Danish High School Research Articles

‘The tipping point’––interrogating racialized nationalist affects in Danish high schools

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore the fear and anxiety reflected within and generated by educational dispersal policies related to racialized minoritized students in Danish high schools. The article examines the production of high schools as sites of integration within policy and discourse and how racialized minoritized students are represented as ‘perpetually arriving’ and challenging the social cohesiveness of the Danish high school. Our conception of racialized nationalist affect captures how ideas of education and integration are bound up with racialized notions reinforcing fear, anxiety, and concern in response to a perceived threat of diversity that needs to be managed through dispersal policies. Drawing on existing policy documents related to student dispersal plans and interviews with high-school leaders and teachers, we critically analyze how the high school, the nation, and racialized minoritized students are affectively and discursively produced, perceived, and disciplined.

Is harmonizing to social drinking norms associated with alcohol use in Danish high school students?

Abstract Background Alcohol use is positively linked with perceived drinking norms within the peer group and the social plasticity hypothesis proposes that youth are very good at harmonizing to social norms (social attunement). Youth with high social attunement may adjust their drinking habits to the perceived drinking norms of the peer group to a higher extent potentially leading to a larger impact on personal alcohol use. This study examined if frequency of personal alcohol use was associated with perceived peer approval of drinking and the role of social attunement in Danish high school students aged 15-19 years. Methods An online survey was administered to 2977 first-year students from 16 public high schools in Denmark. Students reported past month alcohol use (drinking days, using TLFB) and perceived approval of alcohol use among peers of their grade. Social attunement was calculated as a sum score of the 11-item Dutch Social Attunement Questionnaire (SAQ) (range: 11-77; α = 0.81). Number of drinking days was analysed as dependent variable, with age, gender, perceived peer approval and SAQ-score as independent variables. Results Older students were more likely to perceive peers to approve drinking (β = 0.25; p = 0.004) and getting drunk (β = 0.22; p = 0.003). More females (83.2%) than males (81.8%; p = 0.003) perceived peers to approve youth getting drunk. Multilevel regressions showed increased drinking days for students perceiving peers to approve of drinking (β = 1.68; p < 0.001) and getting drunk (β = 1.80; p < 0.001). We found interaction between SAQ-score and perceived drinking norms (β=-0.10; p < 0.001) indicating that perceived peer approval had less effect on drinking days for students with high SAQ-score. Conclusions Social attunement explained additional variance in the association between personal alcohol use and perceived drinking norms. Our findings stress the importance of addressing the influence of behavioural adaptation in e.g. school-based health promotion programs. Key messages • Students perceiving peers to approve of youth alcohol use drink more frequent, but the link is weakened when the need to harmonize to perceived drinking norms are high. • Social attunement needs to be considered when examining the link between individual alcohol consumption and perceived drinking norms and should be addressed in e.g. school health programs.

Playing to Collaborate: Using Cooperative Board Games to Experience and Reflect on Collaboration in Upper Secondary Education

There is a growing interest among researchers in using board games for supporting learning in school contexts. Co-op board games is a relatively new and promising type of games, which seems well-suited for improving students’ collaboration skills. In this paper, we explore how two groups of Danish high school students interact when playing two different co-op games, The Mind and Forbidden Island, and how they reflect upon their shared game experiences. The data collection is based on video observations of group interaction and student interviews, which use stimulated video recall. In this way, we are able not only to describe the students’ perceived outcomes of the gaming activities, but also their in-game practices. Our data analysis is informed by microsociological perspectives (Goffman and Collins), which are used to map the group interaction rituals and social norms of the students’ gaming encounters. Based on the data analysis, we identify two analytical themes, which concern the students’ use of verbal and non-verbal communication practices as well as their socialisation processes. The findings suggest that co-op games may be used as a valuable educational tool for qualifying high school students’ collaboration skills as well as strengthening their group relations. The students especially valued playing The Mind, which they tried playing for multiple game rounds. Based on these findings, we discuss recommendations for the further use and study of co-op board games in educational settings.

(In)Credibly Inclusive? A Panel Study on Inclusive Leadership, Leader Credibility, and Inclusive Climate

Cultivating an inclusive climate is an important concern for many public organizations, and it can be approached through various means. Research suggests that by exercising inclusive leadership, public managers may be able to support an inclusive climate. However, we still know little about the extent to which and under what conditions inclusive leadership is effective in promoting an inclusive climate. This study contributes to the existing research by examining the importance of inclusive leadership on inclusive climate utilizing a representative panel of 705 Danish high school teachers. Additionally, the study argues that leader credibility may be an important moderator. Testing the preregistered hypotheses, the study finds support for a statistically significant effect of changes in inclusive leadership on changes in inclusive climate. Contrary to expectations, leader credibility does not appear to moderate the relationship. The study suggests that inclusive leadership is relevant to promote inclusive climates across different contexts.

Effects of 9 Weeks of High- or Moderate-Intensity Training on Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Inhibitory Control, and Plasma Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Danish Adolescents-A Randomized Controlled Trial.

The primary aims of this study were to examine the effects of 9 weeks of aerobic training, comprising three 30-min sessions per week, on V̇O2max, inhibitory control, and plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels among adolescents aged 16-19 years. One hundred twenty-one untrained or recreationally active adolescents from a Danish high school were enrolled in the study, with 58 females (17.8 ± 0.8 years) and 27 males (18.0 ± 0.9 years) completing it. Participants were randomly divided into three groups performing aerobic training at either moderate-intensity (MIT: 60%-70% heart rate reserve [HRR]) or high-intensity (HIT: 80%-100% HRR) or a passive control group (CON) continuing their habitual lifestyle. Both the training groups exercised for 3×30 min per week for 9 weeks using a combination of cycling and running. Before and after the intervention period maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) and the primary outcomes (inhibitory control measured by a modified flanker task, and resting plasma levels of BDNF) were evaluated. After the intervention period, the HIT group demonstrated a larger increase in V̇O2max compared to both the CON and MIT groups, while no significant effects were observed on inhibitory control or plasma BDNF levels in any training group. However, compared to the CON group, the HIT group exhibited a tendency for greater improvement in the flanker interference score (accuracy), attributable to enhanced accuracy on the incongruent stimuli from pre to post. Aerobic training in adolescents increased cardiorespiratory fitness in an intensity-dependent manner, but no clear effects were observed on neither inhibitory control nor resting plasma BDNF levels. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02075944.

Exploring the potential of extreme citizen science with Danish high school students using environmental DNA for marine monitoring

Citizen science involves non-professionals assisting with scientific research, contributing data, and conducting experiments under professional guidance. In this paper, we describe the citizen science project DNA & life, based at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, which actively engages high school students in both fieldwork and advanced laboratory analyses by collecting and analyzing eDNA samples from marine environments across Denmark. The analysis is performed via species-specific real-time PCR and in a case study we present data gathered in the project from 2017-2023 with focus on the potential of eDNA detecting in use for species monitoring. The results include seasonal occurrence of Mnemiopsis leidyi and national distributions of selected species of particular ecological interest Perca fluviatilis, Anguilla anguilla, Neogobius melanostomus and Alexandrium ostenfeldii. In addition to the eDNA case study, we present a new way of conducting citizen science and eDNA analysis, as a development of the established DNA & life project. Local DNA laboratories are created to shorten the path from sampling site to laboratory facility, creating the possibility for Danish high schools to participate in a new version of the project. In close collaboration with the academic staff of the DNA & life project both teachers and students help develop facilities, protocols and laboratory analyses in an extreme citizen science and co-creation approach, where the participants are involved in a higher level of laboratory work and data analysis. Allowing high school students to perform intricate molecular lab analyzes through an extreme citizen science approach has demonstrated encouraging outcomes and potential for data of high quality in terms of sampling and analyzing eDNA with the purpose of species monitoring and conservation.

Engaging youth in the local environment. Promoting sustainability action competence in Danish high school teaching through citizen social science.

Many young individuals experience a sense of disconnection from their immediate environment, which adversely affects their engagement in civic activities. This article outlines experiences with a sustainability actionable approach in a Danish high school, and how it influenced young people’s understanding of the local environment. The study entails a threemonth collaboration with a teacher and 17 high school students in Copenhagen who were being trained as citizen social scientists. They investigated and proposed youth-friendly sustainable changes in the neighbourhood, which enhanced their sustainability action competence. The article discusses how an action-oriented framework may inspire high school teachers to incorporate citizen social science in planning education for sustainable development that supports youth civic engagement.

Racialized spatial attachments

Danish high school’s rising ethnic/racial diversity and tendencies of segregation call for explorations of students’ educational experiences of racialized differentiation. This article unfolds methodological reflections on this endeavor, by focusing on researcher access. Not only is space a medium through which racial relations materialize – space is also interconnected with access. If researchers depend on relations for access to sites of inquiry, which depends on how researchers are read by actors in the field, it is critical to scrutinize the spatial dimensions to such readings and what knowledge is (allowed to be) produced. Unfolding two ethnographic vignettes, the researcher’s positionality of passing is analyzed to explicate the relationship between racialized bodies and racialized spaces. I propose the notion of spatial attachments as an analytical lens for explaining such body–space conflations to illuminate the interconnectivity between educational spaces and the broader external world, and to expand the language to address racialization in the colorblind context of Danish high schools.

Not all grammar errors are equally noticed: error detection of naturally occurring errors and implications for eye-tracking models of everyday texts.

Grammar errors are a natural part of everyday written communication. They are not a uniform group, but vary from morphological errors to ungrammatical word order and involve different types of word classes. In this study, we examine whether some types of naturally occurring errors attract more attention than others during reading, measured by detection rates. Data from 211 Danish high school students were included in the analysis. They each read texts containing different types of errors: syntactic errors (verb-third word order), morphological agreement errors (verb conjugations; gender mismatches in NPs) and orthographic errors. Participants were asked to underline all errors they detected while reading for comprehension. We examined whether there was a link between the type of errors that participants did not detect, the type of errors which they produce themselves (as measured in a subsequent grammar quiz), and the type of errors that are typical of high school students in general (based on error rates in a corpus). If an error is infrequent in production, it may cause a larger surprisal effect and be more attended to. For the three subtypes of grammar errors (V3 word order, verb errors, NP errors), corpus error rates predicted detection rates for most conditions. Yet, frequency was not the only possible explanation, as phonological similarity to the correct form is entangled with error frequency. Explicit grammatical awareness also played a role. The more correct answers participants had in the grammar tasks in the quiz, the more errors they detected. Finally, we found that the more annoyed with language errors participants reported to be, the more errors they detected. Our study did not measure eye movements, but the differences in error detection patterns point to shortcomings of existing eye-tracking models. Understanding the factors that govern attention and reaction to everyday grammar errors is crucial to developing robust eye-tracking processing models which can accommodate non-standard variation. Based on our results, we give our recommendations for current and future processing models.

Alcohol consumption and well-being among 25,000 Danish high school students

Excessive alcohol consumption among young people is an international public health concern, as alcohol is associated with a range of adverse short- and long-term consequences. Furthermore, alcohol consumption has been associated with well-being in young people, but the association depends on the chosen measure of well-being. The objective of this study was to assess how weekly alcohol consumption was associated with poor well-being (poor school enjoyment, social inclusion in school, mental well-being, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and self-efficacy, and experiencing loneliness). Cross-sectional data from the Danish National Youth Study 2019 was used (a total of 25,910 students aged 15–25 years).For most outcomes, there was a U-shaped association between weekly alcohol consumption and poor well-being e.g. students who never drank, students who only drank occasionally, and students who drank a lot (22 units of alcohol or more a week) had higher odds of poor well-being, compared to the reference group (1–7 units a week). This was the case for measures such as low school enjoyment (only females), poor mental well-being, low life satisfaction, low self-esteem (only females) and low self-efficacy (only males). Among females, odds of low self-efficacy was higher with higher weekly alcohol consumption. Higher weekly alcohol consumption was associated with lower odds of low social inclusion in school, experiencing loneliness often, and (among males) low self-esteem.Conclusively, well-being in general was lowest among never-, occasional- and heavy drinking students. Understanding these associations can help to decrease alcohol consumption and promote well-being among young students.

Computational modelling in high school biology: A teaching intervention

ABSTRACT Computational modelling is widely used in biological science. Therefore, biology students need to learn computational modelling. However, there is a lack of evidence about how to teach computational modelling in biology and what the effects are on student learning. The purpose of this intervention-control study was to investigate how knowledge in computational modelling is associated with knowledge acquisition in biology. Participants were 118 students (17 to 19 years of age) enrolled in first and second year of Danish High School. The intervention group (n = 81) received teaching in biology and computational modelling while the comparison group (n = 37) received teaching in biology using textbook models. Both groups received two sessions, each of approximately 120 minutes. The study used mixed methods to analyse students’ knowledge of biology and computational modelling. Participants in the intervention group showed statistically significant improvements in their biological knowledge and computational modelling knowledge. The study is one of the first to investigate the effect of computational modelling on high school students’ learning of biology. The study discusses how biology could be an important subject where students can learn computing concepts central in the endeavour to introduce computing in high school education.

Fulfilling or failing to fulfill narrative developmental themes: An indicator of living into the good life in late adolescence

Late-stage adolescents face developmental themes pivotal to establishing the foundation for a good life. Narrating represents a compelling technique to examine how some succeed while others fail to accomplish these themes. In this study, 239 Danish high school students’ life chapters were coded for narrative developmental themes related to identity integration, self-direction, empathy, and intimacy. Participants also completed self-report measures of identity disturbance, empathy, and depression. Variability in fulfillment of the developmental themes indicated the degree to which adolescents were living the good life. Regression analyses showed that fulfilled developmental themes of identity (storied and self-report) and storied intimacy were associated with lowered depression. The findings are discussed including ways to support adolescents as they prepare for the good life.

CONTENT AND FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICS OF EFTERSKOLES IN DENMARK

The article focuses on the content and functional specifics of efterskoles, post-secondary secondary schools in Denmark. It is emphasized that efterskoles in Denmark have changed significantly in content and procedure since their founding by Cold. It is noted that the schools under study are distinguished by the breadth of subject specialization and target groups of students with certain special needs. All of these schools, which are the subject of our study, share the key values of focusing on both comprehensive education and the personal development of each student. They are based on the idea of combining academic learning with “practical life learning” as a preparatory tool for all aspects of life based on the educational philosophy of “an individual in the community”. Solidarity, community and unity are key concepts in the Danish efterskoles. It is stated that the ethos of many post-secondary secondary schools in Denmark is that they reflect the diversity of society and thus offer numerous opportunities for personal, vocational and cultural development. Danish efterskoles ensure the development of students’ independent critical thinking, creativity, and they are considered the centers of education of responsible citizens with formed global competence. In these schools, students have more opportunities to develop their talents in various fields. Training and education in these educational institutions are based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and active cooperation of all participants in the educational process. Compared to public schools in Denmark, efterskoles have been shown to have considerable freedom in terms of, for example, developing their own curriculum, teaching methods and organizing the educational process according to the political, religious or pedagogical orientation of the school. The content and procedural features of the two largest efterskoles in Denmark, Ranum Efterskole College and Østerskov Efterskole, are highlighted. Keywords: Danish efterskoles; Danish high school students; harmonious personal development; key competencies; global competence; intercultural understanding; curriculum; game pedagogical technologies.

Social Disconnectedness, Loneliness, and Mental Health Among Adolescents in Danish High Schools: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Previous research has suggested that social disconnectedness experienced at school is linked to mental health problems, however, more research is needed to investigate (1) whether the accumulation of various types of social disconnectedness is associated with risk for mental health problems, and (2) whether loneliness is a mechanism that explains these associations.Methods: Using data from the Danish National Youth Study 2019 (UNG19), nation-wide cross-sectional data from 29,086 high school students in Denmark were analyzed to assess associations between social disconnectedness experienced at school (lack of classmate support, lack of teacher support, lack of class social cohesion, and not being part of the school community) and various mental health outcomes, as well as the mediating role of loneliness for each type of disconnectedness. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to assess the associations.Results: Descriptive analyses suggest that 27.5% of Danish high school students experience at least one type of social disconnectedness at school. Each type of social disconnectedness was positively associated with mental health problems (depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, stress, sleep problems, suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury, eating disorder, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem) and negatively associated with mental well-being. In all cases, loneliness significantly mediated the associations. We found a clear dose-response pattern, where each addition in types of social disconnectedness was associated with (1) stronger negative coefficients with mental well-being and (2) stronger positive coefficients with mental health problems.Conclusion: Our results add to a large evidence-base suggesting that mental health problems among adolescents may be prevented by promoting social connectedness at school. More specifically, fostering social connectedness at school may prevent loneliness, which in turn may promote mental well-being and prevent mental health problems during the developmental stages of adolescence. It is important to note that focusing on single indicators of school social connectedness/disconnectedness would appear to be insufficient. Implications for practices within school settings to enhance social connectedness are discussed.

August Krogh's contribution to the rise of physiology during the first half the 20th century

August Krogh (1874–1949) was amongst the most influential physiologists in the first part of the 20th century. This was an era when physiology emerged as a quantitative research field and when many of the current physiological disciplines were defined; Krogh can rightfully be viewed as having introduced comparative physiology, epithelial transport and – together with Johannes Lindhard – exercise physiology as independent disciplines. With a unique ability to design and construct equipment, Krogh could address novel questions in both human and animal physiology with unprecedented precision. Krogh would characteristically focus on a given physiological problem over a couple of years, delineate the focal mechanisms, provide a solution to the major problems, and then move onto new academic ground. For each of his major research areas (respiratory gas exchange, capillary function, osmoregulation), he wrote comprehensive books or monographs that remain important resources for scholars today, and he engaged in the writing of physiology textbooks for the Danish high school. Krogh's research appears to have been driven by curiosity to understand how animals (including humans) work, but he did not hesitate to apply his insight to societal and clinical problems throughout his long academic career.

Necessary Suffering? - Investigating Existential Suffering in Youth through Everyday Experiences of Bad Conscience


 
 
 The purpose of this article is to develop an account of existential suffering in youth. According to recent studies, a growing amount of young Westerners has come to suffer from mental disorders, stress, and a general lack of well-being. It is suggested however that the massive concern for young people's mental health might risk contributing to an increased pathologization of all kinds of suffering in youth. In continuation hereof the article aims at disclosing a suffering that is not pathological in kind but quite the contrary clings to existence. Based on interviews with three Danish high school students, regarding their experiences of bad conscience in their everyday lives, it is revealed how they suffer from matters conceivable as normative implications of fundamental conditions of existence such as freedom, finitude and the Other. In the end, critical concerns are raised regarding the normative evaluation of existential suffering as a necessity. That is, should we not always be against suffering?
 
 

'High schools High on life': Development of an Intervention to Reduce Excessive Drinking in Danish High Schools.

Background: Clear documentation of the understanding of the problem, process of development, and content of interventions is essential to enable other researchers to understand why interventions succeed or fail and to enable researcher to build on previous evidence and replicate and adapt findings in other contexts. In this paper we describe the rationale, intervention development, and final design of the ‘High schools High on life’ intervention; a high school-based, multi-component intervention to reduce excessive drinking among Danish high school students.Methods: The development of the intervention ‘High schools High on life’ was guided by the planning steps of the Intervention Mapping protocol (IM) in combination with the behavior change wheel and the behavior change techniques, theory, evidence, practice, and new empirical studies of contextual factors in the Danish high school setting.Results: The development process resulted in a multi-component intervention with the following intervention elements: a school environmental component targeting school alcohol policies and norms, a school educational component addressing students' social norms around alcohol, and a parental component encouraging parent-child communication around alcohol.Discussion: Not all steps of IM were followed rigidly. However, IM proved useful as a planning tool in combination with the behavior change wheel and the behavior change techniques, as it provided a systematic approach to the intervention development process. IM forced the research group to be explicit about decisions and choices throughout the planning process. The transparency of the developmental process and theoretical, empirical and practical/contextual foundation of the ‘High schools High on life’ intervention may enable future intervention studies to build on our findings and accumulate knowledge to reduce excessive drinking among young people.Trial registration: The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (Trial registration number NCT03906500) prior to randomization.

Leading Employees of Different Genders: The Importance of Gender for the Leadership‒Motivation Relationship

Employee motivation is important for public organizations. However, it might not be the same kind of leadership that motivates Susan and Steve. This article examines whether the association between transformational (visionary leadership) and transactional leadership (verbal and pecuniary rewards) and employee motivation depends on the employee’s gender and gender-based traits. Based on gender differences in communal and agentic traits, pecuniary rewards are argued to motivate male/agentic employees more than female/communal employees. The opposite is argued regarding visionary leadership and verbal rewards. Analysis of 1,294 Danish high school teachers shows female teachers on average are more communal and less agentic than their male colleagues. Furthermore, female teachers, unlike male teachers, are less motivated the more pecuniary rewards they perceive. However, no other gender differences are significant, lending only partial support for gender-based differences in the leadership‒motivation relationship.

Implementation of initiatives to prevent student stress: process evaluation findings from the Healthy High School study.

Process evaluation of public health interventions is important for understanding intervention results and can help explain why interventions succeed or fail. This study evaluated implementation of a school-based intervention combining educational and environmental strategies to prevent stress among Danish high school students. We investigated dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, appreciation, barriers and facilitators at the 15 intervention schools using mixed methods and multiple data sources: questionnaires among students, teachers and school coordinators; semi-structured interviews with school coordinators; telephone interviews with student counsellors; and focus group interviews with students and teachers. Implementation varied by schools and classes. Half of the intervention schools delivered the environmental strategies. For the educational strategies, dose delivered differed according to intervention provider. Students reported a lower dose received compared with dose delivered reported by school staff. Overall, student counsellors, school coordinators and students—especially those with low perceived stress—were satisfied with the stress preventive initiatives while teacher satisfaction varied. Five main barriers and three facilitators for implementation were identified. The use of multiple data sources and data methods created new knowledge of the implementation process which is important for the interpretation of effect evaluation and development of future interventions.

The construct validity of the Child Health Utility 9D-DK instrument

BackgroundRelative to their application with adults there is currently little information about the application of preference-based health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments among populations of young people. The Child Health Utility 9D (CHU9D) is a paediatric-specific generic preference-based HRQL instrument, recently translated and linguistically validated into Danish (CHU9D-DK). The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the CHU9D-DK in a sample of Danish high school students.MethodsAll students attending a Danish High School were invited to participate in a web-based survey in January 2018 (N = 272). The survey included the CHU9D-DK, the young adult version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales (PedsQL), self-reported health status, presence/absence of disability/chronic diseases, life satisfaction, and socio-economic questions. CHU9D-DK utility scores were generated by employing the two scoring algorithms developed from adults in the UK and adolescents in Australia, respectively. Internal consistency, reliability and construct validity of the CHU9D-DK instrument were investigated.ResultsTwo hundred and twenty-eight (84%) students consented to participate and completed the survey. The mean ± (standard deviation) values of the CHU9D-DK utilities were 0.84 (0.11) when the UK adult algorithm was applied and 0.70 (0.22), when the Australian adolescent algorithm was applied. The mean PedsQL score was 82.32 (13.14). The CHU9D-DK showed good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.803). Higher levels of health status and life satisfaction were significantly associated with higher CHU9D-DK utility scores regardless of which scoring algorithm was applied (p-values < 0.001). Students living with a disability/chronic disease exhibited significantly lower utility scores relative to their healthy peers (p-values < 0.05). Higher socio-economic status (approximated by financial situation and frequency of family vacations) was also associated with higher utility scores (p-values < 0.005).ConclusionThe CHU9D-DK demonstrated good psychometric performance overall and shows potential as a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the HRQL of Danish young people.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03391999, Registered 15 October 2017.