Norwegian Students Research Articles

What Kind of Learning Climates Are Established by Newly Educated PE Teachers in Primary and Lower Secondary School? A Quantitative Analysis of Students’ Perceptions

The aim of this study was to explore Norwegian students’ perceptions of learning climate established in physical education (PE) by newly educated teachers. The findings substantiate that the newly educated PE teachers created a favorable learning climate, and the motivational inventory confirms that the students perceived a predominance of mastery climate in the teaching. This may mean that the recent years’ reforms in PE and PE teacher education, with an increased focus on a mastery-oriented learning climate, have affected students’ experience of the subject. However, there is still a need for stronger efforts related to facilitation of the learning climate.

Ethical challenges and reflection. Norwegian bachelor students’ experiences during clinical placement in Sub-Saharan Africa

BackgroundClinical placements in nursing abroad are important for awareness and ethical reflections for Norwegian bachelor students in nursing. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of Norwegian nursing students’ experiences during clinical placements in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on their ethical challenges. MethodsEight third-year Norwegian bachelor’s degree nursing students carried out their clinical placement in Sub-Saharan Africa for 12 weeks. The data was based on one focus group interview and individual written assignments. Systematic text condensation was used to analyse the narratives of nursing students regarding challenges during their clinical placement. The COREQ checklist was applied. The study was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data. The country where the study found place, is anonymised to a country in Sub-Saharan Africa. ResultsThe students describe their clinical studies as challenging and educational. They often found themselves in contexts where ethical nursing dilemmas and problems occurred. The students described how they managed to solve the different ethical challenges with the help of ethical reflection. ConclusionIncreasing awareness about ethical challenges in clinical practice seems important for student mobility and the ability to follow up nursing students in clinical placement abroad.

Using an American Immersion Pedagogy to Teach Norwegian Students American History and the English Language

Abstract: The school subject of English is remarkably diversified in Norwegian K13 (K12) education. It entails language instruction, culture, history, literature and society. More and more classroom activities in the subject revolve around oral usage and focus less on other skills, especially those related to extended reading and writing. Recent research shows that reading is in the decline, not only in K13, but equally much in teacher training programs in universities and colleges. This article discusses challenges of teaching American history to Norwegian teacher training students at a time where the school subject leaves less room for assigning longer historical texts combined with students using less time on extensive reading. In a tight integrated teacher training program (GLU 5-10), we argue that using the American immersion pedagogy Reacting to the Past (RTTP) provides students with multiple skills in history, language learning and critical thinking. The pedagogy also offers numerous take-aways for future teachers as it gives students opportunities to reflect on transferrable skills as far as learning and teaching is concerned. As an effective way of teaching, we argue that RTTP as a teaching method covers more learning ground than traditional methods, and additionally, equips students with skill sets they can use in other areas, fields and/or subjects. Recent collected data from the University of Agder and the integrated teacher training program GLU 5-10 in 2019 and 2022 (Covid break in between) will be used to illustrate how this methodology might serve as an example of impactful active learning where students engage and participate in their own learning outcomes.

Attitudes towards mathematics, achievement, and drop-out intentions among STEM and Non-STEM students in Norway

High mathematical ability is central in many domains. In the present study, we investigated relations between students’ high school mathematics background and current study program, and various mathematics-related outcomes. We expected that students who had attended higher-level mathematics courses in high school would report more positive attitudes towards mathematics and higher achievement in math-related classes at university than students who had attended basic mathematics courses in high school. We expected to find the same difference between STEM and non-STEM students. In addition, we expected that mathematics self-efficacy, but not general study-efficacy would predict students’ grades in mathematics-related courses. Lastly, we investigated whether STEM and non-STEM students differed in their drop-out intentions, and whether general study-efficacy and mathematics self-efficacy were related to students’ drop-out intentions. Data from a cross-sectional online questionnaire (N = 264; 177 women, 87 men) of Norwegian university students showed that high-school mathematics background is related to all aspects of students’ attitudes towards mathematics, even after controlling for GPA and general study-efficacy, whereas their current field of study is only related to the subjective value of mathematics. As expected, mathematics self-efficacy, but not general study-efficacy predicted grades in mathematics-related courses. Finally, drop-out intentions did not differ significantly between STEM and non-STEM students, and they were related to general study-efficacy.

E-learning in Norway and Iceland. Development Trends

The article describes the practice of implementing e-learning in Norway and Iceland using Oslo Metropolitan University, Reykjavik University and the University of Iceland as examples. The interest in this problem came from the fact that the Nordic countries are leaders in online learning and I had the opportunity to teach at the universities analyzed. Having close contact with the way of teaching in Norway and Iceland, I asked whether some elements of teaching from the analyzed Nordic countries could be implemented in Poland. Thus, the aim of the article is to introduce the basics of the specifics of teaching at the selected universities and to consider whether the proven methods can be implemented in Poland. The basis of the article was therefore participatory observation, and the results of work with Norwegian and Icelandic students prove that Nordic methods of work can be – at least to some extend – transferred to the Polish educational market (not only in higher education, but also, for example, in corporate e-learning).

Stable and unstable associations between learning environment factors and study approaches: two consecutive cross-sectional analyses of Norwegian occupational therapy students

Relationships between learning environment variables and students’ approaches to studying have been investigated from many points of view over the last decades. However, few studies have explored whether such relationships are stable over time. In the two consecutive cross-sectional analyses performed in this study, Norwegian occupational therapy students’ perceptions of their learning environment and their approaches to studying were assessed in the second (162 students) and third (193 students) year of their study program. Aside from sociodemographic information, the students completed the Course Experience Questionnaire and the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students, with the aim of exploring whether associations between learning environment variables and study approaches were stable across time. The data were analyzed with hierarchical linear regression analyses. Relatively stable associations with students’ study approaches were found for the learning environment variables of ‘generic skills’ and ‘appropriate workload’. The learning environment variables of ‘clear goals and standards’ and ‘student autonomy’ were directly associated with study approaches in both study years, but the nature of the associations shifted during the study period. Thus, knowledge of stability and change in these relationships could assist faculty in promoting a well-functioning learning environment throughout the study program.

Co-occurrence of nonsuicidal self-injury and eating disorder pathology in adolescents.

Little is known about the co-occurrence of nonsuicidal self-injurious (NSSI) behaviors and eating disorder (ED) pathology in community samples of adolescents. A total of 1558 Norwegian upper secondary school students (Grades 11, 12, and 13) completed the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory and a measure of ED pathology. Adolescents (53.1% F, 46.9% M) were a mean age of 17.1 years. A higher level of ED pathology was reported (12.1 vs. 5.3, p< .001) among adolescents who had a history of NSSI. Significantly higher levels of ED pathology were found among females who reported hitting themselves until bruised, head banging, severe scratching, and burning with a lighter, but not cutting, or the other forms of self-injury. Of adolescents with a history of NSSI, 60% of females and 15% of males scored above a cutoff for ED pathology. Of adolescents scoring above a cutoff for ED pathology, 42.5% of females and 37.1% of males had engaged in lifetime NSSI. Adolescents-in particular, females- with a history of NSSI reported significantly greater ED pathology. Notably, a higher proportion of males with ED pathology reported lifetime self-injury than vice versa, underscoring the importance of carefully screening for the presence of self-harm among males with ED pathology. Over 1500 upper secondary school students with an average age of 17 years completed an online survey assessing current ED pathology and lifetime NSSI. Adolescents, particularly females, with a history of self-harm reported significantly more ED pathology. Findings also indicated the need to carefully screen for self-harm among males with ED pathology. Parents, schools, and health professionals should be aware that self-harm and ED pathology commonly co-occur and warrant assessment.

The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on mental health care use among Norwegian students in higher education: a nation-wide register-based pre-post cohort study.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and its associated social distancing measures, gave profound changes to the everyday and academic life of students in higher education. The current study is the first to use nation-wide data to evaluate the long-term effect of the pandemic and its countermeasures on university students' mental health care use. Using nation-wide individual-level data, we studied mental health consultations in primary care (data available from January 2017 to February 2022) and dispensed prescription drugs used to treat anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances (data available from October 2018 to February 2021) for first-year undergraduate university students. We compared changes over time in mental health care use in a pandemic cohort (12,501 first-year students enrolled in 2019) to the same change in a pre-pandemic cohort (25,990 first-year students enrolled in 2017 and 2018). Event study and difference-in-difference models allowed us to separate the impact of the pandemic, experienced by the pandemic cohort only, from secular and seasonal changes experienced by all cohorts. The percentage of students with a mental health consultation temporarily decreased during the first period of strict social distancing measures in March 2020. At the end of the second round with strict measures in April 2021, the level of mental health consultations increased by 73% (95% CI 40-106.3). There was also a 42% (95% CI 5.7-79.5) increase in mental health consultations in November 2021. No similar increases were observed for dispensed prescription drugs between March 2020 and February 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increases in mental health consultations in primary care among students, especially during/after longer periods of strict social distancing measures. The benefits of social distancing measures in future pandemic preparedness should be weighed against the cost of potentially worsening mental health in vulnerable groups.

Associations between having breakfast and reading literacy achievement among Nordic primary school students

ABSTRACT Having breakfast is associated with improved diet quality, cognitive- and academic performance and can therefore positively impact learning and health, although the impact on reading literacy is unknown in the Nordic countries. The aim of this study was to assess the association between having breakfast often versus rarely and reading literacy achievement based on Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) from 2016. The sample consisted of Danish (N = 3508), Finnish (N = 4896), Norwegian (N = 4232) and Swedish (N = 4525) students, 10–11 years old. Students self-reported their frequency of having breakfast. Linear regression analysis (adjusted for socio-economic status and gender) showed that those who often vs. rarely had breakfast achieved a higher reading literacy score. The results suggest that having breakfast may be important for reading literacy achievement even after adjusting for socioeconomic status. This potential relationship between breakfast intake and students’ academic achievement should be given priority for further research and practice as breakfast is a modifiable factor that can be both improved and be intervened on.

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend: Moderating a Random Intercept Cross-lagged Panel Model of Loneliness and Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

The present study investigated the trait- and state-like associations between loneliness and symptoms of anxiety and depression during three years in middle to late adolescence. The moderating effect of gender and social self-efficacy was examined on the hypothesised model. The sample consisted of 1508 Norwegian upper secondary school students (61% female; mean age at T1 = 16.33; 52.9% high socioeconomic position; 70.6% Norwegian-born). We found 1) strong and positive trait- and state-like associations between loneliness and symptoms of anxiety and depression, 2) that anxiety and depressive symptoms consistently predicted later loneliness but not the other way around, 3) that gender moderated parts of the state-like associations between loneliness and symptoms of anxiety and depression, and 4) that social self-efficacy had no moderating effect on the longitudinal relationship between loneliness and anxiety and depressive symptoms. The present study might inform future research, theory development, and intervention strategies in middle to late adolescent samples.

Approaches to studying: changes during a three-year undergraduate study program

ABSTRACT Whether higher education students’ approaches to studying are amenable to change, is disputed. In this study, Norwegian occupational therapy students’ (n = 263) approaches to studying were assessed annually across the three-year course, with the aim of exploring changes during the undergraduate study program. Sociodemographic information and the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students were completed. Changes during the follow-up period were analyzed using linear mixed models for repeated measures. A significant increase in deep approach scores and a decrease in surface approach scores during the study program was revealed. The strategic approach remained unchanged, but with a difference between education institutions. Overall, the study suggests that the students’ approaches to studying changed in a positive direction during the study program. Attention should be given to students at risk of adopting a surface approach to studying and to the individual and contextual elements influencing study behaviors.

Shaping a career in management: the importance of gendered expectations

ABSTRACT The study focuses on students in professional bachelor programs, how men and women navigate career opportunities after graduation. The research is based on longitudinal data from 969 Norwegian students. A crucial finding is that when men and women have equal expectations of entering a management position, they also attain such positions equally often. The results also reveal that women have equally high ambitions as men, but lower expectations of entering management positions. These findings indicate that perceived barriers reduce women’s choices and make them self-select away from manager positions. The study shows the necessity of a divide between ambitions and expectations and that gendered expectations are formed before graduation. Opposite to what earlier theory suggests, women have not tuned down their ambitions to match their expectations through an irrational and unconscious process. Instead, ambitions stay high and women appear to search rationally for alternative outlets, such as more often expecting master’s degrees.

Interpersonal Victimization During Childhood and Adolescence and Educational Attainment in Young Adulthood: A Latent Class Analysis Approach.

Previous research relates violent victimization early in life to a wide range of unfavorable outcomes in adulthood, among them a lack of educational attainment. A tendency to conduct separate investigations into violent victimization in different areas of life has so far hampered our understanding of both overall victimization processes and its outcomes. The present study overcomes this issue by investigating the cumulative burden of violent victimization during childhood and adolescence as well as the associations between victimization and educational attainment in young adulthood. The study uses a nationally representative sample of 18 to 19-year-old Norwegian students (n = 3,160) from the school-based UngVold 2007 survey, merged with information from official registers up to 2016 (age 27-28). Using latent class analysis (LCA), we combine retrospective accounts of experiences with parental, peer, and sexual violence during childhood and adolescence with educational attainment in young adulthood. The analyses reveal five classes of violent victimization: (1) non-victims (55.7%), (2) peer victims (16.6%), (3) victims of parental violence (14.5%), (4) victims witnessing domestic violence (5.6%), and (5) polyvictims (experiencing parental, peer, and/or sexual violence: 7.6%). They also show lower educational attainment in all groups reporting victimization through physical contact compared to non-victims, particularly among peer victims and polyvictims. Violence thus seems to impair educational attainment for a large share of the population. The identification of particularly lower education among the polyvictims also show the importance of considering the cumulative burden of violence when deciding on treatment needs and the design of help services for victims.

Nature of Science in Norway’s Recent Curricula Reform

Developing students’ understanding of the nature of science (NOS) is seen as critical for educating scientifically literate citizens, and has emerged as an important curricular goal internationally. In Norway, a new curriculum reform has recently been implemented, intended to improve the Norwegian education in several ways. The reform aims to promote deep learning, and there has been an increased focus on twenty-first-century skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. The purpose of this study is to analyse the coverage of various NOS aspects in the new national curriculum for biology, chemistry, and physics, year 12 and 13. The curricula were analysed deductively, using the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to identify and categorise different NOS aspects, providing insight into how NOS is addressed. Findings include that NOS aspects from the cognitive-epistemic system of the FRA framework—aims and values, methods, practices, and knowledge—are predominant in all three curricula, whereas aspects concerning how science interacts with society are scarce. The exception is several occurrences of the aspect social values, i.e. the need for responsible interaction between science, society, and nature, especially in the biology curriculum. Furthermore, different NOS aspects are found in different parts of the curriculum, e.g. practices are found in the basic skills sections more than in the competence aims sections. Findings are discussed in terms of how the new curriculum reform can promote Norwegian students’ learning of NOS.

The development of a tool to assess medical students’ non-technical skills – The Norwegian medical students’ non-technical skills (NorMS-NTS)

Purpose New physicians need to master non-technical skills (NTS), as high levels of NTS have been shown to increase patient safety. It has also been shown that NTS can be improved through training. This study aimed to establish the necessary NTS for Norwegian medical students to create a tool for formative and summative assessments. Methods Focus group interviews were conducted with colleagues and patients of newly graduated physicians. Interviews were then analyzed using card sort methods, and the identified NTS were used to establish a framework. Focus groups commented on a prototype of an NTS assessment tool. Finally, we conducted a search of existing tools and literature. The final tool was developed based on the combined inputs. Results We created Norwegian medical students’ non-technical skills (NorMS-NTS) assessment tool containing four main categories; together comprising 13 elements and a rating scale for the NTS of the person observed. Conclusions The NorMS-NTS represents a purpose-made tool for assessing newly graduated physicians’ NTS. It is similar to existing assessment tools but based on domain-specific user perspectives obtained through focus group interviews and feedback, integrated with results from a literature search, and with consideration of existing NTS tools.

The effect of changing from campus-based to digital teaching on student attendance: A case study of Norwegian business students

Over the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced colleges, university colleges, and universities around the world to switch from campus-based to web-based teaching. The current study examines the effect on students' attendance rates from this sudden change in the learning environment. Data from four completions of a single course given to third-year bachelor students in the business administration program at a mid-sized university college in Norway were used to empirically examine how the level- and trend of the attendance rate were affected during the lockdown period. By means of regression analysis, the results show that digital lectures had a significantly higher attendance rate compared with traditional campus-based lectures. No significant difference in the trends of the attendance rate over the semester was found between the two lecture forms.

Norwegian nursing students' experience during clinical placement in an African country: Communication, relationship building and nursing identity. A qualitative study.

The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of Norwegian bachelor nursing students during clinical placement in an African country, with a focus on communication, relationship building and nurse identity. Explorative, qualitative methods were used. The data consisted of individual written reflection notes from 8 students' clinical placement in Africa, and transcripts from one semi-structured focus group interview. The materials were analysed with systematic text condensation. The students described their experience with the community of practice as challenging and enlightening. They found themselves in contexts where communication and language problems occurred. The students described how important relationships were for their practical training, and how this helped shape their nursing identity.

Circadian preference in young adults: Associations with sleep and mental health outcomes from a national survey of Norwegian university students

ABSTRACT Individual preferred timing of sleep and activity patterns, known as circadian preference, ranges from definitely morning types to definitely evening types. Being an evening type has been linked to adverse sleep and mental health outcomes. This study aimed to explore the associations between circadian preference and self-reported sleep, depression, anxiety, quality of life, loneliness, and self-harm/suicidal thoughts. Data stem from a national survey of students in higher education in Norway (the SHoT-study). All 169,572 students in Norway were invited to participate, and 59,554 students (66.5% women) accepted (response rate = 35.1%). Circadian preference was associated with sleep and mental health outcomes in a dose–response manner. For both genders, being an evening type (either definitely evening or more evening than morning) was associated with an increase in age-adjusted relative risk (RR-adjusted; range = 1.44 to 2.52 vs. 1.15 to 1.90, respectively) across all outcomes compared with definitely morning types. Overall, the present study provides further evidence that evening circadian preference is associated with adverse sleep and mental health outcomes in young adults. As such, future efforts to improve sleep and mental health in young adults should consider their circadian preferences.

Epistemic justification in multiple document literacy: A refutation text intervention

This study investigated the effects of a refutation text intervention on Norwegian teacher education students’ (n = 150) beliefs about justification for knowing and their subsequent performance on a multiple document literacy task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which they read a refutation text that promoted the conception that an appropriate way to judge the trustworthiness of information about educational topics is to rely on personal understanding and practical experience, the expertise of the author, or comparison of multiple sources. Results showed that participants’ beliefs about epistemic justification were strongly influenced by the intervention. Beyond effects on self-reported justification beliefs, effects on participants’ selection of documents varying in terms of the expertise of the author and the stance toward the issue discussed across the documents were observed, as well as effects on how participants justified their document selections, processed the selected documents, and finally used them in their written task products. As such, the effects of the intervention targeting beliefs about epistemic justification transferred to various stages of the multiple document task.

Learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of emergency remote instruction on first grade students’ writing: A natural experiment.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the sudden cancellation of in-class instruction for many students around the world presented an unprecedented disruption in children's education. As the COVID-19 pandemic took form, multiple concerns were raised about the potential negative impact on students' learning. The current study examined this proposition for children's writing. We compared the quality of writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing of first grade Norwegian students during the COVID-19 pandemic (421 girls, 396 boys), which included emergency remote instruction for almost 7 weeks, with first grade students in the same schools a year before the pandemic began (835 girls, 801 boys). After controlling for variance due to national test scores, school size, proportion of certified teachers, students per special education teacher, school hours per student, student gender, and native language, we found that students attending first grade during the pandemic had lower scores for writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing than their first grade peers tested a year earlier before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Implications for policy and instruction as well as future research are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement In December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus was identified, and it spread across the world quickly causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, presenting unprecedented challenges for the education of school-age children. This study examined the impact of the pandemic and the temporary 7 week replacement of in class learning with online instruction on the writing of first grade children in Norway. First grade students tested shortly after the end of online instruction displayed a learning loss, having lower scores on measures of writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing than first grade children from the same schools tested a year earlier before the start of the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)