Reading and writing self-efficacy of incarcerated adults

This paper is the first to examine the Reading and Writing Self-Efficacy Scale among incarcerated adults. The aim was to examine whether performance of reading and spelling tests (Reading Speed, Nonsense Words and Spelling) explained individual differences in the participants' efficacy beliefs in reading and writing. Six hundred subjects rated their efficacy beliefs in reading and writing, and 92 of them were also sampled for a reading and spelling test. Factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution dividing the reading items and writing items into separate factors and hierarchical regression analysis revealed that education level and test performance accounted for 36.9% and 34.9% of the statistical variance in reading self-efficacy and writing self-efficacy, respectively. The results suggest that assessment of self-efficacy in reading and writing should be included in a screening procedure of reading and spelling difficulties.     

Physical demands of game-based training drills in women’s team handball

Game-based training drills are popular in team sports. This study compared two game-based training conditions and official matches in team handball. Thirty-one women players wore inertial measurement units in five training sessions and five official matches. In training, 3vs3 and 6vs6 game-based training conditions were performed with a 5-min duration. PlayerLoad? and high-intensity events (HIEs; >2.5 m · s^?1) were extracted from the raw data. Data were analysed using magnitude-based inferences and reported with effect sizes (ESs). PlayerLoad? · min^?1 from all positions combined was 11.37 ± 0.49 (mean ± 90% confidence limits) and 9.71 ± 0.3 for the 3vs3 and 6vs6 conditions, respectively. Backs (ES: 1.63), wings (ES: 1.91), and pivots (ES: 1.58) had greater PlayerLoad? in 3vs3 than 6vs6. Substantially greater HIE · min^?1 in 3vs3 occurred for all positions. There was substantially greater PlayerLoad? · min^?1 in 3vs3 and 6vs6 than match play for backs, wings, and pivots. Wings (ES: 1.95), pivots (ES: 0.70), and goalkeeper (ES: 1.13) had substantially greater HIE · min^?1 in 3vs3 than match play. This study shows greater PlayerLoad? and HIE in 3vs3 than 6vs6. Both game-based training conditions investigated in this study provide an overload in overall PlayerLoad?; however, additional exercises might be needed to overload HIE, especially for backs and pivots.     

Prison Inmates' Educational Motives: Are They Pushed or Pulled?

The aim of the present study was to examine inmates' educational motives. The participants were 467 inmates who attended education in Norwegian prisons. Three motive categories were identified: “To prepare for life upon release” (Factor 1), “social reasons and reasons unique to the prison context” (Factor 2), and “to acquire knowledge and skills” (Factor 3). Factor 1 explained more of the variance than the sum of the other factors, and educational level was not related to scores on this first factor. Inmates with long sentences were more likely than those with short sentences to start an education in prison to prepare for life upon release. Inmates with low education scored significantly higher on Factor 2 than those with high education, but significantly lower on Factor 3 than the latter group.     

On the Generality of Univariate Eta

Eikeland, H. M. (1971). On the Generality of Univariate Eta. Scand. J. educ. Res. 15, 149‐167. The correlation ratio, or eta, is conceived of as a generic concept, covering varying complexities of data analysis designs, from a simple point‐biserial design to general multiclassification designs, orthogonal as well as nonorthogonal ones. When independent variables are categorical and the dependent variable metric, one can define a multiple eta as the correlation among observed and predicted scores, the prediction being based on two or more classification variables conjointly. Multiple eta is compared to multiple correlation. Worked examples of multiple eta are shown for both the orthogonal and the nonorthogonal case, illustrating the use of analysis of variance as a correlational technique. Only univariate eta is considered, but its two cases, bivariate and multiple eta, are related to the multivariate case.     

We are invited to imagine: using a literary text to encourage cross-cultural dialogue about citizenship

ABSTRACT

Using William Golding’s Lord of the Flies as a stimulus, researchers from Norway, Pakistan and the United Kingdom explored the potential of a literary text to encourage intercultural dialogue. The innovative research method used was to combine Literature Circles and Google Documents to provide a platform for asynchronous online exchange between three cohorts of students in higher education. The authors’ analysis of the data suggested differences between those students who regarded the text as a living document speaking directly to their personal experiences of citizenship issues and those for whom the novel remained a historical document, removed from their lived experience. The authors contend that this research can contribute original and significant insights to the literature on teaching citizenship through literary texts such as the relationship between text choice and context, models of international collaboration at the higher education level and contrasting approaches towards citizenship and reading.     

Action research and organisational learning: a Norwegian approach to doing action research in complex organisations

The purpose of this article is to present a specific approach to the practice of action research ‘in complex organisations’. Clearly, there are many approaches to the challenge of doing action research in organisations; approaches that are, and also must be, quite context dependent and specific. But my purpose is neither to give an overview nor a recommendation of how action research is or should be done in complex organisations by different schools of action researchers around the world. The approach I will present has grown through practical experience accumulated over many years with doing action research in many different Norwegian organisations with organisational change and development as the specific objective. I will limit myself to an outline of this Norwegian context, and to how I and others have worked specifically with organisational learning both practically and theoretically within or in relation to a broad Norwegian or Scandinavian approach to action research and organisation development represented by many individuals.     

Recontextualising assessment resources for use in local settings: opening up the black box of teachers’ knowledge work

Research has shown that how principles and tools related to Assessment for Learning (AfL) are taken up by teachers can significantly impact how assessment initiatives are realised. However, questions remain about how teachers develop new resources for use in local contexts, and what these processes entail. This article examines such processes in the context of teacher teams, using the notion of ‘knowledge work’ to denote the creative and constructive work that teachers carry out when they work together upon AfL-related principles and tools. The analyses contribute to existing research by illuminating the micro-dynamics of teachers’ work with assessment resources, and examining different forms of epistemic actions that constitute this process. In conclusion, the paper discusses how teacher collaboration may inform AfL initiatives in significant ways, and argues that teachers’ constructive and collaborative knowledge work needs to be more fully recognised in the context of AfL initiatives.     

Teachers' knowledge work in collective practice development: Approaches to introducing assessment for learning at the school level

Collective approaches to practice development are increasingly common in the teaching profession. Such initiatives frequently involve groups of teachers taking responsibility for introducing, sharing and developing new pedagogical resources and for aiding their integration into existing practices. This article explores teachers’ knowledge work as a component of collective practice development, and investigates how engagement with knowledge is constructed in different school environments. Drawing on research that followed an Assessment for Learning (AfL) project in a Norwegian city, the article examines how two groups of lower secondary teachers worked to support the introduction and development of AfL resources at their respective schools. The analysis reveals how their knowledge work was framed in different ways through available organisational roles and resources, and discusses the implications for initiatives aimed at collective practice development at the school level.