A comparative study of religious education in state schools in England and Norway

In this thesis I present a systematic comparison of religious education in state schools in England and Norway. Comparative studies in related fields and pioneering works in comparative RE informed the formulation of a methodology, essentially a template for comparative religious education. This is a synthesis of two sets of ideas. The first is an idea of three dimensions in comparative education: supranational, national and subnational processes. In supranational processes I distinguish between formal and informal processes. Formal processes refer to formal international (educational) policymaking which takes place in international organizations. Informal processes include social and/ or political developments which take place both in and through the formal processes but also outside them and, partly independently of them - such as secularisation, pluralisation and globalisation. My perspective is that comparison in religious education is about the study of the impact of supranational processes on national processes. Subnational processes refer to variations between regions within a country. The second set of ideas is levels of curriculum: societal, institutional, instructional and experiential. The thesis chapters explore these levels examining how they are affected by supranational, national and subnational processes. In discussing the societal level, the focus is on academic debates. The institutional level is represented mainly by relevant legislation plus key policy documents, the Non-Statutory National Framework for RE (QCA 2004) and Local Agreed Syllabuses in England, and the Norwegian National Curriculum for RE (UD 2005).The instructional level includes how teachers plan and deliver the curriculum and the experiential level corresponds to how learners receive the curriculum. The societal and institutional levels are explored through theory and documentary studies, while empirical studies are part of the material for the chapters concerning practice. Civil enculturation, social imaginaries and national imaginaries are important analytical concepts. The suggested methodology and some central findings are discussed further in a concluding chapter

A comparative study of religious education in state schools in England and Norway

In this thesis I present a systematic comparison of religious education in state schools in England and Norway. Comparative studies in related fields and pioneering works in comparative RE informed the formulation of a methodology, essentially a template for comparative religious education. This is a synthesis of two sets of ideas. The first is an idea of three dimensions in comparative education: supranational, national and subnational processes. In supranational processes I distinguish between formal and informal processes. Formal processes refer to formal international (educational) policymaking which takes place in international organizations. Informal processes include social and/ or political developments which take place both in and through the formal processes but also outside them and, partly independently of them - such as secularisation, pluralisation and globalisation. My perspective is that comparison in religious education is about the study of the impact of supranational processes on national processes. Subnational processes refer to variations between regions within a country. The second set of ideas is levels of curriculum: societal, institutional, instructional and experiential. The thesis chapters explore these levels examining how they are affected by supranational, national and subnational processes. In discussing the societal level, the focus is on academic debates. The institutional level is represented mainly by relevant legislation plus key policy documents, the Non-Statutory National Framework for RE (QCA 2004) and Local Agreed Syllabuses in England, and the Norwegian National Curriculum for RE (UD 2005).The instructional level includes how teachers plan and deliver the curriculum and the experiential level corresponds to how learners receive the curriculum. The societal and institutional levels are explored through theory and documentary studies, while empirical studies are part of the material for the chapters concerning practice. Civil enculturation, social imaginaries and national imaginaries are important analytical concepts. The suggested methodology and some central findings are discussed further in a concluding chapter.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceHøgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag (HiST)GBUnited Kingdo

Encountering religious diversity : multilevel governance of Islamic education in Finland and Ireland

Recent decades have witnessed a change in European governments’ policies from benign neglect to active management of religious diversity, where Islam is often seen as the most challenging for the European social order. However, the ways that this “management” is justified and undertaken varies from country to country and depends on the issues at hand. This paper will take up the issue of Islamic education in Finland and Ireland where it is incorporated into the public school system and where the state has taken an active role in order to control Islam in the field of education. The main argument of this article is that the “management” of Islamic education in both of the above-mentioned countries is ridden with contradictions arising from the difficulty to balance between an emphasis on particular national traditions, on the one hand, and public policies concerning religious diversity, on the other hand. Theoretically, the article will employ the perspective of multilevel governance which helps to widen the perspective from the state as a primary explanatory to different agents of the civil society in encountering religious diversity.Peer reviewe

College student's academic goals and learning strategies

Tomando en cuenta que no existe concordancia en la literatura entre los resultados de diferentes estudios respecto de la relevancia de la adopción de un tipo u otro de meta para el aprendizaje académico, en el presente artículo se estudia la relación entre los diferentes tipos de orientaciones motivacionales (metas de aprendizaje, metas de rendimiento y metas de evitación del trabajo) y el uso de estrategias cognitivas y de autorregulación. En el trabajo participan 632 estudiantes universitarios de diversas titulaciones de la universidad española. Aunque el estudio es de tipo correlacional, los análisis de los datos obtenidos, corroborando estudios anteriores, aportan información de interés para la discusión del problema que se investigó, por ejemplo que sólo los niveles más altos de metas de aprendizaje se encuentran asociados con una mayor utilización de estrategias de aprendizaje. Son discutidas implicaciones educativas de estos datos.Tomando em consideração que não existe concordância na literatura entre os resultados dos diferentes estudos a respeito da relevância da adopção de um ou de outro tipo de meta na aprendizagem académica; no presente artículo é estudada a relação entre os diferentes tipos de orientações motivacionais (metas de aprendizagem, metas de rendimento e metas de evitação do trabalho) e a utilização de estratégias cognitivas e de autoregulação. Neste trabalho participam 632 estudantes universitários de diversas licenciaturas da Universidade espanhola. Apesar de este estudo ser de tipo correlacional, a análise dos dados obtidos, corroborando estudos anteriores, aporta informação de interesse para a discussão do problema investigado; por exemplo que só os níveles mais altos de metas de aprendizagem se encontram associados con uma maior utilização de estratégias de aprendizagem. São discutidas implicações educativas destes dados.Assuming that there isn’t much agreement among the results from different studies relating to the relevance of adopting one or another kind of academic learning goal, this paper intends to study the relationship between the several types of motivational orientations (learning goals, achievement goals and avoidance goals) and the use of cognitive and self-regulatory strategies. 632 Spanish college students from various university courses participated in this research. Although this is a correlacional study data analysis, in line with previous studies, brings to light interesting information and highlights the investigated issue for example only higher levels of learning goals are positively related with the use of learning strategies. Future educational implications are also discussed

Elementary School Students’ Epistemic Perspective and Learning Strategies in History

The present study explores possible relations between students’ epistemic perspective, learning strategies and text comprehension. In Study 1, seventy-nine sixth graders completed paper-and-pencil instruments to measure their epistemic perspective and learning strategies. Students’ epistemic perspective was assessed using the Livian problem (Kuhn, Iordanou, Pease, & Wirkala, 2008), which presented two contradicting accounts about the fictitious fifth Livian war and asked students questions regarding the certainty of their knowledge. Students were epistemically profiled as Absolutists, Multiplists and Evaluativists in their approaches to knowing. Students’ learning strategies were assessed through the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire – MSLQ − (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). In Study 2, twenty of the students who participated in Study 1 were individually interviewed to measure their learning strategies, where they were asked to read a text about Columbus’ uncovering of the New World. Results revealed that students who were profiled as Evaluativists showed greater self-efficacy, intrinsic value, use of cognitive strategies and self-regulation. In addition, students who were profiled as Evaluativists engaged in more effective learning strategies and exhibited better text comprehension compared to students who were profiled as Absolutists. In particular, students who exhibited an Evaluativist epistemic perspective engaged in the strategies of understanding vocabulary, summarizing and underlining, while students who exhibited an Absolutist epistemic perspective engaged more in repeating information and quick reading. Our findings show that a mature epistemic perspective is associated with effective usage of learning strategies and text comprehension

The pivotal role of effort beliefs in mediating implicit theories of intelligence and achievement goals & academic motivations

Empirical studies into meaning systems surrounding implicit theories of intelligence typically entail two stringent assumptions: that different implicit theories and different effort beliefs represent opposite poles on a single scale, and that implicit theories directly impact the constructs as achievement goals and academic motivations. Through an empirical study based on a large sample of university students, we aim to demonstrate that relaxing these stringent assumptions, and thereby using the meaning system framework to its full potential, will provide strong benefits: effort beliefs are crucial mediators of relationships between implicit theories and achievement goals and academic motivations, and the different poles of implicit theories and effort beliefs do expose different relationships with goal setting behaviour and academic motivations. A structural equation model, cross-validated by demonstrating gender-invariance of path coefficients, demonstrates that incremental and entity theory views have less predictive power than positive and negative effort beliefs in explaining achievement goals and motivations

Culture and Hybridization Experiments on an Ulva Clade Including the Qingdao Strain Blooming in the Yellow Sea

In the summer of 2008, immediately prior to the Beijing Olympics, a massive green tide of the genus Ulva covered the Qingdao coast of the Yellow Sea in China. Based on molecular analyses using the nuclear encoded rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, the Qingdao strains dominating the green tide were reported to be included in a single phylogenetic clade, currently regarded as a single species. On the other hand, our detailed phylogenetic analyses of the clade, using a higher resolution DNA marker, suggested that two genetically separate entities could be included within the clade. However, speciation within the Ulva clade has not yet been examined. We examined the occurrence of an intricate speciation within the clade, including the Qingdao strains, via combined studies of culture, hybridization and phylogenetic analysis. The two entities separated by our phylogenetic analyses of the clade were simply distinguished as U. linza and U. prolifera morphologically by the absence or presence of branches in cultured thalli. The inclusion of sexual strains and several asexual strains were found in each taxon. Hybridizations among the sexual strains also supported the separation by a partial gamete incompatibility. The sexually reproducing Qingdao strains crossed with U. prolifera without any reproductive boundary, but a complete reproductive isolation to U. linza occurred by gamete incompatibility. The results demonstrate that the U. prolifera group includes two types of sexual strains distinguishable by crossing affinity to U. linza. Species identification within the Ulva clade requires high resolution DNA markers and/or hybridization experiments and is not possible by reliance on the ITS markers alone

In the Laboratory and during Free-Flight: Old Honey Bees Reveal Learning and Extinction Deficits that Mirror Mammalian Functional Decline

Loss of brain function is one of the most negative and feared aspects of aging. Studies of invertebrates have taught us much about the physiology of aging and how this progression may be slowed. Yet, how aging affects complex brain functions, e.g., the ability to acquire new memory when previous experience is no longer valid, is an almost exclusive question of studies in humans and mammalian models. In these systems, age related cognitive disorders are assessed through composite paradigms that test different performance tasks in the same individual. Such studies could demonstrate that afflicted individuals show the loss of several and often-diverse memory faculties, and that performance usually varies more between aged individuals, as compared to conspecifics from younger groups. No comparable composite surveying approaches are established yet for invertebrate models in aging research. Here we test whether an insect can share patterns of decline similar to those that are commonly observed during mammalian brain aging. Using honey bees, we combine restrained learning with free-flight assays. We demonstrate that reduced olfactory learning performance correlates with a reduced ability to extinguish the spatial memory of an abandoned nest location (spatial memory extinction). Adding to this, we show that learning performance is more variable in old honey bees. Taken together, our findings point to generic features of brain aging and provide the prerequisites to model individual aspects of learning dysfunction with insect models