To Intervene or be Neutral,to Investigate or Entertain?

Through a series of surveys of Nordic journalism students in 2005, 2008 and 2012 (N = 4665 respondents from 30 institutions in five countries), this article investigates the differences in students' role perceptions and their link to national, institutional and personal factors. After discussing some methodological challenges for comparative survey studies of journalists and journalism students, the major differences in students' role perceptions are extracted using multiple correspondence analysis, which revealed: (1) an opposition of participatory versus neutral ideals, and (2) an opposition between investigative and recreational ideals, which in both cases are linked to a range of factors, including type of educational institution, social background, previous journalistic experience and year of study. While marked national differences in role perceptions are found to be present, subsequent analysis of single countries shows that the above oppositions are also found within the national context and linked to similar sociological characteristics, demonstrating the inadequacy of simple nation-type explanations of journalistic role perceptions.     

Public e-service development: Understanding citizens' conditions for participation

For decades, user participation has brought value to various systems development projects. Today, there are expectations that public e-service development will experience the same benefits. However, existing research has shown that introducing user participation into public e-service development can be challenging. In this study, we interviewed citizens in order to explore their willingness and ability to participate in public e-service development according to three user participation schools: User-Centred Design, Participatory Design and User Innovation. Our findings show that citizens in general are willing to participate, but their ability to do so is limited. Based on our findings, we developed nine propositions to explain citizens' willingness and ability to participate in public e-service development. The propositions contribute to practice by acting as a tentative guide for systems developers when they use user participation schools as inspiration in public e-service projects. They also act as a starting point for future research into conditions for user participation in public e-service development.     

University Teaching Taught to Teachers

Mr. Ole B. Thomsen is one of those very rare university professors, who not only admit that even university teaching can and should be learned, but who also do something about it.

The present contribution describes the problems and ways and means for solutions. It also gives an account of two experimental courses for university teachers organized at the University of Copenhagen. In this account he carefully points out the still persisting problems and unanswered questions. Aside of his apparent gift for writing the author is obviously quite good at solving the problems caused by mislaying one's photographs.     

Curriculum debate and policy change

This article investigates the underlying themes and principles that inform curriculum debate and how they are articulated in current school policy discussions. This topic is approached with the help of a case study covering the debate on which subjects should be mandatory for students at the upper secondary school curriculum in Sweden. The focus is on the arguments for and against the inclusion of History among these core subjects. The aim is to order and structure this debate and to link the arguments found to basic underlying principles. Why was History considered important or unimportant? What arguments are found about the best way to teach History? This study employs a 4-fold distinction which distinguishes between perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and reconstructivism as four schools of thought, each outlining its own particular view on what kind of knowledge is important and how such knowledge should be taught. One major finding is that two of the schools—progressivism and essentialism—completely dominate the debates under study. There existed a major fault line between those who emphasized the instrumental value of History as a tool for fostering good citizens, and those who considered History part of essential general knowledge about society.     

Curriculum and Curriculum Development. Grounds for an Eclectic Approach Based on Different Viewpoints

Curriculum theories and approaches often only focus certain aspects of the curriculum field. Here three different perspectives are presented, compared and evaluated: Phenix's philosophy of the curriculum (often called a traditional viewpoint), Schwab's practical alternative angle and Goodson's curriculum history perspective. The aim is to explore the possible basis for an eclectic approach.

As Johnansen died unexpectedly shortly after having submitted this article, mail regarding the article may be addressed to the Norwegian national editor.     

Research on Teachers and Teacher Education in Scandinavia: a retrospective review

The important role in learning and upbringing played by teachers has been acknowledged for a long time. However, research on this question belongs with few exceptions, to the post‐war area in all the Nordic countries. During the last few decades a extensive research within a variety of studies have addressed the question. And, in accord with realistic expectations, the research conducted within this area since the middle of the 1950ties reflects a change in the interest of researchers similar to that found outside the Nordic countries, from studies of teacher behaviour to research on teacher cognition and analyses of the interactions between students and teachers in the classroom. The review also reveals a clear and significant change in the use of research methods: quantitative methods have declined while qualitative methods have expanded. It seems characteristic of research within this area that a great number of studies have been explorative in nature and that few of them have been followed up by more intensive and theoretically grounded research. It is the authors' opinion that, considering the great number of unanswered questions and the importance of solid knowledge of the questions related to teachers' qualifications and to teacher education, it seems that research within this area is still in its infancy stage.     

What moderates the accuracy of ease of learning judgments?

When people begin to study new material, they may first judge how difficult it will be to learn. Surprisingly, these ease of learning (EOL) judgments have received little attention by metacognitive researchers so far. The aim of this study was to systematically investigate how well EOL judgments can predict actual learning, and what factors may moderate their relative accuracy. In three experiments, undergraduate psychology students made EOL judgments on, then studied, and were tested on, lists of word-pairs (e.g., sun – warm). In Experiment 1, the Goodman-Kruskal gamma (G) correlations showed that EOL judgments were accurate (G = .74) when items varied enough in difficulty to allow for proper discrimination between them, but were less accurate (G = .21) when variation was smaller. Furthermore, in Experiment 1 and 3, we showed that the relative accuracy was reliably higher when the EOL judgments were correlated with a binary criterion (i.e., if an item was recalled or not on a test), compared with a trials-to-learn criterion (i.e., how many study and test trials were needed to recall an item). In addition, Experiments 2 and 3 indicate other factors to be non-influential for EOL accuracy, such as the task used to measure the EOL judgments, and whether items were judged sequentially (i.e., one item at a time in isolation from the other items) or simultaneously (i.e., each item was judged while having access to all other items). To conclude, EOL judgments can be highly accurate (G = .74) and may thus be of strategic importance for learning. Further avenues for research are discussed.     

Social capital practices as adaptive drivers for local adjustment of new public management in schools

New public management (NPM) reforms have typically undermined teachers’ autonomy, values, and status in society. This article questions whether such reforms automatically have these outcomes or whether and how possibilities for local adjustment of such reforms may prevent negative outcomes. Drawing on empirical case studies from two Danish municipal schools and the concept of organisational social capital, we investigate how two reform initiatives – ‘student plan-based school–home collaboration’ and ‘teamwork’ – were locally adjusted into collaborative practices. The analysis demonstrates surprising local adjustments of the reform initiatives, while also revealing some ambiguities. The results demonstrate that some reform initiatives can lead to new collaborative leadership and management practices in schools that solve the central school leadership and management tasks of coordination and planning. This indicates that collaborative leadership and management practices may emerge from NPM reforms, and that such practices can prevent negative outcomes of such reforms.