Reclaiming the students – coping with social media in 1:1 schools

There is a debate about the advantages and disadvantages of using social media in education. Drawing on interviews and surveys with students and teachers in three Swedish schools, this study finds that students as well as teachers find much of the students' social media use distractive to learning. We investigate this by means of an interpretative study of students' and teachers' experiences. We find that concerns relate to how social media use makes students less social, how weaker students are more likely to get distracted, how teachers lack strategies for tackling the problem and how the responsibility of the use is delegated to the students. We discuss how the distractive use of social media is made possible as a result of education policies requiring a higher degree of individual work, individual responsibility, and educational choices for students. Teachers and school leaders need to jointly reclaim the students and coping strategies for the distractive use are urgently needed.     

What is science in preschool and what do teachers have to know to empower children?

In this article we problematize the purpose of teaching science in preschool and the competences preschool teachers need in order to conduct science activities in the classroom. The empirical data were collected through an action research project with five preschool and primary school teachers (K-6). In the first section of this paper we use one situation, a floating–sinking experiment, as an illustration of how two different epistemological perspectives generate different foci on which kind of science teaching competences can be fruitful in preschool settings. In the first perspective, the central goal of science teaching is the development of the children’s conceptual understanding. With this perspective, we found that the science activities with children were unsuccessful, because their thoughts about concepts did not develop as expected, the situation even enhanced a “misconception” concerning density. Moreover, the teacher was unsuccessful in supporting the children’s conceptual learning. The second perspective uses a feminist approach that scrutinizes science, where we investigate if the floating–sinking activity contributes to a feeling of participation in a scientific context for the children and if so how the teacher promotes this inclusion. This second perspective showed that the children’s scientific proficiency benefited from the situation; they had a positive experience with density which was reinforced by the teacher. The children discovered that they had power over their own learning by using an experimental approach. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that there are competences other than subject matter knowledge that are also important when preschool teachers engage children in scientific activities. Through process-oriented work with the teacher group, we identified four concrete skills: paying attention to and using children’s previous experiences; capturing unexpected things that happen at the moment they occur; asking questions that challenge the children and that stimulate further investigation; creating a situated presence, that is, “remaining” in the situation and listening to the children and their explanations. We discuss possible ways to move preschool teachers away from their feelings of inadequacy and poor self-confidence in teaching science by reinforcing this kind of pedagogical content knowledge.     

The extent of ability grouping in Swedish upper secondary schools: a national survey

Differentiation among students according to ability has been a topic of interest in educational systems all over the world for a long period of time. This study focuses on the extent of ability grouping in Swedish upper secondary schools, using a total population survey that covers all upper secondary schools. Previous research on the effects of ability grouping on students and groups of students gives a quite clear picture and the relation between ability grouping and issues of inequity and undemocratic values is an often-raised issue, where low-achieving students are especially adversely affected. Results from this study show that many (43%) upper secondary schools use ability grouping as a way to differentiate students in educational settings. It is found that it is more frequently used within the foundation subjects and especially in mathematics. No particular group of schools reports using ability grouping at a significantly higher rate, but the schools that reported using it to a very large extent differ on many school-level variables. These schools are focused on specifically. The extent of ability grouping is discussed in relation to previous research and issues of equity.     

The case of the Swedish-speaking Finns

Conclusion It has often beeen stated that the Swedish-speaking population in Finland, compared to other linguistic minorities, has achieved a privileged position. Historically the Finnish nation-state was born and grew by the efforts of both language groups, and the constitution was influenced by this unity. The geopolitical situation has gained from the fact that the resources of the whole population have been taken into account in the development of the Finnish nation and state, located in a Northern Europe, where, for centuries, different political, cultural and religions forces have met. The fact that the Orthodox Church together with the predominant Lutheran Church became the state church is another example of the efforts of the young Finnish state to both integrate and mobilize the personal resources.Regarding the future it will be wise to support specific traditions, competencies and creative forces from the whole population. The education, rooted in a language and a specific culture can, in such a perspective, probably not be overevaluated. From the Swedish point of view it is therefore of the greatest importance to maintain fundamental guarantees for a Swedish-speaking education. Only far-going guarantees liberate creative resources for the future challenges nationally and above all internationally. Otherwise too much energy and interest will be needed to guard the specific and in itself justified interests.Today, when the economic prerequisites in a welfare state are not taken for granted it is by all means a wise policy to defend the approved strategy to at the same time integrate and mobilize the total resources from different groups in the society.     

The effects of skiing velocity on mechanical aspects of diagonal cross-country skiing

Cycle and force characteristics were examined in 11 elite male cross-country skiers using the diagonal stride technique while skiing uphill (7.5°) on snow at moderate (3.5 ± 0.3 m/s), high (4.5 ± 0.4 m/s), and maximal (5.6 ± 0.6 m/s) velocities. Video analysis (50 Hz) was combined with plantar (leg) force (100 Hz), pole force (1,500 Hz), and photocell measurements. Both cycle rate and cycle length increased from moderate to high velocity, while cycle rate increased and cycle length decreased at maximal compared to high velocity. The kick time decreased 26% from moderate to maximal velocity, reaching 0.14 s at maximal. The relative kick and gliding times were only altered at maximal velocity, where these were longer and shorter, respectively. The rate of force development increased with higher velocity. At maximal velocity, sprint-specialists were 14% faster than distance-specialists due to greater cycle rate, peak leg force, and rate of leg force development. In conclusion, large peak leg forces were applied rapidly across all velocities and the shorter relative gliding and longer relative kick phases at maximal velocity allow maintenance of kick duration for force generation. These results emphasise the importance of rapid leg force generation in diagonal skiing.     

Psychometric analysis of a measure of socio-emotional development in adolescents

This is a psychometric analysis of an instrument to assess the socio-emotional development of school students, How I Feel (HIF), developed as a situational judgment test, with scoring based on expert judgments. The HIF test was administered in grades 4–9, 1999–2005. Internal consistency, retest reliability, and year-to-year stability were satisfactory, and the HIF instrument appears sensitive to intervention effects. Sex differences and associations with substance use and other instruments support construct validity. A significant negative trend was found across grades, attenuated in a group receiving socio-emotional training. The HIF test has limited discriminatory power among individuals with high socio-emotional maturity.     

“It’s Funny that We Don’t See the Similarities when that’s what We’re Aiming for”—Visualizing and Challenging Teachers’ Stereotypes of Gender and Science

This study illuminates teachers’ conceptions of gender and science and possibilities to challenge these conceptions. Since 2005, a group of teachers (K-6) in Sweden have met approximately once a month in two-hour seminars to discuss and develop their instruction in science and technology based on a gender perspective. The present data consist mainly of audio-recordings of the teacher seminars and video-recordings of science activities with students. Analysis of the empirical data has been carried out in several stages and was inspired by thematic analysis, the theoretical framework of which is based on Hirdman’s and Beauvoir’s theories of gender. The results show that the teachers’ ideas about gender/equity and science exist on several levels, within which various conceptions are represented. On the one hand, “reasoning around similarity”, where teachers consider that both girls and boys should have the same prerequisites for working with science. In contrast, stereotypical conceptions of girls and boys occur when the teachers evaluate their activities with students, and condescending attitudes toward girls are also observed. The girls’ ways of working with science are not as highly valued as the boys’, and this outlook on children can ultimately have consequences for girls’ attitudes towards the subject. When teachers are allowed to read their own statements about the girls, they get “a glimpse of themselves”, and their condescending ideas about girls are made visible. In this way, the teachers can begin their active work towards change, which may lead to new outlooks on and attitudes towards students.     

Moral relations in encounters with nature

The overall aim of this article is to develop in-depth knowledge about the connection between outdoor experiences and moral attitudes towards nature. The study focuses on processes in which moral relations are at stake in encounters between students and nature. The purpose is to identify such events, describe their specific circumstances and clarify how moral relations are established in these events. The empirical material consists of video-recordings of activities in three different outdoor education practices. In order to identify and categorise moral situations, an analytical tool called the ethical tendency is used. This tool is based on Wittgenstein’s language game method. The findings show that in the investigated outdoor education practices, moral relations towards nature are established in several different ways. The article concludes with four educational implications: responsibility when dealing with moral reactions; bringing ethical questions to the fore; different educational conditions create different encounters with nature; and the consequences of different language games.     

Deliberative Teaching: Effects on Students’ Democratic Virtues

Since the early-2000s, deliberative democratic theory has influenced the debate on teaching. Proponents of deliberation in education have argued that deliberative communication as a teaching model enhances both subject knowledge and democratic virtues among students. However, empirical support for this assumption is weak. The aim of this article is to empirically test the assumptions made by the proponents of deliberative teaching. This study uses a field experimental research design. The study was carried out in a civics course in Swedish upper-secondary schools in both vocational programs and programs preparing students for ensuing studies. To some extent, the results support the hypothesis derived from deliberative theory. Deliberative teaching seems to enhance democratic virtues among students in vocational programs.