Targets and Tools in Dutch Access Policies

In 2004 the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science set a concrete target: by 2010, close to 50% of the age cohort should participate in higher education, following the targets set in the UK and Sweden. However clear the target is set, the ways to achieve it are far less specified. In the article a number of possible instruments to achieve the target are discussed and their relevance in the Dutch context is analysed. It is concluded that there are a limited number of policy instruments available. However, given the devolution of access policy to the higher education institutions and the influence of broader societal trends on participation our expectations on what government can do to reach its target need to be modest.     

Effects of writing instruction and assessment on functional composition performance

In this study the relationships between writing instruction and functional composition performance were analyzed. The data were obtained in a national assessment on the language proficiency of students in the third year of Dutch secondary education (age ±15). Multivariate multilevel analysis showed that 10 out of 36 instructional characteristics were related to functional composition performance. The effective instructional characteristics included: instruction and exercises in writing functional texts, writing for a specific purpose, tailoring to a particular audience, global rating of writing products by the teacher, and frequent evaluation of Dutch language proficiency through teacher-made tests and written assignments. No effects were found for the rather popular subskill exercises on idiom, syntax, spelling and punctuation, and for pre-writing activities, text revisions and peer-review. Furthermore, the effect of instructional characteristics was often different on one task than on another. Finally, there was little differential effectiveness for different groups of students. If one instructional characteristic was more effective than the other, this was generally true, to an equal degree, for boys and girls and for promoted and non-promoted students.     

Measuring perceived social presence in distributed learning groups

Social presence—the degree to which ‘the other’ in a communication appears to be a ‘real’ person—has captured the attention of those dealing with learning in groups through computer-supported collaborative learning environments. The concept is important because it affects participation and social interaction, both necessary for effective collaboration and knowledge construction. This article reports on the construction and validation of a self-reporting (Dutch-language) Social Presence Scale to determine perceived social presence in distributed learning groups using computer-supported collaborative learning environments. The result is a one-dimensional scale consisting of five items with an internal consistency of .81. We used a nomological network of similar constructs for further validation. The findings suggest that the Social Presence Scale has potential to be useful as a measure for social presence.     

Modernising gender,civilising sex: perverse imaginary in the state feminist politics of Liu Yu‐hsiu

Abstract

The gender sexual politics of Liu Yu‐hsiu has been pivotal in the hegemonic ascendancy of Taiwan state feminism in recent years. Through an examination of Liu’s psychoanalytically mediated essays of cultural criticism, this article traces the contour of Liu’s sexual imaginary within the context of 1990s feminist and queer politics. Liu’s modernising project of gender equality, I argue, upholds heterosexual monogamy as a feminist ideal that seeks to purge all the masculine ills, including perversion and promiscuity. Meanwhile, queers and prostitutes come to be figured as the very negativity that must be repressed. Yet, like the Lacanian Real, they impinge on the symbolic order that Liu ordains as they thwart her desire to civilise sex.     

Between education and care? Critical reflections on early childhood policies in Germany

This article identifies the responsibilities for early childhood care and education (ECCE) in the German child and youth welfare system and shows the expansion of children's services. The official German statistics demonstrate that almost every child from the age of three to school age attends ‘Kindergarten’. Current policies and measures are therefore mainly focused on extending provision for the under‐threes. There are still enormous differences in the number of places available for children under three years of age between the eastern and western parts of Germany. Due to the increased significance of early education and the educational curricula drafted in all 16 Länder over the past few years, the qualifications required of professional pedagogues today have changed considerably. There is a broad consensus in Germany that it is necessary to redefine the course content and structure and put them on a theoretical basis. The article pinpoints the problems of children with special needs, and especially of those whose family language is not German. Despite some positive developments in German ECCE little progress has been made with regard to effectively implementing the conceptual unity of education, care and upbringing.     

The social structure of entrepreneurship as a scientific field

Entrepreneurship as a scientific field has grown significantly, irrespective of the measures used. In this article we raise the question: How can we understand the evolution and success of entrepreneurship as a scholarly field? In particular, we focus on the social structure of entrepreneurship scholars to explain (1) how they are becoming integrated into larger scholarly communities and (2) how they differ from the way scholars integrate within the field of innovation studies. Based on a unique database and responses from 870 entrepreneurship scholars, we demonstrate that entrepreneurship can be regarded as a phenomenon-driven field bound together by a shared communication system and social interaction rather than strong theoretical influences, i.e., a social scholarly community. We identify two broader social communities; one embedded in entrepreneurship conferences that includes a rather eclectic group of entrepreneurship scholars, and another related to entrepreneurship journals and entrepreneurship economics, characterized by a stronger domain orientation. In contrast, scholars in innovation studies tend to be more theory-driven and are bound together by their disciplinary and theoretical background, i.e., an intellectual scholarly community.     

DEN HERBARTSKE PEDAGOGIKKS INNFLYTELSE I NORGE

Gill, P. E. 1976. The Relationship Between Mental Ability and Eight Background Variables. Scand. J. educ. Res. 20, 135‐145. Multiple regression is seen as a search technique when applied to IQ. test data. The results from such a search are stochastic rather than deterministic. Because of this it is imperative that comprehensive samples be studied. The sample in this study (n = 3,695) was representative of the population of Irish 6‐ to 12‐year‐olds. The results are surprising in that the total variance explained by predictors such as SES, sex, family size, position in family, absenteeism and urbanity is never more than 8 %. Differences in how predictors behave with IQ and Vocabulary are noted. SES, family size and urbanity are the most significant predictors. When Vocabulary is the criterion, sex differences (in favour of girls) emerge consistently. It is contended that pupils of low intelligence go absent more often than their peers. The total variance explained was increased when homoscedasticity was reduced by stabilizing criterion variance (by reducing age span).