The Flipped Classroom: Primary and Secondary Teachers’ Views on an Educational Movement in Schools in Sweden Today

The aim of this study is to contribute to an increased understanding of the flipped classroom movement. A total of 7 teachers working in school years 4–9 and who both actively flipped their classrooms and had been early adopters in this movement were interviewed. Two research questions were posed: “What characterizes flipped classroom instruction according to the teachers?” and “What objectives do the flipped classroom meet according to the teachers?” Regarding the first research question, a characteristic of a flipped classroom was “the flip,” a task to be accomplished outside the classroom before class. In relation to the second research question we found three objectives: Student activity in class; Educational change; Being part of a digital learning community.     

Professional competences of young psychologists: the dimensions of self-rated competence domains and their variation in the early years of the psychologist’s career

The study set out to explore an array of key competencies required by psychologists, along with a method for assessing them. The respondents (n?=?353) were a representative sample of young Finnish psychologists with professional experience of between 1 and 6 years. They were requested to rate 52 statements of competence. A set of explorative factor analyses was conducted separately for four predetermined competence domains: client management, personal/professional identity and autonomy, consciousness of professional limits and professional development. In total, the analysis generated 11 competence dimensions. It was found that the extent of work experience was related to the ratings of these competence domains. For instance, newly qualified psychologists tended to rate their competences higher than those of psychologists with a few more years of professional experience.     

Parents’ perceptions of their child’s resilience and competencies

This study examined parental views of their child’s educability through the parents’ perceptions of their child’s resilience. The purposes of the study were: (1) to examine psychometric properties of the rating scale created to measure parental views of their child’s educational and psychological resilience, (2) to explore whether the parents’ views of the child’s resilience were related to their notions of the child’s competencies and (3) to examine how parents’ perceptions of their child’s resilience were related to the parent’s social position and the child’s gender. Data were collected by questionnaire from the parents of fifth-grade children (N=391). The parental rating scale consisted of three dimensions of resilience, all with satisfactory reliability. Parents’ views of their child’s resilience were related to their perceptions of child’s abilities and school success, suggesting that the parental rating scale had concurrent validity. The results also indicated that parents’ views of their child’s resilience were related to their gender and education and to the child’s gender. Furthermore, parents’ views of their child’s educational resilience, based on parents’ trust in their child’s internal capacities, were related to the parental definition of their child’s cognitive-verbal competencies, in particular.     

In it for the Long Run?

While previous research has focused on the uses of a variety of online services—such as Web pages and, more recently, Twitter—by media organizations and their audiences, a rather limited amount of empirical inquiry has been directed towards the often more and broadly used Facebook platform. The current paper contributes to the research field by providing a longitudinal study of journalist and audience engagement on the Facebook pages of Sweden's four major newspapers—Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Svenska Dagbladet. Employing state-of-the-art methods for data collection, the results indicate that while audiences appear to be increasing their engagement with news organizations on Facebook—albeit mostly through so-called “likes”—the media organizations themselves are decreasing their engagement with audiences.     

Future-oriented eGovernance: The sustainability concept in eGov research,and ways forward

eGov (eGovernment/eGovernance) is a complex endeavor involving many actors, ambitions, and perspectives. The field has, in research and in practice, over the years expanded its focus from service orientation to a comprehensive perspective with the ambition to integrate all of government in coherent action. Comprehensive integration requires a future-oriented perspective so investment is made in robust and flexible solutions meeting not only today's demands but also sustainable to meet those of the future. This paper addresses the use of the sustainability concept in eGov research. We discuss definitions and elements of sustainability and conduct a structured review of eGov literature investigating how various sustainability areas (social, economic, environmental and technical) are addressed. We find 21 overall themes in 94 papers, with the highest number in the “social” category. Two cross-cutting themes to which 21 overall themes relate are also identified; Decision-making and Infrastructure. Findings show that sustainability is mainly addressed narrowly, focusing on projects rather than general issues, and shallowly with a focus on single factors rather than the complex interaction among them, and with little foundation in sustainability theory. The paper contributes with an overview of themes in previous research as well as theory-based input for future research efforts on eGov sustainability, from a dynamic and sociotechnical sustainability perspective.     

Classes in themselves and for themselves: the practice of monitorial education for different social classes in Sweden, 1820−1843

This article investigates the monitorial system of education in Sweden between 1820 and 1843. In contrast to previous research, which has emphasised monitorial education as a method for disciplining poor children, this article compares the use of the method in schools for the working classes and in academic schools. Using concepts such as segmentation and discipline, the article analyses sources from 30 schools for the working classes and 40 academic schools to show how monitorial education was used in different schools. The mechanical exercises used in schools for the working classes were not implemented in the academic schools, where the role of monitors was more that of a teacher than a monitor. As this article demonstrates, these distinctions correspond to the different purposes of the schools. The schools for the working classes were directed towards instilling obedience, while the academic schools sought to awaken self-activity.     

Do parents' own school memories contribute to their satisfaction with their child's school?

In the present study a group of parents with a child in preschool were asked to give evaluative recollections of their own primary school and then to indicate the level of their satisfaction with the functioning of their child's school repeatedly in the course of the child's compulsory education. Across the follow‐up, the parents with positive recollections showed more satisfaction than those with negative recollections did. Over the years, the level of satisfaction decreased in all other groups but the fathers with positive recollections. Parents' recollections may be seen as an experience‐based component of their attitudes towards education.     

A Fragmented Training Environment: Discourse Models in the Talk of Physics Teacher Educators

Research in Science Education - This article reports the results of an empirical study exploring the discourses of physics teacher educators. We ask how the expressed understandings of a physics...