Engineering students’ experiences from physics group work in learning labs

The development and validation of a test of biology‐related attitudes (TOBRA) is described. This instrument was developed for science students in grades 10‐12 in Indonesia; however, the procedures for validation of the instrument will be of general interest to science educators. These procedures included the use of latent partition analysis to examine the conceptual structure of TOBRA.     

Further iterations on using the Problem-analysis Framework

A core component of applied educational and child psychology practice is the skilfulness with which practitioners are able to rigorously structure and conceptualise complex real world human problems. This is done in such a way that when they (with others) jointly work on them, there is an increased likelihood of positive outcomes being achieved for clients. The Problem-analysis Framework as discussed in this paper offers one way of working with such complexity which is grounded in a sound knowledge based in applied psychology. This paper provides further clarity on using the framework within applied practice. The authors were all trained in and use the Problem-analysis Framework and now work in many different types of applied settings within Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. This paper illuminates important aspects of the problem-analysis approach itself for those currently learning it, as well as providing an aide-mémoire to those using it and those who want to develop their skills in this area.     

The will to (de)liberate: shaping governable citizens through cognitive behavioural programmes in school

Lately, a deliberative conception of democracy has gained influence in policy debates throughout Europe. Individuals are here seen to be fostered into responsible, mature – democratic – citizens by being involved in dialogue. In the 1990s, calls for ‘democratic education’ intensified in Sweden. This article analyses two pedagogical models influenced by programmes developed in the USA that have recently had a great impact in Swedish schools and elsewhere, Social and Emotional Training and Aggression Replacement Training, both teaching pupils the ‘art of democratic deliberation’. By analysing manuals and interviews with school staff, we find that both models are based on the idea that through constant dialogue, pupils develop a ‘democratic mentality’. Referring to Foucault, this kind of dialogue can be seen as a technology of confession, where pupils are encouraged to reflect upon themselves and their behaviour, abilities and qualities as a way to change themselves and become democratic subjects.     

Change agency as a way of promoting pedagogical development in academic communities: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

In the face of organizational transformations, academics are given a role as informal ‘change agents’ in their discipline-specific communities of practice (DCoP). Simultaneous participation in pedagogically oriented communities of practice (PCoP) enables them to promote pedagogical development through brokering at community interfaces. This empirical study explores academics’ experiences of acting as informal change agents at the interfaces of DCoP and PCoP during an organizational transition phase of three years. The longitudinal data were collected with interviews of 13 academics from the fields of science and technology. The findings reveal a variety of pedagogical development activities related to shared meanings, practices, identities, and ways of belonging. The activities are aligned with the organizational transition process and enabled by collegial support. The findings indicate that lack of supportive formal leadership may terminate the informal development activities. The resulting model of change agency provides a novel approach to pedagogical development in higher education.     

Cybernetic institutional management theory and practice: A system of flexible workload for university teachers

In the past three decades, higher education reforms have taken place almost everywhere in the world, and governance or the way that higher education is or should be coordinated has become a global topic. The governance reform in Chinese higher education emerged against such a background. The current studies on Chinese higher education reforms mainly tackle the reform processes and treat the Chinese government as the driver of the reforms, whereas how the Chinese government is susceptible to international pressures has remained under‐researched. This article examines the mechanisms that facilitate the spread of global governance reform ideologies in Chinese higher education through the Chinese government, drawing on the concept of institutional isomorphism. Based on analysing recent literature and documents, it concludes that the Chinese government is affected by the global reform ideas and practices that have been legitimatised through international organisations' rhetoric and other countries' successful experiences.     

Dilemmatic spaces in educational contexts – towards a conceptual framework for dilemmas in teachers work

In this conceptual article, we argue that there is a need for a more elaborated theoretical perspective when discussing dilemmas in teachers’ work. Thus, we introduce the conceptual frame of dilemmatic space in educational settings and argue that introducing and analytically using the conceptual frame in an educational context offers a potential to elucidate and deepen the understanding of the complexity of teachers’ everyday work practices. Traditional ways of looking at dilemmas infer that they are related to specific situations in which people react to conflicting values, obligations or commitments and where there is often no right way to act. However, the idea of a dilemmatic space offers a more complex understanding of dilemmas and their positioning and relations. Instead of being regarded as specific events or situations, dilemmas are considered as ever-present in people’s living space, as in a dilemmatic space. As space is seen as a relational category wherein one object is related to another or others, the spatial dimensions of dilemmatic space highlight the dynamics of dilemmas and dilemmatic spaces. These dynamics are important to recognise, for instance, in relation to the changeable boundaries of the space or issues that conjure up the dilemmas at an individual and social level. These changing conditions of values, decisions, responsibilities and authority change the rules for relations, negotiations and positioning, and thereby the boundaries of the dilemmatic space and the dilemmas themselves. In this article, the theoretical base for the idea of dilemmatic space is elaborated on and connected to conditions for teachers’ work. Some conclusions are that new concepts force us to challenge pre-conceptions and involve us in new kinds of sense-making processes. As such, the conceptual frame of dilemmatic space offers a broad theoretical framework with which to conceptualise dilemmas and the complexity of educational contexts.     

Designing collaborative multiplayer serious games

The idea of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is being investigated for more than twenty years. Since a few years, game-based approaches like video games for learning (Serious Games) offer new fields of application. The combination of game-based learning concepts and collaborative learning may enable new, game-based application areas of CSCL, like collaborative multiplayer Serious Games. Designing such games, however, is very challenging as it requires to take into account traditional single player game design concepts, concepts for multiplayer game design, and concepts for Serious Game design simultaneously. Only very few examples of such games exist today. In this paper we describe an approach for the design of game-based collaborative learning scenarios using multiplayer Serious Games. Our approach aims at combining design concepts from the fields of collaborative learning and (multiplayer) game design. Our approach takes into account the requirements of traditional single player games (fun, narration, immersion, graphics, sound), challenges of multiplayer games (concurrent gaming, interaction) and Serious Game design (seamless inclusion of learning content, adaptation and personalization). Furthermore, requirements of collaborative learning are considered, like group goals, positive interdependence, and individual accountability. Our design concept was used to create a collaborative 3D multiplayer game fostering collaborative behavior as a foundation for game-based collaborative learning in small teams. We performed a user study with eight gaming sessions and a total of 23 participants. Results showed that the game enables a collaborative gameplay and fosters collaborative behavior. This may allow us to use a game-based CSCL approach to combine the advantages of game-based learning with those of collaborative learning in future.     

Inclusive education in Sweden? A critical analysis

When it comes to pupils in need of special support and pupils with disabilities, Sweden’s compulsory school system is sometimes considered a one‐track system. This article analyses and critically discusses current policy and practices at various levels of Sweden’s compulsory school system for these pupils. The analysis traces three themes at the national and municipal levels: (1) values and goals; (2) organisation and placement of pupils; and (3) importance of categories in obtaining support. A rather complex picture emerges from this analysis. Several conclusions are made: (1) state policies leave a lot of room for interpretation at the municipal and school levels, and this results in an extensive variation; (2) Swedish state policy is not as inclusive as is often stated; (3) celebration of difference seems to be hard to achieve; (4) learning goals can be a double‐edged sword with regard to inclusion; and (5) most pupils appear to enjoy participation in school, and in an international perspective, Swedish classrooms seem to be largely democratic.     

Historiography of biomedicine: "bio," "medicine," and in between

History of biomedicine is a hybrid domain, intersecting with many other scholarly disciplines. From the 1970s, historians who investigated recent developments in medicine increasingly shared the approaches, presuppositions, and methods of inquiry of historians and sociologists of science and technology. One reason is that the increasing reliance of medicine on technologies, instruments, and drugs makes the demarcation between "medicine," "science," and "industry" more difficult. Another is the "practice turn" in the history of science, which gave greater attention to the ways scientists and physicians work. The impressive achievements of historians who applied these new approaches came, however, at a cost. The neglect of an earlier generation of historians of medicine may have limited more recent ambitions for understanding health and disease in society. Closer links with historians of science and technology and sociologists of science may have blurred the specificity of medicine as a domain grounded in the distinction between the normal and the pathological and lessened scholars' interest in "the clinic" as a unique site of the production of knowledge.     

Five-year-old children value reasons in apologies for belief-based accidents

Accidents can be intent-based (unintended action-unintended outcome) or belief-based (intended action-unintended outcome). As compared to intent-based accidents, giving reasons is more crucial for belief-based accidents because the transgressor appears to have intentionally transgressed. In Study 1, UK-based preschoolers who were native English speakers (N = 96, 53 girls, collected 2020–2021) witnessed two intent-based or belief-based accidents; one transgressor apologized, the other apologized with a reason. Five-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, favored the reason-giving transgressor following a belief-based accident but not an intent-based accident (where an apology sufficed). In Study 2, 5-year-olds (N = 48, 25 girls, collected 2021) distinguished between “good” and “bad” reasons for the harm caused. Thus, 5-year-old children recognize when reasons should accompany apologies and account for the quality of these reasons.