European Citizens under Construction: The Bologna process analysed from a governmentality perspective

This article focuses on problematizing the harmonisation of higher education in Europe today. The overall aim is to analyse the construction of the European citizen and the rationality of governing related to such a construction. The specific focus will be on the rules and standards of reason in higher education reforms which inscribe continuums of values that exclude as they include. Who is and who is not constructed as a European citizen? Documents on the Bologna process produced in Europe and in Sweden are analysed drawing on the Foucauldian notion of governmentality, showing a neoliberal rationality of governing. The European citizen needs to become flexible, autonomous and self-regulating as a way of facing the threats of the constantly changing future. The technique of diversity is a condition of possibility for constructing such a citizen and for harmonising higher education in Europe. Further, the current power relations in the discourse define what is and what is not European, thus constructing 'the other', the one who is excluded.     

Exposure to bullying,reactions and psychological adjustment of secondary school students

A sample of 575 secondary school students aged 11–15 years was administered a checklist on experiences of bullying, then divided into groups of victims, witnesses and not exposed, and by gender. Participants completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire on psychosocial adjustment. Victims and witnesses completed another questionnaire on the extent to which they would endorse retaliation/vengeance and avoidance towards the perpetrator. Girls reported being victimised significantly more than boys. Amongst victims, boys scored higher than girls on desire for retaliation/vengeance and on externalising behaviours; girls scored higher on internalising behaviour. Experience of bullying victimisation, rather than merely witnessing it or not being exposed to it, was associated with internalising behaviours for both boys and girls. These measures of psychosocial adjustment were associated with the desire for retaliation/vengeance. Implications are discussed of the links between gender, exposure to bullying, reactions and psychosocial adjustment of secondary school children.     

An NCME Instructional Module on Booklet Designs in Large-Scale Assessments of Student Achievement: Theory and Practice

In most large-scale assessments of student achievement, several broad content domains are tested. Because more items are needed to cover the content domains than can be presented in the limited testing time to each individual student, multiple test forms or booklets are utilized to distribute the items to the students. The construction of an appropriate booklet design is a complex and challenging endeavor that has far-reaching implications for data calibration and score reporting. This module describes the construction of booklet designs as the task of allocating items to booklets under context-specific constraints. Several types of experimental designs are presented that can be used as booklet designs. The theoretical properties and construction principles for each type of design are discussed and illustrated with examples. Finally, the evaluation of booklet designs is described and future directions for researching, teaching, and reporting on booklet designs for large-scale assessments of student achievement are identified.     

Recognising Prior Learning: Understanding the Relations Among Experience, Learning and Recognition from a Constructivist Perspective

This article discusses the relation between experience and learning in the context of recognition of prior learning (RPL) and from an experiential constructivist perspective. The study is based on a case of in-service training, based on RPL, in the care sector for elderly people. The data consist of interviews with actors in this process, which have been analysed with a qualitative interpretative approach. The results show how prior learning plays a central role in the training process, both on an individual and a collective level. The participants’ prior learning is taken as the starting point, particularly in learning conversations where prior learning is made visible and used, and where participants learn from each other. Further, new learning is taking place as a consequence of the recognition process, and the study particularly highlights how prior experiences could be the basis of new learning in a process of reflection and discussion.