`Alternative' Universities Revisited: A Study of the Distinctiveness of Universities Established in the Spirit of 1968

In the late 60s and early 70s,several universities were set up in variousEuropean countries with the intention ofproviding an alternative to establishedinstitutions of higher education. The newuniversities were expected, amongst otherthings, to experiment with new forms ofleadership and management internally, giveteaching and learning higher priority, and tobe regional relevant institutions for the areain which they were located. The paper analysesto what extent three such universityestablishments: Aalborg University in Denmark,Maastricht University in the Netherlands andTromsø University in Norway have managed tomaintain and develop their alternative profileduring the last thirty years. The studysuggests that even though the universities insome areas have adapted to environmentalpressure, they have managed to keep theirprofile as innovative and alternative.     

Modernising education: New Public Management reform in the Norwegian education system

Since the end of the 1980s, the Norwegian education system has gone through major reform, influenced largely by new managerialist ideas. Strategies to renew the public sector were promoted as the new public management (NPM). This paper investigates the way ideas connected to NPM reforms have been introduced and interpreted in the Norwegian education sector. Based on our studies of selected policy documents from the last two decades, we have identified three areas of discursive struggle. The first one is linked to ideologies and the national history of schooling, the second to contested issues of teacher professionalism and the third is associated with strategies for modernising and improving education. A main argument is that NPM reforms changed direction and sped up when Norway was listed among the ‘lower-performing’ countries according to Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international tests. Leadership and accountability became the dominant themes in Norwegian education.     

Action research with principals: gain,strain and dilemmas

The scientific status of action research is characterised by confusion and disagreement. This article discriminates between action research identified with professional work in schools and action research as a research strategy. Action research as professional work, does not have the same claim on documentation and publication, and can better be described as critical inquiries or action learning to separate this from a research strategy. This article discusses strengths and weaknesses of action research as a research strategy, and its potential of generating theory about educational leadership. First, the article focuses on how practitioners in collaboration with external researchers played a generative role in developing an analytical framework which gave a better understanding of educational leadership within a specific context. A dilemma language for educational leadership was constructed in order to capture important aspects of principals' work, and the analysis of experienced dilemmas highlighted a perspective of leadership as relational and dialectic. Secondly, the article gives an analysis of the researcher's dilemmas which emerged as significant through action research methodology. The dilemmas were related to goals of action research, to the role as an external facilitator and to publications of findings. It was impossible to escape from situations where different interests emerged and there always seemed to be a trade-off. The article underlines that an analysis of the role of self in social inquiry serves as a critical context in order to understand the research findings.     

Analysis and design of quadratic parameter varying (QPV) control systems with polytopic attractive region

This paper proposes a gain-scheduling approach for systems with a quadratic structure. Both the stability analysis and the state-feedback controller design problems are considered for quadratic parameter varying (QPV) systems. The developed approach assesses/enforces the belonging of a polytopic region of the state space to the region of attraction of the origin, and relies on a linear matrix inequality (LMI) feasibility problem. The main characteristics of the proposed approach are illustrated by means of examples, which confirm the validity of the theoretical results.     

The importance of geography and culture in mergers: A Norwegian institutional case study

Internationally the mainintention of merging higher educationinstitutions has often been that theestablishment of larger units should result inacademic and administrative economies of scale.This was also the case in the Norwegian StateCollege Reform. This article focuses on howgeographical distance, as well as culturaldifferences between sub-units at TelemarkCollege, influence the degree of attainment ofacademic and administrative goals. By usingnetwork theory and a cultural approach, we havestudied the merger processes as well as theoutcomes of the amalgamation. In theconclusion, lessons to be learned from thiscase study are highlighted.     

Entrepreneurship education: motivation and effort for pupils with special needs in Norwegian compulsory school*

Pupil enterprises are a widespread type of entrepreneurship education. In this working method, pupils start up, manage and close a business over short period of time. National and international policy documents claim that practical working methods through the use of pupil enterprises are beneficial to increase motivation by being a realistic and cross-curricular approach. This paper investigates whether this is the case for pupils who receive special education. No previous research has focused on the situation for this group of pupils when working with pupil enterprises. The data are collected from a survey with the participation of 1880 pupils in the 10th grade. Our econometric results indicate that participation in pupil enterprises has no particular impact on motivation or effort for pupils receiving special needs education. Even though there are many positive features with pupil enterprises and they offer a practical and realistic way of learning, we do not find evidence to support that pupil enterprises also have a positive effect on the general school motivation and effort. Thus, the political claim of the practical dimension as a solution to increase motivation for learning in school is not supported by our findings.     

Effect of adaptive advisement on perception in learner-controlled,computer-based instruction using a rule-learning task

The proposition that learner control of instruction can be facilitated by directly affecting the student’s perception of learning need was investigated. Students in one experimental condition were continuously advised during instruction of their learning performance and needs (amount and sequence of content) in relationship to the desired acquisition of rules at a given mastery criterion and were allowed to make instructional decisions. It was hypothesized that this condition would prove more effective on posttest performance than conditions without advisement — either partial learner control or conventional learner control. Results are discussed in reference to an information-processing approach to the design of computer-based instruction.     

Central processing energetic factors mediate impaired motor control in ADHD combined subtype but not in ADHD inattentive subtype

Participants with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often impaired in visuomotor tasks. However, little is known about the contribution of modal impairment in motor function relative to central processing deficits or whether different processes underlie the impairment in ADHD combined (ADHD-C) versus ADHD inattentive (ADHD-I) subtype. The present study analyzes performance on the Visual Motor Integration Test relative to less effortful motor tests as well as on measures of energetics. Both ADHD groups showed evidence of impaired motor function on both visual-motor integration (VMI) and the less effortful motor tests. The ADHD-C group performed below the ADHD-I group on VMI, but their performance correlated highly with the measures of the energetic pools of arousal and effort. Different mechanisms may underlie impaired fine motor skills in ADHD. Central processing deficits contribute significantly to the deficit of ADHD-C but do not explain the motor impairment in ADHD-I.