Do Parents’ Causal Attributions Predict the Accuracy and Bias in their Children’s Self‐Concept of Maths Ability? A longitudinal study

The present study investigated the extent to which parents’ causal attributions predict the accuracy of, and bias in, their children’s self‐concept of maths ability. Participants were 207 children and their 182 mothers and 167 fathers, who were assessed during the children’s first and second primary school years. The results showed that the more parents thought that their children succeeded because of ability, the more accurate the children’s self‐concept of maths ability became. In contrast, the more the parents attributed their children’s success to effort, the less accurate and more optimistic the children’s self‐concept of ability became.     

Metacognition, need for cognition and use of explanations during ongoing learning and problem solving

Two studies assessed whether: (1) high levels of task-relevant metacognition would be related to good task performance; (2) some kinds of feedback (e.g., explanations) would improve task-relevant metacognition (and hence, performance) more than other kinds of feedback; and (3) some kinds of people would be more likely to seek out and use this beneficial feedback than others. Results showed that: (1) students were able to better estimate their task performance with increasing experience at the task; (2) students who provided better estimates of their task success were more successful at the task; (3) students high in need for cognition sought out problem explanations more often than students low in need for cognition; but (4) students who scored high in trait metacognition did not seek out problem explanations more often than students who scored low in trait metacognition; (5) students who were high in need for cognition performed better at the task than those who were low in need for cognition, and (6) the receipt of problem explanations was only weakly related to high levels of task performance, if at all. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Joint supervision practices in doctoral education – A student experience

This paper presents a study of students’ experiences of joint supervision practices and supervisors’ professional work in doctoral education in one department of a Finnish university. A qualitative methodology was used to explore students’ experiences of joint supervision practices and an inductive protocol was used to analyse the data gathered through thematic interviews (N=11). The results describe three identified joint supervision practices: the complementary, the substitutive, and the diversified. The results suggest that departments and faculties should develop more official support and guidance for students to identify additional supervisors during their doctoral education.     

Between Printed Past and Digital Future

Peer review – processes of quality control and certification – is well established in most sciences. In this contribution we limit ourselves to peer review in scientific journals. The main idea of peer review – to keep science free from individuals' and groups' interests and impact, and to select and publish only what is the best in a special field of research – is briefly summarized. Though peer review has a significant impact in the sciences, it is obviously hard to realize its objects. Highly publicized cases of fraud, large amounts of time necessary for the review process, the continued power of old boys' networks, and so forth – such factors led to many debates, and while some demanded to abolish peer review completely, others looked for possibilities to revise the review process. The Internet appears to provide tools to improve the organisation of peer review and to afford the transparency of the review process and its results. But even if the use of the Internet leads to significant changes in peer review there is no value-free scientific knowledge and evaluation that are separate from (predominant and/or competing) paradigms and their proponents.     

Different Types of Doctoral Study Processes

Becoming a doctor can be viewed as a highly personal and unique experience, which is why many factors influence the completion or non-completion of the doctoral degree. The attention in previous research has been on the students' characteristics, and the university faculty role in promoting degree progress. Therefore, more research is needed on the alternative routes that doctoral students take as part of a flexible doctoral education. The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of the different types of doctoral students in industrial engineering and management, and their different study processes. We explore the study processes of 25 doctoral students using a narrative analysis approach. Doctoral students' processes are categorized into three groups according to the strategies that students take in their progress: the Project Manager, the Wanderer, and the Hobbyist. We report clear differences across the different study processes in the students' working methods, use of supervisory and peer support, problems and risks of delay, and degree success. The results indicate clear opportunities of influence for the faculty in the form of offering clear pre-defined research objectives for students, allocating funds for full-time doctoral studies, developing alternative peer-support strategies, and proactive risk management.     

School Health Promotion to Increase Empowerment,Gender Equality and Pupil Participation: A Focus Group Study of a Swedish Elementary School Initiative

A school health promotion project was carried out in an elementary school in Sweden where active participation, gender equality, and empowerment were leading principles. The objective of the study was to understand challenges and to identify social processes of importance for such a project. Focus group interviews were conducted with 6 single-sex groups (7–12 year olds) in grade 1–2, grade 3–4, and grade 5–6 on 2 occasions. The analysis used a grounded theory approach. The analysis identified the core category “normalization processes of violence and harassment.” It is argued that school health promotion initiatives need to be aware of normalization processes of violence and, which may be counter-productive to the increase of empowerment and participation among all pupils.     

Mothers' causal attributions concerning the reading achievement of their children with and without familial risk for dyslexia

The present study analyzed data from the Jyv?skyl? Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia to investigate the factors to which mothers of children with and without familial risk for dyslexia attribute the causes of their first-grade children's reading achievement. Mothers' causal attributions were assessed three times during their children's first school year. Children's verbal intelligence was assessed at 5 years and their word and nonword reading skills at 6.5 years. The results showed that the higher the word reading skills the children had, the more their mothers attributed their success to ability than to effort. However, if children had familial risk for dyslexia, their mothers' attribution of success to ability decreased during the first grade as compared with the ability attributions of mothers whose children were in the control group.     

The rule of mimetic desire in higher education: governing through naming,shaming and faming

The initiation of the Bologna Process was accompanied by a radical transition of governance in higher education throughout Europe from government to governance. This article argues that this shift in the design of governing was connected to the need to subtly bypass the European Union (EU) subsidiarity principle that kept education out of the EU’s legislative reach. The new mode of governing is orchestrated through the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), which constitutes the policy ontology of the Bologna Process. The OMC presents the ambition to harmonise education systems through standardisation as a main technology to govern performance. This article argues that the Bologna mode of governance is powered through the follow-up mechanisms that work as a material-affective infrastructure of the policy ontology. These monitoring techniques are affectively wired. They produce an affective politics of naming, shaming and faming that ignites a competitive, mimetic desire making the Bologna mode of governance feasible.     

A randomised trial comparing the efficacy and safety of topical ketoprofen in Transfersome® gel (IDEA-033) with oral ketoprofen and drug-free ultra-deformable Sequessome™ vesicles (TDT 064) for the treatment of muscle soreness following exercise

We compared the effectiveness of topical ketoprofen in Transfersome^® gel (IDEA-033) with oral ketoprofen and drug-free Sequessome? vesicles (FLEXISEQ^® Sport; TDT 064) in reducing calf muscle soreness. One hundred and sixty eight healthy individuals with a pain score ≥3 (10-point scale) 12–16 h post-exercise (walking down stairs with an altitude of 300–400 m) were randomised to receive IDEA-033 plus oral placebo (two dose groups), oral ketoprofen plus TDT 064, or TDT 064 plus oral placebo. The primary endpoint was muscle soreness reduction from pre-dosing to Day 7. Higher pain scores were recorded with oral ketoprofen plus TDT 064 (mean ± s 462.4 ± 160.4) versus IDEA-033 plus oral placebo (434.7 ± 190.8; P = 0.2931) or TDT 064 plus oral placebo (376.2 ± 159.1; P = 0.0240) in the 7 days post-exercise. Recovery from muscle soreness was longer with oral ketoprofen plus TDT 064 (mean 91.0 ± 19.5 h) versus IDEA-033 plus placebo (mean 81.4 ± 22.9 h; P = 0.5964) or TDT 064 plus placebo (mean 78.9 ± 22.8 h; P = 0.0262). In conclusion, ultradeformable phospholipid vesicles ± ketoprofen did not retard recovery from muscle soreness. TDT 064 improves osteoarthritis-related pain and could be of interest as a treatment for joint pain during and post-exercise.