The use of cost-benefit analysis in funding continuing education: steering the fifth wheel?

This article builds upon recent interest in models of funding Continuing Education (McGivney 1990, Berrell and Smith 1996, Matkin 1997). It is based on an EU-funded project which examined inter alia current funding models for Continuing Education (CE) within four European Union countries - France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. The article firstly discusses the breadth of CE. It then investigates the existence of funding models by examining the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in determining course provision in the relevant countries. We argue that while costs and benefits form part of providers' everyday thinking, expression of CBA was generally implicit and never articulated in technical terms. We suggest that providers' value-systems, or ideology, militate against simplistic use of CBA. We conclude by returning to the question of models of funding CE.     

Logics of integration and actors’ strategies in European joint programs

This paper analyses how the interaction between social institutions on the one hand and actors’ strategies and interests on the other hand is shaping European integration in research policy. We specifically focus on the implications of the existence of different conceptions of European integration (logics) on the emerging landscape of research funding programs jointly managed by the European Union (EU) and National States (joint programs). Our results display the central role of the introduction of a logic of coordination by the EU; it created a breeding ground for a new generation of programs and, at the same time, allowed to make the integration model more flexible and acceptable to National States (as funding became only virtually integrated). Most newly created programs were characterized by largely symbolic commitments and very small budgets, while stronger commitments had to be constructed through successive steps of integration. This process was highly selective and dependent on the presence of strong interests from the research community; additional funding from the EU was critical to ensure stability of national commitments. Further, National States by large delegated to independent funding agencies the management of national participations: delegation allowed to achieve greater homogeneity among national participants, but also to decouple decisions to participate (driven by compliance to institutional pressures) from the level of resources to be committed (driven by national interests). While in the year 2000, the European Research Area (ERA) strategy of coordinating national research policies was largely an empty concept, our case study shows how in the following decade, it was filled in with specific experiences and practices, led to the redefinition of actors’ understanding of European integration and roles in European research policies and, ultimately, to the emergence of original models of integration.     

The Socio-Political Construction of a European Census of Higher Education Institutions: Design, Methodological and Comparability Issues

This paper reports on an experiment concerning the social construction of statistical definitions, where the first census of Higher Education Institutions in Europe has been developed. It conceptualizes the construction of indicators as a social process of definitions and boundaries’ negotiation, involving value judgments, social and political opinions, as well as practical interests and power strategies of actors. The paper exemplifies this process on three issues, namely the social demand for establishing a census, the controversy concerning the definition of a perimeter as well as the selection of indicators, and the nature of comparability judgments. We first conclude that the socio-political dimension has to be explicitly taken into account when designing statistical systems; second, that social scientists involved in this process need to openly recognize the conflicts around the definition of indicators; third, that the objectified and taken for granted status of indicators makes them a powerful instrument to influence policy decisions and, that indicator designers need to make their own value judgments and interests fully transparent.     

Revved up or turned off? How domain knowledge changes the relationship between perceived task complexity and task interest

This correlational study examined the relationship between perceived task complexity and task interest for individuals with varying levels of domain knowledge and/or individual interest. Forty-five college student participants (46% women) reported their knowledge and individual interest in biology before learning about the biology of fungus. Following the task, participants rated the complexity and their understanding of the material. Participants took a quiz on the material and reported their interest in fungus and willingness to return for another session. A significant Biology Knowledge × Perceived Complexity interaction emerged on task interest and willingness to return for another session, ps < .05. Perceived complexity predicted positive task outcomes for high-domain-knowledge individuals but negative task outcomes for low-domain-knowledge individuals, suggesting that domain knowledge and individual interest can help explain individuals' diverse responses to learning activities.     

Coordination modes in public funding systems

The aim of this paper is to look at public research funding systems from the perspective of their broader institutional arrangements, in order to observe how these shape the relationships between funding agencies and research actors. Accordingly, public funding is considered as a multilevel and multiactor system, where stable patterns are largely generated by the collective interaction among actors (beyond formal rules and structures) and where coordination between actors (especially funding agencies and performers) represents a key for the functionality of the systems. This drives to characterise the main organisational forms of public research funding in terms of their underlying coordination mode and to use this framework to evaluate them against a number of criteria. Further, the way how these organisational forms can be combined to yield national-level configurations is discussed, and some of their properties and conditions of functioning are derived from the previous discussion; this also leads to identification of three main configurations of funding systems - the project-based model, the mixed model, the vertically integrated model - which describe the variety of national systems and, to a large extent, underpin current discussion on European research policy.     

Novel insight into bronze disease gained by synchrotron-based photoelectron spectro-microscopy,in support of electrochemical treatment strategies

A recent assessment (Giovannelli, G., D'Urzo, L., Maggiulli, G., Natali, S., Pagliara, C., Sgura, I. & Bozzini, B. 2010. Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, 14: 479–94.) of the corrosion state of a late Bronze Age artefact (ca. 1100 BCE) exposed to a coastal environment, based on optical and scanning electron microscopies, X-ray fluorescence mapping, and X-ray diffractometry, led to recognition of bronze disease conditions essentially related to the presence of nantokite locked inside mesoscopic subsurface pits. The object was then treated successfully with a novel electrochemical approach specifically designed to allow penetration of the electric field into deep, screened pits. In order to further develop and optimize this promising approach by fine-tuning the capabilities of electrochemical control, more insight is required on the specific morphochemistry of the corrosion product scenario. To this end, here we report a space-dependent compositional and chemical-state analysis, performed with synchrotron-based scanning photoelectron microspectroscopy. The investigated object consists of a segregated cast bronze. The prevailing corrosion form is preferential attack of Sn-rich phases, accompanied by a synergistic type of Sn and Cu attack triggered by the peculiar type of decuprification taking place in a bronze disease framework and characterized by the formation of Sn(OH)Cl as a result of local HCl generation in the Cu corrosion process.     

Proportional Reasoning among 7th Grade Students with Different Curricular Experiences

Contextual problems involving rational numbers and proportional reasoning were presented to seventh grade students with different curricular experiences. There is strong evidence that students in reform curricula, who are encouraged to construct their own conceptual and procedural knowledge of proportionality through collaborative problem solving activities, perform better than students with more traditional, teacher-directed instructional experiences. Seventh grade students, especially those who study the new curricula, are capable of developing their own repertoire of sense-making tools to help them to produce creative solutions and explanations. This is demonstrated through analysis of solution strategies applied by students to a variety of rate problems.     

Unusual coin from the Parabita hoard: combined use of surface and micro-analytical techniques for its characterisation

Out of the staters collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, during the full examination of about one hundred coins minted by the Greek colony of Taras between the V century BC and the III century BC, our attention has been devoted to a lead coin, which has been regarded for many years as a genuine silver coin. This artifact, entry number 13 in the inventory list for the Parabita hoard, has been studied with the combined use of surface and micro-analytical techniques (SEM, EDX, PIXE, XRD). The joint use of different analytical techniques allowed us to obtain information about the morphology, the structure and the chemical composition of the analysed coin, that revealed a lead core coated with a bi-layer of copper and silver.