Disagreement exists about how to best spark young children's motivation to learn natural science. Both curiosity and wonder are considered important motivational factors for learning during early childhood (0-8 years). This systematic literature review explores research about scientific curiosity and wonder in early childhood education and care…

Theories of cultural evolution posit that cues of competence-based prestige, rather than formidability-based dominance, should guide culturally transmitted learning, but recent work suggested that French and Kaqchikel Guatamalan preschoolers place their epistemic trust in dominant others. In contrast, this study shows that 249 three- to…

There is a tendency in European education policy to emphasise more and better deliberate learning outcomes. The tendency is criticised for taking an instrumental view of education [Biesta, G. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement: "Ethics, politics, democracy." Routledge,; van Manen, M. (2008). Pedagogical sensitivity and…

International student mobility (ISM) is often perceived to enhance career prospects. Surprisingly, the role of personality traits in explaining why students go abroad and relationships between ISM and labour market outcomes have received scant scholarly attention. Based on survey data from Norwegian graduates, we found that degree and credit…

Validation of data collection instruments is a necessary step in all research and should be regarded as an integral component in every stage of the research process; however, the validation process is often not accounted for in detail in published studies. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and validation of the Ungspråk…

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that can explain the attitudes of business students towards mathematics, using data from a business school in Norway. This article focusses on gender, personality traits (Big Five Model) and mathematical background. The independent variables were investigated simultaneously using a linear regression…

Historically, the introductory course in statistics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), has taken a traditional, lecture-based form. A previous study at the NMBU concluded that the course structure appeared to disfavor certain cognitive or personality types, extraverts in particular. Therefore, in 2016, as an experiment, the…

The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in mathematics interest. In a sample of middle school students (N = 366), we examined mathematics interest as a trait (i.e., individual interest) and as a current state (i.e., situational interest) during a learning activity in mathematics. Assessment of perceived competence,…

Researchers at UiT--The Arctic University of Norway--studied how agreeableness and conscientiousness influence trust and perceived quality and how these factors subsequently impact the intention to publish research articles via open access (OA) or non-OA channels. The main findings show that, while trust increases intention to publish via OA, it…

The present study examines the self-efficacy levels and self-efficacy strength for male and female students in a course in Principle of Economics. The groups of male and female students may be mutually heterogeneous when it comes to personality types in a business school (Fallan & Opstad, 2014). This study does not treat the gender groups as…

Adolescence and young adulthood are characterized by substantial sociodemographic, family, social, and personality changes that may influence loneliness. Although loneliness is a public health challenge, we know little about how loneliness develops during these periods. Our study addresses this lacuna by using 4-wave longitudinal data from 3,116…

This study investigated the personality facets that underpin the construct of problem-solving style, particularly when approaching more creative kinds of problem-solving. Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire and VIEW--An Assessment of Problem Solving Style were administered to 165 students from the Norwegian Business School. We…

The present study explores the nature of Overcommitment (OC) in relation to Satisfaction With Life (SWL) in students. A total of 701 Norwegian students participated by answering a questionnaire including measurements of the previously validated instruments for OC and SWL, volunteer work, stress and several other individual differences. Exploratory…

Procrastination has been defined in different ways. Two instruments--the Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS) and the Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS)--focus on a core problem in procrastination--the irrational delay of intended behavior. The present paper examined the psychometric properties of the Norwegian translations of these scales. In…

Many studies of teacher motivation have been conducted in different contexts over time. However, until fairly recently there has not been a reliable measure available to allow comparisons across samples and settings. This has resulted in an abundance of findings which cannot be directly compared or synthesised. The FIT-Choice instrument offers the…