The implementation of the Bologna process

Abstract

This study identifies the responsibilities of the bodies and institutions involved in the implementation of the Bologna Process. They include the levels of Europe, nations, higher education institutions, departments, degree programmes, teachers and students. The future planning is analysed using the Balanced Scorecard approach designed for the communication and implementation of the strategy. The approach is used to analyse the objectives of European education policy from the different perspectives. Strategic planning and quality assurance are most efficient when they are transformed into action at the closest possible point to teaching and learning.     

Document retrieval on repetitive string collections

Most of the fastest-growing string collections today are repetitive, that is, most of the constituent documents are similar to many others. As these collections keep growing, a key approach to handling them is to exploit their repetitiveness, which can reduce their space usage by orders of magnitude. We study the problem of indexing repetitive string collections in order to perform efficient document retrieval operations on them. Document retrieval problems are routinely solved by search engines on large natural language collections, but the techniques are less developed on generic string collections. The case of repetitive string collections is even less understood, and there are very few existing solutions. We develop two novel ideas, interleaved LCPs and precomputed document lists, that yield highly compressed indexes solving the problem of document listing (find all the documents where a string appears), top-k document retrieval (find the k documents where a string appears most often), and document counting (count the number of documents where a string appears). We also show that a classical data structure supporting the latter query becomes highly compressible on repetitive data. Finally, we show how the tools we developed can be combined to solve ranked conjunctive and disjunctive multi-term queries under the simple \({\textsf{tf}}{\textsf{-}}{\textsf{idf}}\) model of relevance. We thoroughly evaluate the resulting techniques in various real-life repetitiveness scenarios, and recommend the best choices for each case.     

Hybrid practices? Contributions to the debate on the mutation of science and university

Summary This article reflects on current debate over transformations of scientific research and universities. Four well-known mutation theories (Mode-2 knowledge production, triple helix of university–industry–government relations, academic capitalism and enterprise university), and their recent critiques, are reviewed. It is suggested that a better understanding of the changes can be achieved by drawing analytic insight from research that speaks about scientific practices. Advantages that may be so attained are illustrated through a case study of a plant-biotechnology research group that pursued to straddle the fuzzy university-business boundary. On such grounds, three arguments that pertain to the mutation theories are put forward: (1) the need to appreciate the dynamics between theoretical, experimental and applied dimensions of research work; (2) the fact that external research funding intermingles with the complex social ecology of disciplines at the departmental level of universities; (3) the difficulties academics encounter as they try to fuse their university activities with private commercial development.     

‘Finally studying for myself’ – examining student agency in summative and formative self-assessment models

Abstract

Promoting student agency has been seen as the primary function for new generation assessment environments. In this paper, we introduce two models of self-assessment as a way to foster students’ sense of agency. A socio-cultural framework was utilised to understand the interaction between student agency and self-assessment. Through a comparative design, we investigated whether formative self-assessment and summative self-assessment, based on self-grading, would offer students different affordances for agency. The results show that while both models offered affordances for agentic learning, future-driven agency was only presented by the students studying according to the summative model. Our results shed light on the interplay of student agency and self-assessment in higher education.     

Different,yet similar: factors motivating international degree collaboration in higher education. The case of Finnish-Russian double degree programmes

ABSTRACT

The study investigates factors motivating universities to engage in international degree collaboration. The Finnish-Russian university framework is used as the locus for studying international collaboration. The paper employs resource dependency and institutional, stakeholder and market push and pull perspectives in a conceptual model explaining the drivers of international degree collaboration. The research focuses on the interaction of the various factors that motivate partners to seek international degree cooperation, possible sources of conflict, and issues of compatibility and complementarity. In particular, the study compares the roles of different stakeholders and the institutional contexts of Finland and Russia. The motives of the Finnish and Russian universities included in the study were found to be generally compatible, yet different enough to complement each other.     

Lactate and Phosphagen Levels in Muscle Immediately after a Maximum 300 m Run at Sea Level

Abstract

The relative effectiveness of six intensive training programs on the development of four selected skills was studied, with emphasis on limited time encountered within the semester organizational plan. One hundred and twenty college freshmen men volunteers were randomly assigned to training groups of 30 members each, which met for two sessions a week for 16 weeks.

Results indicated that: (a) direct practice jumping, alone or combined with repetitive sprinting or weight training, was significantly superior to weight training alone on standing broad jump development; (b) direct practice of a zigzag run was superior to both weight training and repetitive sprinting; and (c) when group acquisition of “adequate” skill is the objective, performance improvements educed over the first nine weeks were great enough to question the merits of persisting at an activity over a full semester. Only the zigzag run was adversely affected by the spring vacation cessation of training.     

Participation Profiles and Socialisation into Dance Among Non‐Professional Dancers

Abstract

The study was designed to determine how individuals become socialised into folk, competitive ballroom, ballet and modern dance through an investigation of background variables, the influence of significant others and the participation profiles of dancers, and the identification of those socialization and involvement variables that best discriminate among different groups of dancers.

The subjects were 308 adolescent and adult dancers of at least 16 years of age who had pursued their main dance form for a minimum of three years. The data were collected by questionnaire, supplemented with some additional data gathered through personal interviews. Differences between the four dance groups were analysed using t‐test, Chi Square analyses, analyses of variance, Scheffe's multiple‐range test and discriminant analysis.

Most subjects were from the middle or upper socio‐economic classes. Most art dancers were women while social dancers displayed a more even distribution of sexes. Ballet dancers were youngest and ballroom dancers oldest when they started dancing. Mother's influence was significant among those who had started dancing at a young age while a friend of the same sex was influential among all respondents regardless of the age at which they had taken up dancing. Among men the influence of a friend of the opposite sex was also significant. The involvement of other family members in dance correlated most strongly with folk dancing, least strongly with modern dance. The dance teacher or coach was perceived as the most encouraging person in every dance form.

The most wide‐ranging past and present dance activities were found among modern dancers. The variables which best discriminated between dance forms were starting age, the variety of present dance activities and the intensity of practising one's main dance form. Such differences in socialisation into different dance forms should be taken into account when developing dance and dance teacher education curricula, teaching dance and planning recreational dance activities.

     

The Effect of Using a Visual Representation Tool in a Teaching-Learning Sequence for Teaching Newton’s Third Law

This paper presents a research-based teaching-learning sequence (TLS) that focuses on the notion of interaction in teaching Newton’s third law (N3 law) which is, as earlier studies have shown, a challenging topic for students to learn. The TLS made systematic use of a visual representation tool—an interaction diagram (ID)—highlighting interactions between objects and addressing the learning demand related to N3 law. This approach had been successful in enhancing students’ understanding of N3 law in pilot studies conducted by teacher-researchers. However, it was unclear whether teachers, who have neither been involved with the research nor received intensive tutoring, could replicate the positive results in ordinary school settings. To address this question, we present an empirical study conducted in 10 Finnish upper secondary schools with students (n?=?261, aged 16) taking their mandatory physics course. The study design involved three groups: the heavy ID group (the TLS with seven to eight exercises on IDs), the light ID group (two to three exercises on IDs) and the no ID group (no exercises on IDs). The heavy and light ID groups answered eight ID questions, and all the students answered four questions on N3 law after teaching the force concept. The findings clearly suggest that systematic use of the IDs in teaching the force concept significantly fostered students’ understanding of N3 law even with teachers who have no intensive tutoring or research background.     

The University as a community of selves: Johan Vilhelm Snellman's “On Academic Studies”

Nowadays we tend to regard the idea of a university as an outdated subject. The world of universities is today so complex and diverse that no general doctrine of the university seems possible. In a recent article Alasdair MacIntyre challenges this view and points out that by giving up the question “What is university?” we also give up the question “What is an educated mind?” In this article I will return to the old discussion on the idea of a university. I will go all the way back to Plato, but my main theme is J. V. Snellman’s essay On Academic Studies (1840). There Snellman, a young university lecturer at the time, defends his view that the university is a community of selves. The essay strongly emphasises that students should not only learn to know but also to act in a responsible way as selves. However, the text also reflects on Snellman’s own activity before the publication. He had defended academic freedom against the rector of the Imperial Alexander University of Finland. As a result, Snellman was in the end sentenced in an open court and forced to leave the university. Snellman’s view is certainly not the final definition of the university, but as it, besides presenting a theoretical view on the essence of the university, also reflects on activity in a university community, it gives us elements for reflecting on the idea of a university and an educated mind.