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The purpose of this paper is to outline the emergence of pupils' firms in Germany since the beginning of the 1990s.

The exploratory study is mainly based on a survey conducted with 88 projects that were presented at a pupils' firm fair in Berlin in November 2005, where pupils' firms from all over Germany presented themselves. During the fair, pupils, teachers and representatives of supporting organisations were interviewed. Furthermore, a comparison of other pupils' firms and supporting organisations' information material was undertaken.

The paper concludes with questioning the exclusive conceptualisation of the pupils' firms as educational projects within school and renders problematic their emphasis on providing business ideas and management skills. The paper argues for more reflection on the wider social and political implications around issues to do with pupils' autonomy and makes a case for preferred forms of self‐determined and cooperative working.

The paper discusses the goals and interests pursued in founding and promoting pupils' firms. It asks what experiences, opportunities and risks are involved for the pupils and what further approaches are becoming apparent, or are thinkable. In Germany, pupils' firms have not been systematically analysed.

The concept of information is central to several fields of research and professional practice. So many definitions have been put forward that complete inventory is unachievable while authors have failed to reach a consensus. In the face of the present impasse, innovative proposals could rouse information theorists to action, but literature surveys tend to emphasize the common traits of definitions. Reviewers are inclined to iron out originality in information models; thus the purpose of this paper is to discover the creativity of authors attempting to define the concept of information and to stimulate the progress of studies in this field.

Because the present inquiry could be influenced and distorted by personal criteria and opinions, the authors have adopted precise criteria and guidelines. It could be said the present approach approximates a statistical methodology.

The findings of this paper include (1) The authors found 32 original definitions of information which sometimes current surveys have overlooked. (2) The authors found a relation between information theories and advances in information technology. (3) Overall, the authors found that researchers take account of a wide variety of perspectives yet overlook the notion of information as used by computing practitioners such as electronic engineers and software developers.

The authors comment on some limitations of the procedure that was followed. Results 1 and 3 open up new possibilities for theoretical research in the information domain.

This is an attempt to conduct a bibliographical inquiry driven by objective and scientific criteria; its value lies in the fact that final report has not been influenced by personal choice or arbitrary viewpoints.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different kinds of authenticity in four health courses for adolescents. In school-based approaches to health education it is often difficult to present health in ways that make sense and appeal to adolescents. Authenticity, as a health-pedagogical concept which focuses on the quality or condition of being believable, trustworthy or genuine, has the potential of providing an analytical framework as well as practical recommendations for this challenge.

This was a qualitative study based on 23 group interviews with a total of 114 adolescents and 12 individual interviews with their teachers. The data were iteratively analyzed and categorized using guidelines for content analysis. The study used a theoretical construct focusing on participation, knowledge and health identity, as each of these three elements affects aspects of authenticity when applied to a health education context.

The analysis revealed four interdependent categories of authenticity: first, authentic connections/relations; second, authentic instructors; third, authentic themes; and fourth, authentic methods/activities. In each of the four categories the paper presents analytical tools for researchers and practical recommendations for health education professionals.

The paper presents a new and innovative model with four categories of authenticity that provide health practitioners with important knowledge about why and how health education might wish to focus on authenticity in order to provide conditions that create a significant health educating effect for all adolescents, not just for the ones who are already healthy.