Reformation of VET and demands on teachers’ subject knowledge – Swedish vocational teachers’ recurrent participation in a national CPD initiative

This study investigates continuing professional development (CPD) of vocational teachers, with a focus on recurrent participation. Vocational teachers need to be competent as teachers and in relation to their vocational teaching subject. Reformation of Swedish vocational education in order to strengthen the working-life connection imposes demands on teachers to have up-to-date knowledge about the vocations related to their vocational subjects. To support the reform, vocational teachers have been offered to participate in a new national CPD initiative targeting their vocational competence. The study concerns participation in this initiative. Drawing on a socio-cultural perspective, vocational teachers’ CPD implies boundary-crossing between school and working-life. Theory concerning adults’ participation in education is considered relevant to understand conditions for such boundary-crossing, and learning, among vocational teachers. The article specifically investigates patterns in vocational teachers’ recurrent participation, which is expected to clarify the factors influencing further participation in professional development. The strongest predictor of recurrent participation, when adjusting for the influence of other factors, is the type of municipality that the teacher comes from, with low populated municipalities having the lowest likelihood of participation. Furthermore, recurrent participation is more likely by participating teachers from adult education or from privately owned schools, and by male teachers.     

Experiencing spiritual aspects outdoors in the winter: a case study from the Czech Republic using the method of systemic constellations

The article focuses on spirituality on two semantic levels: the first one analyses participants’ experiences during a winter expeditionary course on snowshoes and considers the question of whether residing in the winter landscape with a community of other people may acquire a spiritual dimension in spite of the non-religious environment. The second level verifies whether the trans-rational method of systemic constellations may be used as a research tool, that is, as a specific source for data collection (different from other sources and methods). The research applied a phenomenological approach to the analysis of unstructured interviews (n = 12) and constellation insights; the result confirmed indisputably that certain kinds of experiences obtained in a completely non-religious environment (namely, during a winter expedition on snowshoes in the mountains) can be considered spiritual. The answer to the second question is also positive, since the application of systemic constellations results in different data in comparison with their verbal acquisition. Symbolic images that point out the system and its unaccepted elements deepen the understanding of both the individual and the nature of their spiritual experience.     

A Didactic Sequence of Elementary Geometric Optics Informed by History and Philosophy of Science

The concepts and instruments required for the teaching and learning of geometric optics are introduced in the didactic process without a proper didactic transposition. This claim is secured by the ample evidence of both wide- and deep-rooted alternative concepts on the topic. Didactic transposition is a theory that comes from a reflection on the teaching and learning process in mathematics but has been used in other disciplinary fields. It will be used in this work in order to clear up the main obstacles in the teaching-learning process of geometric optics. We proceed to argue that since Newton’s approach to optics, in his Book I of Opticks, is independent of the corpuscular or undulatory nature of light, it is the most suitable for a constructivist learning environment. However, Newton’s theory must be subject to a proper didactic transposition to help overcome the referred alternative concepts. Then is described our didactic transposition in order to create knowledge to be taught using a dialogical process between students’ previous knowledge, history of optics and the desired outcomes on geometrical optics in an elementary pre-service teacher training course. Finally, we use the scheme-facet structure of knowledge both to analyse and discuss our results as well as to illuminate shortcomings that must be addressed in our next stage of the inquiry.     

Learning (not) to become a teacher: A qualitative analysis of the job entrance issue

Reporting on 12 case studies of student teachers, this paper examines how experiences during teacher education affect graduates’ decision on job entrance. Interpretative data-analysis reveals that powerful sources of the shift in motivation to enter teaching concern interactions in which the person of the teacher is at stake. These mainly involve student teachers’ need to develop a socially recognized sense of professional competence as well as their dealing with social and cultural working conditions in schools. These crucial determinants act as “double-edged swords”, being at the same time important sources for recognition as for self-doubts and loss of job motivation.     

Constructivist Approaches in a Dual-Language Classroom

Dual-language programs are becoming increasingly popular among educators and the public in general. In these programs, students aim at attaining full proficiency in English and another language while reaching an academic achievement at or above grade level. This article describes a series of pedagogical practices in the context of dual-language classrooms. We set the discussion across three defining characteristics of our constructivist perspective: learning as collaboration, teachers as facilitators, and language and culture as intertwined elements in schools. In sum, we postulate that dual-language programs bring equity to schools.     

Earned-secure attachment status in retrospect and prospect

Past research with the Berkeley Adult Attachment Interview demonstrates that retrospectively defined earned-secures (who coherently describe negative childhood experiences) parent as effectively as do continuous-secures (who coherently describe positive childhood experiences), but manifest liabilities in the form of depressive symptomatology. This article presents data from a 23-year longitudinal study that replicate and extend prior research, testing a key premise that earned-secures so defined actually have a history of insecure attachments that change over time and/or endure consistently harsh or ineffective parenting in their youth. Discrepant with assumptions, retrospective earned-secures were not more likely than continuous-secures to have been anxiously attached in infancy and were observed in childhood and adolescence to have encountered among the most supportive and structured maternal parenting in a high-risk sample. Prospectively defined earned-secures (operationalized using participants' infant attachment classifications) did indeed go on to have success in their close relationships, many without reporting relatively high levels of internalizing distress in adulthood.     

Child maltreatment: social representation of the general population and the professionals working with children in the Caribbean area of Colombia

OBJECTIVE: The main objective was to know social representations about child maltreatment (severity, etiology, and intervention strategies) of the general population and the professionals working with children in the Caribbean area of Colombia. METHOD: Sample was composed for 402 participants. From this pool of participants, 111 of them were working in child protection, 95 worked with children but not in the child protection system and 196 pertained to the general population. All participants answered to a questionnaire composed by 86 items. The questionnaire was developed to assess (1) the perceived severity of different typologies of child abuse, (2) opinions about risk factors for child maltreatment and sexual abuse, and (3) opinions about the most adequate ways of intervention with perpetrator of child abuse. RESULTS: Sexual abuse is considered as the most severe typology of child maltreatment and emotional abuse is considered as more severe than physical abuse. No differences between groups were found in perceived severity of typologies of child maltreatment. Differences in the social representation about the etiology of child maltreatment were found. Professionals working in the child protection system give more value to characteristics of parents and to the socio-economic and familiar environment in the etiology of child maltreatment than participants from the general population. Prevention and treatment programs for abusers were considered as the more relevant strategies against child maltreatment. DISCUSSION: Findings of present study suggest that social representations about child maltreatment of general population and professionals from the Caribbean area of Colombia are similar than social representation observed in other regions and countries. It is important to take into account that child labor and child poverty were considered as non-severe typologies of child maltreatment. Moreover, findings suggest that people from general population in the Caribbean area of Colombia have a relevant knowledge about agencies working for child protection.     

The role of habituation of the response to LiCl in the US-preexposure effect

In two experiments, rats received preexposure consisting of six intraperitoneal injections of lithium chloride (LiCl). This treatment reduced the magnitude of the unconditioned response (UR; suppressed consumption of a novel flavor) evoked by an additional injection (Experiment 1) or by oral consumption (Experiment 2) of LiCl. In both experiments, preexposure also attenuated the acquisition of a conditioned aversion with an LiCl injection as the unconditioned stimulus (US) but had no effect on the aversion produced when the US was oral consumption of LiCl (Experiment 2). These results are consistent with the view that the reduced ability of the preexposed US to serve as a reinforcer depends on blocking by injection-related cues and is independent of habituation of the UR recorded in the present study. Possible interpretations of this dissociation are discussed.