Student teachers’ understanding of the concept of culture

Hentet fra ATEE 44th Annual Conference 2019: Conference proceedings. Teacher Education in a changing global context. Bath University, Institute for Education, England. 14th - 16th August, 2019. Lenke til nettsted: https://atee.education/knowledge-center/publications/?sort_order=date+desc&_sft_dlm_download_category=conference-proceedingsHow do novice student teachers understand the concept of culture? To what extent do their understandings of the concept change after three years of teacher education? These questions are discussed based on insights about various scholarly concepts of culture, which have developed over more than a century. In addition, theories of localism and individualisation are used. We discuss findings from a longitudinal quantitative study, with data collected in 2014 and 2017 at a Norwegian teacher education institution. In addition to questions with predefined answering alternatives, the students were invited to answer the following open question: “Can you, in your own words, explain what you mean by culture?” In this paper, we analyse and compare the responses to this question in 2014, when the students began their studies, and in 2017, after three years of study. One interesting finding is that many students define culture in quite local and personalised terms, although more so in 2014 than in 2017. Another important finding is that static understandings of culture prevail in both 2014 and 2017, although less so in 2017 than in 2014.publishedVersio

Med plikt til å tie : yrkesetikk og taushetsplikt i førskolelærerrollen

Norsk: Denne rapporten utgjør en del av forskningsprosjektet «Yrkesetiske aspekter ved førskolelærerrollen.» Målet med prosjektet er å studere førskolelæreres kunnskap og forståelse i forhold til lovpålagt taushetsplikt. Hensikten med rapporten er å presentere en del bakgrunnsstoff om dette prosjektet. Først klargjøres personvernbegrepet. Deretter knyttes det noen kommentarer til aktuelt lovverk med hensyn til taushetsplikt. Videre gis et overblikk over forskning som gjelder taushetsplikt, med hovedvekt på norsk litteratur. Empirisk forskning om forhold knyttet til taushetsplikt finnes stort sett bare innenfor helse- og sosialsektoren. Det aktuelle prosjektet tar opp forhold i barnehager. Forholdet mellom etikk og juss diskuteres kort. Det blir redegjort for problemstillinger knyttet til det pågående forskningsprosjektet. Metodiske spørsmål blir diskutert. Til slutt lanseres noen hypoteser i forhold til mulige empiriske funn.English: This article is a part of the research project ”Aspects of professional ethics in the professional role of the pre-school teacher”. The main focus in this project is on the way the laws concerning professional confidentiality are understood and practised among pre-school teachers in Norway. In the article I first discuss the protection of privacy. Then I introduce the relevant legislation in Norwegian law dealing with professional confidentiality: Forvaltningsloven (Administration Law). The next step will be to give a survey of the research field concerning professional confidentiality, mostly Norwegian publications. There are hardly any empirical studies concerning professional confidentiality in the field of education. The project in question is mainly related to kindergartens. The relationship between ethics and law is briefly discussed. Ongoing research questions are represented. Some methodological considerations are put forward. Finally I discuss some hypotheses regarding possible findings

Flexible Studies as Strategy for Lifelong Learning

This is an Open Access-article. Originally published in TOJET. Publisher's website can be found by following this link: http://www.tojet.net/ The article can be found at: www.tojet.net/articles/v15i4/1545.pdfMany countries face a challenge in recruiting teachers. At the same time, the labour market is changing and the demand for re-education is increasing. In this situation, lifelong learning is seen as relevant and higher education institutions are asked to offer flexible and decentralised study programmes in order to accommodate the need for formal education for adults. High dropout rates, partly explained by a diverse student body with little time for study, aggravate the situation. Progress might be influenced by how the study programme is organised. In this quantitative study among 511 student teachers, we examine whether there are differences between students attending differently organised studies. The findings indicate that flexible and campus-based study programmes attract students with different characteristics. In a lifelong learning perspective, it looks to be a promising strategy to offer flexibly organised studies to meet the demands of an increasingly diverse student body

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI <18·5 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). For schoolaged children and adolescents, we report thinness (BMI <2 SD below the median of the WHO growth reference) and obesity (BMI >2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining underweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesit

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions