Student Teachers' Views of Pupil Misbehaviour in Classrooms: A Norwegian and an English setting compared

This paper examines how student teachers in Norway and England perceive pupil misbehaviour. The data are based on an opportunistic questionnaire survey of 86 student teachers in Kristiansand and 100 student teachers in York. Student teachers' perceptions of the seriousness of infractions were significantly different with regard to 7 of the items, with the students in Norway being relatively more tolerant. There were a few differences linked to sex and age. A principal components analysis identified 6 factors that were labelled: aggression towards other pupils, delinquent behaviour, oppositional behaviour, passive deviance, anti‐social behaviour, and off‐task behaviour. With few exceptions, student teachers in Norway and England regarded serious aggressive, delinquent and anti‐social behaviour as totally unacceptable. This suggests that it is appropriate to encourage student teachers (and their school mentors) to consistently censure these kinds of pupil misbehaviour.     

Motor coordination difficulties in 5–6‐year‐old children with severe behavioural and emotional problems

Incidence, severity and types of motor difficulties in children with severe behavioural and emotional problems were evaluated. A group of 6‐year‐olds (n = 29) with such problems and controls (n = 29) were compared on the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M‐ABC). The groups were compared on total scores as well as manual dexterity, ball skills and balance. Individual M‐ABC profiles were compared with Teacher's Report Form profiles. It was found that 62.1% in the high‐risk group and 20.7% in the control group showed motor coordination difficulties. In the high‐risk group 55.2% fulfilled the criteria of the DSM‐IV for developmental coordination disorder, compared to 3.4% controls. The high‐risk group showed significant difficulties within all sub‐areas of the M‐ABC. There was a significant relationship between attention problems and manual dexterity difficulties. The combination of problems identified makes these children vulnerable with regard to school inclusion and in need of proper assessment and intervention.     

The Role of Diverse Institutions in Framing Adult Learning Systems

This article considers the role of diverse institutions in framing adult learning systems. The focus is on institutional characteristics and configurations in different countries and their potential impact on the extent of adult learning, as well as on inequalities in access to adult learning. Typologies of education and training systems as well as labour market and welfare systems are introduced in relation to specific particularities relevant to adult learning. An emphasis is placed on how institutions that are interwoven into several systems are relevant to adult learning. This is then considered and elaborated in the context of post-Socialist countries in order to highlight important nuances that are relevant to adult learning and skill formation systems.     

An analysis of teacher-defined activities with mobile technologies: predecessor and successor tool use in the classroom

In this paper, different perspectives on the role of the teacher in a classroom equipped with personal digital assistants (PDAs) are presented. We report on four classroom studies conducted in two countries, Norway and the USA. The overall aim is to understand the use of new tools in different contexts. The key question that we explore concerns the teachers’ pedagogical use of the new tool and why certain tools are adopted and others are not. In one case, the activities simulated the affordances and constraints of the tools used prior to the PDA. In the other case, the activities harnessed the affordances and constraints offered by the successor tool, the PDA. We raise the question as to why these tools were used in two different ways. We analyse our findings in terms of sociocultural theory and concepts of human–computer interaction. Finally, we summarize our results and discuss some educational implications.     

Innovation and isomorphism: A case-study of university identity struggle 1969–1999

Higher education institutions face today strongpressure from institutional environments toadopt certain structures and management systemsfor reasons of legitimacy and survival.However, the external pressure is multifaceted, demanding organisational and educationalinnovations on one side and adjustments todeveloping national and international standardson the other. By studying a Norwegianuniversity from its establishment in 1969 to1999, and by extensive triangulation of morequalitative studies on this university in thisperiod, the paper concludes that highereducation institutions may handle this dilemmaby relating it to the continuous struggle fororganisational identity.     

Components of phonological awareness

The factorial structure underlying different types of tasks within the domain of phonological awareness was examined in two studies. Large sample sizes allowed for sensitive differentiation of constructs. In the first study, 128 preschool children without any experience of formal reading instruction were tested with a battery of tasks intended to tap various aspects of phonological awareness: rhyme recognition, syllable counting, initial-phoneme matching, initial-phoneme deletion, phoneme blending, and phoneme counting. Three basic components were extracted in a principal component analysis: a phoneme factor, a syllable factor and a rhyme factor. Cross-tabulations indicated considerable dissociation between performance on phoneme, syllable, and rhyme tasks. The structural relationships were replicated on a much larger sample (n=1509) in the second study. Subjects in this study were one year older and were attending grade 1 thus providing an opportunity to test their reading achievement. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the phonemic factor was by far the most potent predictor. However, the rhyming factor made an independent (although small) contribution to explaining the reading variance. Among the phonemic tasks, phoneme identification proved to be the most powerful predictor.     

Exposure to bullying,reactions and psychological adjustment of secondary school students

A sample of 575 secondary school students aged 11–15 years was administered a checklist on experiences of bullying, then divided into groups of victims, witnesses and not exposed, and by gender. Participants completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire on psychosocial adjustment. Victims and witnesses completed another questionnaire on the extent to which they would endorse retaliation/vengeance and avoidance towards the perpetrator. Girls reported being victimised significantly more than boys. Amongst victims, boys scored higher than girls on desire for retaliation/vengeance and on externalising behaviours; girls scored higher on internalising behaviour. Experience of bullying victimisation, rather than merely witnessing it or not being exposed to it, was associated with internalising behaviours for both boys and girls. These measures of psychosocial adjustment were associated with the desire for retaliation/vengeance. Implications are discussed of the links between gender, exposure to bullying, reactions and psychosocial adjustment of secondary school children.     

Changes in Organising and Managing Research in Universities: Reconstruction or Rediscovery

The ways in which research production is organised incontemporary universities are different both from the oftencommonly expressed view of the individual researcher discoveringnew knowledge working alone, and from the traditionalprofessor-assistants organisation as the basic researchproduction unit. This article presents – on the basis of anempirical study of social science research organising in fourdifferent universities – a number of characteristics of how basicresearch organisation takes place. The most are described commonfeatures of such organisation models described. The factorsconstructing new more dynamic and integrated models in practiceare analysed. And the demands for efficient university governancestructures, to ensure the development of basic organisationswhich can produce short- and long-term high quality andsuccessful research, are discussed.