Schulformwechsel im zweigliedrigen Schulsystem

This study focuses on students who change from the academic to the non-academic school track after grade 7 (probationary year) in Berlin. We examined which individual student characteristics (e.?g., performance, school biography, family background) predict school change after the probationary year. We were particularly interested as to whether there are secondary effects of social background, after controlling for differences in performance. Our analyses were based on data from a study which included a whole cohort of school track changers (N?=?754) who were compared with students that remained at the academic track (N?=?1470). In order to predict the change of school type, multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results revealed significant differences between both groups regarding all observed characteristics. Performance-related characteristics were the best predictors of track change. After controlling for these characteristics, no further significant effects for other predictors were observable (i.?e., no secondary effects of social background were present).     

Implications of facilitated work-based learning implemented as an approach to continuing engineering education

ABSTRACT

The development of employees’ skills and competences has become a key driver of economic growth in the developed world. It is widely recognised that enhancing people’s skills and competences will be a major cause of future competitive advantage. Consequently, companies need to be able to identify precise areas where they have, or can build, distinctive competences. To meet these needs, various models and approaches for continuing engineering education have emerged. One such approach is the facilitated work-based learning (FWBL) model, the aim of which is to introduce an approach to tailor-made courses built on work-based learning (WBL) and problem-based learning (PBL). This paper addresses the implementation of tailor-made continuing engineering education in company settings through the use of FWBL. It draws on a huge amount of documentation produced within the Via Nord project, which was supported by the European Social Fund and engaged various companies in northern Denmark. The aim is to investigate how the FWBL model worked in practice when implemented as a means for tailor-made continuing engineering education applied in a company setting.     

The extended Theory of Planned Behaviour and college grades: the role of cognition and past behaviour in the prediction of students’ academic intentions and achievements

Understanding the underlying processes influencing college students’ academic achievement represents an important goal of educational research. The aim of the present study was to examine the utility of the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the relative influence of cognitive processes and measures of past behaviour in the prediction of grade intentions and actual grades in the context of higher education. Our results show that perceived behavioural control (PBC), subjective norms (SN) and past grades emerged as significant predictors and were able to explain 41% of the variance in grade intentions, while the influence of cognitive processes (planning and future orientation) was not significant. With respect to the prediction of actual grades, we found that habitual school attendance and past grades explained 26% of the variance in actual grades. Again, the influence of cognitive processes (planning and future orientation) was not significant. The main discussion is centred on the utility of the extended TPB in the prediction of academic achievement and the complex relationship between cognitive processes and past behaviour in predicting human actions in general. Limitations and implications of the study are also discussed.     

Introducing teachers to new semiotic tools for writing instruction and writing assessment: consequences for students’ writing proficiency

This article reports consequences for student writing quality based on a long-term professional learning project. Project teachers, representing all school subjects in grades 3–7, were presented with a writing construct, ‘Wheel of Writing’, and norms of expectation for writing proficiency. Participating teachers used the writing construct and norms as a basis for writing instruction and writing assessment. The project was conducted in 24 schools across Norway. 3088 students from 20 project schools participated. Two hundred and thirty three students from 4 schools were used as a comparison group. The investigation showed that students in primary school improved their writing quality significantly. Students in lower secondary school did not. However, there was substantial variation in writing quality effects between schools, classes, and individual students. For instance at a number of schools, project students from lower secondary school improved their writing quality significantly. The article discusses potential explanations of the effects.     

融合历史与比较:对比较社会科学新进展的回应

本文通过对比较社会科学研究新进展的考察,指出了传统的比较社会科学方法论所面临的问题和挑战.继而作者受到自然科学、生命科学以及社会科学研究成果的启示,提出了功能-构型方法,希冀对比较社会科学研究开辟新的视界.     

Contents Volume 7 2001

Volume Contents

Contents Volume 7 2001     

Digitalisation in higher education: mapping institutional approaches for teaching and learning

This paper explores the digitalisation of teaching and learning understood as external processes, influenced by government and international trends and as internal processes within the institutions, in Denmark and Norway. These are countries with similarities regarding digitalisation and educational systems. In the internal processes, there was some use of digital technology in teaching and learning when initiated from administration including IT-staff, in collaboration with academic leaders. There was little or only limited reported use of technology for teaching and learning, when the processes were initiated by administration together with enthusiasts among faculty staff, who did not have leadership roles or influence on change. There was more reported use of technology in teaching and learning in Denmark than Norway. The paper discusses possible explanations for these findings and thus illuminates how processes of digitalisation are influenced by broader governance arrangements, institutional maturity and academic and administration staffs.     

University class size: Is smaller better?

This study investigates the relationship between class size and achievement at the college level. Recent meta-analyses have found a strong relationship between class size and student achievement, but few of the studies examined class size larger than 40 or university-age populations. This analysis examines a university's testing-center data-archives representing 305 sections from 24 different courses. Section sizes ranged from 13 to 1,006. A total of 16,230 test scores were analyzed. The results of this investigation reveal that at the college level, class size may be less important an influence on student achievement than some educators have thought.     

THE POWER OF PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING PROBLEM SOLVING AND SELF ASSESSMENT ABILITIES

Students of Alverno College develop problem solving as one of eight abilities they are required to demonstrate in order to graduate. They must also demonstrate self assessment ability as an important part and over‐riding outcome of their educational process.

In ongoing studies, the research staff of the college found that students show increasing sophistication in their performance of these abilities and identify them as significant aspects of their education. Faculty contribute to their own developing educational theory and practice by analysing student performance and judging it by criteria they have articulated to describe expert performance. In requiring students to integrate self assessment into their problem solving process, faculty have found that students show increasing understanding of inter‐relationships of ability, content, and context. Students take responsibility for their learning as a dynamic, continuing process. They gradually internalise their practice of both problem solving and self assessment ability.