Mid Sweden University

This study aims to examine preschool literacy practices during observations in Swedish preschools with a focus on environment, read-alouds and emergent writing. The study reported on in this article is based on empirical data from 433 observations in preschools in 80 Swedish municipalities that has been analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Descriptive analyses have been performed on the quantitative data, and observation notes have been coded and thematically analysed. Five themes were created in the thematic analysis of the qualitative data: differences in accessibility to books, few books in different languages, differences regarding existing reading events, read aloud to calm children, and few existing writing events. The study constitutes an essential basis for knowledge, as well as a prerequisite for future intervention studies and the development of relevant in-service education for preschool teachers. Our conclusion is that there is a considerable lack of equity regarding literacy environments in Swedish preschools.

The inclusion of social, emotional, and intercultural competences (SEI) in academic contexts has been supported by international organizations, such as the European Union, the United Nations, and the OECD, since the early 2000s. However, little information is yet available regarding the assessment of these competences. This paper shares the findings of a systematic literature review that produced an inventory of existing tools for the assessment of SEI competences of students and school staff. This is the first time assessment tools for these three competences have been concurrently reviewed. An interdisciplinary and international research team conducted this systematic literature review in the databases of ERIC, PsycInfo, PSYNDEX, Scopus, and Web of Science. Out of 13,963 articles, 149 assessment tools were examined and processed. In addition to the instrument analysis and a detailed description of the procedure, this article shows the basic theoretical concepts, as well as the limitations, of such a review. It was found that 1) the majority of the discovered instruments rely on self-reported survey and inventory data, 2) of the three competences, intercultural competence had the fewest relevant instruments, and 3) very few tools have been created to assess all three competences together. From this review, it is apparent that a wider variety of assessment tools (other than self-reports), as well as more comprehensive tools (e.g. qualitative analysis of vignettes) for the assessment of all three SEI competences, should be developed to meet international demand. The results of the literature review are available and freely accessible in the form of an assessment catalogue.

The present study aims at investigating the long-term cognitive effects of vocational education (VET) in Sweden and Denmark, using data from the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills. While Sweden has moved towards a more academic vocational education, Denmark has kept the apprenticeship system. Using multiple regression analysis we estimate the contribution of VET versus general upper secondary education to the proficiency in literacy. The results show a higher literacy performance in those Swedish age groups in more academic VET programs compared to the older Swedish age groups and to all the Danish age groups. A reasonable interpretation is that the amount of cognitively challenging subjects at the upper-secondary level gives a lasting imprint on literacy proficiency later in life.  

Framed by the EU-project Hand in Hand focusing on Social, Emotional and Intercultural (SEI) competencies among students and school staff the paper discusses implementation and professional competencies based on a literature review. Five themes were identified: 1) Intercultural/transcultural competency is not often referred to in the same research as social-emotional learning, though socio-emotional aspects appear to be `in the core ', 2) it is crucial to be aware of agency among school staff in a SEI-implementation, 3) successful implementation is about more than the activities in the specific program, it is rather about elements in synergy and professional learning over time, 4) the subtle balance between adaptation and fidelity might best be addressed in an adaptive curriculum emphasizing active ingredients, and 5) this is a field with many intervention studies, but it is urgent to consider if the psychometric measures are sufficiently sensitive to catch the subtle changes related to SEI-competencies.

The OECD changed the mode of delivery in PISA 2015 from a paper-based assessment (PBA) to a computer-based assessment (CBA). In PISA 2015, four countries improved their results in all three tested domains, and three of these were Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden). Students in the Nordic countries have significant experience in using digital devices, and this might be a plausible explanation for the improved results. In line with this, the results from South Korea and Turkey, two countries with a low average use of computers and the Internet, deteriorated when the test mode was changed. It is of vital importance to ensure that the PISA results from the computer-based test are comparable to previous results if countries are to make policy decisions based on the results. The overarching purpose of the present study is to explore how the change from PBA to CBA was associated with the Nordic students’ performance on the reading tasks in PISA in relation to item format, gender, computer experience, and the three reading aspects that were assessed. The analysis was performed on the overall results in reading literacy as well as the specific items that were used in both PISA 2012 and PISA 2015, in all the Nordic countries. Among the Nordic countries, there were no dramatic changes in the results on reading literacy in PISA 2015 compared to PISA 2012. Only in Sweden was a major change observed. Our findings show that in comparison with the other Nordic countries, Sweden seems to have a larger group of students who spend large amounts of time on the Internet, and this group improved their results on PISA 2015 compared with PISA 2012 more than other groups in Sweden and more than similar groups in the other Nordic countries. All of the Nordic countries showed a decreased proportion of students who gave no response to items and who did not complete all items in the PISA test on reading literacy. At the same time, the proportion of full-credit responses and no-credit responses increased.

Background and purpose: The purpose is to investigate whether regular and temporary staff differ in their per- ceptions of preconditions for learning and if there are some qualitative aspects that can be considered particularly significant in these differences. Design/Methodology/Approach: The approach consists of a case study based on both quantitative and qualitative data collected via an online questionnaire and individual interviews.

Results: The paper question the understanding of the organization as a singular and more or less cohesive unit. On an organizational level, the project owner who hires staff does not care for competence transfer between regulars and temps, or between different groups of staff. At the individual level, temps are more focused on their specific task compared to regulars. Regulars’ seems to safeguarding a community or an organizational perspective, while temps are looking for their own good.

Conclusions: There is a risk that one social unit differs, in attention payed to preconditions for learning, from an- other, when an organization use temporary staff. Therefore, the scientific value of this paper is that using temps may result in or be a consequence of a fragmented organization. The findings show no competence transfer in projects with both temps and regulars, and the project owner takes no active responsibility for human resource planning in terms of competence transfer between different groups of staff. The implications underline that long-term efficiency and rationality in an organization does not always have priority over organizational affiliation even with the hiring of expertise. When this happens, it may lead to a fragmented personnel group that is divided in thinkers/organizers and, performers/doers. When this happens, important practical skills fall outside of the organization, which in a metaphor- ical sense means that the hand is separated from the brain. Therefore, organizations with temporary staff need to plan for how to enable competence transfer between temporary and regular staff.