and its predictors in preschool years. We focus on whether internal (phonological working memory) and external variables (preschool and home learning environment) have different impacts depending on parental native language. The study considers 547 children from 97 German preschools. Children's vocabulary was assessed at the ages of 3, 4, and 5 years. Latent growth curve models show that non-native German language children are characterized by reduced vocabulary at first assessment and lower progress compared to monolingual peers. Phonological working memory has a strong impact on all children's initial vocabulary but also on vocabulary growth in those whose parents speak German as an additional language. The effects of preschool and home learning environment are comparatively smaller.