The three-tiered support system and the special education teachers’ role in Swedish-speaking schools in Finland

ABSTRACT

In 2010, new amendments regarding special education were made to the Finnish Basic Education Act (642/2010), and they were officially adopted in 2011. The three-tiered support system that was introduced can be considered the Finnish approach to moving education toward a more inclusive system since it emphasises all teachers’ responsibility to deliver support within the regular educational setting, representing a new feature in the policy documents. This has brought about new expectations for special education teachers’ (SETs’) roles. Our research aims to contribute to knowledge about the implementation of the three-tiered support system and SETs’ roles in Swedish-speaking schools in Finland. The data were collected using a questionnaire (N = 158). The results indicate that the SETs have an important role in the three-tiered support system, both as those with the knowledge and those who share this knowledge. The SETs’ role is more evident when it comes to pupils receiving support on the second and third tiers. Although inclusive values are emphasised in the policy documents, the SETs still use most of their time teaching pupils in educational settings that are often relatively segregated (individual or small-group teaching), and for example, co-teaching seems to be a less frequent approach to collaboration.     

Low‐skilled adults in formal continuing education: does their motivation differ from other learners?

This study aims to analyse low‐skilled adults’ motivation for formal adult education. The study examines how adults’ motivation for formal education is affected by educational level, age, gender, employment status and citizenship. Survey data were collected from adults enrolled in formal educational programmes at different educational levels. Of 753 respondents, 88 were attending primary or lower secondary programmes. The remaining participants were in upper secondary schools, post‐secondary/tertiary vocational education, or in Bachelor’s or Master’s degree courses. Differences according to education levels can be explained in part by typical characteristics of the people involved at various levels of the education system. However, even when controlling for factors that may cause differences in motivation, adult learners at the lowest educational levels differ from others. The main difference is that low‐skilled adults more frequently state that they have been obligated to undertake training. These results indicate that when recruiting low‐skilled adults for learning activities, there is a need to develop targeted policy instruments instead of alluding to moral and social obligations.     

Prediction of learning and comprehension when adolescents read multiple texts: the roles of word-level processing, strategic approach, and reading motivation

Sixty-five Norwegian 10th graders used the software Read&Answer 2.0 (Vidal-Abarca et al., 2011) to read five different texts presenting conflicting views on the controversial scientific issue of sun exposure and health. Participants were administered a multiple-choice topic-knowledge measure before and after reading, a word recognition task, and a reading motivation inventory that included two dimensions: Science reading self-efficacy, focusing on readers’ beliefs about their capabilities to comprehend what they read in science, and science reading task value, focusing on readers’ beliefs about how important, useful, and interesting it is to comprehend science texts. In addition, strategic reading pattern was assessed in terms of the degree of non-linear reading behavior. Multiple regression analysis showed that word recognition skills strongly predicted learning from the texts, as assessed by participants’ increase in topic knowledge. However, when multiple-text comprehension indicated by performance on open-ended short-essay questions was the dependent variable, not only word recognition but also strategic reading pattern and science reading self-efficacy emerged as unique predictors when topic knowledge was controlled for. Science reading task value was not related to performance. This study provides new evidence that new literacy competencies needed in a knowledge society, such as synthesizing or integrating across multiple conflicting sources of information, still largely involve word-level, strategic, and motivational processes that may profitably be targeted through systematic instruction.     

Preparing Society for the Information Age

The Federal Government of Germany has initiated a nationwide discussion on the forthcoming “Information Society.” The purpose is to broaden awareness of the opportunities, challenges and risks of future telematics applications on all aspects of life and to prepare the citizens for these changes, including labour market and media literacy, sustainable development and cities, etc. More than 150 societal groups, associations, and organizations are participating (trade unions, citizens' groups, industry associations, large corporations, representatives of churches, youth, women, handicapped people, elderly citizens, etc.). All serve as multipliers to spread awareness into all the facets of the society. The paper reviews the conceptual approach, the organizational infrastructure, the topics, the implementation of the dialogue process and the first experiences. It also identifies implications for similar initiatives in other countries. 7     

The Reality beyond the Hype: Mobile Internet is Primarily an Extension of PC-Based Internet

The mobile Internet (MI) has been hyped as the next big thing by telecom operators, handset manufacturers, and content providers. However, recent studies indicate that the usage of Internet via mobile phones has remained quite flat. The authors inquire into this discrepancy by focusing on actual usage of the MI and the motivating factors behind its use. Based on focus-group interviews in Norway and Hungary, they argue that MI usage is interrelated with and is an extension of the personal computer (PC)–based Internet. The key motivation behind MI use is to attain information in situations in which the PC is out of reach. In effect, MI has not led to the development of new usages. The expectation that the development of new killer applications will lead to an explosion of new usage is therefore misguided. MI usage is and will perhaps continue to be a mere extension of PC-based Internet usage—and such use activities are the very nature of MI.     

力竭运动对大鼠微循环的影响

本文观察了１０只大鼠安静时、力竭运动后即刻、力竭运动后２４小时耳廓微循环的动态变化。观察结果表明：力竭运动后即刻大鼠微循环发生明显障碍（Ｐ＜０．０１）。休息２４小时后微循环障碍得以明显改善（Ｐ＜０．０１及Ｐ＜０．０２）．但是，与安静时比较，血管形态积分值和总积分值仍有显著性差异（Ｐ＜０．０２），而流态积分值和管周状态积分值已无显著性差异（Ｐ＞０．０５）。     

Reflexive professional subjects: knowledge and emotions in the collaborations between teachers and educational-psychological consultants in a Danish school context

In this article, we investigate how the shift towards inclusive education in Danish schools changes and affects the ways in which educational-psychological advisory service (in Danish, PPR) units and school staff collaborate. Since inclusion is generally a matter of ensuring that every child can be accommodated within the mainstream school system, the increased inclusion agenda has altered the type of support that PPRs typically offer. Classic psychological assessments now play a lesser role, with PPR staff expected to conduct consultative work to promote the school staff’s reflection on their own practice, with the aim of supporting the inclusion of children. Based on an ethnographic study of the collaboration between PPR and school staff, we investigate the impact of the changes on the forms of knowledge and professional subjectivities that are produced, as well as the emotional work that is involved.     

Educational alternatives for marginalised youth

In the context of pressure to increase retention rates a wide variety of alternative educational programs has developed in Australia over the past few decades. The purpose of this paper is to provide a map of the alternative education landscape for marginalised youth in New South Wales, in order to reduce confusion and enable communication between programs, practitioners and scholars, locally and internationally. This paper focuses on two dimensions to do with the program’s purpose in relation to locus of change and with the stability of the program to construct a proposed map of alternative education for marginalised youth in Australia. Based on this map, the paper argues that one type of program is most useful, not only for marginalised young people but also for suggesting possibilities for reform in mainstream education.     

Helping Teachers Support Pupils with Mental Health Problems Through Inter-professional Collaboration: A Qualitative Study of Teachers and School Principals

ABSTRACT

A qualitative study conducted in four lower secondary schools in Norway explored teachers’ and school principals’ experiences of collaboration with a variety of extended services (ES). Particular attention was directed to the ways (if any) they perceived collaboration to be relevant to helping teachers support pupils with mental health problems through their everyday social and pedagogic practices. Findings of the study indicated that teachers valued initiatives that could help develop mutual understandings of teachers’ and ES professionals’ roles and responsibilities. Initiatives to build inter-professional relationships were perceived as laying the foundation for more productive collaboration. However, to be able to provide coherent, sustained support in the classroom, teachers needed guidance from ES professionals. This required a shift in collaborative processes away from a focus on individualized pupil support towards helping teachers support pupils through their classroom-based social and pedagogical practices. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Internal branding in higher education: dialectical tensions underlying the discursive legitimation of a new brand of student diversity

ABSTRACT

Most studies on branding in higher education focus on external branding or image-building towards external stakeholders such as students. Internal branding is an underexplored topic, even though it should be considered as important as external branding. Internal branding is about achieving the necessary internal support for the external brand. Drawing on the theoretical concept of discursive legitimation, we explore the strategies that contribute to an internally supported new brand with student diversity as brand value. We conducted a case study of a Flemish university college that has (largely) succeeded in achieving internal support for its new external brand of student diversity. Analyzing the case from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis, we specifically zoomed in on the dialectical tensions underlying the discursive legitimation of this new brand. We identified three specific tensions, which illustrate the inherent complexity of the internal branding process: authorization as (dis)empowerment, normalization as (dis)empowerment and moralization as (dis)empowerment.