Digitalisation in higher education: mapping institutional approaches for teaching and learning

This paper explores the digitalisation of teaching and learning understood as external processes, influenced by government and international trends and as internal processes within the institutions, in Denmark and Norway. These are countries with similarities regarding digitalisation and educational systems. In the internal processes, there was some use of digital technology in teaching and learning when initiated from administration including IT-staff, in collaboration with academic leaders. There was little or only limited reported use of technology for teaching and learning, when the processes were initiated by administration together with enthusiasts among faculty staff, who did not have leadership roles or influence on change. There was more reported use of technology in teaching and learning in Denmark than Norway. The paper discusses possible explanations for these findings and thus illuminates how processes of digitalisation are influenced by broader governance arrangements, institutional maturity and academic and administration staffs.     

Semiotic and discursive variables in cas-based didactical engineering

This paper presents a semiotic analysis of the (often claimed) potential of computer algebra systems (CAS) for enabling mathematical activity on a conceptual level higher than usual. Theoretical points are illustrated by examples from a development project in the context of a first year university course on calculus. We also discuss how they may be used in `a posteriori' didactical analysis and in didactical engineering. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Stress and Resources in Vocational Problem Solving

By adapting the job demands-resources model of Demerouti et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512, (2001) to vocational problem-solving situations, we aimed to investigate how, and to what extent, problem-solving demands and personal resources affect stress responses and task interest. Therefore, we used a problem-solving task from the business administration domain in a computer-based office simulation. We assigned 58 participants into two groups. The treatment group worked on the problem scenario, whereas the control group was instructed to inspect the computer-based scenario and to check the software’s usability without solving the problem. Problem-solving demands, perceived stress, task interest, cardiovascular parameters, and cortisol concentration were assessed before, during and after the task at several time points. The vocational problem-solving task was associated with perceived time pressure, uncertainty, mental effort, task difficulty, and perceived stress. In addition, we found higher heart rate and cortisol concentration and lower heart rate variability values in the treatment group (compared to the control group) at the end of the task. Furthermore, we found that content knowledge buffers the impact of problem-solving demands on stress responses and it maintains task interest under high mental effort. Overall, we found evidence that vocational problem-solving activities bear stress-evoking potential and personal resources may provide buffering and maintaining functions.     

Teacher–student interaction in contemporary science classrooms: is participation still a question of gender?†

We show that boys still have a greater access to the space for interaction in science classrooms, which is unexpected since in Sweden today girls perform better in these subjects than boys. Results from video-recorded verbal communication, referred to here as interaction, show that the distribution of teacher–student interaction in the final year of lower secondary school follows the same patterns as in the 1980s. The interaction space for all kinds of talk continues to be distributed according to the two-thirds rule for communication in science classrooms as described by previous research. We also show that the overall interaction space in science classrooms has increased for both boys and girls when talk about science alone is considered. Another finding which follows old patterns is that male teachers still address boys more often than girls. This holds true both for general talk and for talk about science. If a more even distribution of teacher–student interaction is desirable, these results once again need to be considered. More research needs to be undertaken before the association between girls’ attitudes and interest in science in terms of future career choice and the opportunity to participate in teacher–student interaction is more clearly understood.     

To Read or Not to Read: A Qualitative Study of Students’ Justifications for Document Selection in Task-Oriented Reading

When navigating through the vast amount of information that we encounter in our everyday lives, we constantly make decisions concerning what information to read more closely and what information to disregard. Consideration of the relevance and trustworthiness of information sources facilitates those decisions. In the present study, we interviewed 25 upper-secondary students after they had selected documents to use in completing a task, and we asked them to justify their selections. A qualitative analysis of the interview data showed that students’ justifications could be related to (1) content relevance, (2) source features, and (3) prior topic knowledge. The results demonstrate that students are able to evaluate content relevance and source features as part of their document selection strategies but that perceived prior knowledge seems to influence both selections and justifications.     

The contribution of orthographic and phonological processes to word reading in young Norwegian readers

The dissociation between phonological and orthographic processes in word reading was investigated in a study involving 147 children in grade 3. The criterion measure was a timed word reading test. Two tasks assessed phonological skills and two tasks assessed orthographical skills. Orthographic ability accounted for variance in word reading even after phonological ability had been controlled. Poor readers differed from skilled readers in the way phonological and orthographic factors were balanced. The relationship between the two factors was fairly strong among poor readers, whereas the correlation was low for more skilled readers. Furthermore, phonological factors played a much stronger role in explaining the variance in word reading among poor readers, while on the other hand, orthographic factors were more powerful among skilled readers.     

Early language development and kindergarten phonological awareness as predictors of reading problems: from 3 to 11 years of age

At the end of Grade 4, 481 children on the Danish island of Bornholm were screened using group tests for sentence reading. For 205 of these children, language and speech data from the speech therapist's screening at age 3 were available, as well as language comprehension and linguistic awareness data from the kindergarten year (age 6) and word decoding measures in Grades 2 and 3. A path analysis revealed significant paths from early language abilities at age 3 through expressive and receptive language in kindergarten via language awareness in kindergarten and word decoding in Grade 2 to sentence reading in Grades 3 and 4. The subgroup of children with parents who had reported a history of reading problems at school entry scored significantly below average on sentence reading in Grade 4. The subgroup of children that were reported to show a very low interest in books and story reading before age 5 also scored low on sentence reading in Grade 4. Statistically significant but weak relationships were also found between parents' educational background, parents' library visits, and number of books at home and the child's reading ability in Grade 4.     

Seeing education through the prism of PISA

International comparisons are never easy and they are not perfect. But PISA shows what is possible in education and it helps countries to see themselves in the mirror of student performance and educational possibilities in other countries. This article summarises key policy insights from PISA. It highlights how excellence and improving equity need not be conflicting policy objectives, but that they tend to be jointly achieved only when deliberate policies are in place that match resources with needs and when stratification and grade repetition are contained. The article also shows how a number of countries have been able to raise learning outcomes and moderate the impact of social background in the last decade and highlights some of the policies and practices that characterise these countries.     

Mandatory criteria for the application of variability-based parameters of fluid responsiveness: a prospective study in different groups of ICU patients

Background and objective

Stroke volume variation (SVV) has high sensitivity and specificity in predicting fluid responsiveness. However, sinus rhythm (SR) and controlled mechanical ventilation (CV) are mandatory for their application. Several studies suggest a limited applicability of SVV in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. We hypothesized that the applicability of SVV might be different over time and within certain subgroups of ICU patients. Therefore, we analysed the prevalence of SR and CV in ICU patients during the first 24 h of PiCCO-monitoring (primary endpoint) and during the total ICU stay. We also investigated the applicability of SVV in the subgroups of patients with sepsis, cirrhosis, and acute pancreatitis.

Methods

The prevalence of SR and CV was documented immediately before 1241 thermodilution measurements in 88 patients.Results: In all measurements, SVV was applicable in about 24%. However, the applicability of SVV was time-dependent: the prevalence of both SR and CV was higher during the first 24 h compared to measurements thereafter (36.1% vs. 21.9%; P<0.001). Within different subgroups, the applicability during the first 24 h of monitoring ranged between 0% in acute pancreatitis, 25.5% in liver failure, and 48.9% in patients without pancreatitis, liver failure, pneumonia or sepsis.

Conclusions

The applicability of SVV in a predominantly medical ICU is only about 25%–35%. The prevalence of both mandatory criteria decreases over time during the ICU stay. Furthermore, the applicability is particularly low in patients with acute pancreatitis and liver failure.