Criteria for assessing quality in academic research: the views of biomedical scientists, clinical scientists and social scientists

This study empirically addresses the claim made by Gibbons et al (The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1994) that a novel form of quality control (associated with Mode 2 knowledge production) is supplementing the “traditional” peer-review process (associated with Mode 1 knowledge production). A qualitative design was used to explore faculty members’ views on the criteria for assessing scientific research. Ninety-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with biomedical scientists, clinical scientists, and social scientists working in Canadian universities. Results show that the vast majority of participants are aligned with the “traditional” Mode 1 peer-reviewed procedures for assessing research and defining scientific excellence. These participants asserted that peer review is the best quality control mechanism for assessing scientific research, and peer recognition the key attribute for legitimacy in the academic arena. In contrast, participants ascribed a low value to non-academics’ judgment of their work. While the study findings do not provide support Gibbons et al.’s claim, they add to a growing body of evidence that supports the continuing importance of peer review in academic career success.     

英特尔未来教育师资培训效果分析与研究

本文采用实证研究的方法反映了英特尔未来教育师资培训的成效,并通过县级培训点个案研究,对影响培训效果的因素进行了深入分析,最后提出了进一步提高培训质量和效果的建议,希望能对基于教育技术能力和信息化教学设计类的培训提供一些实践经验。     

Age and research productivity of academic scientists

Age-publishing profiles are estimated for four fields of science using data from the 1977 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. The five measures of publishing activity used allow for analysis of the sensitivity of the age-publishing relationship to output measure. Results are presented separately for graduate faculty and faculty at nongraduate departments. Although age is found to be a fairly weak predictor of performance, in physics and earth science older scientists publish less than their youngest peers and in physiology and biochemistry older scientists publish less than their middle-aged colleagues. Given the time frame of the data, the results suggest that the graying of America's scientific community was accompanied with slowed rates of research in higher education.     

SCI-LINK: An innovative project linking research scientists and science teachers

Summary The major purpose of the SCI-LINK Projects was to explore ways of linking research scientists and school science teachers. Not only did the project provide these teachers with a better understanding of scientific environmental research and recent findings, but it allowed them to develop activities and other instructional materials they could use in their classrooms. Leadership skills also were developed as evidenced by the Master Teachers that evolved and the many professional activities in which they have been engaged since the first institutes. Many things were done during the course of the project in order to make the process more efficient. These include assistance to scientists in making their presentations and field trips more effective and helping teachers with their writing and library skills. Also explored were the nature and format for the activities the teachers developed and how they can best be evaluated and disseminated. Positive feedback from teachers and the continued interest of research scientists to participate has led to another project patterned after the model used in the SCI-LINK Project. This second generation project, GLOBE-NET, also supported by the National Science Foundation, involves scientists and teachers in the development of instructional materials on global change. At least some of the efforts to improve science education should include scientists and teachers as partners. The model used in the SCI-LINK Project provides one way of doing so.     

Engineering persistence: Past,present, and future factors and gender differences

This research examined past, present, and future factors that might be related to persistence in engineering for women and men. Students currently or formerly enrolled in an undergraduate engineering program completed the Engineering Carrer Survey which assessed factors included in general models of college student change (e.g., background characteristics, interactions with socializing agents). Results indicated that: (1) present factors were more important than past or future factors in distinguishing between engineering persisters and nonpersisters, (2) few factors distinguished between women and men who persisted, or between women and men who did not, and (3) the best predictor of engineering persistence for both sexes was grade point average, although subsequent predictors depended on gender. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

Prior fixed ratio training and durable persistence in rats

Following barpress training with different terminal fixed ratios (FR), rats were given the interpolated experiences of runway acquisition and extinction (as part of another experiment) followed by 2 months of vacation. Then they were tested in FR 10 barpress reacquisition, FR 10 barpress extinction, consistently reinforced runway reacquisition, and a second runway extinction. In a start (response initiation) measure, resistance to extinction during the FR 10 extinction and in the second runway extinction was positively related to the terminal FR values of the initial barpress training, an indication of highly durable differential persistence effects attributable to the initial training to different terminal fixed ratios of barpress responding.     

学习成果认定初探

教育的任务包括探索对获得的知识价值的认可,建立科学的认定学习成果的制度。通过学分银行的方式,将先前在各类学习中获得的知识或技能等学习成果,合理地转化为学历教育的学分,可以维持和激励学习者不断学习的动力。     

Integrating technology into K-12 teaching and learning: current knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research

Although research studies in education show that use of technology can help student learning, its use is generally affected by certain barriers. In this paper, we first identify the general barriers typically faced by K-12 schools, both in the United States as well as other countries, when integrating technology into the curriculum for instructional purposes, namely: (a) resources, (b) institution, (c) subject culture, (d) attitudes and beliefs, (e) knowledge and skills, and (f) assessment. We then describe the strategies to overcome such barriers: (a) having a shared vision and technology integration plan, (b) overcoming the scarcity of resources, (c) changing attitudes and beliefs, (d) conducting professional development, and (e) reconsidering assessments. Finally, we identify several current knowledge gaps pertaining to the barriers and strategies of technology integration, and offer pertinent recommendations for future research.

Corporate training design: Past,present, and future

Most recent literature on corporate training reflects a shift in both function and design. The chapters in this special issue contribute to our understanding of several of the most important changes in training design endeavors and theory building that have occurred over the past several years. In combination, the authors emphasize the importance of a valid knowledge base in theory building and training design and the need to consider multiple phases of training: pre-active, active, and post-active. Implications of these changes on the future of training design in complex organizations are discussed.     

Transfer of persistence from fixed-ratio barpress training to runway extinction

Two experiments were performed to investigate transfer of persistence across different situations and response topographies. Experiment I demonstrated that FR 100 barpress training increased resistance to runway extinction as compared with a control. In Experiment II, resistance to extinction in the runway was systematically and positively related to terminal ratio requirements of prior barpress training.     

Changing academic task persistence through a self-instructional attribution training program

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether a self-instructional method of attribution training could effectively alter both academic task persistence and effort attributions for success and failure. Ninety children with low-effort attributions were identified and randomly assigned to three groups. The two experimental groups (experiential and formal presentation) were given training with two slightly different self-instructional procedure and compared to a control group receiving no such training. The results revealed that both experimental groups receiving the self-instructional attribution training evidenced significant differences from the control group in both academic task persistence and effort attribution.     

Twenty years of research on college students: Lessons for future research

Based on a comprehensive review of the last twenty years of research on the influences of college on students, this article discusses conceptual and methodological recommendations for enhancing future assessment and college impact studies. The recommendations deal with isolating net college effects, studying the timing of change, estimating college effect sizes, examining indirect and conditional effects, and the potential benefits of qualitative approaches. Areas for future inquiry are also identified.Presented at the Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Louisville, KY, May 13–16, 1990.     

Self-directed learning and schooling: Identifying pertinent theories and illustrative research

Changing modern societies offering diversified opportunities for self-education require citizens who are self-directed in their approach to learning. In this review, self-directed learners are characterized as manifesting personal attributes of self-acceptance as a learner, planfulness in learning activities, intrinsic motivation for learning, ability to internalize the evaluation process, openness to experience, flexibility in the approach to learning, and autonomy in the setting of learning goals and selection of the means of learning.Contemporary writers critical of the school maintain that learner attributes like the above are suppressed or prevented from developing because schools require conformity and induce dependency. Others feel that the right kind of schooling can enhance self-direction in learners. Unfortunately, evidence of the latter is lacking. Six theoretical positions on human learning that have relevance to the development of self-direction are identified and are here labelled: modeling, reinforcement, curiosity motivation, competency motivation, attribution theory and personal causation, and humanistic.All of the suggested attributes of the self-directed learner are found to be related to one or more of the theories examined. Finally, four approaches to educational practice explicity associated with self-direction are identified: experiential learning, discovery learning, the open classroom,and structured individualization.In general, there is some positive evidence that attributes of self-directed learning can be deliberately taught, though more intensive studies of particular types of school environments as well as longitudinal research are badly needed.

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Zusammenfassung Im Wandel befindliche moderne Gesellschaften mit differenzierten Selbstbildungs-Möglichkeiten brauchen Bürger, die auf selbstbestimmtes Lernen ausgerichtet sind. In dieser Studie werden selbst bestimmende Lernende charakterisiert durch Eigenschaften wie Selbst-Anerkennung als Lernender, geplantes Lernen, innere Lern-Motivation, die Fähigkeit, den Evaluationsprozess zu verinnerlichen, Erfahrungsoffenheit, Flexibilität in Lernansätzen, und Autonomie in Festlegen von Lernzielen sowie in der Wahl von Lernmitteln.Zeitgenössische Kritiker der Schule behaupten, Eigenschaften wie die obigen würden unterdrückt oder in ihrer Entwicklung behindert, weil die Schule Konformität verlangt und Abhängigkeit anerzieht. Andere sind der Ansicht, dass die richtige Art von Schulunterricht die Selbstbestimmung bei den Lernenden verstärken kann; hierfür fehlt es jedoch leider an Beweisen. Sechs theoretische, für die Entwicklung von Selbstbestimmung relevante Positionen in bezug auf menschliches Lernen werden vom Verfasser herausgearbeitet. Er bezeichnet sie als Lernen am Vorbild, Verstärkung, Neugier-Motivation, Kompetenz-Motivation, Attributionstheorie und persönliche Kausation,und Menschenbildung.All diese Eigenschaften stehen in Bezug zu einer oder mehreren der untersuchten Theorien. Schliesslich werden vier verschiedene Ansätze zur Bildungspraxis identifiziert: erfahrendes Lernen, entdeckendes Lernen, offener Unterrichtund strukturierte Individualisierung.Allgemein gesprochen, gibt es einige Hinweise darauf, dass selbstbestimmtes Lernen gezielt gelehrt werden kann; doch bedarf es noch eingehender Untersuchungen über bestimmte Unterrichtstypen sowie longitudinaler Forschung.

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Résumé Les sociétés modernes en évolution qui offrent des opportunités diversifiées d'autodidaxie, doivent avoir des citoyens capables d'auto-diriger le procesus d'acquisition de leurs connaissances. Dans ce compte-rendu, les individus auto-dirigés sont caractérisés comme capables de diagnostiquer leurs propres besoins de connaissances, faisant preuve d'une motivation intrinsèque,, d'une aptitude à intérioriser le processus d'évaluation, d'une ouverture à l'expérience, d'une flexibilité dans l'approche de l'acquisition des connaissances, d'une autonomie dans la fixation des objectifs et le choix des moyens d'apprentissage.Les auteurs contemporains qui critiquent le système scolaire soutiennent que les qualités de l'individu autodirigeant son apprentissage, telles qu'elles sont mentionnées ci-dessus, sont étouffées, ou qu'un obstacle est mis à leur développement, parce que les écoles exigent la conformité et incitent à la dépendance. D'autres auteurs estiment qu'une scolarité bien comprise peut développer l'autodirection chez l'individu qui apprend; malheureusement ils n'en fournissent pas les preuves.Six positions théoriques sur l'acquisition des connaissances ayant un rapport avec le développement de l'auto-direction sont identifiées et désignées comme suit: imitation d'un modèle, renforcement, motivation de la curiosité, motivation de la compétence, théorie de l'attribution de la causalité personnelle et théorie humaniste. On a trouvé que toutes les qualités avancées comme étant celles de l'individu autodirigé, s'apparentent à une ou plusieurs des théories examinées.Finalement, quatre approches de la pratique pédagogique, explicitement associées à l'auto-direction, sont décrites: l'apprentissage empirique, l'apprentissage par la découverte, la classe ouverte, l'individualisation structurée. Il existe en général quelque preuve positive que les qualités de l'apprentissage auto-dirigé peuvent être délibérément enseignées, mais le besoin d'études plus poussées sur des types particuliers d'environnement scolaire, et de recherche longitudinale, se fait fortement sentir.

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This review is a part of a multinational research project, Lifelong Education and the School: Organizing the Learning Process to Enhance Self-Direction, (Project 4.17), currently being conducted by the Unesco Institute for Education.