Transferable competences of young people with a high dropout risk in vocational training in Germany

This paper examines whether the subjective beliefs on their competences of 409 trainees in machinery, sales, and logistics constitute a reliable and valid way to measure transferable competences. The analysis of results attributes satisfactory to good reliability values to the assessment procedure. Furthermore, it could be shown that young people with a higher dropout risk evaluated their methodological and social competences lower than those trainees with a lower dropout risk. Therefore it may be possible to prevent early dropout from vocational training through specific strengthening of these competences as well as through individual competence-based counselling during training.     

The development of discourse presentation in The Times, 1833–1988

Newspaper preferences for particular formats of speech presentation differ and they change in the course of time. In this contribution we focus on The Times and trace such developments in the formative years of the modern Anglo-American newspapers, from 1833 to 1988. We extracted data from The Times Digital Archive in six samples of roughly 5000 words at intervals of 31 years and analysed the texts manually for instances of reported speech. Our analysis shows that the focus has shifted from the presentation of speech events as coherent wholes in earlier newspapers towards a more selective use of individual statements that summarise an event or characterise it from different angles. And it also shows that the frequency of indirect forms of discourse presentation decreases over the years in favour of direct forms. This gives further support to the claim that in terms of discourse presentation broadsheets slowly develop into the direction spearheaded by tabloids.     

Flowing Networks in the Entertainment Business: Organizing International TV Format Trade

Little is known about entertainment acquisition and production, especially the international format trade, although its worldwide market volume adds up to about 2.4 billion. Format trade is a process along the stages of creating, distributing, producing or reproducing, and broadcasting entertainment programs. Findings of a current empirical research project conducted by means of in-person interviews with managers in Germany and the United Kingdom reveal a phenomenon by which the particular organizations involved (creators, distributors, producers, and broadcast stations) establish structures that are called “flowing organizational networks.” Depending on situational requirements and the respective stages of the format trade process, actors tend to activate different organizational structures.     

Computational approaches for mining user’s opinions on the Web 2.0

The emerging research area of opinion mining deals with computational methods in order to find, extract and systematically analyze people’s opinions, attitudes and emotions towards certain topics. While providing interesting market research information, the user generated content existing on the Web 2.0 presents numerous challenges regarding systematic analysis, the differences and unique characteristics of the various social media channels being one of them. This article reports on the determination of such particularities, and deduces their impact on text preprocessing and opinion mining algorithms. The effectiveness of different algorithms is evaluated in order to determine their applicability to the various social media channels. Our research shows that text preprocessing algorithms are mandatory for mining opinions on the Web 2.0 and that part of these algorithms are sensitive to errors and mistakes contained in the user generated content.     

Gender stereotypes and gendered vocational aspirations among Swiss secondary school students

Background: Horizontal gender inequalities appear to be rather stable, with girls more often choosing ‘female’ service professions, and boys choosing career paths related to science, technology, engineering or Mathematics.

Purpose: Non-egalitarian patriarchal gender-role orientations and gender associations (perceived femininity) of the school subjects German Language Arts and Mathematics are theorised – triangulating different theoretical backgrounds – and empirically analysed as a major predictor of gender-typical vocational aspirations, considering interest in these school subjects as a mediating factor. Furthermore, we focus on a patriarchal relation of father’s and mother’s workforce participation as a root of gender-role orientations, and teacher gender in regard to its impact on gendered images of subjects.

Sample: Empirical analyses are based on survey data from eighth-graders (around the ages of 14 and 15 at the time of data gathering) in the Swiss canton of Bern. The sample only encompasses children from two-parent families, as patriarchality in terms of differences in workforce participation between father and mother is taken into account.

Design and methods: The research issues are analysed employing structural equation models. The statistical package Mplus allows for an analysis of the two dependent dichotomous variables ‘gender-typical vocational aspiration’ and ‘gender-atypical vocational aspiration’. The hierarchic structure of the sample (school class clusters) is taken into account.

Results: Findings reveal different patterns for boys and girls; for boys, gender-typical (male) vocational aspiration could be explained to a small extent via gender-role orientations, interest in Mathematics and gender associations of school subjects; for girls, the factors under consideration could be empirically linked to ‘atypical vocational aspiration’. Teacher gender only has an impact among girls: if girls are taught by a female Mathematics teacher, they perceive the subject as a bit more female and show a higher interest in this subject. Their likelihood of having a gender-atypical vocational aspiration is a bit higher than among girls with a male Mathematics teacher who perceive the subject as a bit less female and, thus, show somewhat lower interest in this subject.

Conclusions: There are still links – although weak – between gender stereotypes and vocational aspirations. Gender-role orientations are rooted in the family. A sensitisation towards gender stereotypes and their impact on aspirations and career would appear to be meaningful in broadening the vocational perspectives of men and women.     

Discourses about School-based Mathematics Teacher Education in Finland and Sweden

In this cross-case study we focus on school-based teacher education in Sweden and Finland. Through the use of focus-group interviews with mathematics teacher educators in Finland and Sweden, the study shows that there are substantial differences in how school-based teacher education is introduced and portrayed in the discourse about teacher education and prospective teachers' learning. The school-based teacher education among the Finnish groups is made relevant in relation to several aspects of prospective teachers' learning. In the Swedish groups, school-based teacher education is portrayed as an organizational problem and few aspects of prospective teachers' learning are brought into the discourse. The results cannot be generalized to the two countries but show interesting conceptualizations of school-based education potentially useful for teacher educators and scholars.     

The development of adult and community education policy in New Zealand: insights from Popper

This paper examines the process by which all post‐compulsory education in New Zealand has become integrated under one administrative structure, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), with the intention of developing a single coordinated system of tertiary education. In particular, adult and community education (ACE), the least formal and organised sector, is required to develop programmes that align with an externally conceived set of priorities, which themselves arise from the Tertiary Education Strategies. Using Popper’s concepts of ‘holistic’ versus ‘piecemeal’ change, it is argued that such large‐scale change is potentially dangerous as there are likely to be unintended, damaging consequences of such policies; consequences which are difficult to fix in modern, complex societies. In particular, ACE which is built on an insider, community‐focus ethos, able itself to identify and respond to community‐learning opportunities, is likely to be changed fundamentally so that the very characteristics that have made ACE effective in the past will be lost in the process.     

Mind What Teachers Say: Kindergarten Teachers’ Use of Mental State Language During Picture Story Narration

The study focuses on the mental state language kindergarten teachers use when narrating picture stories. The aims were to examine (a) individual differences in the frequency with which kindergarten teachers use mental state terms, (b) the types of mental state terms (e.g., emotion, desire, belief terms) teachers use most frequently, and (c) the effect that the content of the story to be narrated has on teachers’ use of mental state language. A total of 38 kindergarten teachers took part in the study. Participants were asked to narrate a familiar picture story and six short illustrated stories that fell into one of two categories: behavioral or mentalistic. Behavioral stories emphasized the story characters’ actions, whereas mentalistic stories emphasized the story characters’ mental states. Research Findings: The results showed a significant variation in kindergarten teachers’ use of mental state terms. Moreover, teachers used significantly more cognitive state terms than terms expressing other mental states (e.g., emotions and desires). The content of the picture story (behavioral, mentalistic) was not found to have an effect on teachers’ use of mental state language. Practice or Policy: Implications of these findings for educators are discussed.