Presumed Media Influences and Demands for Restrictions: Using Panel Data to Examine the Causal Direction

In line with theoretical approaches, such as the influence of presumed influence approach, many studies have shown that the stronger individuals perceive the media’s influence to be on others, the more the individuals demand restrictions on the media and its influence. However, these studies provided information only about the correlation between the two constructs and did not test the direction of their causal relationship. To close this research gap, a two-wave panel study among German citizens was conducted. The results show that, rather than being the other way around, it is the presumed strength of online media’s political influence on others that affects demands for restrictions. Moreover, the findings indicate that the presumed political influence of online media on others also affects the presumed reach of online media.     

Organization of staff development—strategies and experiences

This article describes a number of staff development organizations, along with their strategies and experiences. The organization of staff development varies greatly and is dependent on the interaction between the formal requirements of the university teaching qualifications, the institutions themselves and their course culture, the size and organization of the teaching units, and the institutions' management strategies and teaching methods. Based on examples from Denmark, Sweden and Belgium, the advantages and disadvantages of a number of these strategies are analysed in order to provide inspiration for future implementation of the various methods.     

Mathematical education versus critical education

This paper concentrates upon the relationship between mathematical education (ME) and critical education (CE) connected with the Frankfurt School and Critical Theory. To make the discussion as precise as possible a distinction is made between three alternatives in ME: Structuralism, pragmatism, and process-orientation. These alternatives are related to the key terms of CE in order to show the extent to which ME and CE contradict each other. The conclusion is that there does not exist any integration — nor even any close relationship-between ME and CE. Finally, this result is discussed in the light of the following two theses:

1. It is necessary to increase the interaction between ME and CE, if ME is not to degenerate into one of the most important ways of socializing students into the technological society and at the same time destroying the possibilities for developing a critical attitude towards precisely this technological society.
2. It is important for CE to interact with subjects from the technical sciences, and among these ME, if CE is not to be taken over by the technological development and fade away into an unimportant and uncritical educational theory.

     

Tapping into existing information flows: The transformation to compliance by design in business-to-government information exchange

Transforming Business-to-Government (B2G) information exchange is a next frontier for reducing government spending while improving performance. This paper examines two different B2G information exchange architectures that reflect continuing transformations that empower some government agencies to do better compliance monitoring tasks with fewer resources. The win for the reporting companies is the lower cost of compliance. Instead of focusing on collecting compliance information from individual companies, the government agencies in this study focus on collecting information on the supply chain level, allowing for automated data reconciliation. Our findings reveal that pushing controls (automated checks) upstream (in company software and data sources) results in more efficiency, higher information quality and reduces redundant controls. The examined architectures exhibit high levels of compliance by design, meaning that many control objectives are by default encompassed in the design. This requires a well-aligned combination of data standardization (using shared syntax and semantics) and automated information processing (using an intelligent gateway between businesses and government agencies). However, achieving such an alignment is a difficult challenge; especially when taking into account that such transformations require solid governance, trust and high initial investments — prerequisites that are rare in many public-private partnerships.     

Country Briefing: Special education in Denmark

Denmark is a country with a relatively high expenditure on education, and was one of the first countries in the Integration movement. Now the country is including all but 1.25 per cent of all pupils in a comprehensive school. The 1.25 per cent are attending special schools or special classes. To make this possible, 13 per cent of all students in regular schools on a yearly basis receive special needs education support as a supplement to regular education. Special education within the regular school system has existed for 99 years, and special teacher training has a 66-year history, originating in training of speech therapists. At present, the prevalence of special needs education is between 25 and 35 per cent, and this gives rise to questions about the relation between special needs education and differentiation of instruction which, in turn, has implications for training of teachers in special needs education.     

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.     

Tailor-made: Towards a pedagogy for educating second-career teachers

Many countries suffer from teacher shortages. One possible solution to this problem is to recruit second-career teachers. These second-career teachers form an intriguing group. They bring an abundance of previous experiences into a new, professional domain. The purpose of this study is to identify pedagogical principles that support the training of second-career teachers. Special attention is given to the transfer of previous experiences obtained in different professional contexts. The literature on alternative certification programmes is reviewed from a pedagogical perspective. The results indicate that second-career teachers differ from first-career teachers in several respects. These differences appear to be related to their previous experiences. The differences also appear to influence their professional development. The study suggests that a tailor-made pedagogy for second-career teachers is needed, along with certain programme features, which take into account the specific needs of this group of students. Four design principles were identified, i.e.: addressing expectations, addressing challenges related to the transition to teaching, addressing transfer and developing a theory of practice.     

Patterns of development in second-career teachers' conceptions of learning and teaching

This study was aimed at deepening our understanding of second-career teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning. Initial conceptions held by 207 candidates entering an alternative teacher education programme were explored using a semi-structured questionnaire covering background characteristics and four themes concerning teaching and learning. A limited number of distinct conceptions could be identified and related to respondents' background characteristics. After the first semester of the programme, three patterns of development were found in a subset of 70 participants: growth, consolidation and regression. Pedagogical implications for fostering growth in second-career teachers are discussed.