Prisoners’ academic motivation,viewed from the perspective of self-determination theory: Evidence from a population of Norwegian prisoners

International Review of Education - The study presented in this article explores prisoners’ academic motivation structure from the theoretical perspective of self-determination theory, using...     

‘It’s alpha omega for succeeding and thriving’: parents,children and sporting cultivation in Norway

It has become increasingly apparent, internationally, that childhood is a crucial life-stage in the formation of predispositions towards sports participation and that parents are increasingly investing in the sporting capital of their children via a process of ‘concerted cultivation’. It is surprising, therefore, that parents’ involvement in the development of their children's sporting interests has received so little attention in Norway, given that sport is a significant pastime for Norwegians and participation has been steadily increasing – among youngsters, in particular – over the past several decades. Through a qualitative case study of a combined primary and secondary school in a small Norwegian city, this study sought to add to recent explorations of the role of parents in children's sporting involvement in Norway. As expected, it was evident that sport becomes taken for granted and internalised very early on in Norwegian children's lives. Less expected was the recognition that children's nascent sporting interests were often generated by sports clubs via early years schooling and, therefore, that parents played only one (albeit very important) part in the formation of their youngsters’ early sporting habits. Thus, parents, sports clubs and early years schooling appeared to form something akin to a ‘sporting trinity’ in youngsters’ nascent sporting careers. These findings may have implications for policy-makers looking towards Norway for a ‘recipe’ for sports participation.     

Analysis and design of quadratic parameter varying (QPV) control systems with polytopic attractive region

This paper proposes a gain-scheduling approach for systems with a quadratic structure. Both the stability analysis and the state-feedback controller design problems are considered for quadratic parameter varying (QPV) systems. The developed approach assesses/enforces the belonging of a polytopic region of the state space to the region of attraction of the origin, and relies on a linear matrix inequality (LMI) feasibility problem. The main characteristics of the proposed approach are illustrated by means of examples, which confirm the validity of the theoretical results.     

One-arm maximal strength training improves work economy and endurance capacity but not skeletal muscle blood flow

Maximal strength training with a focus on maximal mobilization of force in the concentric phase improves endurance performance that employs a large muscle mass. However, this has not been studied during work with a small muscle mass, which does not challenge convective oxygen supply. We therefore randomized 23 adult females with no arm-training history to either one-arm maximal strength training or a control group. The training group performed five sets of five repetitions of dynamic arm curls against a near-maximal load, 3 days a week for 8 weeks. This training increased maximal strength by 75% and improved rate of force development during both strength and endurance exercise, suggesting that each arm curl became more efficient. This coincided with a 17-18% reduction in oxygen cost at standardized submaximal workloads (work economy), and a 21% higher peak oxygen uptake and 30% higher peak load during maximal arm endurance exercise. Blood flow assessed by Doppler ultrasound in the axillary artery supplying the working biceps brachii and brachialis muscles could not explain the training-induced adaptations. These data suggest that maximal strength training improved work economy and endurance performance in the skeletal muscle, and that these effects are independent of convective oxygen supply.     

Mathematics and crises

Educational Studies in Mathematics - One can identify at least three different types of relationships between mathematics and crises. First, mathematics can picture a crisis. This is in accordance...     

Handwriting fluency and the quality of primary grade students’ writing

Reading and Writing - Until children can produce letters quickly and accurately, it is assumed that handwriting disrupts and limits the quality of their text. This investigation is the largest...     

Vexing questions that sustain sensemaking

Current science education reforms highlight the importance of students making sense of scientific ideas. While research has studied how to support sensemaking in classrooms, we still know very little about what drives students to pursue and persist in it on their own. In this article, we use a set of parallel case studies of undergraduate students discussing introductory physics to show how certain student-generated, vexing questions both initiate and sustain students' sensemaking processes. We examine affective and linguistic markers in student discourse in paired-clinical interviews to demonstrate both of these functions of vexing questions and detail their role in the explanations students construct. We conclude by discussing the implications of this analysis both for supporting sensemaking in classrooms and for studying it in research.     

Diagnosing word decoding problems: A process-analytic approach

In this article we attempt to demonstrate the theoretical and practical limitations of traditional subgroup classifications of acquired and developmental dyslexia. As an alternative, we suggest a process-analytical approach. A variant of a dual-route model for word processing is presented. The model guided the design of a computerized test battery for assessing strategies in word decoding and processes underlying each strategy. The usefulness of the approach was demonstrated on two cases, which according to traditional criteria, were classified as auditory dyslexics. Although both cases displayed marked deficiencies in the phonological route for word decoding, they differed in terms of underlying processes. In one case the primary problem could be located to phonological synthesis, whereas the other case had poor access of letters (phonological recoding). Such individual processing characteristics are not normally revealed by the traditional subgrouping approach.     

Mathematics as part of technology

Competence in dealing with fundamental problems connected with mathematical model building requires three different forms of knowledge. Mathematical knowledge itself, technological knowledge about how to develop a model, and reflective knowledge relevant for evaluation of the model building process. We find that reflective knowledge cannot be reduced to technological knowledge, so that it is important for mathematical education that is to be consistent with a critical pedagogy to provide opportunities for development of that type of knowledge.A general conceptual framework for identification of reflective knowledge is presented via a structural (synchronic) and a developmental (diachronic) perspective of a mathematical model.The synchronic perspective includes relationships between the model, its object in reality, a complex of theories, a complex of interests, and a conceptual framework or system mediating the connection between model and object. The diachronic perspective includes the components: problem identification, structure of argumentation, basis for critique, and space of possible actions, all of them sensitive to the application of mathematics. In that sense mathematics is not a neutral tool in a technological investigation, a fact which mathematical education has to reflect.