The Development of Popular Literacy in the Nordic Countries. A Comparative Historical Study

In all Nordic countries illiteracy was eradicated in two stages. Two different strategies were used: home instruction in Sweden, Finland and Iceland, and compulsory schooling in Denmark and Norway. During the first stage the general population acquired the ability to read familiar texts. Sweden started its campaign first, around the mid‐eighteenth century, and became the first Nordic literate nation in this meaning of literacy. In the second stage the concept literacy covered both ability to read (known and unknown texts) and write. Due to its excellent school system Denmark was the first Nordic country to attain literacy in the contemporary meaning of the term (around the mid‐nineteenth century). The other Nordic countries followed in the same order as their elementary schools were developed.     

The role of parents in special education: the notion of partnership revised

ABSTRACT

While parents' role in schools has attracted growing attention in educational research, very few researchers have directed any interest to the role of parents in special education. In this paper, we focus upon the concept of partnership, relating our analyses of interviews with classroom teachers and parents to the notion of partnership as described and explored by different researchers. Our main focus is on how teachers describe and perceive their relation to parents, and how parents experience their relation to the school. Our analysis shows that the relationship between teachers and parents seems to contain some other features than those reflected in the existing literature on parents’ role in education. To extract some of these features based on our data, we construct two roles: parents as ‘implementers’ and parents as ‘clients’, which we believe better captures the distinctive feature of the role of parents in special education. ‘Implementer’ implies parents being given responsibility for following up aims and measures set by the school, with very little possibility to influence how things are being done. ‘Clients’ occur when teachers see parents as part of their child's problem. Both roles place parents in a subordinate and powerless relationship with the school, as a result of a strong inequality of power between parents and schools. This inequality is caused, among other factors, by the socially defined power relationship between laypersons and professionals, and the stigma attached to special education which restrains parents from forming any collective resistance.     

Work-time profile,blood lactate concentration and rating of perceived exertion in the 1998 Greco-Roman Wrestling World Championship

The aim of this study was to examine work-time profiles, blood lactate concentrations and perceived exertion among Greco-Roman wrestlers in the 1998 World Championship. Forty-two senior wrestlers from nine nations were studied in 94 matches. Each match was recorded with a video camera (Panasonic AG 455, film rate: 25 Hz) and analysed for duration of work (wrestling) and rest (interrupt) periods. Blood lactate concentration was determined with an electrochemical device (Analox P-LM5) and a rating of perceived exertion scale (Borg) was used to estimate general exertion and exertion in the extremity and trunk muscles. The mean duration of the matches was 427 s (range 324-535 s), with mean durations of work and rest of 317 and 110 s, respectively. The mean periods of work and rest were 37.2 and 13.8 s, respectively. Mean blood lactate concentration was 14.8 mmol x 1(-1) (range 6.9-20.6). The difference in mean blood lactate concentration between the first- and final-round matches was not significant (P > 0.05). Blood lactate concentration was significantly higher (P < 0.04) in matches of long duration than in those of short duration. The mean general rating of perceived exertion for all matches was 13.8 according to the scale used. Most of the wrestlers (53.3%) perceived exertion to be highest in the flexors of the forearm, followed by the deltoids (17.4%) and the biceps brachii muscles (12.0%). In addition to a relatively high rating of perceived exertion in the arm muscles, this indicates a high specific load on the flexor muscles of the forearm.     

Researching teachers' and parents' perceptions of dialogue

While there has been a great deal of research done on parent involvement and the challenges of conducting effective dialogue in parent–teacher meetings, less attention has been paid to how teachers and parents themselves perceive dialogue. The purpose of the present article is to study whether deliberative principles are vital to teachers' and parents' perceptions of dialogue. The study seeks to answer this question by initiating qualitative interviews with teachers and parents. The findings show that deliberative principles are definitively vital to the participants' perceptions of dialogue. They include basic deliberation values and procedural aspects of deliberation. However, it must be noted that the informants also include aspects that are not highlighted as core elements of deliberation, especially the importance of good relational qualities and informal talk. They also assign the professional a moderator role in parent–teacher meetings. Practical implications are discussed.     

Work-time profile,blood lactate concentration and rating of perceived exertion in the 1998 Greco-Roman wrestling World Championship

The aim of this study was to examine work-time profiles, blood lactate concentrations and perceived exertion among Greco-Roman wrestlers in the 1998 World Championship. Forty-two senior wrestlers from nine nations were studied in 94 matches. Each match was recorded with a video camera (Panasonic AG 455, film rate: 25 Hz) and analysed for duration of work (wrestling) and rest (interrupt) periods. Blood lactate concentration was determined with an electrochemical device (Analox P-LM5) and a rating of perceived exertion scale (Borg) was used to estimate general exertion and exertion in the extremity and trunk muscles. The mean duration of the matches was 427 s (range 324-535 s), with mean durations of work and rest of 317 and 110 s, respectively. The mean periods of work and rest were 37.2 and 13.8 s, respectively. Mean blood lactate concentration was 14.8 mmol · l -1 (range 6.9-20.6). The difference in mean blood lactate concentration between the first- and final-round matches was not significant ( P > 0.05). Blood lactate concentration was significantly higher ( P ? 0.04) in matches of long duration than in those of short duration. The mean general rating of perceived exertion for all matches was 13.8 according to the scale used. Most of the wrestlers (53.3%) perceived exertion to be highest in the flexors of the forearm, followed by the deltoids (17.4%) and the biceps brachii muscles (12.0%). In addition to a relatively high rating of perceived exertion in the arm muscles, this indicates a high specific load on the flexor muscles of the forearm.     

Skiing

The purpose of the investigation was to study the relationship between thrust phase duration, ground reaction force, velocity increase after pole thrust and pole angles versus pole length during double poling in roller skiing. Seven male regional elite cross‐country skiers volunteered as subjects for the study. The subjects performed a maximal double pole thrust on roller skis with each of the three different pole lengths: ‘short’, self‐selected (normal) and ‘long’. The short and long poles were 7.5 cm shorter and 7.5 cm longer than the self‐selected pole length. The subjects made seven maximal pole thrusts with each pole length, which were randomly selected during 21 trials. For each trial the subjects accelerated from a 1.2 m high downhill slope attaining a speed of 3.92 m.s^‐1 before making a maximal double pole thrust on a force plate placed at the bottom of the slope. The vertical (F_z), anterior‐posterior (F_y) and medio‐lateral (F_x) reaction forces of the left pole were measured by the force plate. The positions of the pole were recorded in 3‐D by an opto‐electronic system. Thrust phase duration, impulse, mean force, velocity increase after pole thrust and pole angles were calculated from the recorded data. Double poling with long poles produced a significantly larger propulsive anterior‐posterior reaction force impulse and velocity increase than normal (p < .05) and short poles (p < .05). This was in spite of a larger mean anterior‐posterior reaction force being produced with short poles. Thus, thrust phase duration was a primary factor in determining propulsive anterior‐posterior impulse. For the practitioner, the results can be useful in the selection of pole length when the aim is to increase thrust phase duration, anterior‐posterior force impulse and velocity.     

Educational assessment in Norway

Norway has seen major changes in the field of educational assessment over the past decade, following the 2001 ‘PISA shock’ that stimulated reform of the entire primary and secondary education systems: new outcome-based curricula with cross-disciplinary basic skills were accompanied by major revision of assessment regulations, comprehensive government projects promoting formative assessment, national tests as a main component in a new national quality assessment system and new regulations for examinations and teacher reporting of overall achievement marks. The paper provides a historical context to the country’s prohibition of formal marking in primary education and the recent tensions determining how assessment criteria should be stated and used for formative and summative purposes. It is argued that Norwegian primary and secondary education is riddled with unresolved tensions as to the role of assessment criteria and national tests, sparked by incremental implementation of assessment policies and principles accompanying the new outcomes-based curricula.     

Effects of speed on temporal patterns in classical style and freestyle cross-country skiing

The purpose was to study the adaptation to speed in the temporal patterns of the movement cycle and determine any differences in velocity, cycle rate and cycle length at the maximum speed level in the different classical style and freestyle cross-country skiing techniques. Eight skilled male cross-country skiers were filmed with a digital video camera in the sagittal plane while skiing on a flat cross-country ski track. The skiers performed three classical style techniques the diagonal stride, kick double poling and the double poling technique and four freestyle techniques paddle dance (gear 2), double dance (gear 3), single dance (gear 4) and combiskate (gear 5) at four different self-selected speed levels slow, medium, fast and their maximum. Cycle duration, cycle rate, cycle length, and relative and absolute cycle phase duration of the different techniques at the different speed levels were analysed by means of a video analysis system. The cycle rate in all tested classical and freestyle techniques was found to increase significantly (p < .01) with speed from slow to maximum. Simultaneously, there was a significant decrease in the absolute phase durations of all the investigated skiing techniques. A minor, not significant, change in cycle length, and the significant increase in cycle rate with speed showed that the classical and freestyle cross-country skiing styles are dependent, to a large extent, on an increase in cycle rate for speed adaptation. A striking finding was the constant relative phase duration with speed, which indicates a simplified neural control of the speed adaptation in both cross-country skiing styles. For the practitioner, the knowledge about the importance of increasing cycle frequency rather than cycle length in the speed adaptation can be used to optimise a rapid increase in speed. The knowledge about the decrease in absolute phase duration, especially the thrust phase duration, points to the need for strength and technique training to enable force production at a high cycle rate and skiing speed. The knowledge that the relative phase duration stays constant with speed may be used to simplify the learning of the different cross-country skiing techniques.