Sex differences in achievement goals: do school subjects matter?

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Many studies have already found differences between male and female students in various motivational variables. With regard to the stereotypes...     

How Journalists and Social Media Users Perceive Online Fact-Checking and Verification Services

While services for fact-checking and verification to counter fake news in social media have increased, little research has investigated how journalists and the public perceive such services. This study reflects the outcomes of REVEAL, a three-year European Union research project investigating the use and impact of services for fact-checking and verification. Based on interviews with 32 young journalists and content analysis of social media users’ online conversations, we contribute new knowledge about the ways that journalists and social media users perceive online fact-checking and verification services. The findings suggest that, while young journalists were largely unfamiliar with or ambivalent about such services, they judged them as potentially useful in the investigative journalistic process. Yet, they were unwilling to rely exclusively on these tools for fact-checking and verification. A comparison of journalists’ perceptions with those of social media users reveals social media users are similarly ambivalent. Some accentuated the usefulness of such services, while others expressed strong distrust. However, the journalists displayed a more nuanced perspective, both seeing these services as potentially useful and being reluctant to blindly trust a single service. Design strategies to make online fact-checking and verification services more useful and trustworthy are suggested.     

The Cognitive and Academic Benefits of Music to Children: Facts and fiction

There is considerable interest in the potential non‐musical cognitive and academic benefits of music listening and instruction to children. This report describes three lines of research relevant to this issue, namely, the effects of: (1) focused music listening on subsequent task performance (the Mozart effect); (2) music instruction; and (3) background music listening. Research suggests that while Mozart effect studies have attracted considerable media attention, the effect cannot be reliably demonstrated in children. In contrast, music instruction confers consistent benefits for spatiotemporal reasoning skills; however, improvements in associated academic domains, such as arithmetic, have not been reliably shown. Finally, background music may calm and focus children with special education needs, thereby enhancing learning. Additional research is required to determine whether this effect is evident in normal populations. Overall, evidence for the non‐musical benefits of music listening and instruction is limited. The inherent value of music and music education should not be overlooked by narrowly focusing on cognitive and academic outcomes.     

Between psychopathology and inclusion: the challenging collaboration between educational psychologists and child psychiatrists

This article reports on a Danish study on interprofessional collaboration between child psychiatrists and educational psychologists concerning children who are categorised as being at risk. Methodologically, the analysis is grounded in qualitative interviews with psychologists. A Foucauldian approach is applied to narratives and experiences that occur within these interviews concerning external collaboration with child psychiatrists. The article is informed by the research tradition that has problematised the significance of psychiatry and diagnoses in the field of special needs education and social pedagogy. We thus enquire into how the rise of diagnostics and medicalisation affects our understanding of children's difficulties. We discuss a paradox that is present in Denmark and other countries. As educational policies emphasise inclusion, the field of schooling experiences a huge rise in children with medical diagnoses. We argue that diagnostic knowledge is itself an insufficient basis for action and must be considered in relation to teachers’ overall training and teachers’ situated professionalism.     

CORRELATES OF GAY‐RELATED NAME‐CALLING IN SCHOOLS

The aim of this study was to examine whether attitudes about gay‐related name‐calling, social norms concerning gay‐related name‐calling among co‐students, teacher intervention, and school‐related support would predict whether secondary school pupils had called another pupil a gay‐related name during the last month. A total of 921 ninth‐grade pupils (aged 14 to 15 years) at 15 lower secondary schools from two regions in Norway participated in the study by filling out a questionnaire. A logistic regression analysis revealed that having a negative attitude toward calling someone gay‐related names was negatively associated with having called a pupil gay‐related names in the last month. However, having heard a pupil call another pupil gay‐related names at school was the variable that most powerfully predicted this behavior. These findings give certain grounds for optimism regarding the prevention of gay‐related name‐calling and indicate that preventive measures aimed at students’ awareness would probably make a difference.     

Homotolerance and heteronormativity in Norwegian classrooms

This article is based on classroom observations and discusses sexual education that addresses homosexuality. Tolerance of queer lifestyles as well as support for judicial equality between heterosexual and homosexual couples is generally perceived as being high in the Norwegian political context. Norwegian sexual politics is, however, based on a binary understanding of sexuality, linked to stable and authentic sexual identities, and this perspective is highly influential in Norwegian education on sexuality. Homotolerance appears to be the most prominent ambition when teachers deal with homosexuality in their teaching. Informed by queer theory, I intend to investigate how teaching that sets out to create homotolerance reproduces heteronormativity. I will argue that even though education on homosexuality may create increased homotolerance, the very same education does also marginalise and stigmatise homosexuality as well as reproduce binary and heteronormative concepts of sexuality.     

How Swedish pupils,aged 12‐15 years,understand light and its properties‡

The reasoning patterns used by a sample of Western Australian secondary school students aged 13‐16 were investigated with regard to the following reasoning modes: proportional reasoning, controlling variables, probabilistic reasoning, correlational reasoning, and combinatorial reasoning.

There was a wide range in students’ reasoning abilities at all year levels. Large percentages of students did not use formal operational reasoning patterns when they attempted to solve problems assessing their ability to use each of the five reasoning modes. Commonly used, but incorrect reasoning patterns were identified for each reasoning mode.

The students’ ability to use formal reasoning patterns was found to be an important factor in determining student achievement in lower secondary science, in their selection of year 11 science subjects, and their achievement in these subjects.

The results of the study indicate that it is important for teachers to be aware of the reasoning patterns of their students and the cognitive demands of course content, so that they can optimally match the content and their teaching strategies with the abilities of their students. Further research is needed to establish the nature of instruction which might best facilitate cognitive growth.     

Prior mathematics achievement,cognitive appraisals and anxiety as predictors of Finnish students’ later mathematics performance and career orientation

The aim of this two‐year longitudinal study was to investigate the role and impact of prior mathematics performance, cognitive appraisals and mathematics‐specific, affective anxiety in determining later mathematics achievement and future career orientation among Finnish adolescents. The basic ideas of the control‐value theory, assumed to be culturally universal, and previous controversial results regarding the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement were tested in the Finnish cultural context with a longitudinal design. The key premise of the control‐value theory is that control and value appraisals are significant determinants of both activity and outcome achievement emotions. Our results suggest that mathematics anxiety, a prospective outcome emotion, is determined by outcome expectancies (success or failure) and outcome value (the importance of performing well). They also suggest that anxiety as a negative affective emotion is a problem not only for those who perform poorly but probably also for certain pupils across all achievement levels. Compared with the performance level and with the boys, the girls exhibited inaccurately low outcome expectancies in mathematics. These low expectancies connected to the negative value of failure are a potential cause for their higher anxiety level. The educational implications of the findings are discussed.     

Methods of Teaching and Class Participation in Relation to Perceived Social Support and Stress: Modifiable factors for improving health and wellbeing among students

Social support and stress have previously been found to be predictors of health among students. In this study, we investigated whether methods of teaching and class participation were related to social support and stress via questionnaire responses from 947 Norwegian adolescents aged 13-15. Linear associations between the variables were assessed in univariate and multivariate analyses of covariance. Highly significant overall effects were found with the amounts of group work, class discussions, and verbal activity. Borderline significant effect was also seen in relation to the amount of independent work. An increasing amount of group work increased the perception of social support from teachers and peers, but showed no significant association with stress. Increasing amounts of class discussions were significantly related to increasing perception of social support, in particular among boys. Class discussions also seemed to reduce the experience of stress, although somewhat inconsistently. Increasing amounts of independent work increased stress, but also increased the perception of social support from peers among boys. No significant associations with traditional teacher instruction were found. Verbal activity was strongly related both to increasing perception of social support and decreasing experiences of stress. In view of the present results, participatory learning activities may promote health by preventing stress experience and promoting social relationships.     

Iceberg ahead: On electronic government research and societal aging

More than ten years ago, Peterson (1999, p. 3) warned that “[g]lobal aging, like a massive iceberg, looms ahead.” Government budgets have already been hit hard by a simultaneous increase in governmental spending and a decline in tax revenue related to a growing share of the elderly to the total population. While almost all industrialized countries can expect an aging population and resulting budget stress, the implications of the graying of society for a “graying of e-Government initiatives and budgets” are not readily apparent and therefore constitutes a subject worthy of investigation. Despite the increasing importance of this issue for e-Government in practice, there remains a clear need to assess our understanding and reflection of the phenomenon. Therefore, we examine (a) whether e-Government research presently provides adequate theory, vocabulary, and methods and (b) the extent to which future e-Government research is potentially able to contribute to tackling the substantial theoretical and practical challenges related to societal aging. Accordingly, we pursue a multi-method approach in terms of sequentially applying a retrospective literature review (12 journals, vol. 2000–2009) and a prospective Delphi study (involving 24 e-Government experts). The results suggest that there is currently a significant gap between actual and potential e-Government research on societal aging. We discuss the implications for future e-Government research and describe potentially fruitful ways of bridging the prevailing gap between theory and practice.