“Special Support” in Preschools in Sweden: Preschool staff’s definition of the construct

This study investigates the definitions of the construct “young children in need of special support” given by preschool staff in Sweden in 540 preschool units. The study has a mixed‐methods design based on qualitative analysis of an open‐ended question and quantitative analysis of questionnaire responses. The results reveal two general perspectives in definitions of the construct, a child perspective and an organisational perspective. Units with a child perspective had a higher proportion of children in need of special support, especially girls. The study highlights that the term “children in need of special support” is partially socially constructed and is partially based on perceived child characteristics. The perceptions of what is considered to be a child in need of special support held by staff in a unit may impact on the services provided to children in need of special support.     

Students＇ approaches to Project Work： Self-regulated learning in Swedish upper secondary school

Individualized schoolwork and self-regulated learning has expanded in Sweden during the last decades. Such teaching methods affect the roles of teachers and students, and the demand for student responsibility increases. Upper secondary school in Sweden includes vocational and study preparation programmes, which both give general access to higher education. Since 2000 all students entering upper secondary school have to take a course called Project Work （100 credits）. The preceding course Special Work （20 credits） was only part of the study preparation programmes. This expansion from 20 to 100 credits and from a few to all study programmes was a considerable change. The study is built on data from interviews with upper secondary school students about their approaches to Project Work, as an example of self-regulated learning practices. Qualitative analyse and classification is based on earlier developed categories, and to some extent tendencies in students＇ development over time are explored. The results throw light on the relationship between different types of projects, grades and students＇ approaches to Project Work. Special interest is given to approaches considered as problematic from an educational point of view. Socio-cultural aspects show some impact, although the students＇ difficulties turn out to be more of an educational challenge.     

How to feel about emotionalized artificial intelligence? When robot pets,holograms, and chatbots become affective partners

Ethics and Information Technology - Interactions between humans and machines that include artificial intelligence are increasingly common in nearly all areas of life. Meanwhile, AI-products are...     

Conflict State and Abnormal EEG

Nordland, E. (1969). Conflict State and Abnormal EEG. A study of boys with behavior disturbances and abnormal EEG, Scand. J. Educ. Res. 13, 199‐221. The investigation raises the question whether abnormal EEG may also express somatic reactions to psychological situations, for example too intense experiencing of conflict, stress, or trauma. Sixty‐four pupils of two Norwegian special schools for maladjusted boys are examined as to history of development, diseases and injuries, parents’ situation, practices of upbringing, etc. The boys’ attitudes and behavior are tested with tests of experience of anxiety, conflict and contentment, intellectual and school performance. Further, their attitudes are assessed by their teachers in special school and by their schoolmates by means of various sociometric tests. Boys with normal, abnormal ‘borderline’, and abnormal EEG are compared with each other. The analysis of the EEGs was made without knowledge of the results of the psychological assessments and tests, and vice versa. The results show that boys with abnormal EEGs have backgrounds of more conflict and insecurity. Boys of this sample who are abnormal EEG cases have no history of more physical impairments such as concussions than the normal EEG cases. Boys who experience less pressure in the special school tend to change into normal EEG cases, while boys who experience more pressure tend to change into abnormal EEG cases.     

Learning to Learn From Data: Benchmarks and Instructional Communities

This article examines the use of interim assessments in elementary schools in the School District of Philadelphia. The article reports on the qualitative component of a multimethod study about the use of interim assessments in Philadelphia. The study used an organizational learning framework to explore how schools can best develop the capacity to utilize the potential benefits of interim assessments. The qualitative analysis draws on data from intensive fieldwork in 10 elementary schools and interviews with district staff and others who worked with the schools, as well as further in-depth case study analysis of 5 schools. This article examines how school leaders and grade groups made sense of data provided through interim assessments and how they were able to use these data to rethink instructional practice. We found substantial evidence that interim assessments have the potential to contribute to instructional coherence and instructional improvement if they are embedded in a robust feedback system. Such feedback systems were not the norm in the schools in our study, and their development requires skill, knowledge, and concerted attention on the part of school leaders.     

Conceptualizations of writing in early years curricula and standards documents: international perspectives

Abstract

In this article, researchers in the field of early writing identify underlying beliefs and values about writing and learning to write for the beginning years of formal schooling in four jurisdictions: the American state of Connecticut, New Zealand, the Canadian province of Ontario, and Sweden, as reflected in the respective curricula and standards documents that guide instruction. Using Ivani?’s Discourses of Writing and Learning to Write to guide our text analysis, we found that curriculum developers have primarily been influenced by views of writing as a set of skills, processes, and genres. We found few references to the sociopolitical discourse which indicates a view among curriculum developers that sociopolitical literacy is not suitable for this age group. We argue, with support in previous research, that young children’s writing does not have to be politically neutral and that it can be developed under age-appropriate circumstances. Implications for policy and curriculum development include a need for greater consideration of the complexities of writing shown in research conducted across five decades. We propose a change to the model for early years, recognising that young children’s socio-political understandings lie within their home and school lives, rather than the broader community.     

Facilitating team learning through transformational leadership

This article investigates when and how teams engage in team learning behaviours (TLB). More specifically, it looks into how different leadership styles facilitate TLB by influencing the social conditions that proceed them. 498 healthcare workers from 28 nursery teams filled out a questionnaire measuring the concepts leadership style, TLB, social cohesion and team psychological safety. Analysis was performed using structural equation modelling. The results of this cross-sectional study show that transformational leadership predicts TLB better then laissez-faire leadership, because transformational leadership is primarily related to team psychological safety and only secondarily to social cohesion while for laissez-faire leadership it works the other way around. Transformational leadership matters because it facilitates psychological safety in the team.     

Learning as renewal: contribution to the present theoretical background of the lifelong learning policy of the European Union

There are a number of EU documents on the term and way of implementation of lifelong learning. However, the characteristics of learning from adult education perspectives are not sufficiently emphasized and are undertheorized in them. Numerous new, theoretical works have been published on adult learning in the related adult education literature since the millennium, which have not yet been integrated into the lifelong learning policy. This article analyses the documents of the European Union on lifelong learning from the aspect of how compatible they are with the most recent adult learning theories assisting the deeper understanding of the characteristics of adult learning. According to the recommendation of the author, the present transformation of Europe experiencing recession should be thought of as a learning process, of which the newest, innovation-oriented adult learning theories say a lot. These are, for example, the process-, biography- and change-oriented theories which contain the elements of transformative learning theory as well, and are also compatible with action-learning theories focusing on solving the tasks and problems of the workplace through learning. Further relevant theories can be the theories of innovation management and the flow theory. It would be worth integrating the relevant elements of these theories into a new, innovation-centred concept which would include the innovation indicators of adult learning/adult education.     

Pushing the boundaries of self-directed learning: research findings from a study of u.lab participants in Scotland

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the research findings from a qualitative study of adult learners in Scotland taking part in a u.lab MOOC. As a new phenomenon in adult learning, u.lab has been extremely popular yet, at present, there exists little empirical data about either the process or outcomes of the learning experience. This study aims to provide a starting point for further study of u.lab and other emergent trends in adult learning. Here, the accounts of 12 women and men participating in u.lab were analysed using a grounded theory framework. The inductive nature of this approach allowed us to build up a picture of participant experience. Of significance in the findings were participants’ relationship to course content, experience of learning in community and engagement in shaping the learning experience. We draw on Illeris’ model of the learning field to deepen our understanding of participant experience and to illustrate how the particular constellation of content, incentive and interaction dimensions of learning in u.lab creates a learning space where the possibility for self-direction and self-organisation is extended beyond existing practice.