The Lamer Social Competence in Preschool (LSCIP) Scale: Structural Validity in a Large Norwegian Community Sample

There is an increasing emphasis on the importance of social competence for children's development, well-being, and learning. Thus age- and context-appropriate measures are needed. This study addresses the structural validity of the Lamer Social Competence in Preschool (LSCIP) scale, developed to accommodate the Nordic model of early childhood pedagogy. The authors specify the theoretical basis for a bi-factor model of social competence. This model is tested in a large (n?=?1157), community based sample of Norwegian children, including teacher- (at age 2, 3, and 4), mother- (at age 4), and father- (at age 3) reports. A model with a main factor for social competence, and three bi-factors fit data across ages and reporters, with factorial, but not strong, invariance over time.     

Development of software to support argumentative reading and writing by means of creating a graphic organizer from an electronic text

This paper describes the development of a software program that supports argumentative reading and writing, especially for novice students. The software helps readers create a graphic organizer from the text as a knowledge map while they are reading and use their prior knowledge to build their own opinion as new information while they think about writing their essays. Readers using this software can read a text, underline important words or sentences, pick up and dynamically cite the underlined portions of the text onto a knowledge map as quotation nodes, illustrate a knowledge map by linking the nodes, and later write their opinion as an essay while viewing the knowledge map; thus, the software bridges argumentative reading and writing. Sixty-three freshman and sophomore students with no prior argumentative reading and writing education participated in a design case study to evaluate the software in classrooms. Thirty-four students were assigned to a class in which each student developed a knowledge map after underlining and/or highlighting a text with the software, while twenty-nine students were assigned to a class in which they simply wrote their essays after underlining and/or highlighting the text without creating knowledge maps. After receiving an instruction regarding a simplified Toulmin’s model followed by instructions for the software usage in argumentative reading and writing along with reading one training text, the students read the target text and developed their essays. The results revealed that students who drew a knowledge map based on the underlining and/or highlighting of the target text developed more argumentative essays than those who did not draw maps. Further analyses revealed that developing knowledge maps fostered an ability to capture the target text’s argument, and linking students’ ideas to the text’s argument directly on the knowledge map helped students develop more constructive essays. Accordingly, we discussed additional necessary scaffolds, such as automatic argument detection and collaborative learning functions, for improving the students’ use of appropriate reading and writing strategies.

     

Analyzing interdisciplinarity: Typology and indicators

Both funding agencies and scholars in science studies have become increasingly concerned with how to define and identify interdisciplinarity in research. The task is tricky, since the complexity of interdisciplinary research defies a single definition. Our study tackles this challenge by demonstrating a new typology and qualitative indicators for analyzing interdisciplinarity in research documents. The proposed conceptual framework attempts to fulfill the need for a robust and nuanced approach that is grounded in deeper knowledge of interdisciplinarity. As an example of using the framework, we discuss our empirical investigation of research proposals funded by a national funding agency in Finland.     

Critical perspectives on Danish early childhood education and care: between the technical and the political

This paper discusses trends in contemporary Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Data are sourced from various policy documents, along with material from ongoing research projects in which the authors are involved. It is claimed that contemporary policy on Danish day care services has a tendency to emphasize narrow curriculum improvements and standardized testing. The democratic dimensions are still relatively strong, but at the moment these dimensions are interpreted within a skills‐and‐testing framework, which is leading to a situation where the political masquerades as the technical.     

Exploring the relationship between hope and burnout in competitive sport

Abstract

Researchers have postulated that hope may be an important factor associated with burnout. Consistent with hope theory contentions, low-hope individuals may be susceptible to burnout because they are prone to experience goal blockage, frustration, and negative affect, all of which likely increase the risk of burnout. We examined the relationship between hope and athlete burnout among 178 competitive athletes (63 females and 115 males) aged 15–20 years. Hope was significantly and negatively correlated with all three burnout subscales: emotional/physical exhaustion, a reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation. Moreover, results of a multivariate analysis of variance showed that low-hope athletes scored significantly higher than medium- and high-hope athletes on all three burnout dimensions. Finally, results revealed that agency thinking was a significant predictor of all burnout dimensions. Frustration over unmet goals and a perceived lack of agency, a characteristic of low-hope athletes, might pose a risk factor in athlete burnout, whereas being able to maintain hope appears to be associated with health and well-being.     

Dynamics of the martial arts high front kick

Fast unloaded movements (i.e. striking, throwing and kicking) are typically performed in a proximo‐distal sequence, where initially high proximal segments accelerate while distal segments lag behind, after which proximal segments decelerate while distal segments accelerate. The aims of this study were to examine whether proximal segment deceleration is performed actively by antagonist muscles or is a passive consequence of distal segment movement, and whether distal segment acceleration is enhanced by proximal segment deceleration. Seventeen skilled taekwon‐do practitioners were filmed using a high‐speed camera while performing a high front kick. During kicking, EMG recordings were obtained from five major lower extremity muscles. Based on the kinematic data, inverse dynamics computations were performed yielding muscle moments and motion‐dependent moments. The results indicated that thigh deceleration was caused by motion‐dependent moments arising from lower leg motion and not by active deceleration. This was supported by the EMG recordings. Lower leg acceleration was caused partly by a knee extensor muscle moment and partly by a motion‐dependent moment arising from thigh angular velocity. Thus, lower leg acceleration was not enhanced by thigh deceleration. On the contrary, thigh deceleration, although not desirable, is unavoidable because of lower leg acceleration.     

Empathy among students in engineering programmes

Engineers face challenges when they are to manage project groups and be leaders for organisations because such positions demand skills in social competence and empathy. Previous studies have shown that engineers have low degrees of social competence skills. In this study, the level of empathy as measured by the four subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, perspective taking, fantasy, empathic distress and empathic concern, among engineering students was compared to students in health care profession programmes. Participants were undergraduate students at Linköping University, 365 students from four different health care profession programmes and 115 students from two different engineering programmes. When the empathy measures were corrected for effects of sex, engineering students from one of the programmes had lower empathy than psychology and social worker students on the fantasy and perspective-taking subscales. These results raise questions regarding opportunities for engineering students to develop their empathic abilities. It is important that engineering students acquire both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills regarding empathy.     

Journalism as institution and work in Europe,circa 1860

This article presents a comparative historical analysis of the relationship between journalism as institution (i.e., a particular set of organizations in society) and journalism as work (i.e., an activity practiced by individuals) in four European countries: Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Estonia. The analysis compares the institutional context of journalistic work in these four countries around 1860, focusing in particular on the organization of journalistic labor at the national newspaper of record. The historical comparison reveals how exceptional the British case is. The study finds that British journalism circa 1860 exhibited a high division of labor, high labor specialization, and was increasingly focused on news gathering and production. Swedish and German journalism exhibited an emerging division of labor and labor specialization, and was focused on political debate (rather than news gathering and production). Estonian journalism exhibited hardly any division of labor or labor specialization, and was focused on raising national awareness.