Evaluation of Vocational Education in the Swedish Upper Secondary School

Axelsson, R. 1979. Evaluation of Vocational Education in the Swedish Upper Secondary School. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 23, 169‐184. The present evaluation is part of a continual evaluation of the new upper secondary school, with particular emphasis on vocational lines of study. It considers the view taken by school‐leavers of their vocational situation in relation to the goals of their education as a preparation for vocational activity and as a means of personal development. The study is primarily concerned with those students who completed their vocational studies in the spring of 1974. In October 1975 a questionnaire was sent to over 8,000 of the 23,000 in the target group, and a number of individuals were interviewed from each of the thirteen lines in question. Though the responses to the questionnaire were often positive, the interviewed students pointed out a number of deficiencies in their situation.     

Mathematical identity in women: The concept,its components and relationship to educative ability,achievement and family support

Mathematical identity and its relationship to mathematical achievement, educative ability and study support were studied among 133 women enrolled in the Swedish adult education system. A model of mathematical identity was constructed including self‐perceived mathematical knowledge, ability, motivation and anxiety. This model was transformed into a statistical factor model, tested using Lisrel. An acceptable fit was obtained. The first three factors were strongly negatively related to mathematical anxiety. The mathematical identity components correlated most strongly with earlier school grades in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, with the result of a diagnostic test. Unexpectedly, the relationships to educative ability and study support were weak. Using a person‐oriented approach, three typical patterns were found: one with extremely positive, and two with extremely negative, mathematical identity. The implications for further research are to investigate stability and change in the mathematical identity of women taking part in recurrent education.     

Bodily experience and mathematical conceptions: from classical views to a phenomenological reconceptualization

Mathematical concepts and conceptions have been theorized as abstractions from—and therefore transcending—bodily and embodied experience. In this contribution, we re-theorize mathematical conceptions by building on recent philosophical work in dialectical phenomenology. Accordingly, a conception exists only in, through, and as of the experiences that the individual realizes it. To exemplify our reconceptualization of mathematical conceptions, we draw on an episode from a study in a second-grade classroom where the students learned about three-dimensional geometrical objects.

Enrollment management and career services: Translating concepts into practice

Summary We in career services must move from feeling that enrollment management is not our job to the realization that much of what we already do positively impacts recruitment and retention. We must become more proactive in our efforts, and more demonstrative of our impact. Our image with students, parents, staff, faculty and alumni should include what we do to help bring students to our campus, and what we do to help make them successful learners, both while on campus and throughout their work life.     

Problem solving in the rat: Stay vs. shift solutions on the three-table task

Two experiments were conducted to determine the conditions under which a shift problem vs. a stay problem would be easier for animals tested on Maier’s three-table task. When animals were given a prior exploratory experience and a partial feeding during the feeding experience, the stay problem was easier. With a prior exploratory experience and a complete feeding experience, the shift solution was easier. In the absence of prior exploration, rats cannot solve either the stay or shift problem, regardless of the amount of feeding during the feeding experience.     

The Emergence of 3D Geometry From Children's (Teacher-Guided) Classification Tasks

In this article, we describe the design principles undergirding productive failure (PF; M. Kapur, 2008 Kapur, M. 2008. Productive failure. Cognition and Instruction, 26: 379–424. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We then report findings from an ongoing program of research on PF in mathematical problem solving in 3 Singapore public schools with significantly different mathematical ability profiles, ranging from average to lower ability. In the 1st study, 7th-grade mathematics students from intact classes experienced 1 of 2 conditions: (a) PF, in which students collaboratively solved complex problems on average speed without any instructional support or scaffolds up until a teacher-led consolidation; or (b) direct instruction (DI), in which the teacher provided strong instructional support, scaffolding, and feedback. Findings suggested that although PF students generated a diversity of linked representations and methods for solving the complex problems, they were ultimately unsuccessful in their problem-solving efforts. Yet despite seemingly failing in their problem-solving efforts, PF students significantly outperformed DI students on the well-structured and complex problems on the posttest. They also demonstrated greater representation flexibility in solving average speed problems involving graphical representations, a representation that was not targeted during instruction. The 2nd and 3rd studies, conducted in schools with students of significantly lower mathematical ability, largely replicated the findings of the 1st study. Findings and implications of PF for theory, design of learning, and future research are discussed.