Associations of student temperament and educational competence with academic achievement: The role of teacher age and teacher and student gender

We examined associations of teacher-perceived student temperament and educational competence with school achievement, and how these associations were modified by students’ gender and teachers’ gender and age. Participants were 1063 Finnish ninth-graders (534 boys) and their 29 Mother Language teachers (all female) and 43 Mathematics teachers (17 male) from a population-based sample. All temperament and educational competence traits were associated with both grades, but more clearly with Mathematics. Boys received systematically lower Mother Language grades but higher Mathematics grades than girls. Teacher gender had no effect on school grades, while teacher age had an effect only on Mother Language.     

A Perspective of Group Size on Children’s Conditions for Wellbeing,Learning and Development in Preschool

This study explores how group size influences children’s conditions for wellbeing, learning and development in preschool in relation to the intentions in the revised (2010) Swedish preschool curriculum. The study is based on qualitative methods generated from interviews and open-ended questions in a questionnaire. Group size is dependent on three dimensions of preschool teacher’s experiences of group size, constituted of various aspects: preschool teacher qualifications and competence, physical indoor and outdoor environment and the composition of the child group. The dimensions and aspects affect the critical number of children for it to function in a qualitative good manner. If these dimensions and aspects do not interact constructively, teachers and children experience the group as large.     

Psychometric analysis of a measure of socio-emotional development in adolescents

This is a psychometric analysis of an instrument to assess the socio-emotional development of school students, How I Feel (HIF), developed as a situational judgment test, with scoring based on expert judgments. The HIF test was administered in grades 4–9, 1999–2005. Internal consistency, retest reliability, and year-to-year stability were satisfactory, and the HIF instrument appears sensitive to intervention effects. Sex differences and associations with substance use and other instruments support construct validity. A significant negative trend was found across grades, attenuated in a group receiving socio-emotional training. The HIF test has limited discriminatory power among individuals with high socio-emotional maturity.     

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.     

Self-perceived action competence for sustainability: the theoretical grounding and empirical validation of a novel research instrument

Abstract

This study contributes to an operationalization of the concept of action competence for sustainability through the theoretical development and empirical validation of a new 12-item Likert-scale questionnaire: the Self-Perceived Action Competence for Sustainability Questionnaire, SPACS-Q. Other scales in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) typically measure concepts such as pro-environmental and sustainability attitudes and behaviors, and therefore do not fully cover the concept of action competence for sustainability. An action differs from a ‘mere’ behavior in that it is voluntary and targeted at bringing about change, which is the overarching goal of ESE. We define action competence as a latent capacity among individuals to act sustainably. We introduce a novel scale measuring this seminal concept. Totally, 614 Swedish adolescents aged 12-19 participated in this study. The scale includes three latent subconstructs: i) knowledge of action possibilities, ii) confidence in one’s own influence, and iii) the willingness to act. Confirmatory factor analyses, reliability measures and investigation of convergent validity reveal a questionnaire instrument with excellent psychometric quality. We put forward that the SPACS-Q is a novel and theory-driven, empirically reliable and valid, instrument, and encourage fellow researchers to use the SPACS-Q when investigating people’s action competence for sustainability in various contexts.     

Definition of historical models of gene function and their relation to students’ understanding of genetics

Models are often used when teaching science. In this paper historical models and students’ ideas about genetics are compared. The historical development of the scientific idea of the gene and its function is described and categorized into five historical models of gene function. Differences and similarities between these historical models are made explicit. Internal and external consistency problems between the models are identified and discussed. From the consistency analysis seven epistemological features are identified. The features vary in such ways between the historical models that it is claimed that learning difficulties might be the consequence if these features are not explicitly addressed when teaching genetics. Students’ understanding of genetics, as described in science education literature, is then examined. The comparison shows extensive parallelism between students’ alternative understanding of genetics and the epistemological features, i.e., the claim is strengthened. It is also argued that, when teaching gene function, the outlined historical models could be useful in a combined nature of science and history of science approach. Our findings also raise the question what to teach in relation to preferred learning outcomes in genetics.     

A Quasi-Experimental Study of Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Academic Achievement

The current study, based on all births in Sweden from 1983 to 1991 ( N  =   654,707), explored the processes underlying the association between smoking during pregnancy (SDP) and offspring school grades and mathematic proficiency at age 15. The analyses compared relatives who varied in their exposure to SDP and who varied in their genetic relatedness. Although SDP was statistically associated with academic achievement (AA) when comparing unrelated individuals, the results suggest that SDP does not cause poorer academic performance, as full siblings differentially exposed to SDP did not differ in their academic scores. The pattern of results suggests that genetic factors shared by parents and their offspring help explain why offspring exposed to SDP have lower levels of AA.     

The art of teaching children the arts: music,dance and poetry with children aged 2–8 years old

In this article, the theoretical framework of developmental pedagogy is presented as a tool in studying and developing children’s knowing within the arts. The domains of art focused on are music, poetry and dance/aesthetic movement. Through empirical examples from a large‐scale research project, we illustrate the tools of developmental pedagogy and show how this perspective contributes to our understanding of children’s learning of music, dance and poetry. More specifically, we will analyse: (a) the important role of the teacher in children’s learning within the arts; (b) the importance of conversing when learning the arts; (c) what constitutes the knowledge, what we refer to as ‘learning objects’, to be appropriated within the three domains of art focused on; and (d) how to conceive of progression in children’s knowing within the arts.     

Action research and the micropolitics in schools

This paper is based on the assumption that action research always affects the micropolitical balance characteristic of a certain school setting. The authors claim that micropolitics, that is the patterns of formal power and informal influence, has largely been neglected in the literature on action research in schools. This means that action researchers appear to be ‘micropolitically illiterate’. Firstly in the paper the authors present the concept of micropolitics and a model consisting of three arenas for understanding micropolitics in schools. Thereafter they exemplify the different aspects and expressions of micropolitics by referring to their own action research projects. The focus is particularly on initiative to and engagement with action research. Finally they reflect on some micropolitical dilemmas characteristic of action research and the contradictory role of the action researcher.