Petri Nokelainen

Adolescents' Implicit Theories Predict Desire for Vengeance after Peer Conflicts: Correlational and Experimental Evidence.

Why do some adolescents respond to interpersonal conflicts vengefully, whereas others seek more positive solutions? Three studies investigated the role of implicit theories of personality in predicting violent or vengeful responses to peer conflicts among adolescents in Grades 9 and 10. They showed that a greater belief that traits are fixed (an entity theory) predicted a stronger desire for revenge after a variety of recalled peer conflicts (Study 1) and after a hypothetical conflict that specifically involved bullying (Study 2). Study 3 experimentally induced a belief in the potential for change (an incremental theory), which resulted in a reduced desire to seek revenge. This effect was mediated by changes in bad-person attributions about the perpetrators, feelings of shame and hatred, and the belief that vengeful ideation is an effective emotion-regulation strategy. Together, the findings illuminate the social-cognitive processes underlying reactions to conflict and suggest potential avenues for reducing violent retaliation in adolescents.

EDUCO - A Collaborative Learning Environment Based on Social Navigation

Web-based learning is primarily a lonesome activity, even when it involves working in groups. This is due to the fact that the majority of web-based learning relies on asynchronous forms of interacting with other people. In most of the cases, the chat discussion is the only form of synchronous interaction that adds to the feeling that there are other people present in the environment. EDUCO is a system that tries to bring in the sense of other users in a collaborative learning environment by making the other users and their the navigation visible to everyone else in the environment in real-time. The paper describes EDUCO and presents the first empirical evaluation as EDUCO was used in a university course.

Conceptual Definition and Empirical Validation of the Spiritual Sensitivity Scale

In this study, we extend the Multiple Intelligence Profile Questionnaire (Tirri and Komulainen, 2002) based on Gardners (1983) MI theory with spiritual intelligence (SQ). The operationalization of SQ was tested with an empirical sample of Finnish preadolescents, adolescents and adults (N = 496). First, we studied if 20 spiritual intelligence items reflect the categories of spiritual sensitivity (Hay, 1998; Bradford, 1995). The categories are: Awareness sensing, Mystery sensing, Value sensing, and Community sensing. Second, we optimized the number of items to create the eighth component to the MIPQ. The results of confirmatory factor analysis show good generalizability characteristics of the scales.

Evaluating the role of a shared document-based annotation tool in learner-centered collaborative learning

This study presents a shared document-based annotation tool, EDUCOSM. Usefulness of the system is empirically evaluated in a real-life collaborative learning context. Relationships between learners self-rated use of learning strategies, cognitive outcomes, and completion of various tasks in the system are investigated. An empirical study (n=31) was conducted in order to investigate various dependencies between variables from precourse self-rated questionnaire, system log file data collected during the course and postcourse e-mail survey.

Measuring Multiple Intelligences and Moral Sensitivities in Education

In this book, we introduce several sensitivity measures in educational contexts that can be used in research, education and self-evaluations. In Chapter 1 we discuss the framework of Howard Gardner‘s Multiple Intelligences theory and introduce our Multiple Intelligences Profiling Questionnaire. We present the psychometrical qualities of the instrument with empirical data sets of children, youth and adults. In Chapter 2 the Spiritual Sensitivity Scale is introduced with the theoretical framework it is connected to. The existence of spiritual intelligence has been a widely debated issue and not everybody is ready to call advanced thinking in religious or spiritual domains as intelligence. This has guided us to use the term sensitivity, which is easier to justify than intelligence in these areas of human behavior. In Chapter 3 we introduce the Environmental Sensitivity Scale, which is quite close to the possible intelligence of naturalist suggested by Gardner. In Chapter 4, Ethical Sensitivity Scale is introduced followed by Emotional Leadership Questionnaire in Chapter 5. All these scales have a solid theoretical framework and earlier empirical work to support the instrument building. Chapter 6 introduces Intercultural and Interreligious Sensitivity Scales with their theoretical frameworks and earlier empirical work. Following each chapter, we have included a ready-to-use version of the questionnaire and SPSS syntax to compute factors. A commentary by Dr. Seana Moran compliments the book and challenges the readers to further reflect the meaning of education in supporting holistic development of learners in their life-long journey. We have authored this book to contribute to this goal and hope it will be used in the hands of researchers, teachers and students in their mutual effort to grow and to learn new things in life. M O R A L D E V E L O P M E N T A N D C I T I Z E N S H I P E D U C A T I O N

Relationship of gender and academic achievement to Finnish students’ intercultural sensitivity

This study examined the intercultural sensitivity of Finnish 12–16‐year‐old secondary school students (N=549) with a 23‐item Intercultural Sensitivity Scale Questionnaire (ICSSQ). The ICSSQ is based on Bennett’s (1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), which is a conceptual tool to situate certain reactions towards cultural difference. The DMIS consists of six stages, of which three are ethnocentric and three ethnorelative. The ICSSQ is based on the operationalization of the first five stages: (1) Denial, (2) Defense, (3) Minimization, (4) Acceptance, and (5) Adaptation. Two research questions were examined: Are there any differences in the intercultural sensitivity between (1) girls and boys, and (2) students with academically average ability and students with above‐average ability? The results showed that the girls assessed their intercultural sensitivity higher than did the boys. Furthermore, the academically gifted students estimated their intercultural sensitivity higher than the students with average ability.

Investigating the Influence of Attribution Styles on the Development of Mathematical Talent

In this article, the authors examine the influence of attribution styles on the development of mathematical talent. The study employs a Self-Confidence Attitude Attribute Scale questionnaire, which measures ability and effort attributions. Participants are three groups of highly, moderately, or mildly mathematically gifted Finnish adolescents and adults (N = 203). The results of Bayesian classification modeling show that items attributing success to effort and failure to lack of effort are the best predictors for the level of mild mathematical giftedness and gender (females). The results of multivariate analysis of variance show that highly and moderately mathematically gifted students reported that ability was more important for success than effort, but mildly mathematically gifted tended to see effort as leading to success. Moderately and mildly mathematically gifted students attribute failure to lack of effort, whereas highly mathematically gifted students attribute failure to lack of ability.

The Influence of Self-Perception of Abilities and Attribution Styles on Academic Choices: Implications for Gifted Education

This article shows how important self-perception is for the development of academic talent and encourages researchers and educators to acknowledge this dimension more. Our emphasis is on mathematical talent; most of the empirical findings include Finnish Olympians or Pre-Olympians. Research shows a positive correlation between perceived ability and achievement. Gifted girls tend to underestimate their abilities in mathematics and perceive their abilities higher in language arts even when they perform equally in both domains. The findings from Finnish Olympians reveal similar stereotypes in parental attitudes. They prefer ability as an explanation for their success rather than effort. However, our studies show that females tend to attribute success to effort more than males.

EDUCOSM - personalized writable Web for learning communities

Many of the possibilities of Web-based education are still unexplored. It seems that novel ways of thinking about both learning and technology are needed to get beyond the limitations of the traditional classroom setting. In this paper we introduce EDUCOSM, which focusses on the possibilities of collaboration and the open-ended nature of the Web. Its main features include sharing and annotation of arbitrary Web-pages, and an adaptive desktop for accessing the evolving contents of the system. EDUCOSM has been used in a real Web-based course, and the experiences are discussed along with a description of the tool. Although the approach requires both the teacher and the students to rethink their roles, the feedback received so far has been encouraging.

A Cross-Cultural Study of Pre-Adolescents' Moral, Religious and Spiritual Questions.

This study investigated differences across four countries in the amount and nature of above‐average ability and average‐ability pre‐adolescents’ everyday life, scientific, moral, spiritual and religious questions. The participants (N = 975) of this study were fifth‐and sixth‐grade elementary school students from different schools in Finland (N = 367), the USA (N = 164), Hong Kong (N = 169) and Bahrain (N = 275). Approximately half of the students in each country came from special programmes or schools serving above‐average‐ability students. The results showed that above‐average‐ability students from each participating country asked more scientific and moral questions than their average‐ability peers. This finding was not found to be gender‐related. Furthermore, in each country the average‐ability students asked more everyday life questions than their gifted peers. The Christian influence in the Finnish and US data, and Muslim influence in the Bahrain data were seen in the spiritual and religious questions asked by pre‐adolescents. Additionally, in all the data sets girls asked more spiritual and religious questions than boys. The results point to the need for teachers to discuss moral, religious and spiritual questions influencing pre‐adolescents’ futures.