Behavioural disorders in Danish schools: a quantitative survey

Behavioural problems in schools have been a topic of political debate in Denmark recently. The last time the topic was in the news was before the establishing of special educational provisions for pupils with social and emotional disorders in the 1960s. As a result of the recent debate, a national survey was made. It shows that the incidence of serious problems is 10 per cent. Comparisons with earlier studies indicate that there is an increase in behavioural problems during the first years of primary schooling. A multivariate analysis shows that pupils gender, the degree of urbanization, teacher experience and geographical location are significant predictors of disturbance, while school size, class size, teacher age and gender are insignificant.     

Educational Vouchers: A Primer

Advancements in technology have changed the day to day operation of society. The ways in which we teach and learn have begun the same process. For this reason, we must reexamine instruction. In this article, the author analyzes the changing environment of educational technology and how to incorporate the theory of multiple intelligences. The teaching strategies presented outline how to enhance student performance by blending new technologies with time-tested pedagogy. The author explains and matches up each intelligence with an effective technology tool. He also provides examples from scholarly publications and actual classroom practice.     

Spiralling towards transformational action research: philosophical and practical journeys

The two‐stranded spiral shown in Figure 1 represents two aspects of the authors’ journey in becoming critical. The journey, conveyed through discussion, reflexive accounts and illustrations of particular and summary achievements, shows how Carr and Kemmis’s work has influenced the authors as action researchers, both individually and together, in nursing, over 16 years. The first strand unfurls their journey as they learned to develop their philosophical and theoretical understandings of action research as collaborative, emancipatory and transformational. They show how they now use innovative and creative methodologies to transform practice and, simultaneously, develop critical practice theory that draw on assumptions from different worldviews in the same study. Their second strand is concerned with the creation of critical communities of healthcare practitioners who undertake action research to transform themselves, practices and organisations. This strand shares the practicalities of an action research team genuinely involving stakeholders in the collaborative, democratic design of projects, their implementation and evaluation. Both strands are concerned with preparing practitioners as researchers of their own practice and with human flourishing as both the end and means of action research. Seven insights are presented.     

Sobre el aprendizaje de la referencia

Resumen

Se discute el primer lenguaje infantil en relación con las habilidades lingüísticas y cognitivas necesarias para utilizar las palabras referencialmente. Se subraya un conjunto de criterios de conducta que establecen que el niño está utilizando nombres para referirse al mundo exterior. Aunque se reconoce que el desarrollo infantil de las habilidades simbólicas debe jugar un papel crucial en el acto de referencia, sigue estando confuso cómo llega el niño al «insight» de que uno se puede referir a los objetos y a los acontecimientos mediante nombres.     

School performance feedback systems in the USA and in The Netherlands: a comparison

Schools around the world are using instruments for performance feedback, but there is no scientific evidence that they have positive effects on education. This paper compares a School Performance Feedback System (SPFS) used in the USA as an accountability instrument to an SPFS used in The Netherlands. The study employs a unique database: one in which 2 separate countries with 2 distinct performance systems are compared using the same instruments. The use and effects of both SPFSs are compared to acquire more knowledge about the utilization and effects of SPFSs in an international context. Also, the variables which influence SPFSs are presented and then utilized to predict the use of the 2 SPFSs in their 2 separate contexts.     

TEACHER’S REFLECTION OF INQUIRY TEACHING IN FINLAND BEFORE AND DURING AN IN-SERVICE PROGRAM: EXAMINATION BY A PROGRESS MODEL OF COLLABORATIVE REFLECTION

In inquiry-based science education, there have been gradual shifts in research interests: the nature of scientific method, the debates on the effects of inquiry learning, and, recently, inquiry teaching. However, many in-service programs for inquiry teaching have reported inconsistent results due to the static view of classroom inquiries and due to the partial perspective between individual and collaborative reflections. Thus, by means of a theoretical progress model of collaborative reflection, this qualitative research aims to investigate reflections of four participant teachers before and during a half-year in-service teacher program. The model captures the following four interactions for each individual teacher and among the teacher cohort: belief to practice, practice to belief, stimulation, and reinforcement. The audio–video data and their quantification allowed identification of the teachers’ consistent prior beliefs and practices as a multiplicity of inquiry teaching and their interwoven progress during the program. The findings are further discussed in terms of the implicit development and the richer repertoire.     

Cross-grade analysis of Chinese students’ English learning motivation: a mixed-methods study

This mixed-methods study investigated the changes in Chinese students’ motivation to learn English from elementary to high school and explored the reasons for these changes at different school levels. A motivational questionnaire was designed and administered to 3,777 elementary, junior high, and high school students, and follow-up interviews were then conducted with nine students in order to investigate their perceptions of their motivations. Seven subcomponents of motivation were identified. The statistical results revealed that junior high school students had the highest learning motivation, followed by those in elementary school and those in high school. The interview data indicated that parents’ positive influence on students’ English learning motivation was greater for junior high school students compared to elementary and high school students. Furthermore, the pressure of the college entrance examination had a negative influence on high school students’ motivation to learn English. Based on the findings of this study, suggestions for further research are provided.     

Exploring latent class based on growth rates in number sense ability

The purpose of this study was to explore latent class based on growth rates in number sense ability by using latent growth class modeling (LGCM). LGCM is one of the noteworthy methods for identifying growth patterns of the progress monitoring within the response to intervention framework in that it enables us to analyze latent sub-groups based not on an arbitrary cut-point but on each group’s growth pattern. Progress monitoring data for number sense were administered in four times for age of 4(n = 58), 5(n = 95), and 6(n = 58) children, by the measure named basic academic skill assessment: number sense developed to assess students’ number sense and includes Number identification, Missing number, Quantity discrimination and estimation. To perform LGCM analysis, M plus 5.0 was used, and Bayesian information criteria and entropy values were used as criteria to determine the number of sub-groups. Results showed that there were 2, 4, and 4 sub-groups according to each age group based on the growth patterns. Each group’s growth patterns were classified differently based on their initial performance and growth level. Advantages and limitations of using LGCM method to analyze latent groups’ growth patterns for screening and identifying children at risk were discussed.     

Effects of social constraints on career maturity: the mediating effect of the time perspective

Previous studies have provided mixed results for the effects of social constraints on career maturity. However, there has been growing interest in these effects from the time perspective. Few studies have examined the effects of social constraints on the time perspective which in turn influences career maturity. This study examines the mediating effect of the present-oriented perspective on the relation between social constraints and career maturity. The results based on a panel survey of middle and high school students in Korea indicate that the time perspective mediates the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and career maturity regardless of the level of academic achievement. The results have important implications for intervention programs for low-SES children’s time perspective, which may mitigate the transmission of social constraints, thereby raising the bar for their academic and career goals: Such programs may be useful for enhancing low-SES children’s career readiness.