Phonological Working Memory of Children in Two German Special Schools

In two studies, 10‐year‐olds from 2 German special schools as well as typically developing children of the same chronological age (CA controls) or the same mental age (MA controls) were compared on several aspects of working memory functions (i.e., size and input quality of the phonological store, speed and automatic activation of the subvocal rehearsal process). Results reveal that the children from the special schools reached the MA control but not the CA control children's level of non‐word repetition and also showed a statistically significant phonological similarity effect on memory span. These results were interpreted as evidence for a developmental lag in the functioning of the phonological store in these children. With regard to the subvocal rehearsal process, the results were mixed. While the children in the special schools outperformed the MA controls in speech rate, it was found that, in contrast to both control groups, they did not show any word‐length effect on memory span. This finding might be interpreted as evidence for a structural deficit impeding the automatic activation of the subvocal rehearsal process.     

The Role of Family Characteristics for Students’ Academic Outcomes: A Person‐Centered Approach

Using data from 1,571 ninth‐grade students (M_age = 14.62) from 82 academic track schools in Germany and their predominantly Caucasian middle‐class parents, configurations of different family characteristics reported by parents were investigated. Latent profile analyses considering academic involvement, family interest, parents’ self‐concept, child's need for support, and parents’ time and energy identified average, indifferent, motivated and engaged, motivated and disengaged, and involved families. Cross‐sectional and longitudinal associations with students’ motivational (self‐concept, effort, and interest) and achievement outcomes (achievement test and grades) in math were analyzed. Students from families classified as motivated and disengaged showed higher initial levels motivation and achievement. Over 5 months, these students also showed an increase in self‐concept and higher achievement than students from other family types.     

Toward a modern concept of schooling: A case study on Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel developed the concept of institutionalized education, which reflected public schooling and its legitimacy in the context of rapid transformation of European feudal societies to modern societies. The concept of school reflects the Hegelian theory of Bildung and the concept of modern society. What makes Hegel’s philosophy interesting is his conviction that the processes of Bildung can take place only in the context of social institutions and in the highly organized forms of human interaction regulated by those institutions. Hence the development of an individual, according to Hegel, depends exclusively on institutionalized forms of interaction. In modern society, pedagogical institutions have a specific function: on the one hand, schooling is essentially an institutional form of initiating the process of Bildung in which an individual acquires culture and applies it to life—a life which consequently becomes consciously led by an individual self; on the other, schooling is essentially a way for modern society to ensure its self-preservation by preparing the individual to respond to the demands of civic society so that she or he can take part in the economic production and reproduction of modern society.     

Students' mental load,stress, and performance when working with symbolic or symbolic–textual molecular representations

In science education, representations are necessary inter alia for the understanding of relationships between structures and systems. However, several studies have identified difficulties of students when working with representations. In the present study, we investigated students' responses (regarding their preference, test performance, mental load (ML), and stress) toward two kinds of representations: symbolic representations, which only use abstract symbols, versus combined symbolic–textual representations, which additionally comprise textual elements. Therefore, students were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: one group worked on test tasks accompanied by symbolic representations, and the others worked on the same tasks, but with symbolic–textual representations. Thereafter, the students' test performance and ML were assessed. The level of perceived stress and the salivary cortisol concentration were measured before and after the test and again a few minutes later. Additionally, heart rate variability parameters were assessed continuously. We found a strong preference of the test version with symbolic representations. Additionally, the students showed better test performance and lower ML when they worked with symbolic representations. However, the level of perceived stress was comparable between both groups and there was no strong physiological stress response: The cortisol concentration decreased in both groups and the heart rate was relatively similar. However, during the second half of the test, we observed a significantly higher ratio between low and high heartbeat frequencies in the group with symbolic–textual representations and we found an indirect influence of the kind of representation on test performance through its effect on ML. The poorer test performance and higher ML in connection with symbolic–textual representations confirm previous studies, which found that symbolic–textual representations pose major problems for students. Thus, teachers should enable students to understand symbolic–textual representations and consider carefully whether they can use symbolic representations instead, especially when they teach complex content.     

Models for the development of generic skills in Finnish higher education

This article examines how Finnish universities and other higher education institutes have responded to the challenges posed by rapid changes in the world of work and societies all over Europe, particularly with reference to the development of generic skills. The data were collected by means of individual and group interviews at three Finnish higher education institutes, including two universities and one university of applied sciences. The interviews involved 63 persons in charge of management, development and teaching at these institutes. As a result of the qualitative data analysis, we distinguished four models to represent the development of generic skills, which we named (1) Specialist Model, (2) Science-based Renewal Model, (3) Project-based Integrative Model, and (4) Model of Networked Culture. These models serve as analytical tools that help higher education institutes to examine their existing practices and to develop new ones.     

Keystroke-level analysis to estimate time to process pages in online learning environments

It is challenging for students to plan their work sessions in online environments, as it is very difficult to make estimates on how much material there is to cover. In order to simplify this estimation, we have extended the Keystroke-level analysis model with individual reading speed of text, figures, and questions. This was used to estimate how long students might take to work through pages in an online learning environment. The estimates from the model were compared to data collected from 902 volunteer students. Despite the huge differences in reported reading speeds between students, the presented model performs reasonably well and could be used to give learners feedback on how long it takes to work through pages in online learning environments. This feedback could be used to support students’ motivation and effort regulation as they work through online course components. Although the model performs reasonably well, we propose giving feedback in the form of intervals to indicate the uncertainty of the estimates.