The Role of Family Characteristics for Students’ Academic Outcomes: A Person‐Centered Approach

Using data from 1,571 ninth‐grade students (M_age = 14.62) from 82 academic track schools in Germany and their predominantly Caucasian middle‐class parents, configurations of different family characteristics reported by parents were investigated. Latent profile analyses considering academic involvement, family interest, parents’ self‐concept, child's need for support, and parents’ time and energy identified average, indifferent, motivated and engaged, motivated and disengaged, and involved families. Cross‐sectional and longitudinal associations with students’ motivational (self‐concept, effort, and interest) and achievement outcomes (achievement test and grades) in math were analyzed. Students from families classified as motivated and disengaged showed higher initial levels motivation and achievement. Over 5 months, these students also showed an increase in self‐concept and higher achievement than students from other family types.     

The Development of Study Orientations and Study Success in Students of Pharmacy

In research literature, two study orientations have been identified: meaning orientation and reproducing orientation. Few studies have examined how study orientations and conceptions of knowledge (epistemologies) interrelate. Further, longitudinal studies of the development of orientations and of conceptions of knowledge in relation to academic achievement are scarce. The study set out:(i) to examine the relationship between study orientations and conceptions of knowledge; (ii) to investigate how these kinds of beliefs change during short, career-aimed studies of natural science; (iii) to explore how study orientations and changes in them are related to study success. The sample consisted of 66 undergraduate students of pharmacy studying at a Finnish university. Participants filled in a questionnaire regarding study orientations and conceptions of knowledge at the beginning of their studies and after 3 years of study. Results showed a relationship between reproducing orientation and dualist conceptions of knowledge. Reproducing orientation and dualism diminished during undergraduate natural science studies. Further, students' reproducing orientation after the last study year was negatively related to their study success. In addition, a favourable development was detected in the group of above-average achievers, who maintained their initial level of meaning orientation while diminishing their level of reproducing orientation. Implications for instruction are discussed.     

Professional identity among student teachers of physical education: the role of physicality

In this study, we investigate the role of physicality in the professional identities of physical education (PE) student teachers. Twenty PE student teachers participated in semi-structured interviews during their final teaching practice. Data were analysed using qualitative thematic analysis and typologies. The results showed substantial diversity in the student teachers’ conceptions of physicality and the ways these conceptions were embedded in their developing professional identities. The results also brought to light criticism directed at traditional notions of the body and physicality in PE and PE teacher education (PETE). We suggest that conceptions of the body and physicality represent a central element of PE teachers’ professional identity. The results also indicate a relationship between conceptions of physicality and pedagogies implemented in the future. Time and place for student teachers to discuss body-related matters should be provided in PETE.     

The Bologna process and its impact on higher education at Russia’s margins: the case of Kaliningrad

Embracing the Russian Federation since 2003, the Bologna process is no longer exclusively confined to western European countries. As early as 1999, Vladimir Putin declared the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Lithuania and Poland, as a potential pilot region for intensified cooperation between Russia and the EU on a number of policy areas, including higher education. In this paper, we study whether the Bologna process has served to underpin these ambitions. With a view to the EU, we will ask to what extent the European Union has proffered a model or directly influenced the path for transformation of Kaliningrad’s higher education system. We argue that a number of Kaliningrad-based actors in higher education have recognized the salience of European models and the need to work closely with partners from the EU, while Moscow only allows for marginal discretion in terms of Kaliningrad’s higher educational policy.

Utilization of Illustrations during Learning of Science Textbook Passages among Low- and High-Ability Children

Effects of illustrations on learning authentic textbook materials were studied among 10-year-old elementary school children of high and low intellectual ability. Experiment 1 showed that the presence of illustrations improved learning of illustrated text content, but not that of nonillustrated text content. Comprehension scores were improved by the presence of illustrations for high-ability children, but not for low-ability children. In Experiment 2, children's eye movements were measured during learning of illustrated textbook passages to study how children divide their attention between text and illustrations. The results suggest that learning is heavily driven by the text and that children inspect illustrations only minimally. High-ability students were more strategic in processing in the sense that they spent relatively more time on pertinent segments of text and illustrations. It is concluded that the learning of illustrated science textbook materials involves requirements that may be more readily met by more intellectually capable students. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.     

The impact of early metalinguistic competencies and memory capacity on reading and spelling in elementary school: Results of the Munich Longitudinal Study on the Genesis of Individual Competencies (LOGIC)

This paper reports on a longitudinal study dealing with the development of literacy in young children. A total of 163 children were first tested during their last year in kindergarten using a variety of tasks that tapped phonological processing, memory capacity, early literacy, and intelligence. Children’s word decoding, reading comprehension, and spelling skills were assessed in elementary school several years later. As a main result, all of the predictor domains had a significant impact on the acquisition of literacy in elementary school, although the contribution of each domain differed as a function of the criterion measure. An attempt to identify children-at-risk using a kindergarten screening test provided encouraging results. Nonetheless, it was shown that whereas group predictions of reading and spelling performance can be quite accurate, the individual prognosis of school problems is far from perfect.     

Risk‐taking abilities for everyone? Finnish entrepreneurship education and the enterprising selves imagined by pupils

This article examines the spread of the neo‐liberal educational policy in Finnish schools by considering entrepreneurship education. We examined the kinds of gendered and classed enterprising selves that were narrated in the Finnish writing competition Good Enterprise! written by pupils in the 9th grade of comprehensive school. In their narratives of enterprising selves, the pupils constructed the middle‐class version of the self, where the person was not contingent upon external effects but an autonomous self‐governing individual. Moreover, the possible selves of boys matched the culturally valued representations of the autonomous, risk‐taking entrepreneurial individual more closely than the self‐representations of girls did. However, it was especially the boys’ narratives of modest entrepreneurship with the traditional virtues of the respectable citizen that were successful in the competition. This finding is in conflict with the educational policies of the European Union, which call for risk‐taking abilities and competition as pre‐conditions for achieving progress.     

Was verbinden Museumsbesucher mit Lernen im Museum und in der Schule?

The present study was conducted in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main and the Landesmuseum Schloß Gottorf in Schleswig. 160 museum visitors were asked about their conceptions of learning in school and learning in a museum. These conceptions generate a persons’ individual concept of learning. It is formed by the influence of the subjectively different experiences each person makes in varying learning situations. Since every learning environment offers different opportunities and possibilities for learning, it can be assumed that there are location-specific concepts of learning. The results of this study show that concepts of learning in school can be differentiated from concepts in a museum; albeit reactive and constructive concepts of learning were found for schools as well as for museums. In addition it was found that different people’s concepts of learning depend on their places of learning.     

Towards ICT in everyday life in Finnish schools: seeking conditions for good practices

The article discusses how to strengthen educational use of information and communication technology (ICT) in Finnish schools. The conceptions and experiences of the successful integration of ICT in everyday school settings are reported. Participant observations in 20 schools in different parts of Finland were carried out, including discussions with principals and teachers. The results show that when promoting new technology and practices in schools, many components overlap and support each other. The following six main characteristics of successful integration were identified: (1) ICT included in strategic planning, as part of school culture, (2) teaching and learning methods facilitating participation and leading to empowerment, (3) flexible curriculums, (4) high investments in communication, (5) optimum leadership and management, and (6) teaching staff's strong capacity and commitment. The research indicates that an open school culture allows staff to take risks when applying new technology, creates learning environments and empowers learners.