On the Relations Between Parents' Ideals and Children's Autonomy

In this article Doret J. de Ruyter and Anders Schinkel argue that parents' ideals can enhance children's autonomy, but that they may also have a detrimental effect on the development of children's autonomy. After describing the concept of ideals and elucidating a systems theoretical conception of autonomy, de Ruyter and Schinkel explore the ways in which the ideals of parents may play a role in the development of their children's autonomy. They show that abstract and complex ideals of parents (be it ideals for their children, ideals with regard to their parenthood, or their personal ideals) are most likely to enhance their children's autonomy. They also explain that an authoritative parenting style is most conducive to autonomy, although whether or not it does benefit children's autonomy also depends on the types of ideals pursued by parents.     

Evaluating a large-scale implementation of Assessment for Learning in Sweden

This study reports on a large-scale implementation of Assessment for Learning (AfL) in a Swedish municipality. The implementation was founded on two principles: (1) teaching should be informed by educational research; (2) to be successful teachers’ professional development needs to be based in everyday classroom practice. From these principles, AfL was chosen as a strand of educational research to inform teaching and ‘Teacher Learning Communities’ were chosen as a vehicle for professional development and for implementing AfL practices. Findings indicate that the project has been successful in bringing about a change in how teachers talk about teaching and learning and in changing teachers’ pedagogical practice towards AfL. Findings also suggest that AfL practices are mostly teacher-centred, which means that the teachers still take most of the responsibility for the assessment. This leads to high workload for the teachers and may also hinder students from taking responsibility for their learning.     

Student-customer orientation at a higher education institution: the perspective of undergraduate business students

Existing literature is polarized and primarily conceptual on the topic of student-customer orientation. Research into this phenomenon has failed to realize that higher education as such consists of several different educational experiences and has therefore addressed and studied the issue at too general a level, i.e. at the level of the higher education institution (HEI) as a whole, not at the level of educational experiences that an HEI provides. Based on a validated model of educational experiences, validated student-customer orientation questionnaire [Koris, R., & Nokelainen, P. (in press Koris, R., & Nokelainen, P. (in press). The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ): Application of customer metaphor to higher education. International Journal of Educational Management. [Google Scholar]). The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ): Application of customer metaphor to higher education. International Journal of Educational Management] and a survey conducted among business students (N?=?405) in Estonia, the aim of this article is to identify whether in which categories of educational experience and to what extent students expect an HEI to be student-customer oriented. The results of the study show that students expect to be treated as customers in some, but not all categories of educational experience that an HEI offers.     

Assessment to Increase Students’ Creativity: Two Case Studies

Changing the assessment method is a way to influence the students’ attitudes towards their studies; their ways of working to a large extent are determined by the assessment methods. One way to take advantage of this is to use the assessment to stimulate creativity and communication skills. This has been tried in full‐scale studies for students in engineering physics, computer science and mathematics at Uppsala University and Vdxjö University, both in Sweden. Undergraduate education in engineering, computer science and mathematics has by tradition emphasized training in skills. The examination often consists of problems that the students solve individually. It is difficult to give complex and/or loosely defined problems in such an examination. The students are not encouraged to analyze, judge, communicate or discuss these skills. In fact, in the authors’ experience, traditional examinations can actually inhibit the development of the students’ independence and creativity. Both projects have been supported by the Council for Renewal of Undergraduate Education, Sweden.     

Social Class,Gender and Ethnic Differences in Subjects Taken at Age 14.

In this paper, we identify patterns of subject and qualification choices made at age 14. Much of the previous research on ‘subject choice’ has focussed on the later stages of educational trajectories, particularly Higher Education. However, the choices made at early branching points can limit pupils’ subsequent options, potentially contributing to educational inequalities. This paper identifies the patterns of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) subjects chosen by a cohort of young people born in 1989/1990. We make use of the Next Steps data (formerly the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)) which is linked to the National Pupil Database. We develop an approach to measuring the academic selectivity of subjects and qualifications. We examine the roles of social class, parental education, income, gender and ethnicity in determining participation in these curriculum groupings. Using measures of prior attainment from age thirteen, we address the question of whether curriculum differentials simply reflect differences in prior attainment or whether they actually operate above and beyond existing inequalities. We find clear socio-economic, gender, ethnic and school-level differences in subjects studied which cannot be accounted for by prior attainment.     

Big data as governmentality in international development: Digital traces,algorithms, and altered visibilities

Statistics have long shaped the field of visibility for the governance of development projects. The introduction of big data has altered the field of visibility. Employing Dean's “analytics of government” framework, we analyze two cases—malaria tracking in Kenya and monitoring of food prices in Indonesia. Our analysis shows that big data introduces a bias toward particular types of visualizations. What problems are being made visible through big data depends to some degree on how the underlying data is visualized and who is captured in the visualizations. It is also influenced by technical factors such as distance between mobile phone towers and the truth claims that gain legitimacy.     

Estimating the quality of performance assessments: The case of an ‘interactive examination’ for teacher competencies

Professional schools prepare students to become competent professionals. Consequently, there is a need for assessments that can determine the acquisition of the relevant professional competencies. Although using performance assessment to replace traditional paper-and-pencil tests might provide one way to move forward, the use of performance assessments for summative purposes has been shown to be problematic (e.g. marker consistency and construct representation). With the aid of a comprehensive framework of quality criteria for competence assessments, this article considers if one particular existing competence assessment methodology is suitable for summative as well as formative use. It is argued that the comprehensive quality estimation of the examination procedure aids in identifying strengths and weaknesses in the assessment methodology, and that this information can be used to facilitate the inclusion of performance assessment in higher education, both for summative and formative use.     

The Frequent Occurrence of Atacamite in Medieval Swedish Murals

Copper trihydroxychloride [Cu₂Cl(OH)₃] exists with four polymorphs: atacamite, paratacamite, clinoatacamite, and botallackite. They have all been used as green pigments, usually under the name atacamite. For many years, atacamite was regarded as a pigment mainly used in ancient South America, China, and Egypt. However, the last decades have shown that atacamite has been found in European medieval paintings, and quite often in Sweden. This paper gives a brief overview of the history of atacamite and its polymorphs. Green pigments from medieval murals in 56 Swedish churches were analyzed. The results show that atacamite and malachite are common, while green earth is less frequent and green vivianite rare. In particular, atacamite often occurs in medieval wall paintings on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The atacamite minerals are rare in Europe and are not found in the Swedish bedrock. Their occurrence in Swedish murals and their origin is discussed. Atacamite may be synthesized by various methods and is in fact often observed on corroded outdoor bronze statues in marine surroundings.