Rezension zu: Richard van Dülmen/Sina Rauschenbach (Hrsg.): Macht des Wissens. Die Entstehung der modernen Wissensgesellschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

What are the Bounds of Critical Rationality in Education?

Since Dilthey we have become used to thinking of reason as having a cultural and historical setting. If we take this insight seriously, then critical rationality or critical thinking can no longer be conceived of as context‐free skills. This paper takes up the line of thought that is elaborated by Christopher Winch in his ‘Developing Critical Rationality as a Pedagogical Aim’ and seeks to explicate it by drawing on Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of ‘language games’ and on the re‐evaluation of ‘thinking’ by Theodor Ballauff (a German philosopher of education who was influenced by Martin Heidegger). The overcoming of a solipsistic and idealistic conception of thinking raises questions regarding the pedagogical settings and aims, as well as the problems over the limits of critique in education. A comparison of Ballauff's and Winch's positions reinforces the sense of the significance of critique: although the role of critical rationality within education is ambiguous and precarious, the investigation of autonomy (as an educational goal) shows that critique cannot be limited in any straightforward way.     

El pensamiento del adolescente

Resumen

En la primera parte la autora expone las características del estadio formal tal como lo presentan Inhelder y Piaget (1955) poniendo de manifiesto los puntos principales que diferencian la lógica del niño del estadio concreto y la del adolescente. Resitúa a continuación la noción de competencia en el marco más amplio de la de pensamiento. Finalmente, se discuten algunos de los problemas vinculados al estudio de la adolescencia considerada como un período de la vida: dificultades metodológicas (validación de los modelos y naturaleza de la evidencia empírica) y teóricas (definición del estadio teniendo en cuenta los cambios históricos). Gillièron hace una referencia a la dirección de las investigaciones actuales: definición de un quinto estadio, elaboración de modelos de performance,…para terminar con algunos comentarios sobre el egocentrismo de las distintas generaciones.     

Civil Society and the Shaping of Communication-Information Policy: Four Decades of Advocacy

This article initiates exploratory empirical research on how civil society collective action has reacted to and affected communication-information policy (CIP), a policy domain that has been reshaped by technological and industrial change. It reviews the relevant theory on social movements, citizens groups, and interest groups from political science. Data are gathered on two dimensions of the research question: (1) We quantify the number of public interest advocacy groups focused on CIP in the United States from 1961 to the present, using organizational ecology methods. (2) We track the number of U.S. Congressional hearings held each year on CIP issues. The results show that CIP now exceeds other social movement issues (women, civil rights, the environment, human rights) as a major concern of Congressional activity, that the issues are becoming more interdependent, and that modes of citizens advocacy have undergone drastic changes in recent years.     

Innovation in the service sector: The demand for service-specific innovation measurement concepts and typologies

There is evidence that the notion of innovation, well established in the manufacturing sector, cannot simply be transposed to the service sector. This article deals critically with existing measurement concepts derived from manufacturing, and introduces a new typology with a view to obtaining a better understanding of innovation in services. Selected results from the German innovation survey are analysed in order to support the conceptual findings and to identify potential improvements. Special attention is directed towards the inclusion of knowledge-intensive business services that are of particular importance for innovation processes.     

Implicit Theories of Creativity: the conceptions of politicians,scientists, artists and school teachers

While a high number of studies have focused on the nature of creativity and on approaches to identify and to promote creativity there is a lack of studies analysing people's implicit theories of creativity. The present study investigates implicit theories of individuals who are assumed to influence other's views on creativity. We collected data from politicians, scientists, artists and school teachers. Subjects were asked to write down what they spontaneously associate to the term “creativity”. Answers were analysed using quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Out of the 560 subjects asked, only 145 participated in the study. Answers were compared with regard to profession, gender, and country (Austria versus Germany). In general, results show extremely high answer variability. Differences in the number of associations produced and the most frequent words associated with creativity are higher across profession groups than between females and males and between respondents from Austria and from Germany. Artists seem to form an outstanding group. They show the highest participation rate of all subgroups, produced the highest number of associations, comprised the highest rate of subjects expressing ego‐involvement in their answers, and used the widest‐ranging approaches to creativity.     

Artistic styles: revisiting the analysis of modern artists’ careers

This paper is based on a global sample of the 214 most prominent modern visual artists born 1850–1945. Two analytical methods are used to analyse the age at which artists produce their best works—one based on year-of-birth cohorts of modern visual artists and the other on stylistic groups. The cohort-analysis shows that the career patterns develop similarly over time for artists working in the USA and Europe; over time the artists’ peak ages first increase, reach their maximum for artists born between 1890 and 1909, and then decrease again. The study of stylistic groups shows that artists associated with Fauvism, the Nabis and Post-Impressionism experience an early peak, whereas artists associated with Surrealism, Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Art Informel, Pop Art, Expressionism and Cubism peak later in their careers.

A Role for Epistemic Insight in Attitude and Belief Change? Lessons from a Cross-curricular Course on Evolution and Creation

This paper presents findings from a quasi-experimental study evaluating future teachers’ attitudes and beliefs in response to a cross-curricular university course on evolution and creation bridging biological and Christian theological perspectives. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that a course providing learning opportunities for epistemic insight within this multidisciplinary arena might have effects on attitudes and beliefs relevant to the field. Hence, the main research question was the following: To what extent do student teachers’ attitudes and beliefs change by attending a cross-curricular course on evolution and creation intended to develop student teachers’ epistemic insight into the nature of science and into the relationship between science and theology? The answer from this quasi-experimental evaluation study (pre–post-design; test group n =?26, control group n =?24) is as follows: It depends upon the variable investigated! Pre–post-analysis using a repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the cross-curricular course integrating epistemic insight induced changes in creationist beliefs, in students’ perception of conflict, and in acceptance of evolution. In contrast, there was no effect on attitudes toward evolutionary theory, on attitudes toward the Biblical accounts of creation, or on scientistic beliefs. However, when student responses were analyzed individually, case-based evidence for belief change in students with scientistic positions emerged. Among the reasons for those different effects, we discuss conceptual differences between attitude and acceptance, features of the student teacher sample, and the particular content of the course explicitly addressing creationism but not scientism. In conclusion, the paper corroborates the role of epistemic insight in the multidisciplinary field of evolution and creation and provides initial evidence that epistemic insight possesses a particular potential concerning positions at both ends of the spectrum.     

Feedback Effects on Performance,Motivation and Mood: Are They Moderated by the Learner's Self-Concept?

This study tested the assumption that the effectiveness of feedback with regard to performance, motivation, and affect is moderated by the learners’ self-concept. A total of 72 sixth-graders completed a web-based interactive learning program. Half of the sample received feedback and the other half received no feedback. Differential feedback effects were detected. For students with a positive academic self-concept, feedback led to a decline in performance and in mood but an increase in effort. With regard to participants with a negative self-concept, feedback worked against the decrease in mood but did not increase performance and motivation. These findings support the claim that feedback effects should be assessed with regard to (1) multiple dimensions and (2) possible moderating variables.     

Evaluations and the Forgetfulness of Pedagogical Relations: Remarks on Educational Authority

In this essay, Christiane Thompson addresses the question of evaluative practices, particularly student evaluation of teaching (SET), and their effects with respect to pedagogical relations in the university setting. In the first part of the essay, Thompson draws on Michel Foucault's analysis of power to show how university teaching has come to be defined according to notions of obligation, accountability, and assurance. The forgetfulness of pedagogical relations that results from the increasing use of SET prompts Thompson to rethink the significance of pedagogical relations in the second part of the essay. Referring to the notion of “educational authority” and Foucault's framework of power, Thompson argues that education is about the continuous re‐institution of pedagogical relation to the other. In the final section, Thompson reflects upon the professor's “authority” in terms of constituting a “community of inquiry”: specifically, the seminar is interpreted as a pedagogical setting that implies a different “being‐with” than SET suggests. She concludes by considering what possibilities and limitations the seminar setting offers and how we can discuss this issue (by means of evaluative practice).