Explaining Health and Social Care Students' Experiences of Meaningfulness in Vocational Education: The Importance of Life Goals,Learning Support,Perceived Competence,and Autonomous Motivation

The experience of meaning in a learning situation is a stated goal of Knowledge Promotion Reform in Norway. This study, guided by self-determination theory, examines how pursuing intrinsic and extrinsic life goals relates to the experience of meaning in vocational education. The study also examines how learning support, perceived competence, and different types of autonomous motivation are associated with students' experiences of meaning. The sample consisted of health and social care students (N?=?405) in upper secondary school. The results indicated that intrinsic goals encouraged meaningfulness in all subjects, whereas extrinsic goals related to perceived meaninglessness in vocational subjects. Learning support, perceived competence, and autonomous types of motivation all have a positive link to students' experiences of meaning, either directly or indirectly.     

Inequality in social capital: social capital,social risk and drop-out in the Turkish education system

This article examines the effects of social capital on the likelihood of dropping out from the compulsory education system (Grades One through Eight) in Turkey. It focuses on the question of whether school-related social capital can provide the means to stay in school in the presence of risk factors such as socioeconomic status, race, or gender that cannot be easily modified. Despite major progress in enrollment rates due to policies enacted in recent years, the overall drop-out rate in compulsory education is close to 15% in Turkey. Data collected from 764 student–mother pairs show that drop-outs are exposed to higher number of social risk factors. We further illustrate that school-related social capital, as measured by quality of in-school teacher–student interactions as well as parental involvement in school, significantly and positively contributes to adolescents’ likelihood of staying in school even in the presence of severe social inequalities.     

“I feel I mean something to someone”: solution-focused brief therapy support groups for bullied schoolchildren

The aim of this study was to investigate how bullied schoolchildren experience solution-focused brief therapy support groups, and to examine how members of the support group experience their participation in the group. An explorative qualitative design, with individual and focus group interviews, was used. The sample consisted of 19 schoolchildren, aged 12–13 years, three of whom were bullied. Six individual interviews were conducted with the bullied children and three focus group interviews were held with the support groups. The bullied children reported that the bullying stopped after they received help from the support group and the improvements remained after three months. Their daily lives at school changed and they felt safer and happier and made friends. Members of the support groups reported that they were doing a meaningful job in helping the victims. It is important that school nurses, educational psychologists and teachers, together with parents, follow up bullied children, to prevent further bullying.     

Laufzeitdynamische Evaluierung tabellarischer Daten

Zusammenfassung.   In diesem Artikel wird ein Konzept besprochen, mit dem flexible Algorithmen zur Auswertung von Anfragen an tabellarische Datenstrukturen typsicher in objektorientierten Programmiersprachen implementiert werden k?nnen. Kernpunkt ist eine strikte Trennung zwischen dem Zugriff auf Zeilen und Spalten. Gegenüber einem reinem Iteratormodell werden Anwendungsprogramme damit nicht nur von der internen Organisation der zugrundeliegenden Sequenzen entkoppelt, sondern auch von den Tupeltypen der Tabellen. Dadurch wird es m?glich, hohe Laufzeitflexibilit?t mit weitgehender statischer Typsicherheit zu verbinden. Eingegangen am 1. August 1997 / Angenommen am 7. M?rz 1998     

Another Side to the Coin: The unintended effects of the publication of school performance data in England and France

Educational performance tables have become a feature of the educational landscape in a number of countries in the 1990s. These tables have been published on the assumption that they will help to inform parental and pupil choice, school improvement and will make schools more accountable. This article explores the uses and (negative) side-effects of the publication of performance tables in two European countries. It shows the strengths and weaknesses of the current practices in England and France, reviews the current practices critically and gives some recommendations for improvement.     

Classroom disciplinary climate of schools and gender – evidence from the Nordic countries

ABSTRACT

Classroom disciplinary climate has emerged as a crucial factor with regard to student achievement. However, most previous studies have not explored potential gender differences in both students’ perceptions of the classroom disciplinary climate and the association between classroom disciplinary climate and student learning. Using data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 for the Nordic countries, we found a significant association between the perceived classroom disciplinary climate of schools and students’ mathematics performance across countries. On the basis of an analysis of a pooled sample consisting of all 5 Nordic countries, we found that the correlation between classroom disciplinary climate of schools and maths achievement is significantly stronger for boys than for girls. Further analyses showed that this finding may partly be attributable to gender differences in the perception of the disciplinary climate of schools, whereby boys seemed to perceive the classroom disciplinary climate of schools more positively than girls.