The Use of ICT in Education: a survey of schools in Europe

The Survey of Schools: ICT in education commissioned in 2011 by the European Commission took place between January 2011 and November 2012, with data collection in autumn 2011. This article presents the main findings of the Survey based on over 190,000 questionnaire answers from students, teachers and head teachers in primary, lower and upper secondary schools randomly sampled. The article details the analytical framework design and the survey methodology implemented. It then presents the main ‘state of the art’ indicators that have been built, concerning ICT infrastructure and access to it, frequency of students' ICT based activities during lessons, level of teachers' and students' confidence in their digital competences, their opinion about using ICT for teaching and learning, and the school strategies to support ICT integration in teaching and learning. The article also presents the main findings of the exploratory part of the analysis, introducing the concepts of digitally supportive school, digitally confident and supportive teacher and digitally confident and supportive student, estimating their respective proportion at EU level on average and by country and investigating whether high percentage of digitally supportive schools include high percentages of digitally confident and positive teachers and students. A few recommendations for policy making at European, national, regional/local and institutional levels conclude the article.     

Adults' learning motivation: Expectancy of success,value, and the role of affective memories

The present study tested the applicability of expectancy-value theory to adults' learning motivation. Motivation was measured as the anticipated reaction (AR) of German students (N = 300) to receiving their instructions in English as a new learning opportunity. We used structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. Expectancies of success and values from school predicted current expectancy and value, which, in turn, accounted for about 64% of variance in AR. In addition, we explicitly tested the hitherto neglected role of affective memories as a major precursor of value, expectancy of success, and AR. Results show a small direct effect of only negative affective memories on AR, leading to a significant incremental prediction of AR in addition to expectancy and value. Thus, motivation and experiences at secondary school appear to play a crucial role in adults' learning motivation, mediated by expectancy and value specific to the learning opportunity.     

Advocacy for gender minority students: recommendations for school counsellors

Abstract

Research shows that teachers’ and educators’ responses to gender diversity issues in schools either improves or limits the experiences of students. The school counsellor has an important role to play in this process by working closely with other stakeholders to advocate for transgender, intersex and genderqueer (TIG) students. Following a review of recent developments in the USA, recommendations are made and resources identified to assist school counsellors in validating TIG students, and improving school systems in pursuit of their academic, social and emotional success.     

Approaches for Effective Vocationalisation of Secondary School Agriculture in Nigeria: The Views of Agricultural Science Teachers in Delta State,Nigeria

Abstract

This paper describes a random sample of serving agricultural science teachers in Delta State, Nigeria, as a background to understanding their views on four selected approaches for effective vocationalisation of secondary school agriculture. These approaches were used to develop a 23-item questionnaire based on current literature. A five-point Likert-type scale was used to determine how well the views of the respondents corresponded with the items in the questionnaire. Results showed, among others, that the average teaching experience of the 322 sampled teachers was 12.9 years; 50.6 % of the respondents were BSc(Ed) degree holders; 38.8% had Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE), while 10.6% were Higher National Diploma (HND) holders. The respondents agreed that the identified approaches were necessary for effective vocationalisation of secondary school agriculture. The paper therefore recommends that the identified approaches should be pursued by the Nigerian government to ensure that vocational agriculture in secondary schools achieves the goals of the National Policy on Education.     

Assessing study abroad students’ intercultural sensitivity with narratives

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This study analyzed study abroad students’ orientations to cultural differences as assessed with mixed methods, including traditional...     

Effects of critical thinking on multiple-document comprehension

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The purpose of this study was to test the relationships between critical thinking, prior topic knowledge and beliefs, and multiple-document...     

Behavioral and neurophysiological effects of morphological awareness training on spelling and reading

Behavioral and neurophysiological effects of a computer-aided morphological training protocol were examined in German-speaking children from Grades 3 to 9. Study 1 compared morphological awareness, reading, and spelling skills of 34 trained children with an untrained control group of 34 children matched for age, sex, and intelligence. All participants in the training group showed increases in morphological awareness, but only students from secondary school improved significantly in reading and spelling competences. In Study 2, a subsample of 8 trained children with poor spelling and reading abilities and 10 untrained children with higher language competencies underwent an electroencephalography testing involving three different language tasks. The training resulted in decreased theta-activity and increased activity in lower (7–10 Hz) and upper alpha (10–13 Hz). These findings reflect more effortful and attention-demanding processing after the training and suggest that children with poor spelling and reading abilities use the acquired morphological knowledge in terms of a compensatory strategy.     

Personality Traits Are Associated With Cortical Development Across Adolescence: A Longitudinal Structural MRI Study

How personality traits relate to structural brain changes in development is an important but understudied question. In this study, cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA), estimated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), were investigated in 99 participants aged 8–19 years. Follow‐up MRI data were collected after on average 2.6 years for 74 individuals. The Big Five personality traits were related to longitudinal regional CT or SA development, but limited cross‐sectional relations were observed. Conscientiousness, emotional stability, and imagination were associated with more age‐expected cortical thinning over time. The results suggest that the substantial individual variability observed in personality traits may partly be explained by cortical maturation across adolescence, implying a developmental origin for personality–brain relations observed in adults.     

Fungal genus Hypocrea/Trichoderma: from barcodes to biodiversity

Hypocrea/Trichoderma is a genus of soil-borne or wood-decaying fungi containing members important to mankind as producers of industrial enzymes and biocontrol agents against plant pathogens, but also as opportunistic pathogens of immuno-compromised humans and animals, while others can cause damage to cultivated mushroom. With the recent advent of a reliable, BarCode-aided identification system for all known taxa of Trichoderma and Hypocrea, it became now possible to study some of the biological fundamentals of the diversity in this fungal genus in more detail. In this article, we will therefore review recent progress in (1) the understanding of the geographic distribution of individual taxa; (2) mechanisms of speciation leading to development of mushroom diseases and facultative human mycoses; and (3) the possible correlation of specific traits of secondary metabolism and molecular phylogeny.     

Student attitudes that predict participation in peer assessment

Peer assessment has been widely applied to actively engage students in learning to write. However, sometimes students resist peer assessment. This study explores reviewers’ attitudes and other underlying factors that influence students’ participation in online peer assessment. Participants were 234 Chinese undergraduates from two different academic backgrounds: engineering majors (n = 168) and English majors (n = 66). Gender, academic background and prior experience with peer assessment were all related to participation levels. Moreover, factor analyses revealed three attitudinal factors: (1) positive attitude (a general endorsement of the benefits of peer assessment), (2) interpersonal negative (concerns about the negative effects on interpersonal relationships), and (3) procedural negative (doubts about the procedural rationality of peer assessment). Among the attitudinal factors, procedural negative was negatively associated with participation, as expected. Interestingly, interpersonal negative was associated with greater participation, and positive attitude was associated with lower participation, in part because students worked hard on each review rather than doing many reviews superficially. Implications for instruction are discussed.