Beyond the Bullet Points: Teaching the Bible in Norwegian Upper Secondary Religious Education

Abstract

This qualitative study examines semi-structured interviews with four Norwegian teachers to explore how they teach biblical texts in upper secondary religious education (RE). The theoretical framework combines one model from biblical hermeneutics with one from RE. The former differentiates between the worlds behind, in, and in front of the biblical text, the latter between the universal, common religious, and religion-specific dimensions of religious narratives. Chief findings: All teachers utilize examples from the reception history of the biblical texts; they thus extend Ricoeur’s notion of the world in front of the text. The common religious aspects of biblical texts are mostly overlooked.     

Today's Edisons or weekend hobbyists: technical merit and success of inventions by independent inventors

We set out to determine if independent inventors can be considered “heroes” or “hobbyists”, that is, if they produce the most or the least influential inventions in a product category. We study patented inventions by independent and firm-based inventors by comparing patents along four dimensions: Patent citation impact, detail, scope, and maintenance. Examining 225 tennis racket patents granted in the US between 1981 and 1991, we find that independent inventors are a heterogeneous group who generate inventions that are overrepresented both among the most impactful and the least impactful patents. The metrics we develop provide insight into ex ante identification of the importance of inventions.     

Examining the Perspectives of Latino Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Towards Advocacy

Rapidly becoming the largest ethnic group of American students, compared to White students with disabilities, Latino students with disabilities receive less services and their parents are more likely to struggle to receive services. Yet, it is unclear how Latino families advocate for their children with disabilities including how cultural values facilitate their advocacy efforts. In this study, four focus groups were conducted with 46 Latino parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. Parents reported advocating by being assertive but not aggressive, being involved in school activities, communicating with the school and documenting the communication, and relying on knowledge and faith. Parents also reported facilitators (i.e., knowledge and resources, increased parent-school communication, and greater peer support) and barriers (i.e., poor school experiences, school related-stress, and stigma and discrimination) to advocacy. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.     

Children's Attitudes Toward Older Adults and Aging: A Synthesis of Research

This paper serves as a summation of literature on children's attitudes toward older adults and aging. Research indicates that the vast amount of information available provides varying levels of understanding toward children's actual views of older adults. Differences between measurements, settings, and procedures stand as barriers in cross-comparison of studies and findings. There is a need for early aging education and as well as consistent research methods.     

Measuring students' emotions in the early years: The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Elementary School (AEQ-ES)

This article reports about the development and validation of a measurement instrument assessing elementary school students' achievement emotions (Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Elementary School, AEQ-ES). Specifically, the instrument assesses students' enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom pertaining to three types of academic settings (i.e., attending class, doing homework, and taking tests and exams). Scale construction was based on Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions. The instrument was tested using samples from German and American elementary school classrooms. The results of Study 1 (German sample) corroborate the reliability and structural validity of the new emotion measure. Moreover, they show that students' achievement emotions were linked with their control and value appraisals as well as their academic performance, thus supporting the external validity of the measure as well as propositions of Pekrun's (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions. Study 2 (American sample) corroborated the cross-cultural equivalence of the measure and the generalizability of findings across the German and American samples. Implications for research on achievement emotions and educational practice are discussed.     

Support Needs of Expectant Mothers and Fathers: A Qualitative Study

The aim of this study was to describe expectant mothers’ and fathers’ perceived needs of support during pregnancy. Twenty-two women and 10 men were interviewed in four focus groups and 13 individual interviews. Systematic text condensation was performed to analyze the data. Parents described not only a broad spectrum of social support needs but also needs of psychological and physical support. They also requested to share their experiences with others. The foci of care and parents’ needs of support are more harmonized with medical support than with psychological and emotional support. Mothers’ needs were predominately addressed in the health services, but fathers often felt “invisible.” Antenatal services may need to offer more customized individual support and emphasize peer support in groups; the challenge is to involve both parents through communication and encouragement so they can support each other.     

Review of: National Institutes of Health Curriculum Supplements: Human Genetic Variation and Cell Biology and Cancer,by Biological Sciences Curriculum Study and Videodiscovery; 1999; http://science.education.nih.gov/customers.nsf/highschool.htm

The National Institutes of Health publishes a series of science curriculum supplements for K–12 education that are available from their Web site free of charge (http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements). In this feature, we review two of the high school supplements, Human Genetic Variation and Cell Biology and Cancer. Overall, we find that they are both excellent resources that engage students in learning science content while emphasizing the impact of scientific breakthroughs on personal and public health. In this review, we highlight the many strong features of the curricula and point out instances in which teachers may wish to seek out supplemental, updated information.     

Beginning readers' sensitivity to different linguistic levels – an error and correction analysis at the lexical,syntactic, and semantic levels

As the first step in a longitudinal investigation ofSwedish beginning readers' reading behaviour, thisstudy investigated the role of different linguisticlevels in beginning readers' oral reading. The 30participating beginning readers were all able to reada short running text without help. Recordings of theiroral readings of unfamiliar texts were video-recorded,transcribed and analysed as to linguistic consequencesof reading errors, and tendency to correct errors withdifferent linguistic consequences. The results revealthat the readers are sensitive to all of thelinguistic levels analysed: the majority of readingerrors lead to acceptable linguistic consequences,regardless of what linguistic level is analysed;moreover linguistically unacceptable errors weresignificantly more frequently corrected thanlinguistically acceptable errors, independent of thelinguistic level affected by the error.     

Biology and Health Education

The Health Promoting Schools in Europe initiatives have highlighted the importance of health education in schools. Although health education is inter-disciplinary, biology teachers have an important role in teaching about health and in the formation of policy. Health education needs therefore to be part of initial teacher education programmes for those who are preparing to teach biology in secondary schools. Student teachers in England and Sweden have been involved in a pilot study that is investigating two aspects of teaching health education. The first element of the study has used questionnaires and small group discussions to explore biology student teachers’ perceptions of teaching about health as part of biology. In the second phase student teachers have been investigating secondary pupils’ understanding about aspects of health. In this paper we report on the initial findings and consider the implications of these results for the teaching of biology in secondary schools.