Using Megaplanning in CSO Projects— Bringing Social Sectors Together for Measurable and Sustainable Social Impact

ABSTRACT Civil Society Organizations (CSO) can improve their effectiveness and add measurable value to society by using a megaplanning approach as the guiding criteria for their organizational planning. This article shows how Asociación Conciencia, a leading Argentinean CSO, has used megaplanning to clarify its vision, mission, align its goals and programs and update its mission and programs over more than twenty years of critical social changes in Argentina.     

Musikalische Aktivitäten von Kindern und Jugendlichen

This article deals with playing a musical instrument as an important form of music related activities in the development and socialization of children and youth. The authors discuss aspects of arts education and reflect concepts of interest. They focus on the musical socialization and its contexts of today, so the question, which children and young persons are playing an instrument as well as a systematic analysis of places where adolescents are playing music. The self-organized and non-goal oriented learning processes in music activities are focused, reflecting theories of social inequalities. The results of the empirical findings show differences related to social class in playing an instrument and its choice, but not in places where music is done. Especially if adolescents play an instrument with corresponding interest, intensity, forms of activities and motifs of playing do not differ by social background.     

Upper Secondary Students’ Understanding of the Use of Multiple Models in Biology Textbooks—The Importance of Conceptual Variation and Incommensurability

In this study we investigate students’ ability to discern conceptual variation and the use of multiple models in genetics when reading content-specific excerpts from biology textbooks. Using the history and philosophy of science as our reference, we were able to develop a research instrument allowing students themselves to investigate the occurrence of multiple models and conceptual variation in Swedish upper secondary textbooks. Two excerpts using different models of gene function were selected from authentic textbooks. Students were given the same questionnaire-instrument after reading the two texts, and the results were compared. In this way the students themselves made a classification of the texts which could then be compared with the researchers’ classification of the texts. Forty-one upper secondary students aged 18–19 participated in the study. Nine of the students also participated in semi-structured interviews. Students recognized the existence of multiple models in a general way, but had difficulty discerning the different models and the conceptual variation that occurs between them in the texts. Further they did not recognize the occurrence of incommensurability between multiple models. Students had difficulty in transforming their general knowledge of multiple models into an understanding of content specific models of gene function in the textbooks. These findings may have implications for students’ understanding of conceptual knowledge because research has established textbooks as one of the most influential aspects in the planning and execution of biology lessons, and teachers commonly assign reading passages to their students without further explanation.     

Students’ interests for personalized learning: an analysis guide

The lack of alignment between, on the one hand, what schools seek to teach and, on the other, the students’ interests and learning objectives is leading to increasing numbers of students who are unable to derive meaning from school activities. Personalized learning strategies represent one of the most powerful ways to help students attribute meaning and personal value to their learning. This paper has two interrelated objectives. The first is to present a guide to the analysis of educational practices that work with and from students’ interests. This tool makes it possible to identify the potential of practices to reinforce and promote the meaning and personal value that students attach to their school learning. The guide is structured around three large blocks (personalization strategies, conceptions of interests, and design and development of practices), which describe the dimensions, subdimensions, questions, and levels for the analysis. The second objective is to illustrate use of the guide by analyzing two practices designed and implemented in primary school classrooms, characterized by a focus on students’ learning interests. The paper concludes by highlighting the main contributions of the guide presented, identifying some limitations, and pointing to future lines of research.

     

Cultures in Dialogue: Perceptions and Experiences of Finnish Teachers of Transnational Dances

This article is based on a phenomenographic study that focuses on identifying the pedagogical conceptions of Finnish teachers of transnational dances. The purpose is to uncover and understand teachers' conceptions concerning the implications of the cultural contexts of their specific dance forms for their pedagogical practices. Through a process of phenomenographic data analysis, the authors have identified three different ways to understand teachers' conceptions and experiences: (1) Dance as a path towards personal expression, (2) Telling a story of being a woman through dance, and (3) Self-approval and the collective nature of dance. The study aims at facilitating discussion about the process of cultural dialogue, especially within dance pedagogy. Understanding the complexity that diverse cultural contexts create is particularly important in countries like Finland, which have only brief histories of multicultural education.     

Combined Use of Online Tutorials and Hands-On Group Exercises in Bibliographic Instruction for Pharmacy Students

This study describes the new blended learning methodology implemented in a Drug Literature Evaluation course for pharmacy students that involves combined use of online tutorials and in-class group exercises. Assignment grades earned by 909 students enrolled in the course before and after the new methods were implemented (2008–2010) were studied to measure student performance. Course evaluations were analyzed in order to ascertain students’ perceptions. The hybrid approach used to deliver the course content allowed students to perform at the same level as traditional didactic teaching. Students’ evaluations reported a positive educational experience and favorable perceptions of the new course design.     

Profiles of self-perceived competencies and conceptions of academic writing in university students / Perfiles de competencias y concepciones sobre la escritura académica en estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

This study analyses Spanish undergraduates’ perceptions of their competency in academic writing, as well as their perception of the criteria that define its quality. We identified student profiles and examined their relationship with (1) certain sample characteristics, such as years of university experience, area of study and students’ gender, and (2) variables related to the process of writing, namely the students’ perception of the writing process and the importance they attribute to its characteristics. The data obtained came from the European Writing Survey (EUWRIT) which was administered to 1,044 students from nine Spanish universities. Profiles were identified by means of k-means cluster analysis. The relationship between these profiles and the variables studied was examined by means of chi-squared analyses and univariate ANOVAs. Two profiles were identified: students who are confident about their writing skills and who acknowledge the importance of writing in their field of knowledge; and students who are relatively confident about their writing ability and who consider writing to be relatively important in their subject area.