Testing method for objective evaluation of cross-country ski poles

The aim of the study was to develop an objective classification method for cross-country ski poles. A test device was designed to expose different pole models to maximal loading and impact tests. A load cell measured the axial forces in the pole shafts, and a laser distance meter measured shaft deflection when a load was applied via the wrist strap. In the loading tests, each shaft reached a plateau where no more force could be transferred. This maximal force transfer (MFT) value was a characteristic measure for flexural rigidity and thereby also strength. The developed test method enables a loading that is more similar to real-life skiing than a standard three-point bending test. Results show that the introduction of shaft indices for buckling strength is beneficial for comparison purposes. The MFT is a relevant parameter used in the characterization of poles.     

A fair game – the neoliberal (re)organisation of social and relational practices in local school settings

Abstract

In this article, we use data from ethnography-inspired studies of eight Swedish schools. We describe and analyse how a number of neoliberal-inspired economic and political processes have (re)organised social and relational practices in local school settings. There is an increased focus on individuality in the everyday working lives of teachers, where result-centred practices, relations and professional identities have replaced notions of equality and compensatory interventions. In our study, the teachers describe an increasing focus on performativity, competition and hierarchisation. We use fairness as a lens for illuminating these changes in social relations, changes in the organisation of teachers’ practices, and teachers’ struggles with these changes. The purpose of this study is to analyse how the current reforms are enacted and how they affect the working lives of teachers, and thereby to contribute to the current discussion on how the last decades of political and administrative changes have affected educational practice.     

Student Engagement with Artefacts and Scientific Ideas in a Laboratory and a Concept-Mapping Activity

The purpose of this study is to use a comparative approach to scrutinize the common assumption that certain school science activities are theoretical and therefore particularly suited for engaging students with scientific ideas, whereas others are practical and, thus, not equally conducive to engagement with scientific ideas. We compared two school science activities, one (laboratory work) that is commonly regarded as focusing attention on artefacts that may distract students from central science concepts and the other (concept mapping) that is thought to make students focus directly on these concepts. We observed students in either a laboratory activity about real galvanic cells or a concept-mapping activity about idealized galvanic cells. We used a practical epistemology analysis to compare the two activities regarding students' actions towards scientific ideas and artefacts. The comparison revealed that the two activities, despite their alleged differences along the theory–practice scale, primarily resulted in similar student actions. For instance, in both activities, students interacted extensively with artefacts and, to a lesser extent, with scientific ideas. However, only occasionally did students establish any explicit continuity between artefacts and scientific ideas. The findings indicate that some of the problems commonly considered to be unique for school science practical work may indeed be a feature of school science activities more generally.     

Practical epistemologies in physical education practice

With a point of departure in a transactional understanding of epistemology, the purpose of this paper is to explore practical epistemologies in physical education (PE) by investigating how knowledge is produced and reproduced in students' and teachers' actions in PE practices posted as clips on the user-generated video-sharing website YouTube. YouTube can be understood as a disordered public video archive of (in this case) ongoing PE practices created by both students and teachers. With a transactional understanding, knowing, and in consequence questions of epistemology, can be conceived of as something we do, something practical. In this paper, practical epistemologies in PE are investigated by exploring ends-in-view and habits-of-action in students' and teachers' actions in PE practice. The practical epistemologies identified in the study are as follows: (i) knowing by doing correct movements; (ii) knowing by trying; (iii) knowing by imitating; (iv) knowing by praising and cheering; (v) knowing by cooperating; (vi) knowing by creating; (vii) knowing by being changed into gym clothes; (viii) knowing by acting in a certain locality; and (ix) knowing by resisting. The categories represent different ways of how knowledge is produced and reproduced in PE practice, and describe the functions that different actions and actors have in how knowledge is produced and reproduced as well as in the direction this takes.     

Exploring the relation between physical activity and health—a salutogenic approach to physical education

This article takes a point of departure in the debate whether physical education should consider a limited or an increased commitment towards public health goals and a public health agenda. The article further discusses the relationship between physical activity and health, and the perspective of health in physical education. This is done through a critique of the dominance of a pathogenic perspective of health, as well as through a salutogenic approach regarding health as a process. A salutogenic approach makes, as suggested in the article, other questions—salutogenic questions—possible. In this sense, physical activity and movement can be regarded as something more than mere protection against disease or overweight, and by posing salutogenic questions we can enrich our understanding of the relation between physical activity and health, and in consequence richness to the perspective of health in physical education. With a salutogenic approach, the pupils’ unique and common experiences of health, movement, body ideals or outdoor-life can meet a wider perspective of health. This would facilitate a health perspective in physical education that draws attention to the qualities, abilities and knowledge that pupils can develop, and, in the name of learning health, point the way to the possible contribution of physical education in pupils’ health development in terms of how physical education can enrich their lives, strengthen them as healthy citizens and contribute to a sustainable (health) development.     

Teachers’ social representation of students with Asperger diagnosis

While progress has been made for including students with disability into mainstream schools, trends point to problems for students with Asperger syndrome (AS) diagnosis who have a propensity to dropping out of school. Teachers’ perceptions and understanding of AS will affect expectations and the attainment of educational targets. Thus, to avoid barriers to students’ learning and participation, there is a need to shed light on teachers’ perceptions and beliefs that bear on teachers educational provision for students with AS. The aim of the study was therefore to elucidate mainstream teachers’ representations of students with AS by using the theoretical framework of Social Representation Theory and particularly looking at the effects of the sex of the teacher, grade level being taught and when the teachers received training themselves. Teachers in mainstream schools in Sweden were invited to complete a web-based questionnaire (N?=?170). Data were collected through an association task where the participants were asked to produce up to five words or phrases for the stimulus phrase ‘student with Asperger diagnosis’. The data were analysed through categorisation. We found that two-thirds of the macro-categories of mentions relate to ‘disabling aspects’, ‘individual needs’ and ‘individual characteristics’, while a third of the elements were tied to the environment and educational provision. Our results suggest that a medical approach dominates especially earlier trained teachers; however, there is a tendency to view the school environment as increasingly important. Representations about the disabling aspects decreased with the increase in the grades being taught, whereas the educational aspects increase with the increase in grades. Male teachers are more prone to relate to environmental aspects and educational provision while female teachers more often relate to needs and disability. We conclude that teachers tend to view AS from a medical approach but that the school environment is seen as increasingly important.     

Achievement of first-year students at the university: a multilevel analysis of the role of background diversity and student engagement

European Journal of Psychology of Education - The massification and diversification of the student population who enters university has become a challenge for Higher Education institutions. A...     

Researching children’s rights in education: sociology of childhood encountering educational theory

This paper aims to explore and develop a theoretical approach for children’s rights research in education formed through an encounter between the sociology of childhood and John Dewey’s educational theory. The interest is mainly methodological, in the sense that the primary ambition of the investigation is to suggest a fruitful and useful theoretical base for formulating research problems and undertaking research in children’s rights in education. The paper argues that, particularly in educational settings, research into children’s rights can and must be attributed to children both as full-status humans in a socio-politically contextual present, and as continually growing and changing, immature and dependent humans. From the theoretical encounter suggested in the paper, the much-used distinction of the child as either ‘being’ or ‘becoming’ can be reconsidered, and another point of departure for the study of children’s rights issues in education can be discerned.     

Effects of bottom-up and top-down intervention principles in emergent literacy in children at risk of developmental dyslexia: a longitudinal study

This longitudinal study focused on the effects of two different principles of intervention in children at risk of developing dyslexia from 5 to 8 years old. The children were selected on the basis of a background questionnaire given to parents and preschool teachers, with cognitive and functional magnetic resonance imaging results substantiating group differences in neuropsychological processes associated with phonology, orthography, and phoneme-grapheme correspondence (i.e., alphabetic principle). The two principles of intervention were bottom-up (BU), "from sound to meaning", and top-down (TD), "from meaning to sound." Thus, four subgroups were established: risk/BU, risk/TD, control/BU, and control/TD. Computer-based training took place for 2 months every spring, and cognitive assessments were performed each fall of the project period. Measures of preliteracy skills for reading and spelling were phonological awareness, working memory, verbal learning, and letter knowledge. Literacy skills were assessed by word reading and spelling. At project end the control group scored significantly above age norm, whereas the risk group scored within the norm. In the at-risk group, training based on the BU principle had the strongest effects on phonological awareness and working memory scores, whereas training based on the TD principle had the strongest effects on verbal learning, letter knowledge, and literacy scores. It was concluded that appropriate, specific, data-based intervention starting in preschool can mitigate literacy impairment and that interventions should contain BU training for preliteracy skills and TD training for literacy training.