0000000001011126
AUTHOR
Hans Kristian Nilsen
University students’ learning approaches : An adaptation of the revised two-factor study process questionnaire to Norwegian
This paper reports a Norwegian validation study of a widely used instrument to measure students’ approaches to learning, namely, Bigg’s revised two-factor study process questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F). Its cultural sensitivity and psychometry evaluations have provoked rigorous discussion among educators in different languages. A survey design was adopted involving 253 undergraduate engineering students across two universities. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test six models hypothesized to reflect the factor structures of R-SPQ-2F and unidimensionality of its subscales. The results showed appropriate fits of a two-factor first-order model with 10 items measuring deep approach and 9 items…
Learning and teaching functions and the transition from lower secondary to upper secondary school
Doktorgradsavhandling ved Universitetet i Agder, Fakultet for teknologi og realfag, Kristiansand
Teacher job satisfaction across 38 countries and economies: An alignment optimization approach to a cross-cultural mean comparison
Abstract The purpose of this study is to compare latent means of job satisfaction across participating countries in the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey. The mean comparison of this nature is sparse in the literature due to lack of cross-cultural construct validity of job satisfaction scales. We applied an alignment approach that can optimize this construct validity to compare the latent mean of 153,682 teachers across 48 countries. We found that Austria, Chile, Spain, Canada, and Argentina form the top countries with highly job-satisfied teachers while the least job-satisfied teachers are from Bulgaria, England, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and Malta. Our findings provide potenti…
Assessing first-year engineering students' pre-university mathematics knowledge: preliminary validity results based on an item response theory model
The importance of students’ prior knowledge to their current learning outcomes cannot be overemphasised. Students with adequate prior knowledge are better prepared for the current learning materials than those without the knowledge. However, assessment of engineering students' prior mathematics knowledge has been beset with a lack of uniformity in measuring instruments and inadequate validity studies. This study attempts to provide evidence of validity and reliability of a Norwegian national test of prior mathematics knowledge using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach. This approach involves use of an item response theory model followed by cognitive interviews of some students …
Self-efficacy and approaches to learning mathematics among engineering students : empirical evidence for potential causal relations
Theories of self-efficacy and approaches to learning are well-established in the psychology of learning. However, studies on relationships between the primary constructs on which these theories are...
First-year university students making sense of symbols in integration
International audience; This paper focuses on first year university engineering students and their sensemaking of integration and its symbolism. Through a semiotic approach, attention is given to two students and their attempt to verbally express their reflections on integration and the related meaning of symbols. Findings suggest that students tend to interpret the symbols mainly as operations, in terms of calculations to be carried out. They express uncertainty concerning what the symbols stand for, and the mathematical objects they represent. For example, the symbols ∫ and are respectively conceived of as “finding the integral with respect to x” and students are unclear on how Riemann su…
Educating to inspire active learning approaches in mathematics in Norwegian universities
This is a report of an analysis of some of the data generated by a national survey of teaching approaches used in higher education mathematics courses. The overall purpose of the survey was to explore how widespread is the use of teaching approaches that might promote students’ active learning of mathematics. The paper includes a brief presentation of the authors meaning of the expression “teaching actions that have the potential to promote active learning”. The analysis focuses on the responses of 95 lecturers working in 13 Norwegian HE institutions. The goal is to expose underlying patterns in lecturers’ responses to questions about the teaching actions they may incorporate in their pract…
Calculus Self-Efficacy Inventory : Its Development and Relationship with Approaches to Learning
This study was framed within a quantitative research methodology to develop a concise measure of calculus self-efficacy with high psychometric properties. A survey research design was adopted in which 234 engineering and economics students rated their confidence in solving year-one calculus tasks on a 15-item inventory. The results of a series of exploratory factor analyses using minimum rank factor analysis for factor extraction, oblique promin rotation, and parallel analysis for retaining extracted factors revealed a one-factor solution of the model. The final 13-item inventory was unidimensional with all eigenvalues greater than 0.42, an average communality of 0.74, and a 62.55% variance…