Pedagogical practices in non-formal adult literacy classes in Zambia

International Review of Education - In Zambia, adult literacy education is mainly provided in the form of non-formal literacy classes, with a general emphasis on the economic purpose of alleviating...     

Conditional Autonomy

Current developments in the Swedish news business have resulted in clashes between the professional stands of journalists and the incentives of their managers, or—from a theoretical perspective—a confrontation between discourses of journalistic professionalism and managerialism. While professionalism includes values of autonomy, self-regulation and public interest, managerialism on the other hand promotes business ideals, standardisation and organisational efficiency. Above all, it promotes a centralised management model of line control at the cost of collegial decision-making and peer review. But what does this mean in practice? In what situations does the negotiation between those discourses arise in everyday news work and how does it affect the autonomy of journalists?

This paper aims to answer those questions by focusing on the experiences of Swedish journalists working in the tension field between professional and managerial discourses. This empirical study includes observation studies as well as interviews with journalists and their managers in four Swedish daily newspapers.

The results clearly reveal a conditioned journalistic autonomy, and shows how professional ideals are tarnished. The economistic view of journalistic activities is forcefully and successfully implemented by management.     

“You can't make this a science!” — Analyzing decision support systems in political contexts

This paper reports on problems and conflicts encountered when using decision support systems (DSS) in political contexts. Based on a literature study and two case studies we describe problems encountered in relation not only to the DSS itself, but also to the political decision process. The case studies have been carried out in two cities in Sweden that at different times but in similar situations have used DSS in order to reach a decision in complicated and contested matters. In both cases we have previously found that the method and IT tool used for decision analysis were appreciated by most participants, but the inherent rationality of the DSS was in conflict with how participants usually make decisions as well as with the political process. The assumption was that a strict and open method would make grounds for clear decisions, but the results of the decision process were none of the cases implemented. In one case the result of the decision analysis was that no clear decision was made. In the other case the lowest ranked alternative was implemented. Furthermore, in neither city the method was ever used again. We therefore ask: What are the challenges and limitations to using DSS in political contexts? Our study shows that challenges relate to selecting and using criteria; eliciting weights for criteria (high level of subjectivity); understanding all the amount of facts available in the system; time constraints; and lack of impact on the final decision. This study contributes to both research and practice by increasing the understanding of what challenges are experienced in DSS use, since the findings can be used as a framework of challenges that should be addressed, in design of systems as well as method for use. The study also contributes to understanding the role of politicians in decision-making and the consequences for the use of DSS. Further, the literature study showed that there are overall very few studies on the actual use of DSS in a political context, and we therefore conclude by encouraging more studies reporting actual use.     

Boundary crossing between higher education and the world of work: a case study in post-1994 Rwanda

Workplaces abound with knowledge that is different from the knowledge students gain at universities. Crossing the boundary from a university to a workplace can, therefore, be difficult for students. To compensate for the dearth of knowledge on how these issues play out in an African context, this study investigates how knowledge and experiences gained during academic studies were useful in the workplace by interviewing employers from sectors commonly open to university graduates and student representatives from all faculties at a Rwandan University. Open questionnaires were used to ascertain what kinds of changes might lead to more successful boundary crossing. The findings suggest that while domain-specific knowledge is an essential part of a university qualification, a stronger focus on generic skills is needed in order to help students cross the boundary and succeed in the workplace.     

Using Class Blogs in 1:1 Schools—Searching for Unexplored Opportunities

This article focuses on class blogs and presents results from 1:1 schools in Sweden. While Swedish schools are increasingly using Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., wikis and blogs), most of this use is still at an experimental stage. To further the understanding of how blogs are and can be used, we compare class blogs used in practice with the fast-growing literature in the field. Previous work suggests eight uses: collaboration, making assignments, journal writing, instruction, posting supplemental material, community building, external readers, and prompting. In practice, we found blogs to be used in a fairly narrow way—mainly for instruction and posting supplemental material. We hope that this article will inspire teachers to further their blog use.     

Identifying Promising Items: The Use of Crowdsourcing in the Development of Assessment Instruments

The psychometrically sound development of assessment instruments requires pilot testing of candidate items as a first step in gauging their quality, typically a time-consuming and costly effort. Crowdsourcing offers the opportunity for gathering data much more quickly and inexpensively than from most targeted populations. In a simulation of a pilot testing protocol, item parameters for 110 life science questions are estimated from 4,043 crowdsourced adult subjects and then compared with those from 20,937 middle school science students. In terms of item discrimination classification (high vs. low), classical test theory yields an acceptable level of agreement (C-statistic = 0.755); item response theory produces excellent results (C-statistic = 0.848). Item response theory also identifies potential anchor items without including any false positives (items with low discrimination in the targeted population). We conclude that the use of crowdsourcing subjects is a reasonable, efficient method for the identification of high-quality items for field testing and for the selection of anchor items to be used for test equating.     

Culturally responsive student assessment and quality work in higher education

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability -     

Effects of tactile training on visual speechreading: performance changes related to individual differences in cognitive skills

We report on a follow-up study of the R?nnberg, Andersson, Lyxell, & Spens (1998) speech tracking training study. The purpose was to examine, initially and after training, the effects of different tactile aids on tasks of visual speechreading. We also examined cognitive prerequisites for initial baseline speechreading and posttraining speechreading performance. Compared with speechreading alone, tactile aids impaired sentence-based speechreading at first, although performance improved with training. No effects of vibrotactile aids or training were obtained for visual word-decoding. Initial baseline speechreading performance and posttraining performance correlated with cognitive skills, but the size of the correlations changed. The size of the correlations also varied with the different tactually mediated speechreading conditions.     

Attachment Patterns at Age Six in South Germany: Predictability from Infancy and Implications for Preschool Behavior

A cross-cultural replication of concordance between attachment patterns to mother in infancy and patterns of reunion responses to mother at age 6 was tested for 40 children in Regensburg, South Germany. Concordance between the 4 types of attachment status (A, B, C, D) in infancy and at age 6 was 82%. When observed in preschool at age 5, children classified securely attached (B) at age 6 were more competent in their play quality and conflict resolution, showed fewer behavior problems, and attributed less hostility in a social perception picture test compared to the insecurely attached (A, D) children. Children classified disorganized (D) at age 6 were found almost as often in the incompetent preschool behavior groups as the avoidantly attached (A) children, independent of best-fitting alternative attachment pattern. Thus, disorganization at age 6 may be considered as an insecure attachment.