Combining mapping and citation network analysis for a better understanding of the scientific development: The case of the absorptive capacity field

The general aim of this paper is to show the results of a study in which we combined bibliometric mapping and citation network analysis to investigate the process of creation and transfer of knowledge through scientific publications. The novelty of this approach is the combination of both methods. In this case we analyzed the citations to a very influential paper published in 1990 that contains, for the first time, the term Absorptive Capacity. A bibliometric map identified the terms and the theories associated with the term while two techniques from the citation network analysis recognized the main papers during 15 years. As a result we identified the articles that influenced the research for some time and linked them into a research tradition that can be considered the backbone of the “Absorptive Capacity Field”.     

“You're Just Imagining it,Everything's all Right Really,Don't Worry About it”: the position of women in surveying education and practice

This paper presents aspects of research into the position of women in surveying, highlighting in particular the changes that are occurring in erstwhile ‘male’ technological and professional areas, which are experiencing an unprecedented influx of women. These changes are not taken at face value as necessarily being of long‐term benefit to women, an attempt is made to look beneath the surface to find out what is really going on. The current state of play in the ongoing pursuit of gaining greater equality for women in higher education is considered, with a discussion of organisational structures which are still overwhelmingly male, in which women may have gained some ground, but men have lost few of their advantages in the process.     

Explaining as Mediated Action

Explaining is one of the most important everyday practices in science education. In this article, we examine how scientific explanations could serve as cultural tools for members of a group of pre-service physics teachers. Specifically, we aim at their use of explanations about forces of inertia in non-inertial frames of reference. A basic assumption of our study is that explanatory tools (e.g., typical explanations learned) shape the ways we think and speak about the world. Drawing on the theory of mediated action, analysis illustrates three major claims on scientific explanations: (1) explaining is an act of actively responding to explanations presented by others (and not only to evidence itself); (2) the actual experience of explaining involves the enactment of power and authority; (3) resistance (not acknowledging an explanation as one’s own) might be a constitutive part of learning how to explain (hence, teachers could approach scientific explanation in a less dogmatic way). These assertions expand the possibilities of dialogue between studies of scientific explanations and the social sciences. Implications for science teaching and research in science education are presented.     

The status of speech training in the secondary schools of the western and eastern states

From Art to Theatre. Form and Convention in the Renaissance. By George R. Kernodle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944; pp. 255, 62 illustrations. $5.00.

Shakespeare and the Actors—The Stage Business in His Plays (1660–1905). By Arthur Colby Sprague. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1944; pp. xxv + 440. $5.00.

A Handbook of Classical Drama. By Philip Whaley Harsh. Stanford University: Stanford University Press, 1944, pp. xii + 526. $4.00.

A Great Time to Be Alive. By Harry Emerson Fosdick. New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1944; pp. 235. $2.00.

The Scholar and the Future of the Research Library. By Fremont Rider. New York: Hadham Press, 1944; pp. 236. $4.00.

Representative American Speeches: 1943–1944. Selected by A. Craig Baird. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1944; pp. 360. $1.25.

American Dialect Dictionary. By Harold Wentworth. New York: The Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1944; pp. xv + 747. $6.00.     

How and where is artificial intelligence in the public sector going? A literature review and research agenda

To obtain benefits in the provision of public services, managers of public organizations have considerably increased the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. However, research on AI is still scarce, and the advance of this technology in the public sector, as well as the applications and results of this strategy, need to be systematized. With this goal in mind, this paper examines research related to AI as applied to the public sector. A review of the literature covering articles available in five research databases was completed using the PRISMA protocol for literature reviews. The search process yielded 59 articles within the scope of the study out of a total of 1682 studies. Results show a growing trend of interest in AI in the public sector, with India and the US as the most active countries. General public service, economic affairs, and environmental protection are the functions of government with the most studies related to AI. The Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) technique is the most recurrent in the investigated studies and was pointed out as a technique that provides positive results in several areas of its application. A research framework for AI solutions for the public sector is presented, where it is demonstrated that policies and ethical implications of the use of AI permeate all layers of application of this technology and the solutions can generate value for functions of government. However, for this, a prior debate with society about the use of AI in the public sector is recommended.     

A Literature-Driven English Programme’s effectiveness in improving the writing skills of Grade 7 Singaporean students

A Literature-Driven English Programme (LDEP) was designed and tested in naturalistic conditions in four diverse secondary schools in Singapore over a span of five to six weeks during 2004. These schools included single-sex and co-educational schools. The sample provided, within and across the schools, different levels of performance in a graded situation; multiple teachers and classes; and control and experimental conditions for the curriculum implementation. In the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the findings, it was found that the LDEP was effective in enhancing the narrative writing skills of many of the students in the experimental group.     

Language,Experience and Professional Learning (What Walter Benjamin Can Teach Us)

This essay raises questions about how language educators might construct and further develop their epistemology of practice in and through the situations in which they work from day to day. The occasion for this paper is our work as guest editors of a special issue of L-1: Educational Studies in Language and Literature, when we invited L1 teachers to reflect on the role that language plays in their professional learning, whether it be in the form of conversations with peers, reflective writing, or by other means. We begin this essay by locating our reflections within our current policy context, namely the standards-based reforms that have come to dominate educational thinking around the world, offering a brief critique of the values and attitudes embedded within them. We then outline a philosophical framework as an alternative to the world-view reflected by such reforms, focusing specifically on the work of Walter Benjamin. In the final sections, we review our work as guest editors of the special issue of L-1, reflecting on what we have learned from the papers we have assembled for this issue, and locating our learning within the philosophical framework that we have drawn from Benjamin. We argue that it is timely for language educators to articulate the assumptions that inhere within their work, in contradistinction to the common sense embedded in standards. Thus we might begin to reconceptualise the relation between language, experience and professional learning in opposition to the hegemony of standards.