The Expectancy-Value Questionnaire in Physical Education: A Validation Study Among Norwegian Adolescents

One of the main aims of the school subject physical education (PE) is to promote a lifelong healthy lifestyle. The expectancy-value theory represents an essential theoretical perspective to examine and understand adolescents’ learning and motivation in PE. Based on this theory, the Expectancy-Value Questionnaire (EVQ) measures students’ expectancy-related beliefs and perceived task values related to a subject like PE. The aim of the present study was to examine the dimensionality, reliability, and construct validity of the Norwegian version of the EVQ among adolescents in PE. In total, 338 students from six schools completed the EVQ in their PE classes during the spring of 2016. Explorative and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, suggesting the four-dimensional construct of the EVQ to be superior the two-factor-model. The EVQ measurement model of adolescents’ expectancy-related believes and subjective task values in PE demonstrated satisfying reliability and construct validity.     

An Arendtian perspective on inclusive education: towards a reimagined vocabulary

Inclusive education currently appears to be undergoing a crisis and re-examination. This paper presents a new approach to thinking about inclusiveness in the school context. Many positions within inclusive education seem to take political, social and ethical perspectives as a starting point, which has allowed inclusive movements and initiatives around the world to succumb to neo-liberal policy-making and has neglected the development of an educational vocabulary that is theoretically and conceptually appropriate for confronting teachers’ central concerns regarding inclusive practices. The concepts of suspension, bearing with strangers and enlarged thought inspired by Hannah Arendt provide a basis for a re-imagining of inclusive education and for outlining a future school in which inclusiveness is embedded in the very way we think and position ourselves as teachers and pupils.     

Education and the concept of commons. A pedagogical reinterpretation

This paper explores the concepts of commons and commoning from an educational vantage point. These concepts point to places and activities that are shared, communal and un-privatised, in other words they point to places and practices not yet enclosed or appropriated by capital and market logics. Education is certainly a place and an activity that is increasingly being enclosed and appropriated by these logics, but at the same time education seems to always find ways of escaping this enclosure, and teachers and students find ways of being that escapes appropriation. Exploring the concepts of commons and commoning from an educational vantage point is thus an attempt at describing schooling as an activity that takes place in common and makes something common. By sharing and introducing a subject matter to the students, the teacher offers a shared space of exploration and study that can escape the instrumental and proprietarian framework of the neoliberal education agenda.     

Education and the Demand for Emancipation

This paper puts forward the hypothesis that in recent decades, pupils of schools in the western world have been given a new form of individuality. This construction has been nourished by both the demand for emancipation as it was expressed in the critical sociology of education (and pedagogy) and by the neoliberal turn in education policy. It unfolds consequences of such an alliance between romantic and neoliberal individualism, and argues that some of Simmel's concepts might fruitfully be engaged to grasp important aspects of today's educational culture. Against this backdrop, the paper discusses the construction of the new individuality in regard to educational changes in control and discipline, individually adapted education and assessment and finally academic knowledge. Primarily by using examples from the Norwegian case, the paper analyses how recent opinions on these issues can be viewed as different expressions of an educational culture promoting alienation as emancipation.     

Examining the Relationship between Teachers’ Self-Efficacy,their Digital Competence,Strategies to Evaluate Information,and use of ICT at School

Research indicates that self-efficacy in teaching is a key issue for carrying out good teaching practice. The aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy in information and communication technologies (ICT), their strategies to evaluate information, their digital competence, and use of ICT at school. A sample of 332 teachers participated in a survey. The teachers answered self-report questions and responded to a multiple-choice test on digital competence. Structural equation modelling was used to test a hypothesized model of the relationship between self-efficacy in basic ICT, self-efficacy in online collaboration, strategies to evaluate information, digital competence, and the use of ICT. The analysis confirmed that the empirical data supported the hypothesized model. Significant factor loadings and positive relationships between the factors were found. Overall, the factors in the model explained 41% of teachers’ digital competence, 49% of their self-efficacy in online collaborative, and 36% of their use of ICT at school.     

Dealing with complex and ill-structured problems: results of a Plan-Do-Check-Act experiment in a business engineering semester

Challenged by increased globalisation and fast technological development, we carried out an experiment in the third semester of a global business engineering programme aimed at identifying conditions for training student in dealing with complex and ill-structured problems of forming a new business. As this includes a fuzzy front end, learning cannot be measured in traditional, quantitative terms; therefore, we have explored the use of reflection to convert tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. The experiment adopted a Plan-Do-Check-Act approach and concluded with developing a plan for new learning initiatives in the subsequent year’s semester. The findings conclude that (1) problem-based learning develops more competencies than ordinarily measured at the examination, especially, the social/communication and personal competencies are developed; (2) students are capable of dealing with a complex and ambiguous problem, if properly guided. Four conditions were identified; (3) most students are not conscious of their learning, but are able to reflect if properly encouraged; and (4) improving engineering education should be considered as an organisational learning process.     

A European Demos? The Nordic adult education tradition-- folkeoplysning --faces a challenge

The keyword in the Nordic tradition for adult education is 'people' (folk). But the term 'people' is used in three different ways: people as a political category, a cultural category and a social category. Therefore, the term 'people's enlightenment' ( folkeoplysning ) has been defined as different ways to create empowered citizens, to provide enlightenment on the people's culture, and to educate the underenlightened and marginalised. What kind of adult education is required in the current situation? Is a political, cultural or social interpretation of the term most needed? This question is discussed in light of the European integration process. ' Folkeoplysning ' is not, by definition, based on a specific interpretation of the concept 'people'. On the contrary, the concept constitutes a battlefield on which different interests attempt to leave their own imprint.     

Economic independence among former students with special educational needs: changes and continuities from their late twenties to their mid-thirties

Abundant research exists on the transition from school to work of youth with disabilities. However, few studies investigate their subsequent long-term participation in working life. This study, drawing on a life course approach, aimed to examine how former students with special educational needs succeeded in finding full-time employment with sufficient pay to make them economically independent. The extent of economic independence was investigated in their late twenties and their mid-thirties. The sample (N?=?216) originates from a Norwegian longitudinal research project that commenced in the mid-1990s when the study participants just had started upper secondary school. Their special needs provision and their physical, psychological and/or social difficulties were recorded at the same time. After their teens, they were interviewed every fifth year. At both age phases close to 50% of the study participants were economically independent, men to a much greater degree than women. By logistic regression analyses, it was revealed that the independent variables influenced economic independence differently among men and women, for example, that educational attainment was important for women, but not for men. However, possession of a driving licence was crucial for men, but was relatively unimportant for women, at least in the first age phase. There was also a differential impact of parenthood. Having children increased the likelihood of being economically independent for men, whereas the impact was opposite for women, especially when they were approaching their mid-thirties. Processes of cumulative advantages and disadvantages were also observed, indicating that previous negative life course experiences dramatically reduce the chances of obtaining economic independence.     

Internationalization of R&D — a survey of some recent research

This paper surveys the current state of the art concerning the management and economic impact of geographically decentralized research and development (R&D) in multinational companies (MNCs). This line of research has recently begun to attract renewed interest, in reflection of not only critical new trends regarding the nature and conditions of technological change but also significant developments in the realm of economic and managerial theory.The aim of this paper is, first, to outline the empirical and theoretical background and perspective of this new research agenda. Second, it gives a summary and overview of prior research in the area. Third, it outlines the content and structure of a number of recent studies. Based on these studies the paper identifies a number of trends and implications in terms of policy issues and critical areas for future research.