Think-aloud research study : analysis of Arizona educator proficiency assessment (AEPA) verbal data

We investigated the cognitive process of 45 beginning students, advanced students and experienced teachers who responded to selected items from Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessment (AEPA) practise tests while they were thinking aloud, AEPA is a licensure test required of all applicants for a teaching certificate in Arizona. Our attempt was to understand the types of mental processes used in taking these kinds of tests. We wanted to discover which mental process was the most frequent, if there were any mental processes related to performance on the test and if there were any differences between the three groups attending our study. Deciding about option was the most frequent thought process among the participants. Common sense was the only significant positive predictor related to test score. Error was a significant negative predictor in predicting test scores, which demonstrate that higher performers tended to rely less on test irrelevant strategies. Further we found differences between the three groups’ mental thought processes. Advanced students tended to rely more on processes based on learning theories and research, experienced teachers drew more on processes based on own experience, and beginning students had a higher proportion of mental thought processes based on error

Exploring the paradox of low BIM adoption in the built environment

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an ICT application of tools and processes. There is a limited understanding of the real root causes of challenges in implementation among practitioners. As part of an ongoing action research project in a Norwegian municipality, we held a series of focus group sessions with technology users. We explored the reasons for the slow uptake of BIM in the context of the need for information management. We find limited engagement in information management processes necessary for successful application of BIM. However, we find great interest in achieving more sustainable outcomes in the municipality. We argue a possible re-alignment of the purported benefits of BIM towards emerging sustainable development goals in the municipality. The relevancy of this article is to find leads to actionable solutions to the slow digital transformation in the built environment. We find it paradoxical that increased BIM adoption might be achieved by not focusing on BIM at all, but by focusing on achieving sustainable outcomes, for which both BIM and information management is necessary

Mellom børs, katedral og karneval. Norske supporteres forhandlinger om kommersialisering av fotball

The topic of this dissertation is how supporters relate to the increasing commercialisation of football (soccer) in Norway. The point of departure is that football has gained increased popularity, both worldwide and in Norway, but that the growth has also challenged the values and practises of core supporters. Apparently, new middle class supporters have been more attracted to the game, which has resulted in the marginalisation or even exclusion of the traditional working class supporter and the social practices of this particular group. This has especially been a widespread suggestion concerning English football, where ticket prices have multiplied since 1992, and where supporters are not allowed to stand. The traditional terraces have been replaced by all-seater stadia, and the atmosphere of English football is radically different from the seventies and eighties.In Norway, things have developed in a similar direction, although there are important differences. Among the most important things is the fact that up to 2005, tickets are seldom scarce. This means that ticket prices are comparatively moderate in relation to England, even if they have increased considerably for the last ten years. That supporters are allowed to stand is another significant difference. Yet another interesting fact is that a modern Norwegian supporter culture has developed parallel to the commercialisation post 1990. While the commercialisation of the English game seems to have been connected to the marginalisation of core supporters, supporters and the national Football Association (NFF), the clubs and the directors seem to have cooperated in Norway. The growth of a Norwegian supporter culture may well have been important in explaining the major growth in attendances at top division games in Norway since 2003.However, conflicts do exist also in Norway. In the dissertation, it is distinguished between three dimensions of commercialisation. First; commodification implies that the game, the club and its relation to supporters and spectators are increasingly expressed as a market relationship. This means that spectators are considered as being first and foremost customers, while traditional supporters were often regarded as a part of the club. Secondly, institutional restructuring implies changes in tournaments, the rules of the game and possible changes in playing styles in order to satisfy the needs of spectators who dislike scientific or defensive football. And thirdly, spectacularisation means that a football game is more than the game itself: In the dissertation, it is defined as all sorts of activities, by the club, by the NFF, by spectators in general or by supporters, that are oriented towards making the game a spectacle, something to be attracted to in addition to the game itself. The conscious use of music, screens, cheerleaders etc. are examples, as well as the atmosphere created by the supporters themselves, by singing or the use of visual spectacles (flags, banners, etc.).Theoretically, the study draws on different perspectives and concepts. In order to understand the fascination of football, chapter 2 discusses the phenomenology of football. It is argued that to supporters, football is something more than just a couple of hours of entertainment. Rather, it involves both rivalry, social solidarity and expressions of identity. In chapter five, it is discussed to what extent concepts from several theories can be utilised in understanding supporters and their relation to the developments of the game. These concepts include parts of the work of (among others) Albert Hirschman (exit, voice and loyality), Giddens (self-identity and identity work), Bourdieu (habitus, doxa and what is labelled football-cultural capital), as well as a discussion of football as religion. In chapter six, concepts and theories from the sociology of football is discussed, in order to reach a typology of different forms of alignments to football among supporters. A two-dimensional model is developed. The firstdimension dimension distinguishes between traditional and modern orientations, the second between participatory and consumer orientations. These dimensions are the main focus in the analysis, but they also give rise to four different “types” of supporters, which are briefly discussed (exclusive, critics, conformists and innovators).Methodically, Norwegian internet forums are utilised, both club forums and forums related to the different supporter clubs. The analysis mainly consist of qualitative interpretations of both the attitudes of different participants in these discussions (although some quantitative judgements also apply), as well as interpretations of the discussions as such. In discussing questions concerning the commercialisation of the game, supporters continually negotiate what it implies to be a supporter of a club. This means, for example, that whether or not one should use a replica shirt at games, is important in defining legitimate supporter practises. In this way, questions concerning the different forms of commercialisation are extensively discussed in internet forums.The analysis of commodification shows that it is by most supporters regarded as illegitimate to the extent that it threatens central symbols or rituals, but that there is limited opposition at the more general level. For instance, that football clubs are trying to utilise their symbols as brands, seems to be widely accepted. On the other hand, when sponsors are buying the right to put their logo on the club shirts, supporters dislike it if the colour of the logo conflicts with the colour of the shirt, or if there are too many logos on the shirt. In principle, most supporters prefer one single sponsor on the chest, but they somewhat reluctantly seem to accept that this would lead to financial problems for their club. Supporters are also hostile to the fact that sponsors occupy large parts of the pre-match preparations. This threatens their possibilities for expressing their own rituals before the game. There are also examples that they succeed in reversing these forms of commodification.When it comes to institutional restructuring, the conflicts are not so much between supporters and club as between supporters and NFF, UEFA and FIFA. The initial observation is that both the rules and the tournaments in football are changing slowly and gradually. The national leagues form the main part of the season in all countries, including Norway, and the rules of the game are very similar to those agreed upon in the 19th century. On the other hand, it is reasonable to assume that in order to reach even larger international markets, it is tempting for football to change both the format of the tournaments and the rules, in order to increase the number of decisive games, and in order to increase the number of goals. Norwegian supporters seem to be quite conservative in both these respects, defending status quo. However, they seem to have problems in arguing for their conservatism. That no dramatic changes are needed in football seems to be part of an internalized doxa, more than it is a result of discussions.The analysis of spectacularisation is divided into three parts. The first concerns spectacles that are initiated by the club, such as the use of music or cheerleaders. The second is initiated by spectators that are not defined as belonging to the most self-conscious supporters. “The Wave” (‘bølgen’) is an example. The third part analyses how they relate to different forms of spectacularisation that are initiated by the supporters themselves. Traditionally, Norwegian supporters have been inspired by English football culture, and singing has been their preferred activity. During the latest years, younger supporters are increasingly inspired by latin football culture, and the use of tifo and flags have become more frequent. The analysis clearly indicates that the most important norm for supporters is that spectacularisation should be the result of the supporters’ own initiatives. They do not want to participate in activities initiatedby the club, while they are more divided when it comes to activities initiated by other spectators. More concretely, they relate the activities initiated by the club to other sports in which they dislike the atmosphere, as handball or basketball. These sports turn into important symbols of what football should not be like, while they for some clubs directors may have been an inspiration for the development of their arrangements.In the concluding chapter, it is argued that football as a result of commercialisation has become an important part of modern popular culture. However, the intensity of the attachment to the game among the ardent supporters points in other directions. Commercialisation is therefore less straightforward in football than in most other sports, and perhaps also than in most other parts of popular culture

De som streber nedover â om klasse og identitet blant fotballsupportere

AbstractIn this article, it is argued that new football supporters tend to aspire downwards in their attempts to be accepted as authentic supporters. By this, it is meant that the historical traditions of football as a working class sport lead to the assumption (often mistakenly) that current fan cultures in football somehow constitute an authentic expression of traditional working class culture. Football supporters stress the importance of loyalty and passion, and of being critical towards the increasing commercialization of the game. Football authorities have in many ways succeeded in developing football into an important part of the culture industry since the 1980s. The middle classes are attracíted to the game by increased merchandising and improved facilities at more modern football arenas. Modern top football has become an important part of public life. From this fact, it is reasonable to assume that the alleged working class culture is marginalized. However, the new middle classes do not seem to have established any cultural hegemony in football culture. Rather, they are trying to internalize the traditions of the core groups of supporters. It is concluded that knowíledge of the ââ¬Åworking classââ¬Â traditions of football serves as football-cultural capital. Some examples are considered, including the work of Nick Hornby on football.Keywords: Football, class identity, commercialization of footbal

A bankruptcy probability model for assessing credit risk on corporate loans with automated variable selection

We propose an econometric model for predicting the share of bank debt held by bankrupt firms by combining a novel set of firm-level financial variables and macroeconomic indicators. Our firm-level data include payment remarks in the form of debt collections from private agencies and attachments from private and public agencies and cover all Norwegian limited liability companies for the period 2010–2021. We use logistic Lasso regressions to select bankruptcy predictors from a large set of potential predictors, comparing a highly sparse variable selection criterion (“the one standard error rule”) with the minimum cross validation error (CVE) criterion. Moreover, we examine the implications of using debt shares as weights in the estimation and find that weighting has a large impact on variable selection and predictions and, generally, leads to lower out-of-sample prediction errors than alternative approaches. Debt weighting combined with sparse variable selection gives the best predictions of the risk of bankruptcy in firms holding high shares of the bank debt.publishedVersio

Organized Sport and School as Complementary and Competing Venues: Different Patterns for Minority and Majority Youth?

Studien undersøker hvordan frafall fra idrettslag henger sammen med skoleengasjement i form av tid brukt på skolearbeid, skoleprestasjoner og utdanningsaspirasjoner. Med data fra Ungdata 2017–2019 og respondenter fra norsk videregående skole (16–19 år), finner vi ulike mønstre for minoritets- og majoritetsungdom. Blant minoritetsungdom er frafallet fra idrettslag høyest blant de med de beste skolekarakterene, mens det er motsatt for majoritetsungdom. Utdanningsaspirasjoner har ingen betydning for minoritetsungdoms frafallsmønster. Blant majoritetsungdom er det lavere frafall blant de som aspirerer til høyere utdanning enn blant de som ikke gjør det. Frafallet fra idrettslag er samtidig størst blant ungdom som bruker mye tid på lekser – en sammenheng som er tydeligere blant minoritets- enn majoritetsungdom. Vi foreslår at resultatene er uttrykk for et underliggende driv for sosial mobilitet blant minoritetsungdom, som forsterkes av innvandrerfamiliers sosiale kapital, noe som gjør avveiningen til et nullsumspill hvor mer tid til skole gir mindre tid til idrett. For majoritetsungdom tilskrives resultatene skolens og idrettens beslektede logikk. De som er disponert for å mestre skolen, er også kulturelt utrustet for å tiltrekkes av idrettslogikken.publishedVersio

Sink or swim? – Håndtering av maskulinitet og intimitet i herrefotball

Akseptert fagfellevurdert versjon (postprint).Artikkelen drøfter hvordan maskulinitet uttrykkes og håndteres i gutte- og herrefotball. Gjennom en analyse av både forskningsbidrag og populærkulturelle bøker, er målet å vise hvordan en ortodoks form for maskulinitet i noen grad synes å ha blitt videreført også i en tid som generelt kjennetegnes av at det er åpnet nye rom for alternative maskuliniteter. Dette kan kaste lys over hvorfor seksuelle minoriteter fortsatt i svært liten grad er synlige i herrefotball. Artikkelen belyser dette med eksempler som varierer både i tid, nivå og geografi

Caledonian structuring of the Silurian succession at Sundvollen, Ringerike, southern Norway

The main scientific goal with this thesis is to study the configuration of the main Caledonian geological structures within the Lower Silurian succession, with emphasis on back-thrusts at Sundvollen, Ringerike in southern Norway. This involves determination of the relationship between main- and subsidiary thrusts and folding in context to the development of the Ringerike area. Four separate deformational phases connected to the study area are identified based on analysis of the structural geological data. Phase 1 represents the oldest structures, whilst phase 4 represents the youngest. Thrust faults and folds connected to deformational phase 1 are associated with bedding-parallel shortening. The development of tight- to isoclinal, disharmonic folds with upright axial planes is defined as deformational phase 2. Structures connected to deformational phase 3 are foreland-directed thrust faults and large, open and upright folds with wavelengths in the order of hundreds of meters. The orientation of the maximum stress axes indicated by structures associated to phase 1 are generally consistent with what is known for the regional transport in the Oslo Region. The transport directions displayed by the structures comprising phases 2 and 3 are consistent with the main SSE-directed tectonic transport direction displayed in the Oslo Region (e.g Gabrielsen and Larsen in press). Deformational phase 4 comprises back-thrusts. Structures connected to this phase are low-angle thrust faults and fault-propagation-folds. The transport direction of the faults shifts gradually from N-NNW in the southern part of the study area to WNW-NW in the northernmost part. The generally gentle deformational style, characterized by large open folds as displayed in the study area, is consistent with the general structural style in the upper Cambro-Silurian succession in the Oslo Region (Morley 1987a). Back-thrusts are however the most dominant of the exposed thrust faults in the study area. All structures are situated in the Lower Silurian succession at Ringerike. Therefore are phases 1-4 formed in response to the Scandian phase, which corresponds to the main Caledonian deformation (e.g Roberts 2003)