Providers,consumers and the horizons of the possible: a case study of marketization and physical education teacher education pedagogical discourse

Framed within a shift from a highly centralized system of higher education (HE) to a de-regulated system in Norway, this article addresses how the foci upon student recruitment and incentives in the governmental funding of HE have stimulated market dynamics which affect local configurations of bachelor degrees in sport, physical education and outdoor pursuits, which in turn, can affect the content knowledge of physical education teacher education (PETE) degree. Analyzing data generated via in-depth interviews with Deans and Heads of programs at three significant national providers in the field of HE sport and physical education, this article illuminates how marketization permeates the communication of education values and, thus, the institutional pedagogical discourse. This article problematizes the ways in which PETE pedagogical discourse currently reflects market values embedded in new managerialism in local strategies to recruit students at university colleges in Norway, rather than educational or professional values.     

A Realistic Evaluation of Two Training Programs on Implementing Skin-to-Skin as a Standard of Care

The authors used realistic evaluation to examine the real-world effectiveness of two 5-day training techniques on sustained optimal skin-to-skin practices that support Step 4 of the revised Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). The authors found that education alone was insufficient to effect sustainable practice change. Exposure to the 5-day immersion model (Practice, Reflection, Education and training, Combined with Ethnography for Sustainable Success, or PRECESS) alone or combined with education was an effective strategy to change and sustain the standard of care for skin-to-skin practice (p < 0.00001). The intended outcome of sustained practice change toward implementation of skin-to-skin care through immersion or a combined approach shows promise and should be repeated in other localities.     

Computer Conferencing: An Environment for Collaborative Project-Based Learning in Distance Education

In this experimental study two independent variables were manipulated. Each was associated with online collaborative learning in a distance education context. One of these (group formation strategy) addresses one of the early decisions that must be made in forming groups for collaborative project work. The second (levels of tutor intervention) relates to the on-going process of group management in a computer-mediated environment. An additional independent variable (type of collaborative project) served as a within-group factor in the design. Two measures of individual achievement (final exam scores and idea units) and a measure of group dynamics served as dependent variables. Prior academic achievement (current grade point average) served as a covariate in the analysis of the achievement data. There were no differences across the two types of projects, but two slightly different interaction patterns emerged from the analysis of the achievement data. In general, however, these results favored the random assignment of students to collaborative groups (as contrasted with allowing students to pick their own partners) and the introduction of low tutor intervention during the course of project work. Two main effects emerged from an analysis of the group dynamics data, one of which supports the random assignment strategy. Because of these findings, it is difficult to suggest a totally unambiguous strategy for formulating and managing online collaborative project work. However, some tentative suggestions are advanced. Some guidelines for online collaborative learning are provided.     

Mediating terrorism: text and protest in interpretations of The Siege

In this study we focus on the film The Siege (1998), as an illustration of how mediated representations of terrorism serve as a vehicle for Orientalist discourse. This text serves as a specific location of struggle and negotiation over interpretations of media characterizations of Arabs, Arab Americans, Muslims, and Islam. First, we focus on how the film represents these communities and the religion textually. Second, we consider news discourse offering critiques of the film by protesting organizations, and the defenses articulated by some of the film's makers. Third, we explore the interpretations of young U.S. viewers as they resonate with competing facets of the text and with public perspectives. Despite the varied possibilities within the text, these interpretations privileged rather than challenged an underlying Orientalist ideology. Still, news media did acknowledge the contestation of dominant discourse, a potential step toward improved portrayals.     

Do honors students have more potential for excellence in their professional lives?

Universities in many countries increasingly value talent, and do so by developing special honors programs for their top students. The selection process for these programs often relies on the students’ prior achievements in school. Research has shown, however, that school grades do not sufficiently predict academic success. According to Renzulli’s (1986) three-ring model, student characteristics relating to intelligence, motivation and creativity are the most important predictors of excellent achievements in professional life. In this paper, we will investigate whether honors students differ from non-honors students in terms of these characteristics. By means of a questionnaire, more than 1,100 honors and non-honors students at Utrecht University were asked to assess themselves on six characteristics: intelligence, creative thinking, openness to experience, the desire to learn, persistence, and the drive to excel. The results showed that the honors students differed significantly from the non-honors students in terms of the combined variables as well as for the separate variables, with the exception of ‘persistence’. The strongest distinguishing factors between honors and non-honors students appeared to be the desire to learn, the drive to excel and creativity, whilst there was little difference in terms of intelligence and persistence. However, the profiles of these differences varied according to the study program. While Law and Humanities honors students differed from their non-honors peers in terms of their drive to excel, Physics honors students were primarily more eager to learn than their non-honors peers, while the LA&S honors students scored higher on creative thinking than non-honors students.     

Drawings as Representations of Children's Conceptions

Drawings are often used to obtain an idea of children's conceptions. Doing so takes for granted an unambiguous relation between conceptions and their representations in drawings. This study was undertaken to gain knowledge of the relation between children's conceptions and their representation of these conceptions in drawings. A theory of contextualization was the basis for finding out how children related their contextualization of conceptions in conceptual frameworks to their contextualization of drawings in pictorial convention. Eighteen children were interviewed in a semi‐structured method while they were drawing the Earth. Audio‐recorded interviews, drawings, and notes were analysed to find the cognitive and cultural intentions behind the drawings. Also, even children who demonstrated alternative conceptions of the Earth in the interviews still followed cultural conventions in their drawings. Thus, these alternative conceptions could not be deduced from the drawings. The results indicate that children's drawings can be used to grasp children's conceptions only by considering the meaning the children themselves give to their own drawings.     

Puppets on a string in a theatre of display? Interactions of image,text, material,space and motion in The Family of Man (ca. 1950s–1960s)

In the past few decades, increasing attention has been devoted within various disciplines to aspects previously considered trivial, among which are images, material objects and spaces. While the visual, the material and the spatial are receiving ever more consideration and the myriad issues surrounding them are being tackled, their convergence in educational settings across time and space has thus far remained underexplored. A travelling photo exhibition, The Family of Man, will serve as a starting point in this paper for addressing some of the complexities inherent in this convergence and thus highlight an essential yet neglected feature of education: its reliance on, and creative use of, multiple “modes” of communication and representation when attempting to produce learning effects. As a particular educational constellation that went on to travel throughout the world and interact with the contexts in which it moved, The Family of Man was anything but neutral in design. The paper will show just how carefully it was composed to promote meaning-, power-, and knowledge-making in accordance with its mission. This border-crossing installation thus constituted a spectacle of different interacting views, forms, surfaces, lighting effects, panoramas, movements, captions and other factors that aimed to create order among things and people. Nevertheless, the paper argues, “theatres of display” in education such as this do not imply determination and causality of effects, but rather provide “uncertain conditions” within a spectrum of “actors” and “actants”. The paper relates this to the manifold affordances of objects, images, places and so on, to disruptions of meaning in their convergence across time and space and to “emancipation” on the part of learners.     

Stand by me: The effects of peer and teacher support in mitigating the impact of bullying on quality of life

Bullying is one of the most common forms of school violence. Engagement in bullying has been shown to have adverse effects on perpetrators and victims of bullying. In this study, the impact of bullying on well‐being (quality of life/life satisfaction) was explored in a sample of elementary and middle school children (N = 4,331). Results suggest that students who bully and/or are bullied experience reduced life satisfaction and support from peers and teachers compared to “bystanders” (children who are neither victims nor perpetrators of bullying). Mediational analyses demonstrate that peer and teacher support might mitigate the impact of bullying on the quality of life of victims. This study underscores the value of efforts to promote social support from peers and teachers in both universal bullying prevention programs and school climate initiatives. Furthermore, results support further investigation into the possible contributions of bystanders in supporting school‐wide bullying prevention/school climate strategies. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Visual–motor symbol production facilitates letter recognition in young children

Previous research has suggested that handwriting letters may be an important exerciser to facilitate early letter understanding. Experimental studies to date, however, have not investigated whether this effect is general to any visual–motor experience or specific to handwriting letters. In the present work, we addressed this issue by testing letter knowledge using three measures in preschool children before and after a school-based intervention. Participants were divided into four training groups (letter-writing, digit-writing, letter-viewing, digit-viewing) that either wrote letters or digits or viewed letters or digits, twice a week for 6 weeks. We hypothesized that the visual–motor experience of handwriting letters or digits would improve letter knowledge more than viewing experience and that this effect would not be specific to training with letters. Our results demonstrated that the writing groups improved in letter recognition—one component of letter knowledge—significantly more than the viewing groups. The letter-writing group did not improve significantly more than the digit-writing group. These results suggest that visual–motor practice with any symbol could lead to increases in letter recognition. We interpret this novel finding as suggesting that any handwriting will increase letter recognition in part because it facilitates gains in visual–motor coordination.