Validity of E-Advice: The Evaluation of an Internet-Based System for Career Planning

The paper provides data on the evaluation of an Internet-based system for self-directed career planning that has been developed in Croatia. Rich in occupational information and career-management advice, this application also contains an interactive questionnaire tapping the client's personal skills and interests. Based on the client's answers, the computer proposes an e-advice– a limited set of occupations that match the users' individual characteristics. The evaluation utilized data gathered from a self-selected sample of users (N = 2,064) and two smaller student samples. Apart from the users' satisfaction, the analyses explored various aspects of e-advice validity: factor structure of users' self-assessments and expert occupational ratings, differences in e-advice given to different groups of users, congruence with the classifications based on Holland's Self-Directed Search, and congruence with the advice given by expert human counsellors. The analyses supported the validity of e-advice. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The dynamics of learning engagement and its relationship with teachers’ classroom practices in primary school

The current study was part of a larger project which examined teachers’ classroom practices and relationships with students’ learning engagement in primary-school education in Estonia. The focus was the role of autonomy supportive and structured teaching on learning engagement. Two primary-school teachers and their 46 students were selected for this study. The aim of the study was to explore how teachers’ classroom practices influence students’ learning engagement over two years during grade two and grade four of the educational system. Three trained observers rated classroom practices and students self-reported learning engagement. The results highlight primary students’ high-learning engagement, and did not confirm an expectation that low-autonomy-supportive teaching results in low-learning engagement in primary school.     

Profiles of Childhood Maltreatment: Associations with Sexual Risk Behavior during Adolescence in a Sample of Racial/Ethnic Minority Girls

This study examines associations between childhood maltreatment and developmental trajectories of sexual risk behaviors (SRBs) in a sample of 882 sexually active adolescent girls, predominantly Hispanic or Black, assessed every 6 months between 13 and 23 years. Latent profile analyses revealed four distinct maltreatment profiles: Low Maltreatment (76%), Moderate Emotional Neglect Only (15%), Severe Physical/Emotional Abuse (3%), and Severe Sexual Abuse (6%). Multilevel growth analyses showed the Moderate Emotional Neglect Only and Severe Sexual Abuse profiles exhibited more SRBs starting in late adolescence, and the Severe Sexual Abuse profile also exhibited a faster increase than the Low Maltreatment profile. Understanding heterogeneity within maltreated populations may have important implications for healthy sexual development.     

The impact of study attitudes and study behaviour on satisfaction of online students with the implementation of online study programmes

The main objective of the research was to analyse the study attitudes and study behaviour of online students at DOBA Business School. Furthermore, the aim was to evaluate the interrelationship between study attitudes and study behaviour and to assess the predictive value of the two sets of variables for students’ general satisfaction with the study programmes. A total of 331 students participated in the web survey. Participants expressed the most positive attitudes towards the use of technology and flexibility of online learning, while the absence of personal contacts was also perceived as highly favourable. Average scores for both deep and strategic approaches were quite high, while the surface approach was much less prominent . Participants were highly engaged with their teamwork assignments, whereas proactive communication was somewhat less developed . Study attitudes seem to be far more powerful predictors of general satisfaction than study behaviour, which is not surprising. Satisfaction is thought to be the result of the complex subjective evaluation of all relevant aspects of the study programme implementation, as they were measured by attitudinal subscales.     

Teachers’ reflection on PISA items and why they are so hard for students in Serbia

The study explores how teachers perceive and go about students’ thinking in connection to particular mathematical content and how they frame the notion of applied mathematics in their own classrooms. Teachers’ narratives are built around two released PISA 2012 mathematics items, the ‘Drip rate’ and ‘Climbing Mount Fuji’ (will be referred to as the Fuji item). Teachers show concordance as to the reasons that could make either of the items difficult for students and are able to provide more examples justifying their reasoning for the ‘Fuji’ item. Suggestions linked to making the items more familiar to the students mostly relate to de-contextualization of the items’ content towards a more formal mathematical record. The teachers agree that students need only basic mathematical knowledge, at a level learned during elementary school, in order to solve these problems. Yet, at the same time, many teachers have difficulty clearly verbalising which procedures students are expected to follow to be able to solve the tasks. Disagreement among the teachers is noticeable when labelling the most difficult part(s) of each of the selected items. Mathematics teachers show openness for learning on how to create math problems we examined in this study, but question the purpose and meaning in incorporating more such problems in their own teaching.     

The Labour Market,Graduate Competences and Study Programme Development: A Case Study

Developments in higher education are taking place in the wider context of globalisation, the Lisbon strategy and within the framework of the Bologna Process. Designing and developing Bologna programmes by taking into account the needs of the economy is a tool for successful quality assurance in higher education and for close cooperation with the environment. Our contribution aims to present the process of first cycle study programme formation and is based on a case study. By studying three groups of stakeholders, involved in the renewal of the study programme (teachers, students and employers), competences were thoroughly researched. It was found that graduate competences included in the questionnaire are of utmost importance and that they do not differ substantially from the competences of graduates in business studies presented in similar research (e.g. The Tuning Project of the European Commission, and the work carried out by the EFMD – the European Foundation for Management Development).     

Peer mediation: citizenship and social inclusion revisited

In sociometric research tradition, popularity is defined as the degree to which children are liked or accepted by their peers. However, research indicates that two definitions of popular students should be distinguished: (1) popular students as those students who are well liked by many and disliked by few peers, and (2) popular students as those students who are described as popular by their peers. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity in Slovenian students of different grades of elementary and secondary school. Additionally, the age differences in the relationship between sociometric and peer perceived popularity were examined. Another purpose of the study was to investigate the differential relationships between concepts of popularity and some students' characteristics. The participants were 321 boys and 329 girls who ranged from the 5th grade of elementary school (the mean age 11.04 years) to the 3rd grade of secondary school (the mean age 17.02 years). The results of this study confirm previous findings that peer perceived popularity is a construct that is distinct from sociometric popularity. There are some substantial differences in relations between indices of perceived popularity and sociometric indices between elementary school students and secondary school students—i.e. between early adolescents and middle to late adolescents. It seems that perceived popularity and sociometric popularity are rather similar constructs in elementary school students, whereas in secondary school students they become almost unrelated to each other. Based on these findings, the terminological issues are discussed and some conclusions are made.