Although it is generally assumed that the thoughts of Ernst Mach and the scientific fields he influenced (in this case psychophysics and "Gestalt" psychology) emigrated from Europe during Second World War they apparently survived in Finland, influencing the Finnish education system. The following article evaluates this relationship and…

By combining a positivistic and an interpretive approach, this research investigates the learning opportunities that contemporary industrial work processes and workplaces offer for employees individually and collectively. The research explores how employees can become trained through their work and how individual development may expand to…

This article outlines the ways in which clothing is one important medium for the presentation of self, on the basis of interviews and group discussions with young people in a qualitative study. In the process of leaving their childhood behind, young people have to present themselves as individuals; the self has to be indicated in an individualized…

Modern managers expect staff to accept more responsibility. However, not all of them want to take more responsibility. Others complain of not having enough responsibility entrusted to them and expect more autonomy and decision-making. In this paper, responsibility is defined as being accountable and fulfilling one's duty while being in charge.…

This paper reports on a research study of the long-term effects of a high school home-stay experience for German and American students who participated in the Youth For Understanding program in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. With emphasis on the German sample, this paper (1) briefly describes the study's methodology, (2) provides an overview…

Students in Germany are tracked into different forms of secondary schooling based on teachers' recommendations. The literature shows that school tracking is largely affected by academic achievement levels, but neglects the influence of individual achievement growth. The authors used data from the Berlin study ELEMENT (N = 2242) to characterize…

Three experiments investigated 14-, 18-, and 24- month-old infants' understanding of visual perception. Infants viewed films in which a protagonist was either able to view the location of a hidden object (Visual Access condition) or was blindfolded when the object location was revealed (No Visual Access condition). When requested to find the…

Purpose: This article aims to take up a mirror image-oriented position of the EQF and the announced ECVET system. It seeks to be concerned with the effects that the EQF transformation process into the respective NQF might have on the underlying systems of vocational education and training. Design/methodology/approach: A comparison is drawn between…

"Service Without Guns"--by Donald J. Eberly and Reuven Gal with a guest chapter by Michael Sherraden--notes the many similarities between military service and civilian National Youth Service (NYS) and concludes that NYS can and should become as large and influential in the 21st Century as military service was in the 20th. The book…

This longitudinal study addresses the impact of the transition from university to work life on emerging adults' well-being and their relationship with their parents. A sample of 102 German students attending their last year at the university (M = 25.44 years, SD = 2.61) completed a questionnaire. Among others, scales from the Network of…

Compares sample of male adolescents (n=36) in relation to their personal development, family characteristics, and types of offense they committed, including those (n=16) with a history of sexual abuse who had offended against children. The most important difference between the two groups was the more frequent absence of the parents of adolescents…

Developmental Science aims to generate a new body of knowledge that encompasses and integrates findings from various well-defined academic disciplines concerned with developmental processes of human and non-human organisms. Although all development related research traditions surely have their own distinct history, certain theoretical ideas…

Argues that career maturity gives insufficient attention to the contexts of time and culture. Suggests the use of recent advances in developmental theory as an alternative for understanding developmental transitions. Cites findings from a study highlighting how individual differences and contextual factors contribute to the school-to-work…

In spite of its numerous critics the concept "Bildung" is still one of the most important categories within the German speaking discussion on questions of education, learning and teaching. Apart from multiple differences there is a relatively great agreement in considering this concept as an irreplaceable category for educational…