Combating low completion rates in Nordic welfare states: policy design in Norway and Sweden

ABSTRACT

Low completion rate in upper secondary education is seen as a big problem in the Nordic countries. School failure has shown to dramatically increase the risks for unemployment and labour market exclusion with severe consequences for both society and the young person. This paper analyses national policy measures to combat low upper secondary education completion rates in Norway and Sweden, often regarded as representing a social democratic welfare model and a universalistic transition regime. The analysis demonstrates that although this issue has received extensive political attention, the two countries display somewhat different policy designs. The Norwegian approach is proactive and targeted while the Swedish policy is more general and directed towards reforming organisational structures in upper-secondary education. In sum, our analysis demonstrates that national governance structures shape and influence policy design in the context of an increasingly diversified Nordic social democratic welfare state regime.     

Questions people ask about the role of phonological processes in learning to read

A growing reliance on research to guidedecisions about reading instruction hasresulted in a swing toward approaches thatemphasize phoneme awareness and the relationsbetween speech and alphabetic writing. Becausethis is a time of innovation andexperimentation in the schools, and because thenew emphasis has not won universal acceptance,there is a need to address recurring questionsabout the role of phonology in readingacquisition. These questions concern: (1) therelevance of phoneme awareness instructionto reading; (2) the consequences of thecomplexity of English spelling for decisionsabout explicit instruction in the alphabeticcode; and (3) the causes and symptoms of readingdifficulties and implications for remediation. In this paper, we offer our answers to suchquestions and discuss the research bases forthem.     

Perfect presence: What does this mean for the design of virtual learning environments?

One of the advantages of building a virtual reality system is that it allows students to enter new worlds which in these instances include trips to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, a field visit to an Oak Wood and a close encounter in a 3D maze. In all these environments the factors affecting a sense of being there or presence was investigated. Enhanced audio feedback increased a subjective sense of presence but did not increase students' conceptual learning scores. We have also found that a sense of social presence enhanced the notion of being there together with measures of collaboration. However being there can take its toll on students and our findings suggest it imposes a cognitive overload. Where students have a choice, they try and reduce this overload by asking for conceptual tools to assist them in their learning tasks. The studies reported in this paper provide some benchmark data about these issues which deserve further investigation if we are to design effective virtual environments for conceptual learning.     

Can we avoid digital structural violence in future learning systems?

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces the concept of digital structural violence and examines the negative role it could have in future learning systems. To address it, we propose a new interdisciplinary research agenda at the intersection of three current but disparate lines of work that:

1. Use the concept of epistemic privilege to theorise the inclusion of marginalised learners in the design of learning systems, and utilise participatory action research and emancipatory methodologies to pragmatically ensure this happens;

2. Support young learners and teachers to understand and build their own artificial intelligence algorithms;

3. Develop sustainable interdisciplinary links with computer science to address digital structural violence at the algorithmic level and to make its societal implications and underlying processes more widely understood, especially by teachers.

Taken together, these provide for a material form of resistance to digital structural violence and a theoretically and methodologically coherent future research agenda for building just learning systems.     

Errors of inference in structural equation modeling

Although structural equation modeling (SEM) is one of the most comprehensive and flexible approaches to data analysis currently available, it is nonetheless prone to researcher misuse and misconceptions. This article offers a brief overview of the unique capabilities of SEM and discusses common sources of user error in drawing conclusions from these analyses. We make recommendations to guide proper analytical practices and appropriate inferences and provide references for more advanced study. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 461–470, 2007.     

EXPLORING ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF ASSESSING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE, ITS COMPONENTS AND THEIR RELATION TO STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT: A MATHEMATICS BASED CASE STUDY

This study investigates how different types of prior knowledge influence student achievement and how different assessment measures influence the observed effect of prior knowledge. We introduce a model of prior knowledge that distinguishes between different types of prior knowledge and uses different assessment measures to assess different types of knowledge. The sample consists of 202 mathematics students who completed the prior knowledge test during the first lesson. The student achievement was measured by the final grade on the course. The results indicate that the type of prior knowledge makes a difference: The measures assessing procedural knowledge predicted the final grades best whereas measures assessing declarative knowledge did not predict final grades. Additionally, previous study success was the best predictor of student achievement. These results are discussed in relation to assessment measures and their implications for practice.     

‘Nationalising’ and Transforming the Public Funding of Early Years Education (and care) in England 1996–2017

The public funding of early years education and care in England has been transformed. Historically, local councils had the main responsibility for decisions regarding nursery education and child day care, but in 1996 the Conservative government introduced a nursery education voucher scheme. Parents of four-year-olds could exchange the voucher for three terms of part-time ‘preschool provision’ in a state maintained nursery or primary school, or in a private, voluntary or independent (PVI) provider of child day care; in 1998, the Labour government replaced the voucher with an entitlement to free part-time ‘early education’. The entitlement was expanded progressively and in 2017 the Conservative government introduced 30 h per week free ‘childcare’ for some children, together with an Early Years National Funding Formula. Funding goals and policy have shifted over time, underpinned by the idea of ‘a level playing field’ between providers in maintained and PVI sectors. However, there is no statutory requirement for PVI settings to employ qualified teachers, militating against a genuine ‘level playing field’ and the integration of education and care.     

Gender-Based Differential Item Performance in Mathematics Achievement Items

A procedure for the detection of differential item performance (DIP) is used to investigate the relationships between characteristics of mathematics achievement items and gender differences in performance. Eight randomly equivalent samples of high school seniors were each given a unique form of the ACT Assessment Mathematics Usage Test (ACTM). Students without requisite mathematics courses were deleted from the samples to reduce the confounding effects of differences in instruction at the high school level. Signed measures of DIP were obtained for each item in the eight ACTM forms. These DIP estimates were then analyzed in a 6 × 8 (item category by form) experimental design. A significant item category effect was found indicating a relationship between item characteristics and gender-based DIP. Predictions, based on previous research about the categories of items that would contribute to gender-based DIP, were supported: Geometry and mathematics reasoning items were relatively more difficult for female examinees and the more algorithmic, computation-oriented items were relatively easier.     

Does the EDI Measure School Readiness in the Same Way Across Different Groups of Children?

The present study investigates whether the Early Development Instrument (Offord & Janus, 1999) measures school readiness similarly across different groups of children. We employ ordinal logistic regression to investigate differential item functioning, a method of examining measurement bias. For 40,000 children, our analysis compares groups according to gender, English-as-a-second-language (ESL) status, and Aboriginal status. Our results indicate no systematic measurement differences regarding Aboriginal status and gender, except for 1 item on which boys are more likely than girls to be rated as physically aggressive by Kindergarten teachers. In contrast, ESL children systematically receive lower ratings on items of the language and communication domains—as expected by definition of ESL status—but not within the physical, social, and emotional domains. We discuss how our results fit with child development research and the purpose of the Early Development Instrument, thus supporting its validity.