Outdoor adventures and adolescents’ mental health: daily screen time as a moderator of changes

Research provided ample evidence that excessive screen time (ST) in adolescence has detrimental effects on psychosocial health. This paper argues that structured outdoor programs can serve as an antidote to negative health impacts of exaggerated ST. For youth with a high level of regular ST, outdoor adventures imply a break with their ‘normal’ (mediatized) lifestyle, so that greater progress in mental health can potentially arise. This hypothesis is tested in a sample of adolescents, who took part in a 10-day outdoor program. Pre-to-post program mean comparisons for stress, hedonic balance and life satisfaction show significant positive changes. However, benefits of the program are markedly greater among youths with a high level of daily ST compared to youths with low-to-moderate levels.     

Community,Self and the Other: Learning Processes in Norwegian Folk High Schools

The Norwegian folk high schools have a legally defined role in the national educational system as a value-based pedagogical alternative without grades, exams or pre-defined curriculums. The roots of the schools can be traced to the theologian N.F.S. Grundtvig and his ideals of a learning that develops not just the mind but the whole student. The empirical study of this article seeks to explore the learning processes of contemporary Norwegian folk high schools. A theoretical development of Etienne Wenger’s social learning theory is applied to analyze 60 student texts. The article describes 3 overarching themes of learning: community as a context where self is developed through identity work and the other is the focus.     

Prosoziales Verhalten von Kindergartenkindern – Ein Vergleich der Eltern- und Erzieherperspektive

In this paper, we investigate the assessment of educators and parents on the prosocial behavior of 5?year old kindergarteners. Using the data of the Kindergarten cohort (SC2) of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) we show that the assessments of two raters differ tremendously on the same subject. Further, the parents assess the prosocial behavior more positive than the educators do. While the parents’ assessment remains mostly stable across the investigated variables, the educators’ assessment highly varies. We find significant differences in the educators’ assessment regarding the age and the sex of the child as well as their language competencies.     

How do admission committees select? Do applicants know how they select? Selection criteria and transparency at a Dutch University

Tertiary Education and Management - In this study, we investigated the currently applied selective admission criteria and tools of the two-year research master’s programs of both the Graduate...     

Knowing more about things you care less about: Cross-sectional analysis of the opposing trend and interplay between conceptual understanding and interest in secondary school chemistry

The development of students' interest in school science activities, their understanding of central chemical concepts, and the interplay between both constructs across Grades 5–11 were analyzed in a cross-sectional paper-and-pencil study (N = 2,510, mean age 11–17 years). Previous empirical findings indicate that students' knowledge increases over the time of secondary school while students' interest, especially in natural science subjects, tends to decrease. Concomitantly, there is evidence for an increase in the positive coupling between interest and knowledge across time. However, previous studies mainly rely on rather global measures, for example, school grades or general subject-related interest, and focus on science as an integrated subject instead of specific disciplines, for example, chemistry. For this article, more proximal and differentiated measures for students' understanding of three chemical concepts (Chemical Reaction, Energy, Matter) and interest in seven dimensions of school science activities according to the RIASEC + N model (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional, and Networking; cf. Dierks, Höffler, & Parchmann, 2014) were applied. The results are in line with previous research indicating a general increase in conceptual understanding and a decline in students' interest for all school science activities. However, the interplay between conceptual understanding and interest differs across the seven dimensions. Interest in activities which are likely to promote cognitive activation (investigative, networking) or involving the communication of knowledge (social, enterprising, and networking) are increasingly connected to conceptual understanding, especially in upper secondary grades. Interest in guided hands-on activities (realistic) which are typical in secondary science teaching, however, shows only small positive correlations to students' conceptual understanding across all grades. Hence, in upper-secondary school, investigative, social, enterprising, and networking activities seem to provide opportunities to benefit most from the interrelation between students' interests and their understanding.     

Frame of Reference Effects Following the Announcement of Exam Results

The internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model by Marsh (e.g., 1990a) assumes two central information sources for the constitution of domain-specific academic self-concepts: (1) social comparisons (external frame of reference), in which students compare their own achievements with those of their classmates; and (2) intraindividual comparisons (internal frame of reference), in which students compare their own achievements in one subject with their achievements in other subjects. In path analyses, it has been found that the latter type of comparison leads to negative paths from achievement indicators in subject A to self-concept measures in subject B. To investigate the actual impact of achievement feedback and of the frames of reference on changes in self-concept variables, we analyzed math and German self-concepts immediately following the announcement of exam results in each subject. Participants were 258 7th- to 9th-graders. Path analyses using structural equation modeling supported the validity of the I/E model with respect to the impact of simultaneously given current exam results. In particular, German achievement had a negative impact on subsequent math self-concept. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Motor Origins of Tool Use

The current study examines the developmental trajectory of banging movements and its implications for tool use development. Twenty (6‐ to 15‐month‐old) infants wore reflective markers while banging a handled cube; movements were recorded at 240 Hz. Results indicated that through the second half‐year, banging movements undergo developmental changes making them ideally suited for instrumental hammering and pounding. Younger infants were inefficient and variable when banging the object: Their hands followed circuitous paths of great lengths at high velocities. By 1 year, infants showed consistent and efficient straight up‐down hand trajectories of smaller magnitude and velocity, allowing for precise aiming and delivering dependable levels of force. The findings suggest that tool use develops gradually from infants' existing manual behaviors.     

Statement of Theme

The objective of this article is to examine the rhetoric of educational leadership within a Scandinavian context, as it occurs within the framework of New Public Management. The study asks questions about new demands on leadership expressed in policy documents.

Local culture and distinctive aspects of national life tend to modify external influences such as those inherent in the philosophy and practice of New Public Management. Scandinavian schools reflect key elements of Scandinavian life such as a commitment to collaboration, democracy, and individual enlightenment. These are themes in the curriculum of many of these countries and key values of the teachers who lead the learning processes. The range of tensions and dilemmas that teachers and their leaders are now facing are a direct result of the clash between generic public policy and the distinctive approach to support life and democratic culture in the Scandinavian countries. School leaders, it seems, are clearly in the middle of this clash and must mediate between these two trends. To remind us of the ultimate objectives of schooling, we outline a Scandinavian vision of democratic reflective leadership.