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.     

Functioning and participation problems of students with ADHD in higher education: which reasonable accommodations are effective?

Abstract

Students with ADHD struggle in higher education as a result of various functioning and participation problems. However, there are remaining gaps in the literature. First, it remains unclear how often and during which teaching and evaluation methods problems arise. Second, we do not yet know which reasonable accommodations are most effective to deal with the functioning. And third, we do not know which accommodations are most effective to address participation problems of students with ADHD in higher education. This study addresses these three gaps in literature. In total, 86 students with ADHD, 42 student counsellors and 86 students without a disability participated in a survey-based study. The results show that students with ADHD most frequently experience problems with sustaining and focusing attention and it is demonstrated that most problems arise during classical teaching or evaluation methods. Finally, the perception of the effectiveness of reasonable accommodations is strongly dependent on which problems students experience in higher education. These findings suggest that it is important to consider both personal and environmental characteristics when selecting and implementing reasonable accommodations.     

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.     

Vergleichsarbeiten und schulische Personalentwicklung – Ausmaß und Voraussetzungen der Datennutzung

The introduction of comparative tests in a low-stakes system was carried out in the expectation that the data feedback to schools would act as a stimulus for the development of the schools and the standard of classroom teaching. By contrast with the use of data to develop teaching, the use of data for personnel development has not yet been studied in Germany. On the basis of an on-line survey of head teachers and a paper-and-pencil survey of teaching staff, the study examines for the first time the extent to which comparative test data is used by head teachers for personnel development and as a means to plan in-service training in subject conferences, and what factors influence whether the data is used in this way. Of the head teacher characteristics which were studied (attitude in relation to the perceived usefulness of the data, qualifications, organisation and age of the head teacher), usefulness is the only characteristic which has a positive effect on the use of the data. The use of comparative test data to plan in-service training in subject conferences is positively influenced by data-wise leadership by the head teacher and by collaborative evaluation.     

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.