Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning – An Introduction

With the proliferation of personal computers in the home and in the workplace, there is an ever increasing demand for the integration of computers into the curricula of educational institutions. Invariably, the approach taken to satisfying such demands involves the training of the current staff of educators in the use of personal computers as both a teaching and a research and administrative tool. This article will look at the educator's anxiety prior to training on the computer, and the changes in attitude brought about by continuous exposure to the computer in a classroom setting.     

Learned Helplessness and Psychological Adjustment II: Effects of learning disabilities and low achievement

The present study, a continuation of Valås (2001), is concerned with two categories of low achieving students. The focus is particularly on the consequences of being diagnosed as having learning disabilities compared with not having such a diagnosis. The sample consisted of 1833 students with data collected in grades 4, 7 and 9. Multivariate analyses of variances and analyses of structural equation models showed that students with learning disabilities and low achieving students attributed success in mathematics and first language to ability to a greater extent than other students. They also expressed lower performance expectations in mathematics and verbal skills and showed more helplessness and reported inferior psychological adjustment compared with other students. Moreover, students that were diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD) and received special education showed more helplessness than the other low achieving children. They also reported lower academic expectations and lower self-esteem. In addition, the results revealed that boys showed more helpless behaviour, as assessed by teachers, than girls. However, on the other hand, girls reported more psychological maladjustment. The conclusion and request is that the process of selection (diagnosing the student as LD) and the organization and implementation of special education should be reconsidered.     

Predicting Achievement Goals in Two Different Academic Contexts: A longitudinal study

The relative contribution is examined of epistemological beliefs and implicit theories of intelligence to students' adoption of mastery, performance‐approach and performance‐avoidance goals in two different academic contexts, business administration and teacher education, in the short as well as the long term. The results showed that epistemological beliefs about the speed of knowledge acquisition predicted achievement goals. Students who believed that learning occurs quickly or not at all were less likely to adopt mastery goals and more likely to adopt performance‐avoidance goals. In addition, students who believed in stable and given knowledge were less likely to adopt mastery goals. Differences in predictive patterns across the two contexts concerned the prediction of performance‐approach goals and gender differences in goal adoption. Epistemological beliefs played a more important role in goal adoption than implicit theories of intelligence.     

Some Reflections on Motivating Situations and Situational Teaching

Debates about the crisis of school teaching in the Western world have focused more on education as a state of the art and on psychological problems of either teachers or pupils than on situational features which are of importance for teaching and learning situations. In applying K. R. Popper's propensity theory and his idea of situational logic, a preliminary analysis of problem situations is attempted with the aim of identifying biopsychological situational elements in children's preschool life‐conditions that could be simulated at school in their first years thereby enabling them to draw upon already acquired knowledge and skills. Two principal ways of acquiring experience — one instructive, the other selective — are described and discussed in relation to learning, exploration and play. It is argued that, while selection procedures are found in exploration, play and the like, instruction procedures are most often used in teaching situations despite growing evidence that instruction learning is less motivating than learning by action and selection, as various experiences with situational teaching indicate.     

Explaining Individual Differences in Reading: on the orthographic component of word recognition

This article first presents a conception of word recognition involving both phonological and orthographic processes. Three different explanations about the origin of orthographic processes in word recognition are then discussed. These explanations are: (1) differences in orthographic memory, (2) differences in phonological processes and (3) differences in leisure time reading. In accord with the third explanation, it is argued that automatic orthographic word recognition is directly dependent on children's amount of reading practice in an out‐of‐school setting. Educational implications of this emphasis on leisure time reading effects are also discussed.     

Ready for School? Trauma Exposure and Mental Health in a Group of War-Affected Ugandan Adolescents Re-Attending School

The objective of this study was to assess trauma-related symptoms and mental health among war-exposed Ugandan adolescents (n?=?81) as a basis for planning their re-attendance at school. Self-reports of exposure to traumatic events, trauma-related symptoms, and indicators of mental health were collected. While about half of the youths (51.9%) reported having been abducted by rebels and were former child soldiers, no differences were found in their mental health functioning compared to the remaining sample. Of the youths, 78% reported post-traumatic stress reactions of clinical significance. However, scores were within the normal range on conduct problems, hyperactivity, pro-social behavior, and self-efficacy. Even though the sample was clearly suffering from trauma-related symptoms, there were also marked areas of adaptive functioning and resilience. Whether the students are ready for education is discussed and implications for adapting educational programs for war-affected adolescents are indicated.     

Justification beliefs and multiple-documents comprehension

Building on the multidimensional framework of epistemic cognition proposed by Greene et al. (Educational Psychologist 43:142–160, 2008), this study examined beliefs about justification of knowledge claims in science among 65 Norwegian 10th graders. The first research question asked whether beliefs in personal justification, justification by authority, and justification by multiple sources differed in strength among the participants. It was found that the students most strongly believed in justification by authority, followed by justification by multiple sources and personal justification. The second research question asked whether the three types of justification beliefs differentially and uniquely predicted the comprehension of multiple conflicting documents on a science issue. In a multiple regression analysis with multiple-documents comprehension indicated by essay performance as the dependent variable, both personal justification and justification by multiple sources emerged as unique predictors when topic knowledge was controlled for. Specifically, beliefs in personal opinion as a means of justifying knowledge claims in science was negatively related to multiple-documents comprehension, whereas beliefs in justification through corroboration across multiple sources of information were positively related to multiple-documents comprehension. This study provides new evidence about relationships between epistemic beliefs and new literacy competencies needed in an information society, such as integrating across multiple conflicting sources of information; relationships that may also have practical implications.     

Bureaucratic response to policy change: implementation of adult education policy in Norway

Our main concern was to investigate the implementation of the new Education Act, giving adults the statutory right to complete upper secondary education. Referring to a ‘top‐down’ and a ‘bottom‐up’ perspective we have investigated how the representatives of the county authorities (the bureaucrats) interpret and practise the specific section of the Act in relation to their definition, moral evaluation and economic view. The interpretation of the section in the Act and the practice varied. Two counties were proactive, result‐oriented and generous, while four counties were passive, act‐oriented and restrictive in their implementation. The implementation was influenced by the bureaucrats’ attitudes, decisions and actions. They had their own agenda, moral standard, interest and so on, which influenced their interpretation and practice. Our study indicates that it is not enough just to formulate a right. How it is formulated, and how it is interpreted and perceived may affect the implementation process.     

Reproducibility of objectively measured physical activity: Reconsideration needed

ABSTRACT

Reliability of accelerometer-determined physical activity (PA), and thus the required length of a monitoring period, appears to depend on the analytic approach used for its calculation. We compared reliability of objectively measured PA using different resolution of data in a sample of 221 Norwegian 2–6-year-old children providing 2–3 valid 14-day periods of accelerometer monitoring (ActiGraph GT3X+) during September–October, January–February, and May–June 2015–2016. Reliability (intra-class correlation [ICC]) was measured for 1–14 days of monitoring across the measurement periods using linear mixed effect modelling. These results were compared to reliability estimated using different resolution of data using the Spearman–Brown formula. The measured reliability improved only marginally with increased monitoring length and levelled off after 5–6 days. Estimated reliability differed substantially when derived from different resolution of data: 3.9–5.4, 6.7–9.2, 13.4–26.7 and 26.3–87.7 days of monitoring was required to achieve an ICC = 0.80 using an hour-by-hour, a day-by-day, a week-by-week and a period-by-period approach, respectively. Reliability could not be correctly estimated from any single resolution of data. We conclude that reconsideration is needed with regard to how reproducibility of objectively measured PA is analysed and interpreted.