Systemic rejection: political pressures seen from the science system

The emphasis on competitiveness and the knowledge-based economy in European policymaking has resulted in a heightened focus on monitoring and steering the science system, particularly through metric-based instruments. Policymakers’ general aims of fostering excellent research and breakthroughs are shared by researchers as well; however, below the surface is a paradox that is rarely discussed. The political system and the science system understand and pursue these concepts and objectives differently. Through two case studies on high-performing university-based research environments in Denmark and Sweden, this article uncovers the ways in which highly successful researchers often behave in ways that run counter to policy steering attempts. They do this by shielding themselves and their research group from steering pressures originating in the political system. Using Luhmann’s systems theory, the cases demonstrate why the relationship between the science system and the political system needs to be understood as a horizontal rather than a vertical relationship, and using concepts from organizational theory, provides a model and terminology for identifying and analyzing the types of mechanisms and strategic responses that the science system uses to shield itself from political steering pressures.     

Student support in e-learning courses in higher education – insights from a metasynthesis “A pedagogy of panic attacks”

Abstract

E-learning includes the use of the internet for accessing learning materials, interacting with learning content and with instructors and students to obtain support during the learning process in order to gain knowledge and personal meaning and to grow. It occurs when students have electronic access to resources and where they are in regular online contact with their peers and tutors. The primary objective of the metasynthesis was to analyse primary qualitative research studies on learner support in online courses to establish a guideline for e-learning support.

The metamethod entailed thoughtful examination of the manner in which the methodological approach was used to gather and interpret the data. The metadata analysis involved reinterpretations of the actual findings from the primary qualitative studies. Lastly, the metatheory consisted of an examination of theories leading the primary researchers’ topics, frameworks and research questions.

Conducting a metastudy from a constructivist perspective as in this research meant that I functioned as the interpreter of primary research studies, translating what has been written by other researchers for the purpose of revealing similarities and differences, and developing practice guidelines or theoretical concepts on a specific phenomenon. I identified three main themes regarding student support in e-learning in higher education, technical problems (infrastructure and access), a panic attack (pedagogy) and a human contact (human factors).     

Making Connections: Learning and Teaching Chemistry in Context

Even though several studies have reported positive attitudinal outcomes from context-based chemistry programs, methodological obstacles have prevented researchers from comparing satisfactorily the chemistry-learning outcomes between students who experience a context-based program with those who experience a content-driven program. In this narrative inquiry we are able to address the question: how do the recalled experiences of a student and her teacher in context-based and concept-based chemistry programs compare? From the student’s unique perspective of experiencing both programs with the same teacher, we have constructed our collective account around four themes; namely, the extent to which the student makes connections between chemistry concepts and real-world contexts, developing research independence through engaging in extended experimental investigations related to contexts, learning chemistry concepts through contexts, and conceptual sequencing in a context-based program. The student reported real-world connections between chemistry concepts and contexts, found her engagement in the context-driven tasks interesting and productive, and identified connected sequences of concepts across the contexts studied. Despite difficulties for teachers who are required to shift pedagogies, the student’s lived experiences and outcomes from a context-based program provide some encouragement in working through these issues.     

Translation and its discontents: key concepts in English and German history education

Key terms and concepts are crucial tools in teaching and learning in the disciplines. Different linguistic traditions approach such tools in diverse ways. This paper offers an initial contribution by a monolingual Anglophone history educator in dialogue with German history educators. It presents three different scenarios for the potential of translation between German and Anglophone research communities. In the case of Geschichtsbewußtsein or ‘historical consciousness’, the Anglophone field has already been enriched by the introduction of a new concept over the past decade. In the case of the fundamental group of concepts – ‘source’, ‘evidence’, ‘trace’ and ‘account’ – the Anglophone field is shown to be in surprising disarray, but clarification is within reach. German history education researchers may have a similar need; if so, perhaps they can benefit from the English language discussion. In the third case, that of Triftigkeit or ‘plausibility’, the German field is poised, again to make a significant contribution to a gaping hole in the theory, research and practice of Anglophone history education.     

Narratives of learning communities in environmental education

Abstract

This article introduces the core concepts that emerged from five environmental education action research studies conducted by a group called Learning Communities in Environmental Education, Science and Mathematics (CEAMECIM) from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG) in the south of Brazil. The studies focus on teacher education processes in learning communities involving teachers, researchers and environmental educators, and the critical writing and reading texts of classroom recordings to problematise participants’ teaching practices. CEAMECIM used action research cycles to examine narratives of educational action, narratives from teachers concerning their development as environmental educators, and narratives of their development of a sense of belonging, with a particular focus on critiquing social models that are based on hierarchies and individuality. From this analysis, we propose a new perspective on being and learning how to become a learning community, crystallised by the belief that ‘we are more when we are together’.     

基础认知理论框架下概念隐喻的研究述评

概念隐喻理论是基础认知理论框架下抽象概念表征的重要理论。随着第二代认知科学的快速发展,研究者采用多种实验方法在隐喻表达领域及隐喻表达之外对该理论进行了探讨。大量实验研究结果表明,隐喻对知觉、记忆、思维、推理等认知活动均具有一定影响。文章对该领域的研究进行了简要归纳,详细介绍了几个方面的经典研究,并在此基础上进行了延伸性的思考,最后表述了对未来研究的展望。     

On Analysis of English Language Education in China from the Research Questions and Research Methods

The present paper first reviewed the major concepts and practices involves in research. A small study was conducted to survey on the prevailing research questions and methods in ELT studies in China, showing a major paradigm shift from qualitative studies to quantitative research and mixed methods, with little critical research identified.     

文化历史活动理论与成人发展研究探析

文化历史活动理论为教育研究提供了一个基本、系统的分析工具,该理论以活动为研究单位,探究人们在社会实践特别是教育活动中获得的发展。本文通过梳理文化历史活动理论的研究视野与核心思想,从符号中介和活动系统两个维度对成人教育中有关发展的问题做进一步思考。     

Methodological challenges in researching threshold concepts: a comparative analysis of three projects

Threshold concepts were introduced nearly 10 years ago by Ray Land and Jan Meyer. This work has spawned four international conferences and hundreds of papers. Although the idea has clearly gained traction in higher education, this sub-field does not yet have a fully fledged research methodology or a strong critical discourse about methodology. This paper seeks to begin such a dialogue by analysing three projects carried out by the authors, each focused broadly on identifying and understanding threshold concepts in engineering. Each of the projects used interviews with students and academics, but differed in six main ways that seem to make a difference to the research outcomes. This paper considers the gaps in the research and why they matter, briefly outlines the methods used in each of the three case study projects, and then discusses differences in project goals, researchers’ backgrounds, curricular context, participants’ experiences, negotiated or independent knowledge and degree of comprehensiveness sought in the studies. The implications of these six differences are explored. The authors argue that research in this sub-field of higher education pedagogical research needs to be clearer and more explicit about the methods that are used They conclude that the field would benefit from bringing together researchers who have been developing complementary research methods to compare and contrast these approaches and to develop more rigorous protocols for research on threshold concepts.     

Science education textbook research trends: a systematic literature review

The number of science education research papers has been rapidly rising in recent years. This number has been particularly influenced by researchers from non-English speaking countries who contribute to the field. With this number of papers, literature reviews gain in importance as they help researchers more easily orient themselves in problem areas. The authors of this study present a literature review on science textbook research. The importance of textbooks in education is indisputable, yet research in this field is surprisingly unbalanced between particular regions or states. In this paper, a review of 183 papers published between 2000 and 2018, indexed to the Web of Science database, is introduced. The results show that researchers in Europe and the USA focus on textbook research more than researchers elsewhere in the world. The textbooks most frequently researched on are science books for secondary schools. Textbook research consists mostly of analysing learning concepts and how concepts are integrated, non-textual elements in textbooks, visual representations, learning content or learning text analysis.     

Conceptualising Gender Differences in Educational Research: the case of the Netherlands

This article analyses educational research on gender inequality carried out in the Netherlands between 1982 and 1991. It can be regarded as a case study on the conceptualisation of the problem of gender inequality in education. In the Netherlands two types of research can be identified: policy‐orientated research, which was largely concerned with primary and secondary education, and action research which developed from within and focused on adult education. In the beginning most researchers in both types of research were aware of the problems related to the concept of ‘disadvantage’. Later on, policy‐orientated research on gender and education has increasingly approached education primarily as a means of preparing for a promising position on the labour market. The concept of disadvantage, which at first appeared to have been superceded, has been frequently applied in the analysis of gender in education. Action research, however, focused on the learning processes of women considering feminine qualities to be positive and valuable. We discuss the criticism from women's studies of the research carried out. Finally, the central concepts of the Dutch research are related to the classifications used in England.     

Moving Beyond “It worked”: The Ongoing Evolution of Research on Problem-Based Learning in Medical Education

Research on Problem-Based Learning in medical education has undergone an evolutionary process from initial proof of concept studies through critiques of the original methods and beyond. Initial studies focused on whether or not the instructional method was effective for medical students and the goals of medical education. Despite much movement back and forth between results demonstrating effectiveness and ineffectiveness, not much forward progress was made in reaching a decisive conclusion. Recently, however, the adoption of different theoretical perspectives, research methods, research targets and technological supports has begun to move the studies along. Current research in the area is focusing not on whether the students learn, but rather what goes on during learning that helps or hinders their learning. As such the group process and its cognitive components has become a more fruitful target of researchers. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Grappling with teaching design and technology: a beginning teacher's experiences

This paper reports on an investigation into the first time implementation of a technology education unit of work by a beginning primary school teacher. The researchers monitored the teacher's implementation of the unit across a 6 week period using an interpretivist research approach. A variety of data sources were drawn upon including teacher and student interviews, video and audio recordings of small group and whole-class interactions, and student-developed artefacts. Providing appropriate learning activities to assist students to develop understanding about patterns and shapes incorporated into buildings and other structures to enhance strength and stability was a challenge faced by the beginning teacher. However, she drew support from a teaching resource, which provided guidance and structure for the teaching of technology concepts and processes related to strength and stability of structures and materials. The resource helped her to develop learning activities that were appropriate to the topic and to the needs of the students in her class. Implications of the study relate to the needs of teachers grappling with teaching design and technology for the first time and the support that they can gain from predetermined planning and teaching models and well-developed teaching resources.     

Changes in University Students’ Explanation Models of DC Circuits

One well-known learning obstacle is that students rarely use the concepts in the way that scientists use them. Rather, students mix up closely related concepts and are inclined towards matter-based conceptualisations. Furthermore, some researchers have argued that certain difficulties are rooted in the student’s limited repertoire of causal schemes. These two aspects are conveniently represented in the recent proposal of the systemic view of concept learning. We applied this framework in our analyses of university students’ explanations of DC circuits and their use of concepts such as voltage, current and resistance. Our data consist of transcribed group interviews, which we analysed with content analysis. The results of our analysis are represented with directed graphs. Our results show that students had a rather refined ontological knowledge of the concepts. However, students relied on rather simple explanation models, but few students were able to modify their explanations during the interview. Based on the analysis, we identified three processes of change: model switch, model refinement and model elaboration. This emphasises the importance of relevant relational knowledge at a later stage of learning. This demonstrates how concept individuation and learning of relational structures occurs (and in which order) and sets forth interesting research questions for future research.     

Researchers Apply Lesson Study: A Cycle of Lesson Planning,Implementation, and Revision

Scripted lesson plans and/or professional development alone may not be sufficient to encourage teachers to reflect on the quality of their teaching and improve their teaching. One learning tool that teachers may use to improve their teaching is Lesson Study (LS). LS is a collaborative process involving educators, based on concepts of iteration and revision, to improve instruction. The initial use of an adapted version of LS referred to as a microteaching lesson study (MLS) is described in this article. Our purpose is to illustrate the process of MLS used by a group of researchers when developing lesson plans for teaching students with learning disabilities. We describe MLS, and then (1) share an application of MLS used by a research team in developing a writing intervention, and (2) discuss how the MLS format was mirrored with K‐12 teachers during professional development training.     

Features of an Emerging Practice and Professional Development in a Science Teacher Team Collaboration with a Researcher Team

This study concerns teaching and learning development in science through collaboration between science teachers and researchers. At the core was the ambition to integrate research outcomes of science education—here ‘didactic models’—with teaching practice, aligned with professional development. The phase where the collaboration moves from initial establishment towards a stable practice is investigated. The study aims to identifying features of formation and exploring consequences for the character of contact between research and teaching. Specific questions are “What may be identified as actions and arrangements impacting the quality and continuation of the emerging practice?” and “What and in what ways may support teacher growth?” The analysis draws on practice architectures as a theoretical framework and specifically investigates the initial meetings as a practice-node for a new practice, empirically drawing on documented reflections on science teaching, primarily from meetings and communication. The results take the form of an analytical-narrative account of meetings that focused planning, enactment and reflection on teaching regarding the human body. We identify enabling actions such as collaborative work with concrete material from the classroom and arrangements such as the regular meetings and that the collaborative group had a core of shared competence—in science teaching and learning. Constraining were actions such as introducing research results with weak connection to practical action in the school practice and arrangements such as differences between school and university practice architectures and the general ‘oppression’ of teachers’ classroom practice. The discussion includes reflections on researchers’ roles and on a research and practice base for school development.     

Promise and challenge of identifying threshold concepts: a cautionary account of using transactional curriculum inquiry

The original work on threshold concepts arose from a project designed to improve students’ learning experiences by taking seriously the features of disciplinary knowledge as its starting point. The conceptual and empirical work on threshold concepts has since developed and matured. While many disciplines have engaged enthusiastically with the identification of threshold concepts, healthcare has not been well represented. Drawing on Cousin’s (2007, 2009) notion of transactional curriculum inquiry, the study explores the identification of threshold concepts in a physiotherapy subject, with a sample of physiotherapy clinical educators, using nominal group technique (NGT). While the article presents a set of concepts from the pilot study, this is not its key contribution. Instead, three novel insights are offered for future threshold concepts research. First, there is a need to extend the stakeholders involved in curriculum reform and renewal beyond the university (particularly, for professions). Second, there must be ongoing opportunities for these external stakeholders to engage with and reflect on the distinct features of threshold concepts if the context and authenticity of practice is to be taken seriously for enhancing student learning. Third, the problem of identification is beset with conceptual challenges that remain unresolved for researchers.     

Threshold concepts in higher education: a synthesis of the literature relating to measurement of threshold crossing

In relation to teaching and learning approaches that improve student learning outcomes, threshold concepts have generated substantial interest in higher education. They have been described as ‘portals’ that lead to a transformed way of understanding or thinking, enabling learners to progress, and have been enthusiastically adopted to inform teaching approaches and curriculum design. A growing body of literature has critiqued the relevance and applicability of the threshold concept theory and identified threshold concepts relevant to specific disciplines. More recent research has identified how students cross these thresholds and provided measures of the successful acquisition of threshold concepts. This literature synthesis critiques existing evidence on threshold crossing and acquisition to provide a succinct and informative overview of the outcomes to date. Key questions relevant to educators and researchers investigating whether students acquire the threshold concepts associated with their teaching, arose from the literature synthesis. These were: whether or not threshold crossing can be measured; how variation in student learning can be addressed during measurement; tools that can be used for measuring threshold crossing; whether the way units or concepts are taught should alter prior to measurement, and the challenges and limitations of measuring threshold crossing.     

Identifying Characteristics of Dissemination Success Using an Expert Panel

Although considerable work has been done to develop new educational innovations, few have found widespread acceptance in the classroom. To improve the likelihood of adoption of educational innovations, researchers need to understand why some innovations are adopted and routinely used, while others are not. An initial aspect of the diffusion of innovations, as defined in the classical sociological literature, involves the communication of ideas and concepts related to innovations between individuals. This article presents an expert panel's answer to the following question: “What are the most important characteristics that relate to the dissemination of educational innovations?” As dissemination is a critical facet of the diffusion of an innovation, 45 researchers who received technology and engineering grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) participated in a Delphi study designed to address this research question. In three rounds, the experts identified and ranked 11 characteristics of educational innovations, 6 characteristics of students, 13 characteristics of faculty members, and 5 characteristics of administrators that can relate to the successful dissemination of educational innovations. The results of this study led to the formation of a Characteristics of Dissemination Success (CODS) framework. This framework offers useful guidance for educational innovators seeking a better understanding of the influences on the dissemination of educational innovations.