Cross-boundary collaboration and knowledge creation in an online higher education course

This study investigated an international, inter-university and multidisciplinary online course with the aim of helping higher education students develop competencies for solving complex problems in collaboration with their peers and stakeholders. The course design was informed by the knowledge creation framework and ideas about cross-boundary collaboration. We attempted to enrich perspectives on knowledge creation by investigating how higher education students (N = 42) from different fields of study and from 17 different nationalities perceived, built and regulated cross-boundary collaboration in the pursuit of real-life problems presented by companies or non-governmental organisations. Drawing on data from 11 in-depth group interviews and team reports of students who had completed this course, we showed the kinds of activities the students considered relevant for cross-boundary collaboration and knowledge creation online. Given this extended context for knowledge creation, the study contributes to the pedagogical development of online learning in higher education.     

Communicating to Learn Multivariable Calculus: Students' Blackboard Presentations as a Means for Enhancing Mathematics Learning

This paper reports observations and reflections from a pedagogic intervention intended to enhance mathematics students' learning of course content in a course in multivariable calculus. The intervention design required students to structure, practice, and deliver an oral presentation that was a synthesis of the teacher's weekly lectures, for the benefit of themselves and their peers. The intervention appears to have incentivized students to engage with and learn mathematics contents in an effective way, and it also helped the mathematics teacher to reflect on, adapt, and develop his teaching strategies. To conclude, it would seem that both students and teachers in mathematics have much to gain from giving students opportunities to develop their own voice in learning contexts otherwise relying on books and lectures.     

Power and pacing calculations based on real-time locating data from a cross-country skiing sprint race

Pacing strategies in cross-country skiing have been investigated in several studies. However, none of the previous studies have been verified by collected skiing data giving the skiing velocities along a measured track. These can be used to calculate the propulsive power output. Collected real-time positioning data from a cross-country sprint skiing race were used to estimate the propulsive power by applying a power balance model. Analyses were made for the time-trial and the final for one female and one male skier. The average propulsive power over the whole race times were 311 and 296 W during the time trial and 400 and 386 W during the final, for the female and male skier, respectively. Compared to the average propulsive power over the whole race, the average active propulsive phases were calculated as 33 and 44% higher in the time trials and 36 and 37% higher in the finals for the female and male, respectively. The current study presents a novel approach to use real-time positioning data to estimate continuous propulsive power during cross-country sprint skiing, enabling in-depth analyses of power output and pacing strategies.     

Predictive indicators for adjustment in 4-year-old children whose mothers used amphetamine during pregnancy

Psychosocial factors that could be used as predictive indicators for adjustment of 4-year-old children whose mothers had used amphetamine during pregnancy were studied by means of simple and multivariate correlation analyses. The following statistically significant correlations were found: Length of maternal alcohol and drug abuse during pregnancy was correlated negatively with the child's adjustment as were numbers of paternal criminal convictions, number of stress factors of the mother, and number of earlier children born to the mother. Paternal criminality was associated with the outcome, regardless of amount of contact between father and child.     

Positive and Negative Facets of Formal Group Mentoring: Preservice Teacher Perspectives

The use of mentoring within teacher education has become more common in recent years, however, there still seems to be a lack of research about formal group mentorship models as a pedagogical process. In my study, I presented knowledge about how a formal group mentorship model used during a teacher education program at a Swedish university has affected the student teachers’ professional development. The findings suggest that nearly all the student teachers describe the mentoring group conversations as beneficial as they have contributed to a strengthened socialization, identity and/or teacher role, a possibility to share experiences, hear others perspectives, and get support in the process of linking theoretical educational content and teaching activities. A few students expressed that the mentoring program has not contributed at all to their professional development.     

Booktalk Dilemmas: Teachers' organisation of pupils' reading

The syllabus for mother tongue teaching in Sweden states that an essential goal is that pupils, in conversation with others, should be able to express feelings and thoughts evoked by literature. The present paper addresses how schools try to promote pupils' reading, examining authentic school-run booktalk conversations from a discursive approach. The data consists of video-recorded sessions with small groups of pupils in Grades 4-7. A series of booktalk dilemmas were identified. The so-called book clubs studied were aimed at promoting reading for pleasure. Yet, literary practices were, at times, transformed into calculating tasks, vocabulary lessons or reading aloud exercises. Another complication concerned the synchronising of the pupils' reading, which led to extensive negotiations on the part of teacher and pupils.     

The Pimp and the Happy Whore: “Doing Gender” in Film Talk in a School Setting

The present paper concerns the use of film for eliciting discussions of fundamental values in an upper secondary school setting. In this case, Lilya 4‐ever, a feature film about sex trafficking, is used. The present paper contributes some empirical knowledge about how young people are “doing gender” in a natural setting—an educational context—that celebrates equality values. The examples from a group discussion between pupils reveal a balance between performing the school task, discussing the questions on the sheet the teacher provided, and working on their private identities, which here includes social interplay that among teenagers could involve rejecting an academic identity. The analysis concerns how pupils use discourses drawn from a film in that balancing act. The paper explores how discourses on sex are used to gain power in conversation, to challenge male sexuality, and to reject victimization.     

Tutor-student interaction in undergraduate chemistry: a case of learning to make relevant distinctions of molecular structures for determining oxidation states of atoms

ABSTRACT

In this study, we explore the issues and challenges involved in supporting students’ learning to discern relevant and critical aspects of determining oxidation states of atoms in complex molecules. We present a detailed case of an interaction between three students and a tutor during a problem-solving class, using the analytical tool of practical epistemology analysis (PEA). The results show that the ability to make relevant distinctions between the different parts of a molecule for solving the problem, even with the guidance of the tutor, seemed to be challenging for students. These shifts were connected to both purposes that were specific for solving the problem at hand, and additional purposes for general learning of the subject matter, in this case how to assign oxidation states in molecules. The students sometimes could not follow the additional purposes introduced by the tutor, which made the related distinctions more confusing. Our results indicate that in order to provide adequate support and guidance for students the tutor needs to consider how to sequence, move between, and productively connect the different purposes introduced in a tutor-student interaction. One way of doing that is by first pursuing the purposes for solving the problem and then successively introduce additional, more general purposes for developing students’ learning of the subject matter studied. Further recommendations drawn from this study are discussed as well.