Transfer of learning in Swedish technical vocational education: student experiences in the energy and industry programmes

One of the most important issues in vocational education is the interaction between learning at school and at different workplaces. Students need to transfer what they have learned in and between these different learning arenas. However, little agreement exists among researchers on how to conceptualise and empirically study transfer of learning. This article aims to enhance our understanding of this process in technical vocational education by adding a new perspective on transfer: the phenomenological lifeworld approach. Eleven interviews with students enrolled in the Energy and Industry programmes at a Swedish upper-secondary school were conducted. Three transfer themes emerged from the data: learning for new situations, variation and integration of theory and practice. The student perspective, based on the lifeworld approach shows that the different learning arenas – the school and workplaces – can complement each other. The learning arenas offer different opportunities for learning, and learning in both arenas is necessary in order to prepare for an unknown future, according to the students in this study.     

Toward a more reflective teaching practice: Revisiting excellence in teaching

Excellence in teaching has always been a demanding and absorbing concern in institutions of higher learning. Earlier studies, which are numerous, have often dealt with the measurement of teacher qualities but have largely failed to explain the phenomenon of excellence in practice. This study focused on the outstanding professional teachers’ candid revelations of their subjective experiences of becoming and being excellent in their craft. Findings of the study indicated that love is the touchstone of excellence in teaching: that is, loving the students, loving knowledge and loving the teaching process.     

Can performance feedback during instruction boost knowledge acquisition? Contrasting criterion-based and social comparison feedback

Feedback indicating how well students are performing during a learning task can be very stimulating. In this study with a pre- and post-test design, the effects of two types of performance feedback on learning results were compared: feedback during a learning task was either stated in terms of how well the students were performing relative to other students (social comparison feedback) or relative to an absolute criterion (criterion-based feedback). Thirty-four students in secondary vocational engineering education were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In both conditions, students worked together in small groups. All groups completed a math learning task, during which they received either social comparison feedback or criterion-based performance feedback. The findings showed that the type of feedback had a strong effect on learning outcomes: the post-test scores and gains of students in the social comparison condition were significantly higher than those of students in the criterion-based feedback condition.     

简论研究性学习与创造教育

研究性学生是实施创造教育的有效途径与方法，创造教育是研究性学习的基础和条件。研究性学习与创造教育是相互促进，相辅相成的。     

The influence of direct executive managers on lecturers’ perceptions on new organizational aims in times of academic drift

During educational change, managers can contribute positively to the professional’s sense of coping ability. The question remains as to whether the managers of lecturers can also influence the perception of lecturers on newly formulated organizational aims. Recently, the changes in many European institutes of higher professional education (HPE) have been considerable. The innovationsathand include the Dutch HPE institutes changing from teaching-only institutes toward hybrid organizations for teaching and research. The role of lecturers is central in implementing research into HPE, especially into the educational programmes. Hence, lecturers’ view on the new organizational aims are crucial. Based on a quantitative design, lecturers’ perceptions on the new organizational aims are measured. As part of a structural equation model, these perceptions are related to how lecturers perceive their direct executives’ leadership style, directly as well as mediated by executive-imputed organizational structures as collaboration systems and decision-making processes. The results show that the direct influence of executives based on their leadership style is limited, while initiating lecturers’ participation in decision-making processes is an important influence on lecturers’ perceptions on new organizational aims. More empirical insight into leadership factors and organizational structures can enlarge the improvement of goal achievement during organizational change.     

Effective School Improvement in Mathematics

This article addresses the evaluation of the Mathematics Improvement Programme. The results show that the programme improved the learning results of pupils in grade 3 with half a standard deviation and reduced the percentage of struggling pupils to less than 1%. Fifteen percent of the variance in pupil results is to be explained at the school level. About a quarter of this 15% can be explained by differences between the experimental and the comparison group. All of this condition variance is explained by the experimental variables. Five out of 10 implementation features contribute significantly to differences in pupil results.