General education. Homogenised education for the globalized world?

Societies need to make sure that the next generation is ready and capable to take over in due time, be it in working life, culture, civil society, politics or families. Therefore, society at large and specifically state governments need to assist the efforts of families and local communities. Such provisions have been the basic premise for general educational theories for centuries, when education was often named Democratic and Comprehensive Bildung. At present, this premise needs re-conceptualization, because societies are moving dramatically towards opening up for interactions and relations with the widest possible area: the globe. Many societal challenges have effects across nations, calling for trans-national coordination, management and solutions,—for homogenized and standard based policy making. At the same time, inspiration from multiple sources produce conflicting visions and rival discourses about what the purposes of and the means for education should be.In this paper we analyze and discuss two contemporary, fundamentally dissimilar discourses on education and their theoretical and societal roots. Our main method is discourse analysis. We argue for inclusion of a global world-view in national education. We shall be critical, however, to the technocratic turn and the homogenization of education per se and argue for a Democratic Bildung perspective in education for world citizenship.     

Collaborative learning practices: teacher and student perceived obstacles to effective student collaboration

While the educational literature mentions several obstacles affecting the effectiveness of collaborative learning (CL), they have often been investigated through the perceptions of only one actor, either teachers or students. Therefore, some sources of obstacles that teachers and students encounter may not have been revealed. In this study, 19 teachers and 23 students in different disciplines at a pre-service teacher education faculty at a university in Vietnam were interviewed. In total, 47% of the teachers taught science subjects and 53% taught social subjects; 35% of the students majored in science subjects, 57% in social subjects, and 8% in primary education. With regard to study cohorts, 22% of the students were in the first and second year while 78% were in the third and fourth year of their four-year bachelor’s programme. These programmes produce qualified teachers for primary and secondary schools nationwide. Based on grounded theory analysis, four common obstacles to collaboration were identified: students’ lack of collaborative skills, free-riding, competence status, and friendship. Furthermore, the results showed three interrelated antecedents that contribute to these obstacles. Central to the antecedents is the strong focus of the teachers on the cognitive aspects of CL, which led the participating teachers to neglect the collaborative aspects of CL. These antecedents were demonstrated in the ways teachers set CL goals, provided instruction, and assessed student collaboration. This study may be useful for educators, designers, and researchers to foster the quality of student collaboration.     

Paradigm revisited: Another look at the physical and social sciences

The study reexamines the paradigm concept as presented by Lodahl and Gordon with respect to the concept of consistency in professional life. The results show that high paradigm disciplines are more consistent than low paradigm disciplines on selected measures of educational background and professional activity. The conclusions of this investigation suggest first that the paradigm concept works well by itself in researching academic professions, and second that the concept of consistency offers a new way of both classifying faculty and exploring the dimensions of faculty characteristics.     

Teachers’ opinions on quality criteria for Competency Assessment Programs

Quality control policies towards Dutch vocational schools have changed dramatically because the government questioned examination quality. Schools must now demonstrate assessment quality to a new Examination Quality Center. Since teachers often design assessments, they must be involved in quality issues. This study therefore explores teachers’ opinions on assessment quality evaluation criteria. Pre-vocational and vocational teachers (N=211$N=211$) responded to a questionnaire. Contrary to expectations, results show that teachers deem classical and competency-based quality criteria equally important. Vocational teachers gave higher importance scores than pre-vocational teachers, possibly due to the pressure they experience to improve the quality of their assessments.     

Electroencephalogram Recordings Indicate That More Abstract Diagrams Need More Mental Resources to Process

There is considerable interest in the cultivation of student graphic literacy among educators and researchers, especially in the sciences. Previous research, however, has shown that many students manifest difficulties in using diagrammatic representations. One explanation that has been proposed to account for these difficulties is that certain forms of diagrams may be more demanding of mental effort to use. Although there had been behavioral evidence to support this explanation, neurophysiological evidence had not confirmed it. Here, we provide evidence, from electroencephalogram recordings of brain activity focusing on the P3b component, that more abstract diagrams (such as graphs) demand greater mental resources to process compared to pictures and text—even when amount of detail has been accounted for. Our results provide initial neurophysiological evidence for the impact of cognitive cost on student learning behaviors and outcomes. Consideration of this finding is important in pedagogical design and, more broadly, in media communication.     

Multidimensional performance characteristics and standard of performance in talented youth field hockey players: a longitudinal study

To identify performance characteristics that could help predict future elite field hockey players, we measured the anthropometric, physiological, technical, tactical, and psychological characteristics of 30 elite and 35 sub-elite youth players at the end of three consecutive seasons. The mean age of the players at the end of the first season was 14.2 years (s = 1.1). Repeated-measures analyses of covariance, with standard of performance and measurement occasion as factors and age as a covariate, showed that the elite players fared better than the sub-elite players on technical and tactical variables. Female elite youth players also scored better on interval endurance capacity, motivation, and confidence. Future elite players appear to have excellent tactical skills by the age of 14. They also have good specific technical skills and develop these together with interval endurance capacity better than sub-elite youth players in the subsequent 2 years. To verify our conclusions, we will be tracking these players into adulthood.     

Computer-Mediated Communication Environments in Teacher Education: Computer Conferencing and the Supervision of Student Teachers

The use of computer conferencing environments with student teachers and their supervisors was implemented during teaching practice and evaluated for four teacher education programs. Computer conferencing can be contrasted with the more common supervision methods, such as face-to-face conferences between the student teacher and the cooperating teacher, or between a group of student teachers and their supervisor at the teacher education institute. In our evaluation, we focused on participants' opinions of computer conferencing and their participation, activities and educational outcomes. During their field experiences, student teachers used computer conferencing primarily to exchange emotional support when they recognised similar experiences among their peers. It was less used for reflecting on their teaching and exchanging pedagogical content knowledge, including instructional methods and designs, classroom management strategies, general and instructional theories, and aspects of the teaching profession. This finding led to the conclusion that more attention should be paid to the structure of student teachers' learning environment, because more coaching and instruction of student teachers in their systematic and reflective use of computer conferencing leads to more varied and extensive communication     

Ankopplung heterogener Anwendungssysteme an F?derierte Datenbanksysteme durch Funktionsintegration

Zusammenfassung. Mit der zunehmenden Zahl an Anwendungssystemen, welche Datenbank und zugeh?rige Anwendung kapseln, ist die reine Datenintegration nicht mehr ausreichend. Stattdessen k?nnen die Daten des Anwendungssystems nur noch über vordefinierte Funktionen abgefragt werden. Sollen Daten und Funktionen integriert werden, so ist eine Kombination von deklarativen Anfragen und dem Zugriff auf Funktionen erforderlich. In diesem Aufsatz stellen wir einen Middleware-Ansatz vor, der diese erweiterte und neuartige Form der Integration unterstützt. Hierzu werden zun?chst die Probleme der Funktionsintegration er?rtert und eine Spezifikationssprache eingeführt, die f?derierte Funktionen zu bilden und diese mehreren lokalen Funktionen der zu integrierenden Anwendungssysteme zuzuordnen erlaubt. Anschlie?end zeigen wir, wie die zugeh?rige Ausführungskomponente – in unserem Fall ein Workflow-Managementsystem – an ein F?deriertes Datenbanksystem mittels eines Wrappers gekoppelt wird, um die Integration von Daten und Funktionen zu erm?glichen. Dabei wird die zu unterstützende Funktionalit?t innerhalb des Wrappers sowie deren Auswirkungen auf die Anfrageverarbeitung als auch das zugeh?rige Kostenmodell untersucht. Abschlie?end wird ein Eindruck von der Performanz der vorgestellten Architektur vermittelt. Eingegangen am 19. Februar 2002 / Angenommen am 31. Mai 2002