Action learning in East Africa: new encounters or impossible challenges?

Action learning is extending its reach internationally and is increasingly used in distinct cultural settings. This paper explores action learning in an African context and examines how action learning as a cultural product is biased towards Western values and practices. We draw attention to the political, cultural and social encounters of internationalizing action learning which are often glossed over in current debates. The paper illuminates the historical development of pedagogical practices in Africa to elucidate how the social, political, cultural and economic processes have influenced and informed learning in African societies. Second, we review action learning and question its relevance and transferability in non-Western contexts. Finally, we will reflect on the potential of action learning in Africa, and its implications for future research and practice.     

Knowledge sharing and rewards: a game-theoretical perspective

Shared databases are used as tools for knowledge management. But contributing knowledge to the database is a public-goods dilemma. Its specific features are multidimensionality of the goods, resource overlap, interdependency of group members and the lack of a marginal unit of return for individual contributions. An analytical model is presented describing the individual- and group-level payoff function. It shows that rewarding contributions with a cost-compensating bonus can be an effective solution not only at the individual level, but also at the group level. Whether or not a bonus system is self-supporting depends on the critical mass of people on average needing a contribution. This depends on the overlap of the people's resources and their interdependency.     

Comparing teacher roles in Denmark and England

This article reports the findings of a comparative study of teaching in Denmark and England. Its broader aim is to help develop an approach for comparing pedagogy. Lesson observations and interviews identified the range of goals towards which teachers in each country worked and the actions these prompted. These were clustered using the lens of Bernstein’s pedagogic discourse to construct teacher roles, which provided a view of pedagogy. Through this approach we have begun to identify variations in pedagogy across two countries. All teachers in this study adopted a variety of roles. Of significance was the ease with which competent English teachers moved between roles. The English teachers observed adopted roles consistent with a wider techno-rationalist discourse. There was a greater subject emphasis by Danish teachers, whose work was set predominantly within a democratic humanist discourse, whilst the English teachers placed a greater emphasis on applied skills.     

Global citizenship as education for peacebuilding in a divided society: structural and contextual constraints on the development of critical dialogic discourse in schools

In post-conflict and divided societies, global citizenship education has been described as a central element of peacebuilding education, whereby critical pedagogy is seen as a tool to advance students’ thinking, transform their views and promote democratic behaviours. The present study investigates understandings of and attitudes to global citizenship and the challenges faced in its implementation. Teacher interviews highlight lack of time and resources for critical reflection and dialogue. Where opportunities for relevant training are provided, this can benefit critical engagement. Boundaries of educational systems and structures also influence pupils’ understandings of the issues as evidenced in questionnaire findings. We argue that critical pedagogies may be limited unless criticality and activism transcend local and global issues and are applied to schools themselves. Emotional engagement may be required for teachers to claim the space to critically reflect and share with colleagues within and beyond their sectors in order to enable critical discourse amongst pupils.     

Erfassung von Schülerselbsteinschätzungen zum schulbezogenen Sozial- und Lernverhalten – Validierung der Schülereinschätzliste für Sozial- und Lernverhalten (SSL)

The Self-Report Checklist for Social and Learning Behaviour (SSL) is a student questionnaire comparable to the Teacher Report Checklist for Social and Learning Behaviour. The SSL assesses ten facets of social and learning behaviour using self-reports by students. The present study of 1267 students aged 9 to 19 years examines the factorial structure, psychometric properties and validity of this questionnaire. The reliabilities (Cronbach’s Alpha, retest) of all ten scales were sufficiently good and the postulated factorial structure was found in exploratory as well as in confirmatory factor analysis. Correlations of SSL-scales with scales of the Differencial Aggression Questionnaire and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as well as with grades in German and mathematics indicated mainly convergent and divergent validity. Furthermore, positive correlations were found to corresponding teacher ratings.     

Which features make illustrations in multimedia learning interesting?

How can illustrations motivate learners in multimedia learning? Which features make illustrations interesting? Beside the theoretical relevance of addressing these questions, these issues are practically relevant when instructional designers are to decide which features of illustrations can trigger situational interest irrespective of individual differences. We analysed ratings of illustrations with respect to four potentially interest-triggering features (concreteness, personal relevance, ease of comprehension and unexpected information) and to situational interest. A methodological contribution was to show how multilevel modelling can be applied to take individual differences into account in several respects. Situational interest was predicted by 957 ratings of the four features on an intra-individual level (level 1). Inter-individual differences were controlled by modelling individuals on level 2 (N?=?82 high-school students). Concreteness, personal relevance and ease of comprehension of illustrations are what mainly triggered situational interest. Nearly, 55% of the situational interest variance was explained by inter-individual preferences, thus, highlighting the usefulness of multilevel modelling to control for individual differences.     

Students' emotions during homework: Structures,self-concept antecedents,and achievement outcomes

In the present study (N = 553; 8th and 11th grade students; 52% female) we investigated students' enjoyment, pride, anxiety, anger, and boredom while completing homework (homework emotions), and contrasted these emotions with those experienced during class (classroom emotions). Both homework emotions and classroom emotions were assessed separately for the domains of mathematics, physics, German, and English. Our hypotheses were based on propositions of the control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, 2006), Marsh and Ayotte's (2003) differential distinctiveness hypothesis, and previous empirical findings. In line with our assumptions, observed correlations between homework emotions and classroom emotions suggested that the emotions experienced in the two settings should be assessed separately. Within domains, both homework emotions and classroom emotions showed clear linkages with students' academic self-concept and achievement outcomes, with self-concept being slightly more strongly related to classroom emotions. Between-domain relations of emotions were significantly stronger for homework emotions as compared to classroom emotions, likely due to the relative situational homogeneity of homework settings across domains. Further, between-domain relations for emotions in both settings were weaker in 11th grade students, whereas within-domain relations did not differ as a function of age. Implications for research and educational practice are discussed.