Relation of resemblance in information retrieval

A method using the amount of semantic information of query terms as weight in a fuzzy relation of resemblance is presented. The relation can be used to partially order documents in decreasing order of resemblance with the query. Large operational bibliographic data bases are used to test the validity of the approach.     

New and Old: Multimedia as a Tool for Providing Interpretation and Meaning: Reflections on the Finnish Art Education History Project

During the last decade, Pirkko Pohjakallio, a researcher at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, has been involved in historical research. In her presentation of a recently produced CD-ROM, she emphasizes the role of art education in building a national identity and in shaping gender roles. Children’s pictures are also used to analyze how educational concepts and philosophies have changed. Without this new medium, it would be much harder to organize the riches of the pictures in the collection for students and researchers to explore.     

Teachers’ perceptions of boys’ and girls’ shared activities in the school context: towards a theory of collaborative play

The Finnish educational system and curricula lay emphasis on play, collaboration and equality. Modern educational practices allow the learning environment to be enlarged from indoor classrooms to outdoor playful learning environments (PLEs). PLEs have been constructed in schoolyards in Finland with the goal of increasing learning through play in curriculum‐based education and augmenting collaborative play (ColPlay) between boys and girls. In order to better understand and describe such developments, the author set out to ascertain how teachers perceive mixed‐gender play activities in pre‐primary and basic education. Fourteen teachers were interviewed and the obtained data were analysed using the grounded theory as an analytical approach. The research suggests five premises for ColPlay: (1) the most suitable forms of ColPlay are outdoor games and role‐play, (2) gender roles adjust in contemporary play culture, (3) teachers’ pedagogical thinking on ColPlay includes various practices to promote collaborative relationships between girls and boys, (4) teachers have confidence in ColPlay and (5) learning to collaborate with both genders requires practice and reflection. The study offers useful insights for teachers, teacher educators and designers of game content and learning environments.     

Institutional Tendencies of Legitimate Evaluation: A Comparison of Finnish and English Higher Education Evaluations

This article analyses institutional evaluations of higher education in England and Finland through the concept of legitimacy. The focus of the article is on the institutional tendencies of legitimacy. This author's hypothesis is that evaluation is legitimate when the evaluation process is of a good quality and accepted both morally and in practice by people involved in the process. The central question is: What are the institutional tendencies of modern higher education evaluation? The article deliberates the many‐sided elements of legitimate evaluation and ends with conclusions that show the similarities and differences of institutional tendencies of higher education evaluation in the studied countries.     

Individual and collective reflection: how to meet the needs of development in teaching

The following five core ideas explain how learning organizations function as wholes. The core ideas are central when school is examined as a learning organization. Personal mastery, mental models, team learning, shared visions and system thinking offer different angles to examine the organization. (1) Personal mastery. Without personal commitment, development is impossible. A community and an individual cannot be directed from outside. Growing means ultimately the ability to let other people grow. (2) Various deeply rooted mental models, ways of thinking and seeing things direct our daily behaviour. When evaluating teaching, the most essential thing is not to value the product only, but to value the mental processes. Individual and group reflection skills are needed there. (3) Shared vision. Appreciating views other than one's own is the most important key success factor of a team. All team members should commit themselves to sharing the vision. This presupposes plenty of discourse in the organization, because commitment cannot be imposed. (4) Team learning. The ability to genuinely learn and work together is a challenge. Collective reflection and regarding other people as esteemed colleagues fosters a good atmosphere, gives time and space to other people and will lead to a deeper understanding than one person alone can attain. (5) In systemic thinking the background is formed by system and theories. We are directed logically to only a minor extent. System thinking binds the other core factors together. This research has focused on personal mastery and mental models. The phenomena of individual and collective reflection and their prerequisites were investigated. The target group was a sample of teacher trainees in vocational teacher education. Familiarization with systematic reflection and adopting the usage of it led to a conscious professional approach, empowerment and aptness for life‐long learning.

Die folgenden fünf Kern‐Vorstellungen erklären, wie Lernorganisationen als Ganze funktionieren. Diese Kern‐Vorstellungen sind von zentraler Bedeutung, wenn Schule selbst als eine lernende Organisation beurteilt wird. Persönliche Erkenntnis, Denk‐Modelle, soziales Lernen, gemeinsame Vision und System‐Denken bieten verschiedene Sichtweisen, diese Lernorganisationen zu prüfen. (1) Persönliche Erkenntnis. Ohne persönliches Engagement ist Entwicklung unmöglich. Eine Gemeinschaft und ein Individuum können nicht von außen gesteuert werden. Heranwachsen bedeutet schließlich die Fähigkeit, andere Leute an sich selbst wachsen zu lassen. (2) Verschieden tief verwurzelte Denk‐Modelle, Denkweisen und Ansichten bestimmen unser tägliches Verhalten. Bei Bewerten des Unterrichtens, gilt es nicht allein das Endprodukt zu bewerten, sondern auch die Denk‐Prozesse für die Lösungswege. Es werden Fertigkeiten der individuellen Umsetzung und kollektiver Reflexion nötig sein. (3) Gemeinsame Vision. Der wichtigste Schlüssel zum Erfolg für Lernen im Team ist die Akzeptanz unterschiedlicher Ansichten als die eigenen. Alle Mitglieder der Gruppe sollten zu den unterschiedlichen Ansichten Stellung beziehen. Dies setzt eine Fülle von Sachgesprächen in der Lernorganisation voraus, sonst ist kein Engagement zu erwarten. (4) Lernen im Team. Die Fähigkeit, mit einander zu lernen und zu arbeiten, ist eine echte Herausforderung. Kollektive Reflexion, gute Zusammenarbeit unter Kollegen, Wert legen auf gute Atmosphäre, gibt Zeit und Raum zu anderen Menschen, und wird zu einem tieferen Verständnis führen, als je ein Einzelner es erlangen kann. (5) Das systemische Denken beruft sich auf System‐ und Chaos‐Theorie. Wir sind nur zu einem geringen Teil durch Logik gesteuert. Das Systemdenken verbindet die. Hauptfaktoren unseres Denkens. Diese Forschung konzentrierte sich auf persönlicher Erkenntnis und Denkmodellen. Die Phänomene individueller und kollektiver Reflexion und deren Anfangsbedingungen wurden untersucht. Die Zielgruppe waren Lehramtskandidaten in der Berufsschullehrer‐Ausbildung. Die Gewöhnung an systematische Reflexion und deren Aneignung führte zu berufsbezogener Methode, Befähigung, Bevollmächtigung und Tauglichkeit zu lebenslangem Lernen.     

Learning the routines: "professionalization" of newcomers in secondary school

Education systems are expected to enhance both social regulation and emancipation of school students. The contradictions between these aims are visible in the everyday life at school in tensions between control and agency. These tensions are explored in this article by analysing the first two weeks in secondary school, on the basis of ethnographic data collected in the project "Citizenship, Difference and Marginalization in Schools: with Special Reference to Gender." Multilayered processes and practices are involved in the induction of new students. Banal instructions in the "official school," the construction of differences and continuities in the "informal" school, and the ways in which bodies of students are placed in the time-space paths in the "physical" school are explored. The authors ask how school students are taught to become "professional pupils" routinized in the everyday life of their new schools, and how students themselves construct competences through negotiation, withdrawal, or resistance.     

Threats,Utopias and Development Continuities in the Future of Adult Education

This study is based on the hypothesis of futurology stating that future images influence in many ways the present activities and decision‐making of both individuals and communities. The purpose was to forecast various possible future developments in adult education based on future images of adult educators (N = 117) working in Finnish institutions of vocational education. The information was gathered by mailed questionnaires which were collected at training sessions arranged by regional governments for adult educators. The data contained 832 future images. Threatening and desirable images associated with the functions and resources of adult education were most frequent. There were least mentions regarding continuities and the organization and process of education.     

Local feedback and intelligent automatic query expansion

An iterative method for information retrieval is presented. It uses searchonyms found from the previously retrieved set of documents in query expansion. Only largest values of relation of resemblance between the query and the documents are used to form the feedback seed. From this top retrieved set of documents, most informative features are selected as searchonyms, which are subsequently used in query reformulation. Large operational bibliographic data bases are used to simulate the behavior of this method.     

Creative and playful learning on technology-enriched playgrounds: an international investigation

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the degree that creative and playful learning (CPL) in a technology-enriched playground influences academic achievement of students and what factors are responsible for successes. The participants were 276 students from 12 elementary classrooms in the Netherlands and Finland. The research used a pretest–posttest, without control design. The dependent variable was academic achievement on teacher-created tests; the independent variable was participation in the intervention; and the control variables were pretest scores, gender, academic subjects previously studied, age, satisfaction with schooling, country of the school, and classroom within the school. The results showed that there were significant gains in academic achievement and that the pretest was the only significant predictor of posttest achievement. Other variables, including gender, academic subjects studied, age, satisfaction with schooling, country of school, and classroom, were not statistically significant predictors of posttest scores. While students’ academic achievements are only one measure of progress in the current debate about learning in the education system, this article provides insight on education through analyses of the relationships among the integration of curriculum-based learning, CPL practices, and outdoor playgrounds.