Exploring formative assessment as a tool for learning: students’ experiences of different methods of formative assessment

This study aims to provide a greater insight into how formative assessments are experienced and understood by students. Two different formative assessment methods, an individual, written assessment and an oral group assessment, were components of a pathology course within a medical curriculum. In a cohort of 70 students, written accounts were collected from 17 students and group interviews were carried out to explore the students’ experiences of these two forms of assessment. All students were engaged in both assessment methods, which were conducted a few weeks apart, and data were collected soon after each assessment. Our findings suggest that formative assessments motivate students to study, make them aware of what they have learned and where they need to study more. Thus, formative assessment can act as a tool for learning, contributing to the process and outcomes of learning. A closer look at students’ experiences of each form of assessment reveals interesting differences.     

The game within the game: girls' underperforming position in Physical Education

Since 1980 the Swedish compulsory school curriculum has stipulated that Physical Education (PE) should be taught co-ed and schools are legally required to promote gender equality. The latest evaluation of PE in Sweden shows that more boys than girls ranked the subject highly and that they had a higher level of activity during the PE lessons. Drawing on a case study, the aim of this article is to illuminate how games placed girls and boys in different subject positions. The logic governing the observed lessons was ‘proper game’, i.e. playing according to the official rules. Combined with hegemonic masculinity and the passivity of the teacher, this kind of logic resulted in the game being dominated by several dominant boys and by the ball-playing girls either being positioned or allowing themselves to be placed in situations in which they consistently underperformed. A gender category in late modernity, resting on hegemonic masculinity, can be seen as a cultural flashpoint that reflects problems in society rather than problems in the gym.     

Gender differences among students found eligible for special education

The differences between genders in 14 different categories of disability, of samples of children and students found eligible for special education, are presented. In kindergarten and upper secondary schools, 65 per cent of the children or students deemed eligible for special education were boys. In elementary through junior high school the figures were about 70 per cent. In the kindergarten sample the difference in prevalence remained the same as the overall difference within each category of disability. In the samples from elementary, junior high and upper secondary schools a relatively higher prevalence than the overall difference between the genders was found with regard to problems of vision, hearing, language and intellectual disabilities among girls. A similar higher prevalence than expected was found among boys with regard to problems with reading and writing, psychosocial problems and attention deficit disorders. The conclusion is that the higher incidence of boys in special education during the pre-school years must be attributed to genetic or biological differences between the sexes. Further, in addition to these differences, the higher incidence of boys in special education during the school years is caused by an interaction between genetic or biological factors and a pedagogy that does not match the educational needs of male students.     

The Internet as a source of information about sexuality

To use the Internet for sex educational purposes and for sex information has been recognised by prior research as benefits of the technological development and important areas to investigate, but few empirical studies have so far been conducted. The purpose of this study was to identify those who use the Internet to seek information about sexual issues and to examine the reasons for using the Internet for this purpose. A total of 1913 respondents completed an online Swedish questionnaire about Internet sexuality and the 1614 who reported using the Internet for sexual purposes were selected for analysis in the current study. More than one-half of these respondents claimed to use the Internet to seek information about sexual issues. The results showed that men and women of all ages used the Internet for this purpose, suggesting that the need for sexual education persists even in the adult years. The reasons for seeking information were primarily to get knowledge about the body, about how to have sex, and out of curiosity. Knowing who seeks information about sexuality on the Internet and the reasons why may be helpful in identifying the needs of different groups of individuals as well as tailoring the information provided, both online and offline.     

Changing Libraries: Facilitating Self-Reflection and Action Research on Organizational Change in Academic Libraries

Visualization and mapping techniques can build a dynamic picture of information practices, including action research, within libraries, raising awareness of how the information landscape at each library may both support and retard research into the library's information practices. These techniques have implications for researchers as they generate richer data than interview or survey techniques, or methods that only take one “snapshot” of the state of practice. The data are also available to participants immediately, thus, allow for co-operative inquiry to take place in the library. Examples are offered from a project under way in two Norwegian academic libraries.     

Evaluation of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Program in a Regular Norwegian School Setting

ABSTRACT

This study examined whether the Incredible Years (IY) Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) program implemented as a school-wide preventive intervention at 1st to 3rd grade in a regular school setting reduces the development of problem behavior and improves social competence. Using a quasi-experimental pre-post design, the IYTCM was implemented in 21 schools and compared with 22 matched schools that did not receive the program. A total of 241 1st to 3rd grade teachers and 1518 students aged 6 to 8 years took part in the trial. Mixed-model analyses found small positive effects on changes in students’ social competence (d_w?=?0.19), while effects on change in students problem behavior were less than small (d_w?相似文献   

LÄRAREN SOM MILJÖFAKTOR I KLASSRUMMET

Abstract:Wedman, I. 1981. Allocating Individuals into Mastery States on the Basis of Expected Utilities. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 25,9‐19. This study describes a procedure for making decisions in connection with criterion‐referenced measurements. The procedure, which may be called a full Bayesian procedure, uses continuous utility functions instead of a dichotomized utility structure. The basic idea is to combine the posterior distribution for a certain person with utility functions for ‘advance’ and ‘retain’ decisions respectively. The decision is then made in favour of the action with the largest expected utility. Fictitious data are presented to illustrate the procedure.     

Evaluation for Improvement ‐a Case Study

Abstract: Lauvås, P., Skogedal, O. & von der Fehr, F. R. 1980. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 24,61‐78. The present paper is a micro‐level study of one lecture within dental education directed at 3 problems, all related to the problems of having one's own teaching evaluated and improved. The results suggest that some cautiousness should be placed on interpreting student ratings of teaching to indicate teaching effects on student learning. Student ratings are valuable feedback on the presentation made by the teacher but do not always correspond to learning results.     

Social and Developmental Aspects of Icelandic Pupils’ Interest and Experience of Icelandic Culture

The theme of this article is education as nation building in the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Starting with an overview of their Social Democrat parties' ascension of to near hegemony immediately following the Second World War, and these parties' impact on education, we go on to sketch the interplay between general political trends and educational policies up to the present day. We examine the goals of educational policies, the governance of the primary school system and the instruments of governance. Five levels of governance are taken into account: central government, regional and local government, schools and, finally, what happens in the classroom. Attention is given to trends that the Scandinavian countries shared in particular periods and to the divergence between them. We conclude that the main trend up to now is towards deregulation, decentralisation and individualisation.