Risk of Early Onset Substance Use among Students with and without Mild Academic Disabilities: Results of a Discrete‐Time Survival Analysis

This study investigated the age of onset of substance use among 536 students with mild academic disabilities and 906 students without academic disabilities, and the extent to which emotional, conduct, and hyperactivity problems explain the differences between these two groups. Using discrete‐time survival analysis, the results of this study showed that students with a mild academic disability were not at higher risk for the onset of daily smoking, and were at a significantly lower risk for the onset of weekly alcohol use and cannabis use. Though students with a mild academic disability displayed higher scores on conduct, emotional, and hyperactivity problems compared with their counterparts without an academic disability, this was not reflected in an increased risk for early onset substance use.     

Structural Identity Consultation: Story Telling as a Culture of Faith Transformation

In this contribution we explore processes of Structural Identity Consultation (SIC) with primary school teachers, and the opportunities this kind of team meetings offers for a nontraditional way to live with religious tradition(s). We take our start in everyday classrooms, characterized by religious diversity. The thoughts of Levinas, and his view on the relationship of “I” and “the other,” open our mind for the encounter with the other, and the sensibility for the need of the other, resulting in an “answer-ability” for the other. Structural Identity Consultations in our view create an open space to explore differing narrations on encounter. The narration of a young teacher, and the deconstructive reading of this narration as a text, shows the innovative power of (religious) tradition. It is our conviction that teachers' story telling in Structural Identity Consultations enlarges religious literacy and improves religious sensibility.     

Attention guidance in learning from a complex animation: Seeing is understanding?

To examine how visual attentional resources are allocated when learning from a complex animation about the cardiovascular system, eye movements were registered in the absence and presence of visual cues. Cognitive processing was assessed using cued retrospective reporting, whereas comprehension and transfer tests measured the quality of the constructed representation. Within the framework of Cognitive Load Theory, visual cues highlighting the subsystems of the heart were hypothesized to guide attention, reduce visual search and extraneous cognitive load, and enhance learning. As predicted, learners looked more often and longer at cued parts. However, we found no effects of cueing on visual search and cognitive load. With respect to cognitive processing, performance differences were found on the number of statements in the learners’ verbal reports. These findings suggest that visual cueing can guide attention in an animation, but other factors are also important in determining the effectiveness of visual cues on learning.     

Lifelong learning – lifelong returns? A new theoretical framework for the analysis of civic returns on adult learning

Education is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes such as higher wages and employability, but also with increased well-being or volunteering. While previous research focused mainly on returns on formal education in schools or universities, there has been a notable shift in recent years towards the analysis of returns on adult learning. While research has established theory-driven empirical evidence concerning labour market-related outcomes, it fails to identify and coherently explain non-monetary outcomes. The authors of this article review 13 empirical studies on different forms of civic participation as a return on engagement in adult learning. Individuals’ civic participation is one precondition to social cohesion and functioning citizenship at a societal level and thus a factor of high political and societal relevance. All the studies reviewed in this article suggest a positive association between adult learning and civic engagement. To what extent this association is causal, however, remains an open question. The authors argue that any efforts to identify such causality must begin with a number of theoretical assumptions about the mechanisms through which learning may influence civic participation. By linking the theoretical ideas of the studies reviewed with the literature on volunteering, the authors suggest a new theoretical framework, which may guide further research.     

Pedagogical Perspectives and Practices Reflected in Metaphors of Learning and Digital Learning of ICT Leaders

This study examines the meaning attributed to the contribution of technology to pedagogical practices from the perspective of school ICT leaders. While previous studies use metaphors for bottom-up exploration, this study employs an innovative combination of bottom-up and top-down metaphor analysis based on two frameworks: (a) metaphors of general learning (Paavola, Lipponen, & Hakkarainen, 2004)—acquisition, participation, and knowledge creation, and (b) metaphors of digital learning (Shamir-Inbal & Blau, 2016)—toolbox, active player, creative mind, shared desktop, and inter-connected world. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 ICT leaders, including eight elementary school ICT coordinators and five regional ICT coordinators. All three metaphors of general learning and five digital learning metaphors were found in perspectives and pedagogical practices reported by the interviewees. However, the prevalence of each metaphor and the intersections of general and digital learning metaphors were quite different. The analysis based on metaphors shed light on the perspectives of ICT leaders regarding the meaning and nature of learning processes and on pedagogical practices in their schools.