Negative Knowledge: Understanding Professional Learning and Expertise

In this paper, we critically analyze how the concept of negative knowledge contributes to the understanding of professionals’ expert practice and learning. Negative knowledge is experientially acquired knowledge about what is wrong and what is to be avoided during performance in a given work situation. In terms of its theoretical foundation, the concept relates to constructivist theorization and metacognition. Building on existing conceptions of negative knowledge, we systematically relate the concept to research on expertise and learning from errors. The concept of negative knowledge augments existing theories of professional knowledge by emphasizing knowing about what to avoid as part of experts’ effective actions. During routine actions, negative knowledge enhances professionals’ certainty of how to proceed and increases the efficacy through the avoidance of impasses and suboptimal problem-solving strategies. Quality and depth of reflective processes after actions are related to the development of negative knowledge. The potential of negative knowledge for the investigation of professional learning is discussed through reference to recent empirical work. Re-submitted for publication in: Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education.     

Violence in urban schools: school professionals’ categorizations and explanations of violence among students in two different demographic areas

The present study explores how officials in Swedish secondary schools define and categorize situations in which students have been exposed to violence in the school. The study is designed as a case study of two secondary schools, situated in two demographically different urban neighbourhoods. The results indicate that different socio-economic conditions influence how professionals categorize and explain violence, but also what strategies are used to deal with different incidents. In the socially disadvantaged area, there is closer collaboration with the police, and filing police reports is more common. In the school located in a middle-class area, professionals handle similar situations by collaborating with parents and using diagnoses as the main explanation for students’ problematic behaviour.     

Gender Attitudes and Modernization Processes

The article aims to explain why attitudes toward gender equalityand gender relations in society vary between individuals andcountries. The hypotheses that are tested stem from two partlyconflicting theories of modernization. Wilensky (2002) advocatesa ‘structural’ explanation for variation in genderattitudes, while Inglehart (1990, 1997) suggests a ‘values’explanation. The author conducts a three-part analysis: an individual,a national, and a multilevel analysis. The structural explanationis better able to account for individual level gender attitudes.Values do, to some extent, serve as the mechanism that producesnational level variation. Inglehart (1990, 1997) is also rightin suggesting that the effect of values on gender attitudesincreases with increasing development. Received for publication August 30, 2005. Revision received December 10, 2005.     

Children's Recall of Televised and Printed News as a Function of Test Expectation

An exploratory study was carried out to investigate the relative effectiveness of news stories watched on television and news stories read by children. Children aged 10 to 12 (n = 123) either watched five news stories or read print versions of the same news stories. In each condition, half of the children expected a retention test, whereas the other children did not. Results indicated that children who did not expect a retention test learned more from television news than from printed news. Among children who expected a retention test, televised and printed news were recalled about equally well.     

A strong commitment: conforming a school identity at one compulsory faith school in a disadvantaged area

The focus of the present study is on how educators and students create a ‘sense of belonging’ and school identity. The ethnography was carried out at an independent Christian school with children and students aged six to sixteen years. This study’s aim is to contribute knowledge about how the identity of a school has become an important factor in the context of the marketisation of education. The identity of the school is articulated as a school with a Christian profile. Further, the results show how diversity and multiculturalism were downplayed. The school can thereby be interpreted as a way to avoid categorisation as an immigrant school. The identity as a Christian school symbolically lifts it from its socio-economic position in the urban geography. This identity becomes central to how the school is presented in an economic market of free school choice.     

The new political economy of higher education: between distributional conflicts and discursive stratification

The higher education sector has been undergoing a far-reaching institutional re-orientation during the past two decades. Many adjustments appear to have strengthened the role of competition in the governance of higher education, but the character of the sector’s emerging new political economy has frequently remained unclear. Serving as the introduction for the special issue, this article makes the case for a multidimensional strategy to probe higher education’s competitive transformation. In terms of conceptualizing the major empirical shifts, we argue for analyzing three core phenomena: varieties of academic capitalism, the discursive construction of inequality, and the transformation of hierarchies in competitive settings. With respect to theoretical tools, we emphasize the complementary contributions of institutional, class-oriented, and discourse analytical approaches. As this introduction elaborates and the contributions to the special issue demonstrate, critical dialog among different analytical traditions over the interpretation of change is crucial for improving established understandings. Arguably, it is essential for clarifying the respective roles of capitalist power and hierarchical rule in the construction of the sector’s new order.     

Working memory capacity and reading skill moderate the effectiveness of strategy training in learning from hypertext

Cognitive and metacognitive strategies are particularly important for learning with hypertext. The effectiveness of strategy training, however, depends on available working memory resources. Thus, especially learners high on working memory capacity can profit from strategy training, while learners low on working memory capacity might easily be overtaxed. In addition, efficient basic reading comprehension processes are important for strategy training to be successful: When both the newly acquired strategies and poorly routinized basic reading comprehension processes compete for working memory resources, navigation within the hypertext and learning might deteriorate rather than improve. In an experiment, 64 undergraduates learned with a comprehensive expository hypertext after receiving either a cognitive or a metacognitive or no strategy training. In line with the predictions, learners high on working memory capacity or reading skill could profit from learning strategy training in terms of learning outcomes and the quality of their navigational behavior. Learners low on working memory capacity or reading skill, in contrast, performed worse in both training conditions compared to the control condition. The improvement in learning outcomes for skilled learners as well as the impairment in learning outcomes for unskilled learners could be shown to be indirect effects mediated by the quality of navigational behavior.     

Be Prepared! How Pre-lab Modules Affect Students’ Understanding of Gene Mapping

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Lab activities are characteristic of life science education. In the current study, we investigate whether pre-lab modules can improve students’...     

Intergroup contact in context: The mediating role of social norms and group-based perceptions on the contact–prejudice link

The prejudice-reducing effects of intergroup contact have been well documented. However few studies have investigated the importance of the broader context within which contact occurs. The current study examined the predictors of social distance from Muslims in a large sample of Australian secondary school children (N = 980). Intergroup contact was an important predictor of reduced social distance even after demographics and perceptions of parents, school, media and broader intergroup dynamics were taken into account. However, in part the contact–social distance relationship was mediated by perceived parental support for intergroup relations and perceived fairness of media representation. Student's perceptions of broader group dynamics relating to collective threat and differentiation between groups impeded the relationship. The findings attest to the importance of the broader context within which contact occurs. Having contact with outgroup members leads to reduced social distance to the outgroup, however perceived norms and outgroup perceptions play a pivotal role in explaining this relationship.     

Rethinking the ownership of information in the 21st century: Ethical implications

This paper discusses basic concepts and recentdevelopments in intellectual property ownership in theUnited States. Various philosophical arguments havepreviously been put forward to support the creation andmaintenance of intellectual property systems. However, in an age of information, access toinformation is a critical need and should beguaranteed for every citizen. Any right of controlover the information, adopted as an incentive toencourage creation and distribution of intellectualproperty, should be subservient to an overriding needto ensure access to the information. The principlesunderlying intellectual property regimes in the UnitedStates recognize and embody this. In addition, thephilosophical/ethical dimensions of this debate couldalso be structured to support this attitude as well. Intellectual property is fast becoming digitalproperty. New technologies allow owners to extendtheir control of both legitimate uses and misuses ofthe intellectual property. Recent trends demonstratethat the access principle has not always beenparamount in judicial or legislative applications. Thetrend rather is to allow a proprietarianism factor todominate the analysis. Finally, several principles areforwarded which would assist adjudicators and policymakers in reaffirming the basic purpose of theintellectual property law, which is to benefit thepublic at large.