Word-Decoding Deficits in Norwegian: The Impact of Psycholinguistic Marker Effects

The effects of regularity, frequency, lexicality, and granularity on single word reading in Norwegian children with dyslexia and control children matched for age and reading level were examined. The reading impaired children showed the same pattern of performance as younger children matched for reading level on most tasks except for the fact that they worse at nonword reading. The findings are discussed against different theoretical models of reading.     

The political dimension in ESE: the construction of a political moment model for analyzing bodily anchored political emotions in teaching and learning of the political dimension

This article departures from the understanding of environmental sustainable education (ESE) as a political project that consists of dissonant and conflicting voices. The aim of the article is to understand how affection, i.e. bodily sensations, transform into political emotions in teaching and learning settings. The article offers a philosophical and empirically based model called the ‘political moment model’ for analyzing bodily anchored political emotions in teaching and learning of the political dimension. The model was developed in response to an empirical case study where the data were somewhat confusing. In order understand the empirical data, we used parts of Mouffe’s theory of the political and various scholars’ work on political emotions and placed these aspects in a pragmatist standpoint of experience, emotions and meaning making. The model helped to investigate students’ experiences of the political dimension in situations where they experienced affection, i.e. bodily sensation, and emotions in connection with reflections and discussions about how to handle public issues of sustainable development. The article ends with a theoretical discussion of the findings in order to understand the political dimension in teaching and learning activities and to discern possible directions for future research on political moments in ESE.     

Assessment of three-and-a-half-year-old children's emerging phonological awareness in a computer animation context

Four computer-animated tasks were created to analyze the underlying structure of emerging phonological awareness at 3.5 years of age and to explore the factors that influence children's (N = 91) performance on the tasks. Our findings indicated that already at this young age, children are able to master tasks demanding identification, blending, and continuation of phonological units when the tasks are presented in a motivating assessment context. In line with earlier research, children showed higher mastery in dealing with words and syllables than in dealing with phonemes. Targets in the initial position of a word were easier for children to identify than those in the final position. Our analysis provided support for two major dimensions of emerging phonological awareness based on the cognitive operations of the tasks: identification and blending of phonological units.     

Connecting Children's Stories to Children's Literature: Meeting Diversity Needs

Combining children's natural storytelling abilities with quality multicultural literature serves to enhance their language skills and students' appreciation of cultural differences. Narrative abilities—particularly stories—are a natural vehicle for building on children's oral language skills and develop literacy with print. If the stories have a multicultural focus, it is only natural that readers and participants will develop an appreciation of both cultural similarities and differences.     

A conceptual framework for developing an activity-based approach to career counselling

The present paper develops a conceptual framework for an activity-based approach to career counselling. The main objective of this approach is to combine clients' practical activity, such as visits to educational institutions, work practices etc., with their psychological processes leading to occupational choice. Some basic ideas that are relevant to developing an activity-based approach to counselling in postmodern work life and some recent changes in work life itself and in the individuals' relation to work are discussed. These include plasticity, which emphasizes the individuals' capability and activeness in shaping both their working environment and themselves; the nonnormative nature of the developmental tasks that postmodern work life sets for the individual; the openness and nonlinear nature of the counselling process and the implications of this on the role of the counsellor; and the usefulness of conceptualizing the counselling process as a metaphorical reality. Also, some preliminary findings from a research project aimed at developing a counselling process model which is congruent with activity-based approach are presented. The implications of these findings on the framework are also discussed.     

Vision and Embodied Knowing: The Making of Floral Design

This article focuses on assessment actions in floristry education, addressing how interaction with flowers influences and mediates vocational knowing. Using video recordings from floristry education for adults, the article explores the interaction between teacher and student when assessing on-going work and performance as a way to frame the teacher’s seeing in situ. Influenced by conversation analysis and moment-by-moment methods ─ including talk, gestures, and flowers as resources ─ the findings contribute to a holistic perspective on vocational floristry knowing. Different features of vocational floristry knowing are detected as part of the content in assessment actions: (i) aesthetic standards reflected in suggestions made by the teacher and student, (ii) financial awareness as a way of seeing flowers, and (iii) the use of context and change of perspective to take the customer into account. The findings demonstrate situated floristry knowing in action, which is displayed when the teacher enables the student to visualise and understand professional vision of flowers, traditions, and standards.     

Individual differences in sign language abilities in deaf children

The study attempted to identify characteristics of individual differences in sign language abilities among deaf children. Connections between sign language skills and rapid serial naming, hand motor skills, and early fluency were investigated. The sample consisted of 85 Finnish deaf children. Their first language was sign language. Simple correlations and multiple linear-regression analysis demonstrated the effect of early language development and serial hand movements on sign language abilities. Other significant factors were serial fingertapping and serial naming. Heterogeneity in poor sign language users was noted. Although identifying learning disorders in deaf children is complicated, developmental difficulties can be discovered by appropriate measurements. The study confirmed the results of earlier research demonstrating that the features of deaf and hearing children's learning resemble each other. Disorders in signed and spoken languages may have similar bases despite their different modalities.     

Skills utilisation at work,the quality of the study programme and fields of study

This paper examines the factors that may have impact on the extent to which the knowledge and skills of master’s degree graduates in Norway are utilised at work, three years after graduation. The focus is on the impact of the quality of the study programme as well as the graduates’ fields of study, when also taking into account other factors influencing the utilisation of skills. The analysis indicates that the quality of the study programme has an independent effect on skills utilisation at work. The analysis also shows large differences in skills utilisation according to fields of study, even among graduates who are not formally overeducated for their job. Not formally overeducated graduates in humanities and social science utilise their knowledge and skills less frequently than other similar graduates. The findings involve challenges for higher education institutions and graduates, as well as employers, to find ways that the expertise of master's degree graduates could be better exploited.     

The role of emotions in student teachers’ professional identity

This paper presents findings of a qualitative interview study of the role of emotions in the professional identity of student teachers. Strong positive and negative emotions (mostly related to pupils and supervisors) were expressed about personal teaching experiences. The results confirm that emotions play an important role in social learning and, therefore, influence the development of professional identity. The two most important findings were that negative emotions exercised the strongest influence and that supervisors neglected the role of positive emotions as a support for learning. The study supports the concept that it is important for teacher educators to help student teachers understand their emotional experiences (focusing foremost on positive factors in their experience) and to develop the ability to express their own emotions in addition to understanding the emotions of others.