Regulatory autonomy and performance: the reform of higher education re-visited

The main aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of organizational autonomy and control in higher education reform and related expectations as regards the performance of universities. Our analyses draws on principal-agent models as a normative theory of policy reform, and institutionalist approaches in public policy and institutional design as an analytical theory of policy reform. We discuss how the dominant narrative of political reform moves away from traditional beliefs in university autonomy that are built on institutional trust and linked to professional autonomy. In the emerging narrative of political change, autonomy becomes re-defined as the ‘new organizational autonomy’ of universities as both strategic actors and as an addressee of governmental control. The concept of ‘regulatory autonomy’ captures the use of organizational autonomy of universities as a tool of a new regime of governmental control. Exemplified by the Dutch case, we analyze autonomy policies for strengthening managerial discretion and internal control of universities that are combined with regulatory policies for external control that steer organizational choices. Regulatory autonomy thus aims at aligning universities more closely with governmental goals and improve respective performance. Our literature review shows, however, that there is scarce, inconclusive and methodologically problematic evidence for a link between ‘organizational autonomy and performance’. We point at promising avenues for further research on autonomy and performance as two core concepts in the contemporary higher education debate.     

Intercultural competence among sports and PE teachers. Theoretical foundations and empirical verification

As intercultural competence among young people is one of the educational missions at European schools, teachers should themselves be able to deal constructively with cultural diversity, as well as encouraging and shaping intercultural learning processes in their classes. This article focuses on the intercultural competence of physical education teachers. ‘Intercultural competence’, often used as a ‘container term’, will be theoretically founded in reference to the challenges physical education teachers meet. Based on these theoretical assumptions, a special education course was developed and conducted with physical education teachers to further their intercultural competence. With a mixed-method approach, i.e., a systematic interlocking of qualitative and quantitative data, the efficiency of the course has been empirically proved: knowledge competence and methods competence as sub-competencies of intercultural competence are enhanced while educational beliefs and acculturation attitudes as performance indicators are changed.     

Getting into teams in physical education and exclusion processes among students

Although splitting up a class into teams is a consistent didactical element in physical education (PE), it is under-investigated in terms of how students handle the social dynamics in these situations. Therefore, the present study examines the strategies of exclusion as markers for non-recognition when students are split up into teams/pairs. The data set includes video data from 6 different classes (a total of 59 video sequences) and 40 video-stimulated recall interviews with children who were excluded when the class was split up into teams/pairs or with children that excluded others. Sociograms as well as PE teacher ratings about their students’ sport competence were also analysed. Four different exclusion and inclusion strategies were identified: accepting or ignoring “assurance strategies” before the class is split up into teams/pairs, negotiating the affiliation of an individual when students get into pairs, publicly denying the affiliation to a team, and publicly negotiating the individual’s value for a team. The findings show that students use the team-selection proceedings and situations when the class was split up into teams as opportunities to transmit non-recognition. The social order was publicly demonstrated and legitimated.     

In search of an effective source use pattern for writing argumentative and informative synthesis texts

Reading and Writing - In order to design effective instruction and feedback for synthesis writing on both writing processes and products, a clear insight into synthesis writing processes underlying...     

Knowledge management research & practice: visions and directions

This editorial paper outlines key directions for knowledge management research and practice. The editorial team presents the results from a small survey of academics and practitioners about the present and future of knowledge management, and the editors include their own informed views on how this journal can help promote scholarly inquiry in the field.     

ASSESSING STUDENTS’ EXPERIMENTATION PROCESSES IN <Emphasis Type="Italic">GUIDED INQUIRY</Emphasis>

In recent science education, experimentation features ever more strongly as a method of inquiry in science classes rather than as a means to illustrate phenomena. Ideas and materials to teach inquiry abound. Yet, tools for assessing students’ achievement in their processes of experimentation are lacking. The present study assumes a basal, non-exclusive process model of inquiry in experimentation that can be considered a consensus from multiple approaches: (1) finding an idea/hypothesis, (2) planning and conducting an experiment, and (3) drawing conclusions from evidence. The study confronted 339 secondary level students with three guided inquiry experimentation tasks on 3 days. Selected working groups were videotaped while experimenting. All the students reported their processes in a structured report form simultaneous to their progress. The generated videos and reports were analysed in a two-stepped way: (1) Experimentation was coded according to the process model into process plots; on basis of these, (2) process-focused performance scores were calculated considering logical coherence and immediacy of the inquiry processes. Correlative analyses show for two of the tasks that the report format yielded comparable performance scores to those generated from video data after students have had opportunity to learn the surveying formats (r _S?>?.80). A first suggestion of a process-oriented assessment tool for inquiry in experimentation can be drawn from this study. It might be used to inform and complement secondary science instruction.