Towards a Competency Model for Teaching Computer Science

To address the special challenges of teaching computer science, adequate development of teachers’ competencies during their education is extremely important. In particular, pedagogical content knowledge and teachers’ beliefs and motivational orientations play an important role in effective teaching. This research field has been sparsely investigated up to now and there exists no consistent competency model for teaching computer science in Germany. Therefore, this paper describes the development of competency in the areas of pedagogical content knowledge, teachers’ beliefs, and motivational orientations with regard to computer science. Competency-relevant factors for teaching computer science are theoretically derived and concretely formulated with the help of expert interviews conducted according to the critical incident technique and analyzed using techniques of qualitative content analysis.     

The challenge of managing boundary-spanning research activities: Experiences from the Swedish context

Contemporary and future challenges when managing research involve coping with emerging prerequisites which include, among other things, a new knowledge production discourse, new research funding methods and new ways for international collaboration. Managers for boundary-spanning research activities need to combine the sometimes opposing logics and perspectives of the multiple stakeholders—the individual researchers searching for independence, sustainability and freedom and others searching for integration, relevance and predictability. Based on a collaborative research set-up including interviews, discussions and workshops with major Swedish research funding agencies, research program managers, experienced industry partners and key stakeholders, the paper identifies six main managerial challenges: (i) lack of focus on research management and unsatisfying prerequisites, (ii) weak identity and low status of the role of the research managers, (iii) few incentives for research management, (iv) lack of leadership development opportunities for researchers, (v) multiple (and sometimes contradictory) expectations from different stakeholders, and (vi) sustained funding. Finally, the managerial implications of these challenges for universities and funding agencies are discussed.     

The limits of socialisation

The article deals with the question of living with others, one of the most significant relationships of human life, and challenge the common understanding of the origins of living with others, where a human being is not just becoming a social but also a moral being through social institutions of societies. This common understanding of a social relationship, fostered and nurtured by a given society, places the responsibility for the possibility of living with others on the other. Drawing on the work from the sociologists Zygmunt Bauman and George Simmel and the philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Knud Løgstrup we argue that the possibility of living with others is based on the rights of the other rather than of the rights to determine whom the other is.By focusing on the relation between the individual and the society on the one hand, and the connections between being moral and being social on the other hand, we suggest that the process of socialisation is devastating not only for human beings individuality and his or her moral capacity but also for a responsive educational praxis. We explore the ways in which an understanding of socialisation as the making of the social being is intimately linked to how institutional education ‘thinks itself.’ This exploration is followed by a critical discussion of the limits of socialisation, and therefore also the limits of education. By considering some of the problems about the making of the social being we arrive at the conclusion that there is the possibility for education to be somewhere else rather than within socialisation. This conclusion leads us to explore the possibilities for an educational praxis that embraces the other without holding the individuals otherness against them.     

Accuracy in identifying students’ miscues during oral reading: a taxonomy of scorers’ mismarkings

Reading and Writing - Informal reading inventories (IRI) and curriculum-based measures of reading (CBM-R) have continued importance in instructional planning, but raters have exhibited difficulty...     

Identifying waking time in 24-h accelerometry data in adults using an automated algorithm

As accelerometers are commonly used for 24-h measurements of daily activity, methods for separating waking from sleeping time are necessary for correct estimations of total daily activity levels accumulated during the waking period. Therefore, an algorithm to determine wake and bed times in 24-h accelerometry data was developed and the agreement of this algorithm with self-report was examined. One hundred seventy-seven participants (aged 40–75 years) of The Maastricht Study who completed a diary and who wore the activPAL3? 24 h/day, on average 6 consecutive days were included. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated and the Bland–Altman method was used to examine associations between the self-reported and algorithm-calculated waking hours. Mean self-reported waking hours was 15.8 h/day, which was significantly correlated with the algorithm-calculated waking hours (15.8 h/day, ICC = 0.79, P = < 0.001). The Bland–Altman plot indicated good agreement in waking hours as the mean difference was 0.02 h (95% limits of agreement (LoA) = ?1.1 to 1.2 h). The median of the absolute difference was 15.6 min (Q1–Q3 = 7.6–33.2 min), and 71% of absolute differences was less than 30 min. The newly developed automated algorithm to determine wake and bed times was highly associated with self-reported times, and can therefore be used to identify waking time in 24-h accelerometry data in large-scale epidemiological studies.     

Science vs. Sports: Motivation and Self-concepts of Participants in Different School Competitions

Competitions are discussed as a measure to foster students’ interest, especially for highly gifted and talented students. In the current study, participants of a cognitive school competition in science were compared to non-participants of the same age group (14–15) who either did not participate in any competition or who participated in a non-cognitive sports competition. The study focused on goal orientations and competence beliefs and analyzed outcomes as a foundation for further improvements of enrichment measures and competitions with regard to fostering students’ interest especially in science. The results showed considerable differences (and some unexpected similarities) between groups: Science competition participants were more learning goal oriented, had less performance avoidance goals, and showed less work avoidance than non-participants. Social self-concept was higher but was moderated by GPA. Considerable gender differences were found as well. These findings are discussed with regard to further research and possibilities for improvement of science competitions.     

Learning opportunities in teacher education and proficiency levels in general pedagogical knowledge: new insights into the accountability of teacher education programs

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - This paper examines the effects of learning opportunities on the attainment of different proficiency levels in general pedagogical knowledge...