Disciplines,skills and the university

Several authors have suggested that the contract between the university and society formulated in the nineteenth century is breaking down, and a new relation between knowledge and society is being installed. This paper investigates what is at stake in this shift by re-visiting the roots of disciplinary knowledge, examining Durkheim’s social theory of knowledge to display the evolution of basic and professional disciplines in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Two contemporary challenges to disciplinary knowledge are then examined and evaluated. The paper concludes that it is time to transcend the standoff between disciplinary knowledge and practice-based accounts of knowledge.     

Teacher educators' digital competence

This position paper focuses on how the new national curriculum for school and the new general plan for teacher education in Norway change the underlying premises for teaching and learning in today's teacher education. This has become particularly pressing as a result of the new educational reform ‘Knowledge Promotion’ in schools, whereby digital competence is now the fifth basic competence in all subjects at all levels, as well as in the new teacher education curriculum in Norway. Against this background, the aim of this position paper is to elaborate on how a digital competence model can function on a micro level to fulfil the intentions from the national and institutional policy level. The research question considered by this paper is whether (and if so, how) a digital competence model for TEs can function as a model on an individual level.     

Pluralism and criticism in environmental education and education for sustainable development: a practical understanding

Education is presented with a challenge when faced with criticism of modern science and adoption of a pluralistic view of environmental education and education for sustainable development. In dealing with this challenge, a practical understanding inspired by the later works of Ludwig Wittgenstein is suggested as a complement to more traditional theoretical and analytical responses. Through reminders of how criticism appears in everyday practice, the article shows that criticism does not necessarily have to be understood solely by reference to specific theoretical positions, but can also be seen in terms of the diverse ways that human beings react morally, encounter different norms and conduct ethical reflection. In such a practical understanding, the question is not whether the criticism is correct or not in absolute terms but rather whether the opinions and perspectives have significance in people’s lives. Criticism of modern science does not therefore appear to be a reason to exclude modern science, the proposal here being to acknowledge and embrace the criticism and the alternative views put forward by the critics. By means of a practical understanding, the opposition expected between criticism and pluralism can be dissolved, rather than solved.     

Applying structural equation modeling in the context of the theory of reasoned action: Some problems and solutions

This study identifies and attempts to solve problems encountered in applications of structural equation modeling (SEM) to the theory of reasoned action. This theory is often used in social psychology and aims at explaining and predicting behavior. The few studies that test this theory with SEM have, in general, 2 methodological problems, which cast serious doubt on the validity of the conclusions. The first problem is that in most of the tests the data do not fit the model. The second problem is that part of the theory is formulated by multiplying 2 variables, which implies that the results are highly dependent on the arbitrarily chosen scale values. These problems are illustrated with a secondary analysis of survey data gathered by Burnkrant and Page (1988) and by new data presented in this study. In this article, an alternative model specification is proposed that strongly improves the fit of the data, but leaves intact the structural part of the model being tested. It is also advisable to omit 1 of the variables that forms part of the multiplicative composite.     

Moral judgment and behavioral dimensions of juvenile delinquency

The relationship of levels of moral reasoning to behavioral dimensions of juvenile delinquency was investigated, using 162 delinquent boys in a reformatory. After adding biographical data to the Quay Behavioral Classification Instruments, four second-order factors were obtained, interpreted as a social inadequacy, an obstreperousness, a social orientation and an antisocial egocentricity factor. The principled morality score of Rest's Defining Issues Test correlated negatively with a social inadequacy score while a score measuring morality of rules and duty to social order correlated with a score indicating a group inclined social orientation. Unexpectedly delinquents with antisocial egocentristic tendencies did not display lower principled morality scores. Some evidence for the validity of Quay's Inadequacy-immaturity dimension was found.Appreciation is expressed to Pieter Lourens for his helpful assistanceThis article is based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author completed under the supervision of the second and third authors. The study was partly sponsored by a grant from the Human Sciences Research Council, Republic of South Africa.Requests for reprints should be sent to Pieter M. Heyns, who is now at the Department of Psychology, Rand Afrikaans University, P.O. Box 524, Johannesburg 2000, Republic of South Africa     

Peace education: Learning to hate war,love peace,and to do something about it

Peace education should not be only general knowledge but conclude with something the students can do — as when health education leads to hygienic practices. For this to happen, our peace concepts have to come closer to the level at which people live, the local level. It is argued that this points to transarmament rather than disarmament; to defence based on local conventional defence, paramilitary units and non-military defence, rather than (or in addition to) negotiations among governments. It is also pointed out that this would lead to the building of less vulnerable societies from the bottom up. Less vulnerable societies would have great capacity for survival even in times of crisis, including warfare in the country itself, being thereby less susceptible to blackmail. The key to national invulnerability is local-level invulnerability. And a society organised with less dependency on national and international centres will also be a society less dependent on offensive weapons, concentrating more on defensive modes of security. Present and dominant modes of defence not only try to combine a high level of vulnerability with offensive weapons, but also operate at a level so far away from the ordinary citizen that he/she feels there is little else to do than just to be informed and perhaps to have strong opinions.     

Dynamic in situ chromosome immobilisation and DNA extraction using localized poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) phase transition

A method of in situ chromosome immobilisation and DNA extraction in a microfluidic polymer chip was presented. Light-induced local heating was used to induce poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) phase transition in order to create a hydrogel and embed a single chromosome such that it was immobilised. This was achieved with the use of a near-infrared laser focused on an absorption layer integrated in the polymer chip in close proximity to the microchannel. It was possible to proceed to DNA extraction while holding on the chromosome at an arbitrary location by introducing protease K into the microchannel.     

‘Needle and Stick’ save the world: sustainable development and the universal child

This text deals with a problem concerning processes of the productive power of knowledge. We draw on the so-called poststructural theories challenging the classical image of thought – as hinged upon a representational logic identifying entities in a rigid sense – when formulating a problem concerning the gap between knowledge and the object of knowledge. More specifically we are looking at this problem in the contexts of sustainable development and childhood, using illustrating examples in order to test the validity of these theoretical accounts. The examples we use range from internationally agreed documents claiming universality concerning environmental protection and childhood to national curricula for the pre-school to a Swedish governmentally produced and distributed TV series called Needle and Stick save the world, addressing the issue of sustainable development. In short, we wish to problematise the rigid positions of the child and the human being in relation to nature.     

Teacher reflection: the development of a typology

In this article, a contribution is made to the discussion of reflection on the part of teachers. The discussion to date has shown that reflection must be broad and deep. However, just what constitutes broad and deep reflection and the relations between the two remain unclear. After consideration of the characteristics of broad and deep reflection, three domains of broad reflection are distinguished (i.e. the pragmatic, ethical and moral domains). Closed versus open approaches to deep reflection are also then distinguished which produces a typology of six reflection possibilities. Empirical support for this typology was gathered via interviews with 11 experienced secondary school teachers. The content of the interviews addressed actual difficult decision situations which the teachers had experienced, and application of the constant comparative method showed the teachers to indeed use the six reflection possibilities when they reflected upon the difficult decision situations. A clear preference for closed types of pragmatic and ethical reflection over open or moral reflection was shown. The conclusion is that the proposed typology can be used to map teacher reflection. The results further suggest that the breadth and depth of teacher reflection are in need of development and that the relations between teacher reflection and their professional behaviour should be examined in greater detail.