The Education‐Tolerance Relationship: is it biased by social desirability?

A hypothesis in the literature suggests that the well‐documented education‐tolerance relationship is upwardly biased because of social desirability in responses. The main argument is that highly educated individuals have a better understanding of which opinions are less socially acceptable and will tend to hide their true reactions when certain items are brought up in survey interviews. They present themselves as more tolerant than they in fact are, making the relationship appear artificially large. This article reviews the possibility of such a bias in the effect of educational background on intergroup attitudes. A model is developed that takes into account potential distortions, when no direct measures for social desirability are available. We make use of the LISREL framework for specifying competing hypotheses about education and social‐desirability mechanisms. Alternative measurement models are compared in analyses based on data from a recent Norwegian survey on attitudes toward new immigrants. When hypothesized additional links are allowed for, the estimated effect of education on intergroup attitudes does not go down. Thus, the main results question the assumption usually made.     

Correction to: Teaching and learning in a multilingual Europe: findings from a cross-European study

European Journal of Psychology of Education - A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-021-00539-z     

Facilitation: A Novel Way to Improve Students’ Well-being

In this article we analyze a project that used facilitation techniques, which are known from training in industry, to improve the study environment at a public research university in Denmark. In 2009, the project was initiated in one graduate program; and it has subsequently been modified and institutionalized. The project did not change the teaching format, but introduced facilitated study-groups using peer learning. It was successful in increasing students’ well-being. While peer learning and study groups are well-known in higher education, facilitation is a different and novel tool. We argue that facilitation makes study groups more inclusive, and they provide the potential for deep learning by structuring the learning situation.     

Playful hyper responsibility: toward a dislocation of parents’ responsibility?

Over the past 10–15?years, state-funded schools have begun to require parents to assume an undefined and infinite personal responsibility. In this article, we investigate how schools organize responsibility games to respond to this challenge and how these games affect the concept of responsibility. We point to a dislocation in the way parents are assigned responsibility, because the definition of responsibility is not only a question of formulating rules or providing advice. We argue that what emerges is a kind of playful hyper responsibility that identifies responsibility as the participation in a process of public exploration by parents of the definition of their specific responsibilities. This has several consequences, one of which is that it becomes difficult to have a political discussion about what can reasonably be expected of parents.     

The pursuit of belonging in inclusive education – insider perspectives on the meshwork of participation

According to the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [UN 2006. Accessed May 7, 2016. https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html], full participation should be premised for everyone with a disability. However, the concept of ‘full participation’ is not clear. In this article, it is argued that the conceptualisation of participation is essential to create a welcoming context for all children in education. In a context characterised by a multiplicity of connections, children with special educational needs participate but at the same time also experience discrimination and exclusion. The aim of this study is to unravel the meaning of full participation, not as a state of being but as a process of becoming. In focus group dialogues, it is demonstrated how full participation is relationally formed inside and between the many connections that pupils seek in order to belong. It is thus a multi-layered concept, closely connected to accessibility and, due to its emergent and entangled nature, also very elusive. It revolves around a sense of belonging, with an important focus on interconnectivity, diminished conditionality and imagination.     

Higher Education Learning Outcomes and their Ambiguous Relationship to Disciplines and Professions

This article highlights the significance of professional and disciplinary spaces in the shaping of Learning Outcomes (Los) in higher education. It is based on empirical studies of three programmes (engineering, the humanities and medicine) at two Norwegian universities. The results demonstrate both similarities and differences in the dynamics of learning outcomes formation. In the humanities and engineering they were translated into learning objectives, closing in on course rationalisation and portfolio coherence. Whilst the focus in the humanities remained internal in orientation, in engineering, internal processes of implementation merged with quality assurance and external development processes mediated by the engineering profession. In medicine, the introduction and implementation of learning outcomes were mediated by prior experiences with problem‐based learning practices. During that process, learning outcomes became oriented towards professional identity and conformity to international quality standards. In that sense, learning outcomes could function as regulatory mechanisms sheltering medical education from outside interference rather than as a tool for structuring learning. Within the framework of learning outcomes, professional compliance with external scrutiny through the display of standards has become more important, but also more linked to the university as an organisational actor.     

Action research – connecting practice and theory

Teacher education is often criticised for not being relevant and for there being a lack of continuity between practice teaching and the university coursework. In the literature, action research is presented as a way to bridge the gap and connect the two. The present article explores, through a qualitative study, how research-based knowledge communicated at the university and experiences from practice teaching interact in student teachers’ action research projects. The study also explores the outcome, for the student teachers, of conducting research in their practicum. The findings show that student teachers use theory and research in many different ways, and they are both consumers and producers of research. They especially emphasise the outcome of theory interacting with real situations encountered in the teaching practice. Contributing to a positive impact on their outcome were the opportunity they are offered to reflect on their own practice, the possibility they have to focus on something they find important, and the chance to make their own experiences with a particular tool for professional development.