‘Finally studying for myself’ – examining student agency in summative and formative self-assessment models

Abstract

Promoting student agency has been seen as the primary function for new generation assessment environments. In this paper, we introduce two models of self-assessment as a way to foster students’ sense of agency. A socio-cultural framework was utilised to understand the interaction between student agency and self-assessment. Through a comparative design, we investigated whether formative self-assessment and summative self-assessment, based on self-grading, would offer students different affordances for agency. The results show that while both models offered affordances for agentic learning, future-driven agency was only presented by the students studying according to the summative model. Our results shed light on the interplay of student agency and self-assessment in higher education.     

The Lamer Social Competence in Preschool (LSCIP) Scale: Structural Validity in a Large Norwegian Community Sample

There is an increasing emphasis on the importance of social competence for children's development, well-being, and learning. Thus age- and context-appropriate measures are needed. This study addresses the structural validity of the Lamer Social Competence in Preschool (LSCIP) scale, developed to accommodate the Nordic model of early childhood pedagogy. The authors specify the theoretical basis for a bi-factor model of social competence. This model is tested in a large (n?=?1157), community based sample of Norwegian children, including teacher- (at age 2, 3, and 4), mother- (at age 4), and father- (at age 3) reports. A model with a main factor for social competence, and three bi-factors fit data across ages and reporters, with factorial, but not strong, invariance over time.     

Development of software to support argumentative reading and writing by means of creating a graphic organizer from an electronic text

This paper describes the development of a software program that supports argumentative reading and writing, especially for novice students. The software helps readers create a graphic organizer from the text as a knowledge map while they are reading and use their prior knowledge to build their own opinion as new information while they think about writing their essays. Readers using this software can read a text, underline important words or sentences, pick up and dynamically cite the underlined portions of the text onto a knowledge map as quotation nodes, illustrate a knowledge map by linking the nodes, and later write their opinion as an essay while viewing the knowledge map; thus, the software bridges argumentative reading and writing. Sixty-three freshman and sophomore students with no prior argumentative reading and writing education participated in a design case study to evaluate the software in classrooms. Thirty-four students were assigned to a class in which each student developed a knowledge map after underlining and/or highlighting a text with the software, while twenty-nine students were assigned to a class in which they simply wrote their essays after underlining and/or highlighting the text without creating knowledge maps. After receiving an instruction regarding a simplified Toulmin’s model followed by instructions for the software usage in argumentative reading and writing along with reading one training text, the students read the target text and developed their essays. The results revealed that students who drew a knowledge map based on the underlining and/or highlighting of the target text developed more argumentative essays than those who did not draw maps. Further analyses revealed that developing knowledge maps fostered an ability to capture the target text’s argument, and linking students’ ideas to the text’s argument directly on the knowledge map helped students develop more constructive essays. Accordingly, we discussed additional necessary scaffolds, such as automatic argument detection and collaborative learning functions, for improving the students’ use of appropriate reading and writing strategies.

     

Analyzing interdisciplinarity: Typology and indicators

Both funding agencies and scholars in science studies have become increasingly concerned with how to define and identify interdisciplinarity in research. The task is tricky, since the complexity of interdisciplinary research defies a single definition. Our study tackles this challenge by demonstrating a new typology and qualitative indicators for analyzing interdisciplinarity in research documents. The proposed conceptual framework attempts to fulfill the need for a robust and nuanced approach that is grounded in deeper knowledge of interdisciplinarity. As an example of using the framework, we discuss our empirical investigation of research proposals funded by a national funding agency in Finland.     

Critical perspectives on Danish early childhood education and care: between the technical and the political

This paper discusses trends in contemporary Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC). Data are sourced from various policy documents, along with material from ongoing research projects in which the authors are involved. It is claimed that contemporary policy on Danish day care services has a tendency to emphasize narrow curriculum improvements and standardized testing. The democratic dimensions are still relatively strong, but at the moment these dimensions are interpreted within a skills‐and‐testing framework, which is leading to a situation where the political masquerades as the technical.     

Exploring the relationship between hope and burnout in competitive sport

Abstract

Researchers have postulated that hope may be an important factor associated with burnout. Consistent with hope theory contentions, low-hope individuals may be susceptible to burnout because they are prone to experience goal blockage, frustration, and negative affect, all of which likely increase the risk of burnout. We examined the relationship between hope and athlete burnout among 178 competitive athletes (63 females and 115 males) aged 15–20 years. Hope was significantly and negatively correlated with all three burnout subscales: emotional/physical exhaustion, a reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation. Moreover, results of a multivariate analysis of variance showed that low-hope athletes scored significantly higher than medium- and high-hope athletes on all three burnout dimensions. Finally, results revealed that agency thinking was a significant predictor of all burnout dimensions. Frustration over unmet goals and a perceived lack of agency, a characteristic of low-hope athletes, might pose a risk factor in athlete burnout, whereas being able to maintain hope appears to be associated with health and well-being.     

Dynamics of the martial arts high front kick

Fast unloaded movements (i.e. striking, throwing and kicking) are typically performed in a proximo‐distal sequence, where initially high proximal segments accelerate while distal segments lag behind, after which proximal segments decelerate while distal segments accelerate. The aims of this study were to examine whether proximal segment deceleration is performed actively by antagonist muscles or is a passive consequence of distal segment movement, and whether distal segment acceleration is enhanced by proximal segment deceleration. Seventeen skilled taekwon‐do practitioners were filmed using a high‐speed camera while performing a high front kick. During kicking, EMG recordings were obtained from five major lower extremity muscles. Based on the kinematic data, inverse dynamics computations were performed yielding muscle moments and motion‐dependent moments. The results indicated that thigh deceleration was caused by motion‐dependent moments arising from lower leg motion and not by active deceleration. This was supported by the EMG recordings. Lower leg acceleration was caused partly by a knee extensor muscle moment and partly by a motion‐dependent moment arising from thigh angular velocity. Thus, lower leg acceleration was not enhanced by thigh deceleration. On the contrary, thigh deceleration, although not desirable, is unavoidable because of lower leg acceleration.     

Participation Profiles and Socialisation into Dance Among Non‐Professional Dancers

Abstract

The study was designed to determine how individuals become socialised into folk, competitive ballroom, ballet and modern dance through an investigation of background variables, the influence of significant others and the participation profiles of dancers, and the identification of those socialization and involvement variables that best discriminate among different groups of dancers.

The subjects were 308 adolescent and adult dancers of at least 16 years of age who had pursued their main dance form for a minimum of three years. The data were collected by questionnaire, supplemented with some additional data gathered through personal interviews. Differences between the four dance groups were analysed using t‐test, Chi Square analyses, analyses of variance, Scheffe's multiple‐range test and discriminant analysis.

Most subjects were from the middle or upper socio‐economic classes. Most art dancers were women while social dancers displayed a more even distribution of sexes. Ballet dancers were youngest and ballroom dancers oldest when they started dancing. Mother's influence was significant among those who had started dancing at a young age while a friend of the same sex was influential among all respondents regardless of the age at which they had taken up dancing. Among men the influence of a friend of the opposite sex was also significant. The involvement of other family members in dance correlated most strongly with folk dancing, least strongly with modern dance. The dance teacher or coach was perceived as the most encouraging person in every dance form.

The most wide‐ranging past and present dance activities were found among modern dancers. The variables which best discriminated between dance forms were starting age, the variety of present dance activities and the intensity of practising one's main dance form. Such differences in socialisation into different dance forms should be taken into account when developing dance and dance teacher education curricula, teaching dance and planning recreational dance activities.

     

The Effect of Using a Visual Representation Tool in a Teaching-Learning Sequence for Teaching Newton’s Third Law

This paper presents a research-based teaching-learning sequence (TLS) that focuses on the notion of interaction in teaching Newton’s third law (N3 law) which is, as earlier studies have shown, a challenging topic for students to learn. The TLS made systematic use of a visual representation tool—an interaction diagram (ID)—highlighting interactions between objects and addressing the learning demand related to N3 law. This approach had been successful in enhancing students’ understanding of N3 law in pilot studies conducted by teacher-researchers. However, it was unclear whether teachers, who have neither been involved with the research nor received intensive tutoring, could replicate the positive results in ordinary school settings. To address this question, we present an empirical study conducted in 10 Finnish upper secondary schools with students (n?=?261, aged 16) taking their mandatory physics course. The study design involved three groups: the heavy ID group (the TLS with seven to eight exercises on IDs), the light ID group (two to three exercises on IDs) and the no ID group (no exercises on IDs). The heavy and light ID groups answered eight ID questions, and all the students answered four questions on N3 law after teaching the force concept. The findings clearly suggest that systematic use of the IDs in teaching the force concept significantly fostered students’ understanding of N3 law even with teachers who have no intensive tutoring or research background.     

Empathy among students in engineering programmes

Engineers face challenges when they are to manage project groups and be leaders for organisations because such positions demand skills in social competence and empathy. Previous studies have shown that engineers have low degrees of social competence skills. In this study, the level of empathy as measured by the four subscales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, perspective taking, fantasy, empathic distress and empathic concern, among engineering students was compared to students in health care profession programmes. Participants were undergraduate students at Linköping University, 365 students from four different health care profession programmes and 115 students from two different engineering programmes. When the empathy measures were corrected for effects of sex, engineering students from one of the programmes had lower empathy than psychology and social worker students on the fantasy and perspective-taking subscales. These results raise questions regarding opportunities for engineering students to develop their empathic abilities. It is important that engineering students acquire both theoretical and practical knowledge and skills regarding empathy.