The New Generation of Auditors Meeting Praxis: Dual Learning’s Role in Audit Students’ Professional Development

This paper explores whether and in what way “dual learning” can develop understanding of the relationship between structure/judgement and explores audit student’s perceptions of the audit profession. The Work Integrated Learning (WIL) module, serving as a tool of enabling dual learning, represents the context for this exploration. The study is based on a focus group and individual interviews conducted with students performing their WIL. Our data and its analysis indicates that when in a WIL context, students develop awareness of the use of standards and checklists on the one hand, and the importance of discretional judgement on the other. Based on these results, we theorise as to how dual learning manifests itself in students’ experiences and understanding of the relationship between structure and judgement.     

Traversing the Challenges of Conducting Research with Young, Immigrant Children: The Case of Korean Children

Based on a qualitative study on young Korean immigrant children’s interpretation of American popular culture, this paper reflects on the researchers’ role by examining the research challenges faced. Prior to discussing the research obstacles in conducting the study, we begin with briefly describing its methodology and design. Next, we discuss the various obstacles we encountered when conducting our study and howwe attempted to overcome these dilemmas by discussing two major struggles during the research process: a) the relationships between the researchers and our young participants, and b) the cultural sensitivity that was needed in initially gaining permission from and working with the parents of our informants. It then illuminates how the researchers attempted to cope with such difficulties by rethinking a researchers’s role emphasizing the importance of cultural context in research. Finally, the paper provides some discussions and implications based on our research experiences.     

Students’ Socio-Scientific Reasoning in an Astrobiological Context During Work with a Digital Learning Environment

In a European project—CoReflect—researchers in seven countries are developing, implementing and evaluating teaching sequences using a web-based platform (STOCHASMOS). The interactive web-based inquiry materials support collaborative and reflective work. The learning environments will be iteratively tested and refined, during different phases of the project. All learning environments are focusing “socio-scientific issues”. In this article we report from the pilot implementation of the Swedish learning environment which has an Astrobiology context. The socio-scientific driving questions are “Should we look for, and try to contact, extraterrestrial life?”, and “Should we transform Mars into a planet where humans can live in the future?” The students were in their last year of compulsory school (16 years old), and worked together in triads. We report from the groups’ decisions and the support used for their claims. On a group level a majority of the student groups in their final statements express reluctance towards both the search of extraterrestrial life and the terraforming of Mars. The support used by the students are reported and discussed. We also look more closely into the argumentation of one of the student groups. The results presented in this article, differ from earlier studies on students’ argumentation and decision making on socio-scientific issues (Aikenhead in Science education for everyday life. Evidence-based practice. Teachers College Press, New York, (2006) for an overview), in that they suggest that students do use science related arguments—both from “core” and “frontier” science—in their argumentation and decision making.     

“I have chosen another way of thinking”

The article builds upon a study where students’ relations to science are related to their worldviews and the kind of worldviews they associate with science. The aim of the study is to deepen our knowledge of how worldview and students’ ways to handle conflicts between their own worldview and the worldview they associate with science, can add to our understanding of students’ relations to science. Data consists of students’ responses to a questionnaire (N = 47) and to interviews (N = 26). The study shows that for students who have a high ability in science, those who have taken science-intense programmes in upper secondary school to a higher extent than others have worldviews in accordance with the worldviews they associate with science. This indicates that students who embrace a worldview different from the one they associate with science tend to exclude themselves from science/technology programmes in Swedish upper secondary school. In the article the results are presented through case studies of single individuals. Those students’ reasoning is related to the results for the whole student group. Implications for science teaching and for further research are discussed.     

Reading Strategies in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment caused by Periventricular Leukomalacia

Four children with cerebral visual impairment caused by periventricular leukomalacia were followed in an ethnographic clinical case study for two years during their process of learning to read in mainstream classes. When compared to children with ocular visual impairment, children with cerebral visual impairment often exhibit an uneven cognitive profile with visuo-spatial deficits but good verbal capacities. One main problem for children with deficits due to periventricular leukomalacia is decreased visual acuity with crowding, that is, an inability to identify symbols in a line, while single symbols of the same size may be identified. A question addressed in the study is what kind of strategies does the child with "crowding" problems develop in reading long words in print. Could Braille, as a sequential reading medium, be an alternative for the child with simultaneous visual problems? Two children were offered both Braille and print reading as reading media, one of whom preferred Braille after two years of training. The other two children read ordinary print without any special teaching. After two years, considerable differences in reading acquisition and reading strategies could be detected among the four children. No single factor seemed to account for the differences. Individual factors as well as teaching methods could be reasons for the differences.     

Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s, the low number of students choosing to study science and technology in higher education has been on the societal agenda and many initiatives have been launched to promote awareness regarding career options. The initiatives particularly focus on increasing enrolment in the engineering programmes. This article describes and compares eight European initiatives that have been established and operated by universities (and in some cases through collaboration with other actors in society). Each initiative is summarised in a short essay that discusses motivation, organisation, pedagogical approach, and activities. The initiatives are characterised by comparing the driving forces behind their creation, how the initiative activities relate to the activities at the university, size based on the number of participants and cost per participant and pedagogical framework. There seem to be two main tracks for building outreach activities, one where outreach activities are based on the university's normal activities, and one where outreach activities are designed specifically for the visiting students.     

How learning conditions and Program structure predict burnout and satisfaction in teacher education

To support prospective teachers’ professional development, teacher education should be characterised by conditions that help to prevent burnout and facilitate satisfaction. This study investigates predictors of burnout and satisfaction in teacher education by drawing on universities with different teacher education programme structures and assumed different learning conditions. Programme structure and student characteristics were conceived as antecedents of perceived learning conditions; burnout dimensions and student satisfaction were hypothesised to be consequences of both the distal and more proximal variables. Data were collected at four time points from N = 3,892 students enrolled in teacher education at 13 universities. Structural equation modelling revealed favourable effects of autonomy support, competence support, and social relatedness on the core burnout dimensions and satisfaction. Effects of programme structure on these outcomes were small and mediated by autonomy support and difficulty of demands. Study self-efficacy emerged as a broad personal resource. Implications for teacher education are discussed.     

To Share or Not to Share: A Study of Educational Dilemmas Regarding the Promotion of Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship Education

ABSTRACT

Within both society and education, economic and social entrepreneurship is considered to be of great importance. However, there appear to exist different and contradictory principles regarding the essence of this entrepreneurship. On the one hand, entrepreneurship is associated with economical concepts like competition, individual achievement and commodification. On the other hand, entrepreneurship is associated with collaboration, sharing and collective endeavors. The different notions and rationales represent a dilemma from an educational perspective, in the sense that the students may find themselves split between individual and collaborative methods and ideals. In this study, this dilemma is explored through a case study conducted in collaboration with students from the field of Social Education. The case study indicates that ambivalent notions about entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation entail a number of pedagogical challenges and produce occasional frustration among students. Especially, the students demonstrate different attitudes towards the concept of sharing ideas with their peers. At the end of the article, further educational implications of the study are discussed.     

The meaning of curriculum-related examination standards in Scotland and England: a home–international comparison

Abstract

The ways in which examination standards are conceptualised and operationalised differently across nations has not been given sufficient attention. The international literature on standard-setting has been dominated by the psychometrics tradition. Broader conceptualisations of examination standards have been discussed in the literature in England, which has curriculum-related examinations at the end of schooling. There has, however, been little analysis of conceptualisations of examination standards in Scotland. Different education systems and examinations operate in Scotland and England, and the stated value positions and processes relating to examination standards differ markedly. This paper critically examines policy positions on assessment standards in Scotland and England through the lens of recent theories of standard-setting. By analysing public statements on standards, the paper illuminates similarities and differences in conceptual bases and operational approaches, and examines the effects of these on outcomes for candidates. We conclude that both systems are operationalising attainment-referencing, but with different processes in Scotland and England and these practices do not fit within previous examination standards classifications. As such, the paper moves examination standards theory forward by concluding that there is at least one superordinate definitional category that draws upon more than one definitional stance.