Does the “Pupil Enterprise Programme” Influence Grades Among Pupils With Special Needs?

This paper asks whether the Pupil Enterprise Programme (PEP) is a suitable working method for improving academic performance among pupils with special needs. Overall, 20% of pupils participate in PEP at some point during lower secondary school. Results from multilevel regression modelling indicate that pupils with special needs who have participated in PEP attain better grades in Written Norwegian and Mathematics than those pupils with special needs who did not participate in PEP. The difference between PEP participants and non-participants in Written English was insignificant. The positive results for Norwegian and Mathematics seem to be related to the organisation and content of PEP. The data are from a study of 1,880 pupils in the 10th Grade.     

Why do not more prisoners participate in adult education? An analysis of barriers to education in Norwegian prisons

International Review of Education - From a lifelong learning perspective, education during incarceration is crucial for prisoners’ rehabilitation. This article describes the authors’...     

Education of prison inmates: course experience,motivation, and learning strategies as indicators of evaluation

Course experience, motivational beliefs, and self-regulated learning strategies may be considered to be important indicators of education quality. Inmates taking education in prison may also experience particular problems related to the learning environment and to their own learning difficulties. The present study investigated the level of these variables and the relationship between them among 534 inmates under education in Norwegian prisons. The results showed that the prison inmates are generally quite satisfied with the education quality, that they are highly motivated, and use appropriate learning strategies. However, many of them experience that problems such as lack of access to computer equipment and the security routines in prison interfere with their education. A structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis showed that motivational beliefs were mediators between course experience and self-regulated learning strategies. These findings were discussed with respect to improvement of the education quality in prisons and to theoretical issues with relevance beyond the prison context.     

Factors predicting staff's intentions to leave the university

This article investigates factors related to the intention to leave the university job among Norwegian university staff. Its main conclusions are: among staff intending to leave their institution, colleagial relations (i.e. relations between colleagues) constituted the clearest reason to leave. General job satisfaction did also rather strongly predict intention to leave. The study showed that staff who found their work less intrinsically satisfying than others more often intended to leave their institution. The salary or the economical resource situation did not influence intention to leave or stay.     

Inclusion in Physical Education: Teacher Attitudes and Student Experiences. A Systematic Review

This is a systematic review article of 27 studies on what existing research tells us about the experience (or lack of experience) of inclusion in Physical Education (PE) among disabled students, which localised factors are promoting or hampering inclusion in PE and to what extent attitudes are decisive in these localised processes. Seventeen studies examined teachers’ attitudes and 10 studies examined students’ experiences. The analysis follows the guidelines recommended by Harden and colleagues for ‘view-studies’; systematic reviews based on both qualitative and quantitative studies. The main findings reveal that students with disabilities experience exclusion and a lack of belonging in PE, but in some of the most recent articles we find students with disabilities who ‘love PE’. PE teachers share the normative goal of inclusion but perceive it as impossible to achieve due to a lack of competence and a lack of resources, but mostly due to the presupposition of the constructed ‘normate’ PE student.     

Why students fail during their first university semesters

This article focuses on Norwegian students' achievement and adjustment in their first university semesters. A survey showed a positive correlation between success in upper secondary school and success at university. The study also showed that to have good organised study habits had a positive effect on self-confidence during the students' first semester, but the organised study habits did not, surprisingly, have a direct influence on grades in this semester. The effect on grades emerged as late as in their fourth semester. The article shows that increasing the amount of study hours does not automatically contribute positively to achievement. Comments made by students during interview indicated that successful students were more actively involved with the course and in their studies as a whole, than the unsuccessful students.

---

Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel konzentriert sich auf die Leistungen norwegischer Studenten und ihre Eignung in den ersten Semestern des Hochschulstudiums. Eine Studie zeigte positive Beziehungen zwischen Erfolg in der weiterführenden Sekundärschule und Erfolg im Studium an der Universität. Die Studie machte außerdem deutlich, daß gut organisierte Lernmethoden beim Studium einen positiven Einfluß auf das Selbstbewußtsein der Studenten im ersten Semester hatten, während sich überraschenderweise jedoch kein Einfluß auf die Noten in diesem Semester zeigte. Eine Auswirkung auf die Noten stellte sich erst im vierten Semester heraus. Der Artikel weist außerdem darauf hin, daß sich eine Erhöhung der Lernstunden nicht automatisch günstig auf die Leistungen auswirkt. Von den Studenten abgegebene Erklärungen während der Befragungen deuteten darauf hin, daß erfolgreiche Studenten aktiver an den Kursen und ihrem Studium insgesamt beteiligt waren als nicht erfolgreiche Studenten.

---

Résumé Cet article porte sur le rendement des étudiants norvégiens et leur adaptation au cours des premiers semestres à l'université. Une étude a montré une corrélation positive entre le succès dans l'enseignement secondaire et le succès à l'université. Cette étude a, par ailleurs, révélé que le fait d'avoir des habitudes d'étude bien organisées a un effet positif sur la confiance en soi des étudiants en premier semestre, mais que ces bonnes habitudes n'ont pas, de manière suprenante, d'influence directe sur les notes obtenues durant ce semestre. L'effet exercé sur les notes n'apparaît qu'au cours du quatrième semestre. Le présent article montre que l'augmentation du nombre d'heures d'étude ne contribue pas automatiquement à des résultats positifs. Les commentaires émis par les étudiants durant l'interview indiquent que ceux qui réussissent sont, dans l'ensemble, davantage engagés dans le programme et dans leurs études que ceux qui réussissent moins bien.

     

Bibliographic Data Science and the History of the Book (c. 1500–1800)

Abstract

National bibliographies have been identified as a crucial resource for historical research on the publishing landscape, but using them requires addressing challenges of data quality, completeness, and interpretation. We call this approach bibliographic data science. In this article, we briefly assess the development of book formats and the vernacularization process in early modern Europe. The work undertaken paves the way for more extensive integration of library catalogs to map the history of the book.     

Reworking practice through an AfL project: an analysis of teachers’ collaborative engagement with new assessment guidelines

In recent years, the concept of Assessment for Learning (AfL) has travelled across countries, giving rise to a range of educational policy initiatives and school development projects. While researchers have focused on issues such as how formative assessment can support student learning and lead to more efficient classroom practices, less attention has been paid to the collaborative work required to develop shared assessment practices at the school level, and to the integration of AfL‐related principles and tools in the collective practice. This paper focuses on the challenges emerging for a teacher team engaging with an AfL project in a lower secondary school in Norway. By employing concepts and perspectives from social practice theory, AfL is understood as a problem complex that needs to be explored and developed locally. We have analysed data from seven video‐recorded meetings of an AfL team, supplemented by interviews and field notes, in order to make visible the micro processes of teachers' collaborative work. The analysis shows how the teachers needed to rework historically established practices and principles, which in turn called for a negotiation and re‐contextualisation of new concepts and artefacts in their efforts to develop shared assessment practices. This again required ways of representing existing practices and imagining future scenarios. Based on these observations we recommend that AfL projects be understood in their wider curricular, institutional, and social contexts, and that the constructive dimensions of teachers' collaborative work in such projects should be acknowledged.     

Prisoners’ academic motivation,viewed from the perspective of self-determination theory: Evidence from a population of Norwegian prisoners

International Review of Education - The study presented in this article explores prisoners’ academic motivation structure from the theoretical perspective of self-determination theory, using...     

Entrepreneurship education: motivation and effort for pupils with special needs in Norwegian compulsory school*

Pupil enterprises are a widespread type of entrepreneurship education. In this working method, pupils start up, manage and close a business over short period of time. National and international policy documents claim that practical working methods through the use of pupil enterprises are beneficial to increase motivation by being a realistic and cross-curricular approach. This paper investigates whether this is the case for pupils who receive special education. No previous research has focused on the situation for this group of pupils when working with pupil enterprises. The data are collected from a survey with the participation of 1880 pupils in the 10th grade. Our econometric results indicate that participation in pupil enterprises has no particular impact on motivation or effort for pupils receiving special needs education. Even though there are many positive features with pupil enterprises and they offer a practical and realistic way of learning, we do not find evidence to support that pupil enterprises also have a positive effect on the general school motivation and effort. Thus, the political claim of the practical dimension as a solution to increase motivation for learning in school is not supported by our findings.