Designing Tools and Activities for Educational Robotics in Online Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent school closures created several challenges for teachers and students. From one day to the next, teachers had to rethink their educational activities and move to remote learning. Especially with regard to educational robotics activities, which makes large use of physical artefacts, this abrupt shift towards online learning represented a major change in how activities had to be designed and implemented. In this chapter, some experiences of online educational robotics activities carried out in compulsory schooling and teacher training are presented. The experiences are then discussed using a model for the development of educational robotics activities in order to reflect on how to design such activities that can be carried out online. The examples presented in this chapter showed there is great potential for educational robotics in online learning.

The relationship between cognitive development, behavior indicators, and Personal, Social, and Emotional Development in Pre-school

The paper investigates the potential of a questionnaire answered by teachers about the behavior and socio-emotional skills of children enrolled in preschool – start of compulsory schooling in Brazil. Based on this instrument, it describes the development of indicators of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity and personal, social and emotional development. It uses multivariate linear regression models to identify factors associated with the cognitive development of children enrolled in preschool. The results suggest that more inattentive children tend to have lower cognitive attainment, especially in language. The estimated coefficients in the multivariate model suggest that the Personal, Social and Emotional Development has a moderate to high effect size for language and mathematics. Implications of the results for educational policies are presented.

Brněnské školství v kontextu lex Perek

The main aim of this study is to present an analysis of the education conditions in the provincial capital of the Moravian Margraviate in the context of the national struggle for compulsory schooling between the German municipal government and Czech national activists at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. At the provincial level, the sharpest edges of Czech­ ­German conflict were to be blunted by the Moravian Compromise concluded in 1905, which included four provincial laws for the most troublesome areas, including the lex Perek. This study analyses and interprets the situation in Brno education through the lens of Czech emancipatory efforts from the mid-1870s to the passing of the lex Perek. Furthermore, it explains the situation after its passing, when the fight for the child was not coming to an end despite the concluded Czech­‑German Compromise – it rather escalated. This text thus deals with the real impact of one of the four provincial laws concluded within the Moravian Compromise, using the example of pre­‑war Brno. It is a probe into the issue at hand that uses the example of the provincial capital. The probe represents a practice that was far removed from the contemporary government’s presentation of the concluded compromise as a „model“ solution to the problematic Czech­‑German coexistence within the multinational monarchy.

Does compulsory schooling affect health? Evidence from ambulatory claims data

Using claims data on more than 23 million statutorily insured, we investigate the causal effect of schooling on health in the largest and most comprehensive analysis for Germany to date. In a regression discontinuity approach, we exploit changes in compulsory schooling in West Germany to estimate the reduced form effect of the reforms on health, measured by doctor diagnoses in ICD-10 format covering physical as well as mental health conditions. To mitigate the problem that empirical results depend on subjective decisions made by the researcher, we perform specification curve analyses to assess the robustness of findings across various model specifications. We find that the reforms have, at best, very small impacts on the examined doctor diagnoses. In most of the specifications we estimate insignificant effects that are close to zero and often of the “wrong” sign. Therefore, our study questions the presence of the large positive effects of education on health that are found in the previous literature.

Relationships and sexuality education: Key research informing New Zealand curriculum policy

Background and purpose: In 2020, the New Zealand Ministry of Education updated the national curriculum policy for sexuality education, broadening the focus to ‘relationships and sexuality education’ and strengthening guidance for both primary (Years 1–8) and secondary (Years 9–13) schools. The resulting guides detail how schools might take a ‘whole school approach’ to this area, including dedicated curriculum time at all levels of compulsory schooling. Methods and conclusions: This article summarises the key thinking and research that informs the latest curriculum policy update and provides justification for the content in the policy. Significant aspects include a framework based on Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi), Indigenous knowledges and human rights; attention to issues of bullying and inclusion; and the responsibility of schools to address gender and sexual diversity in programmes and the whole school. This background paper discusses the evidence that informs the curriculum policy update, as well as aspects of the policy context in New Zealand that precede these changes.

Evaluation of the Chinese Government's Investment in Compulsory Education

As children's human capital grows and they become more competitive in the job market as adults, universal compulsory schooling is becoming more prevalent. Education expenditures make for a significant portion of all financial expenditures in every country and area. This article will use China as the major study object, as well as the United States and Finland as case studies for comparison and analysis. Its goal is to investigate the ideal theoretical world and present personal ideas and improvement measures in the next article.

The Introduction of Compulsory Schooling Around the World: Global Diffusion Between Isomorphism and ‘Cultural Spheres’

In Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-78885-8_2, Helen Seitzer, Fabian Besche-Truthe, and Michael Windzio investigate the diffusion of compulsory education from a global perspective. Compulsory education closely relates to the reproduction and change of a country’s culture. In this chapter, the authors focus on the effect of a country’s membership in different clusters defined by cultural characteristics, on the diffusion of compulsory education. They apply social network analysis to define global ‘cultural spheres’, which have fuzzy boundaries. This network is the structural framework behind the diffusion process of compulsory education. The impact of cultural spheres on diffusion is tested by exposure in terms of close ties to other countries with compulsory education, and they are found to significantly increase the rate of adoption.

Educational Consequences of Paternal Incarceration: Evidence from a Danish Policy Reform

Objectives This study estimates the causal effect of paternal incarceration on children’s educational outcomes measured at the end of compulsory schooling (9th grade) in Denmark. Methods I use Danish administrative data and rely on a sentencing reform in 2000, which expanded the use of non-custodial alternatives to incarceration for traffic offenders, for plausibly exogenous variation in the risk of experiencing paternal incarceration. Results The results show that paternal incarceration does not affect academic achievement (grade point average), but that it does reduce the number of grades obtained, and–most importantly–roughly doubles the risk of not even completing compulsory school and getting a 9th grade certificate. These findings are driven mainly by boys for whom paternal incarceration appear to be particularly consequential. Conclusions The findings presented in this study highlight the presence of unintended and collateral consequences of penal policies–even in the context of a relatively mild penal regime. Effects are, however, estimated for a subgroup of Danish children experiencing paternal incarceration, and how results translate to other subgroups and beyond the Danish context is open for speculation.