On shifting ground

This research paper explores some of the transition/tension between the past and the present (old and the new) in the current socio/political transformation. Through the trajectory of my own Norwegian background, I will investigate the use of heritage and ‘soft’ nationalism within formation of national identity, and look at some artists’ response to the current political discourse, through both their art making or writing. By investigating two distinctive symbols of national heritage, the bunad and Borre National Park, I hope to shine light on the complicated balancing act of the dichotomy between inclusion and exclusion when embracing national identity through a common history. The bunad is an increasingly popular, semi-invented national costume, and Borre is the largest burial site from the Viking era in Scandinavia. Furthermore, I will also explore social anthropological thinking around Eric Hobsnawn’s concept of ‘the invention of tradition’. The paper will look at the significance of the landscape and geographical identity, as well as the symbioses between place and the concept of the nation state. Inserted into this, I will discuss some of the outcomes from the intense changeover from analogue technologies to the digital—generating new practices working across the mediums of photography, film/video and the digital. The hybrid medium specificity of the still-motion is of particular interest to my art practice. This video-formatted offspring of the slideshow allows for an expansion of the photographic medium, by viewing it through a cinematic frame, and in the process generating new narrative opportunities and registration of time. Finally, all the concerns articulated in this research will inform my final artwork exhibited in the SCA Postgraduate Degree show in December 2014; a two-piece video installation entitled On Shifting Ground

Is information literacy ability, and metacognition of that ability, related to interest, gender or education level? A cross-sectional study of higher education students

How information literate are students in higher education, and how accurate is their metacognition related to that ability? Are students’ perceived needs to learn more and their level of interest in becoming information literate related to their pursuit of information literacy (IL) skill development? First-year undergraduates, master’s, and PhD students (N = 760) took an objective IL test and estimated their scores both before and after the test. IL ability, as well as students’ estimation of their IL ability, increased with higher education experience and IL test experience, though also varied notably within groups. Low-performers tended to overestimate their abilities, while high-performers tended to underestimate them—both evidence of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Furthermore, gender comparisons revealed that men tended to estimate higher, and more accurate, scores than women. Finally, PhD students reported greater interest in becoming information literate than undergraduates. Although undergraduates felt a greater need to learn more, PhD students were more inclined to pursue IL growth. For both groups, interest in becoming information literate correlated far more with their likelihood to invest effort into developing IL competencies than their perceived need to know more. What implications might these findings have for how we conceptualize the teaching of IL

Here's the TRIQ: The Tromsø Interest Development Questionnaire based on the four-phase model of interest development

The Tromsø Interest Questionnaire (TRIQ) is the first suite of self-report subscales designed for focused investigations on how interest is experienced in relation to Hidi and Renninger’s four-phase model of interest development. In response to the plethora of varied interest measures that already exist in terms of theoretical grounding, form, and tested quality, the TRIQ subscales were designed with a consistent form to measure general interest, situation dependence, positive affect, competence level, competence aspirations, meaningfulness, and self-regulation answered in relation to some object of interest. Two studies testing the subscales’ performance using different objects of interest (self-chosen “object-general,” and prespecified “object-specific”) provide evidence of the subscales’ internal consistency, temporal reliability, and phase-distinguishing validity. Patterns across the two studies demonstrate that the TRIQ is a sufficiently reliable and valid domain-tailorable tool that is particularly effective at distinguishing phase 1 (triggered situational) from phase 4 (well-developed individual) interest. The findings raise interesting questions for further investigation about the distinction and distance between all interest phases, the push-pull factors that influence how interests evolve and additional subscales to add to the suite

Knowing and doing: The development of information literacy measures to assess knowledge and practice

This study touches upon three major themes in the field of information literacy (IL): the assessment of IL, the association between IL knowledge and skills, and the dimensionality of the IL construct. Three quantitative measures were developed and tested with several samples of university students to assess knowledge and skills for core facets of IL. These measures are freely available, applicable across disciplines, and easy to administer. Results indicate they are likely to be reliable and support valid interpretations. By measuring both knowledge and practice, the tools indicated low to moderate correlations between what students know about IL, and what they actually do when evaluating and using sources in authentic, graded assignments. The study is unique in using actual coursework to compare knowing and doing regarding students’ evaluation and use of sources. It provides one of the most thorough documentations of the development and testing of IL assessment measures to date. Results also urge us to ask whether the source-focused components of IL – information seeking, source evaluation and source use – can be considered unidimensional constructs or sets of disparate and more loosely related components, and findings support their heterogeneity

Exploring aspects of significance when arranging dog visits to home-dwelling patients: An action research approach

Municipalities have been encouraged to collaborate with volunteers to facilitate social and cultural activities for patients. Dog visits have been primarily arranged as a group activity in nursing homes. The aim of the present study was to pilot a dog visit program for home-dwelling patients delivered through a collaboration between nurses and volunteers, and to explore aspects of significance when arranging such visits. The project used an action research approach. The action was the implementation of regular dog visits to home-dwelling patients for 6 months, through collaboration between nurses and volunteers. The empirical investigation included respective focus group interviews with nurses and volunteers. Transcribed data were analyzed thematically. Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research guidelines were followed. Influence of motivation, vulnerable relationships, and the perception that various factors contributed to a ‘comprehensive puzzle’ were aspects of significance when arranging dog visits to home-dwelling patients. One crucial factor in the conduction of the dog visits was having coordinators for both the nurses and volunteers. Future dog visits should emphasize thorough mapping of patients and equipages, and appropriate information flow through collaboration between coordinators for nurses and volunteers.publishedVersionPaid open acces

A Comparison of Young Children\u27s Writing Products in Skills-Based and Whole Language Classrooms

Whole language instruction and an emphasis on the writing process have had a significant impact on the teaching of writing. Many whole language teachers are already in practice, and more educators are moving toward this kind of teaching. However, comparative research on the value of whole language curriculum is limited. It is important to study children\u27s interpretations (Erickson and Shultz, 1992) as they are reflected in the written products they generate in different kinds of classrooms. We need to know more about the sense children make of their instruction, what they are learning about written language, and the kinds of writing they produce. The purpose of this article is to report on a two-year, descriptive study of eight, low-income children\u27s writing in skills-based and whole language instruction during kindergarten and first grade. Our focus was on the development of emergent writers in these two different kinds of instruction