Brave new world? Value of education in post-socialist Poland

The 'motivation' for this study is the change of the occupational structure and the subsequent increase in employment opportunities especially for white-collar professionals, whose situation was comparatively weak under socialist rule. In this paper, it is assumed that the situation of university-educated people improved considerably in Poland as well as in most other transitional economies, when the business sector opened up and new opportunities in private enterprises started to emerge in the beginning of the 1990's. Thus, the central research task of this article is related to the value of education before and after the Polish transition from a socialist system to one characterised by a market economy and a free parliamentary system. It is also assumed that both for ideological reasons (abandonment of Marxist-Leninist glorification of manual work and industrial production) and practical reasons (expansion of possibilities for non-technically educated university graduates), the transition was a great divider that affected also the value of education, among many other things. Empirical research questions can be formulated as follows: What kind of an effect did the transition to post-socialism have on the value of education? Has the value of education declined as in most other countries, or has it risen as a consequence of market-liberalist changes? Special attention is paid to the situation of highly educated people, and also to differences according to gender

Koulutusinflaatio. Koulutusekspansio ja koulutuksen arvo Suomessa 1970–2008

Sotienjälkeisenä aikana Suomessa jokainen sukupolvi on ollut edellistä korkeammin koulutettu ja kehitys näyttää yhä vain jatkuvan. Kun 1970-luvulla alle kolmanneksella väestöstä oli perusasteen jälkeinen koulutus, nykyään vähintään keskiasteen koulutuksen puuttuminen on lähes yhtä harvinaista. Koulutusinflaatio viittaa koulutuksen arvon laskuun työmarkkinoilla. Koulutuksen arvon inflatoituessa saman tasoisella koulutuksella päädytään yhä alempiin yhteiskunnallisiin asemiin. Väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan koulutuksen arvon muuttumista Suomessa vuosina 1970–2008. Empiirinen osuus muodostuu kolmesta referee-journaaleissa julkaistusta artikkelista. Ensimmäisessä artikkelissa tarkastellaan ylemmän toimihenkilön asemaan päätyneiden osuutta sekä suhteellista tulotasoa eri koulutusasteilla. Toinen artikkeli keskittyy koulutuksen ja huono-osaisuuden väliseen yhteyteen. Kolmannessa artikkelissa tarkastellaan koulutusekspansion ja koulutusinflaation välistä yhteyttä. Kahdessa ensimmäisessä artikkelissa käytetään samaa rekisteripohjaista otosaineistoa.Aineisto koostuu neljästä 4000 henkilön otoksesta, jotka edustavat 30–39-vuotiaita suomalaisia vuosina 1970, 1980, 1990 ja 2000. Kolmannessa artikkelissa käytetään aggregaattidataa vuosilta 1970, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 ja 2008. Viimeinen aineisto kattaa 30–39-vuotiaat työlliset suomalaiset mainituilta vuosilta, se ei siis ole otospohjainen. Tulosten perusteella koulutusinflaatio on ollut Suomessa vahvaa, erityisesti alimmalla korkea-asteella ja alemmalla korkeakouluasteella. Hyvinvointipuutteet lisääntyivät vähiten koulutettujen keskuudessa, mutta vähemmän kuin olisi voinut olettaa. Raja, jonka ylittävällä koulutuksella hyvinvointipuutteiden riski laskee huomattavasti, on noussut – perusasteen ja keskiasteen välistä keskiasteen ja alimman korkea-asteen väliin. Koulutusekspansion yhteys koulutusinflaatioon on ollut erittäin vahva, erityisesti alemmalla korkeakouluasteella.Educational inflation. The expansion of education and the value of degrees in Finland 1970–2008. In the post-war era, each and every generation in Finland has been higher educated than the previous one, and the development appears to continue. Whereas in the 1970’s less than a third of the population had a post-compulsory education, nowadays it is almost as rare not to have at least an upper secondary level education. Educational inflation refers to a decline in the value of education in the labour market. It means that a certain level of education grants access to all the lower social positions. The research question of the dissertation concerns the development of the value of education in Finland during the years 1970–2008. The empirical part consists of three articles published in refereed journals. In the first article, the socio-economic position (more exactly, the share of persons who had ended up in upper middle class) and relative income level of people educated at different levels is examined. The second article focuses on the connection between education and exclusion. The third article examines the relationship between the expansion of education and educational inflation. In the first two articles, the same data is used. It consists of four register-based datasets representing 30–39-year-old Finns in the years 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000. In the third article, register-based aggregate data from the years 1970, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1993, 1995, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 is used. The data covers 30–39-year-old employed Finns in the before mentioned years, it is not sample-based. According to the results, educational inflation has been strong in Finland, especially on the lowest tertiary level and on the lower university level (B.A.). Welfare deficits did increase on the lowest educational levels, but arguably not as much as could have been expected. The line above which the risk of welfare deficits is considerably lower, has risen – from between basic level and upper secondary level, to between upper secondary level and the lowest tertiary level. The relationship between the expansion of education and educational inflation has been very strong.Siirretty Doriast

Dinamički potencijal povratnih informacija u samoreguliranom učenju i motivaciji djece s teškoćama u učenju matematike

The present study was designed to examine the effects of feedback conditions on learning and motivation of children identified with mathematical learning difficulties (MLDs). The performance of 76 fifth grade children on computational math skills and related task motivation was assessed. The groups of children were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: immediate corrective feedback or delayed conventional feedback on two occasions. Results showed that children performed significantly better when they were provided with the immediate corrective feedback than when they were provided with the delayed conventional feedback. The findings suggest that provision of the immediate corrective feedback also enhanced task motivation in children. In contrast, provision of the delayed conventional feedback had a negative impact on children’s task motivation and also on their performance in math. Moreover, the results indicated that in the long term, children’s subgroup (MLDs) and their previous math skills were powerful predictors of subsequent performance on a limited-time math task, whereas the change in task motivation did not contribute significantly to the same task.Ovim istraživanjem želio se ispitati učinak vrste povratnih informacija (feedback-a) na učenje i motivaciju djece s teškoćama u učenju matematike. Procijenjena je izvedba 76-ero djece - polaznika petih razreda na zadacima računanja, kao i njihova motivacija za rješavanje matematičkih zadataka, s obzirom na vrstu povratne informacije: trenutnu korektivnu povratnu informaciju te odgođenu konvencionalnu povratnu informaciju. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da su djeca imala značajno bolji rezultat kada im je bila pružena trenutna korektivna povratna informacija, nego kada im je pružena odgođena konvencionalna povratna informacija. Rezultati također ukazuju da pružanje trenutne povratne informacije povećava motivaciju učenika za rješavanje zadataka. S druge strane, pružanje odgođene povratne informacije imalo je negativan utjecaj na motivaciju, kao i na izvedbu u rješavanju matematičkih zadataka. Rezultati također pokazuju da su prisutnost matematičkih teškoća i prethodna razina razvoja matematičkih vještina bili značajni prediktori kasnije uspješnosti u rješavanju vremenski ograničenih zadataka, što, međutim, nije bio slučaj s promjenama u motiviranosti učenika

Resilience strategies employed by teachers with dyslexia working at tertiary education

This study investigates resilience strategies exhibited by teachers with dyslexia working at tertiary education. Narrative interviews of tertiary teachers' own perceptions of how dyslexia affects their work were analysed to understand how they cope in a challenging profession. Findings indicated a utilization of a range of resilience strategies; task-related strategies, personalizing work contexts, utilizing social support networks and nurturing self-esteem and self-efficacy. Developing individualized strategies is paramount to attaining a successful career in tertiary education. Self-awareness is required to build the strategies supporting teachers in fulfilling professional requirements and enable them to experience agency and self-efficacy in their work

A review of early numeracy interventions for children at risk in mathematics

Peer reviewe

Positional competition in a binary system: the case of Finnish higher education

Positional competition in the labour market entails graduate opportunities that depend not only on graduates’ skills, experience and abilities, but also on how their educational credentials compare to those of others. In this study, we examined the positional competition in the Finnish labour market and compared the influence of different ‘degree types’ on the probability of obtaining high-paid, high-status jobs. We used a register-based 5% sample of 25–45-year-old Finnish higher education (HE) graduates from 2010 to 2012 (N = 63 486). It was expected that the relative position of graduates would be affected by the degree level as well as the educational field and the binary division (university vs. non-university) of HE. Therefore, master’s and bachelor’s degree levels in all educational fields from universities versus universities of applied sciences (UASs) were included. The method of analysis was logistic regression. According to our results, the binary divide structured the opportunities to enter high-paid, high-status jobs within different fields of education. The university master’s degree graduates had the highest probability of succeeding in the Finnish labour market, and their status/rank elevated them above the competition by regulating access to certain professions or occupations through specific qualification requirements (i.e., credential social closure). Moreover, our results demonstrated how the degree rankings and the relative distance between university and UAS degrees vary in different fields. The Finnish case offers a valuable point of comparison to other HE systems with a binary structure.</p