The Managerial Turn in Higher Education? On the Interplay of Organizational and Occupational Change in German Academia

The managerial turn in academia is currently broadly discussed. Based on empirical data gathered from a sample that includes all German universities, we can give a broad and fine-grained account of this turn. What we can clearly see is that whole new categories of administrative management positions have been created over the last years. Furthermore, within the non-academic staff we can see a profound restructuration. Lower-level positions like those for clerical work decreased, while higher-level positions in the administration increased. However, and in contrast to studies of countries, we do not observe a general shift from academic to non-academic positions. In addition to the statistical analysis of survey data and personnel data, we conducted seventy in-depth interviews with heads of administrative management units, in particular those being created over the last two decades, for example, on quality control, technology transfer, and career service. Although we clearly see important changes indicating a managerial turn in higher education, core characteristics of a professional organization whose basic processes are ultimately controlled by academics and not by administrators or managers have been retained. These findings call for further cross-national research.     

DISTANCE TRAINING IN FUNCTION‐BASED INTERVENTIONS TO DECREASE STUDENT PROBLEM BEHAVIOR: SUMMARY OF 74 CASES FROM A UNIVERSITY COURSE

In this study, 188 master‐level students received training through a distance education course to conduct functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavior support plans with 68 boys and six girls (aged 3–20 years) displaying persistent behavior problems in inclusive preschools, elementary, and secondary schools. In the course, master‐level students’ scores on an FBA knowledge test increased from 13.2% to 68.8% correct. Changes in pupils’ target behaviors were evaluated with a total of 114 AB single‐subject designs and combined data with one‐group pretest–posttest designs. Comparing medians of means, disruptive behaviors decreased by 77.8% and aggressive behaviors by 88.7%, whereas task engagement increased by 91.5% after intervention. Nonparametric Wilcoxon signed‐ranks tests for related samples showed that changes were statistically significant for all groups with sufficient sample sizes. Adjusted effect sizes ranged from d = .5 to 1.6. Results indicate that positive changes in student behavior problems can be attained with function‐based interventions conducted by teams trained through a distance education course.     

Personality traits and general intelligence as predictors of academic performance: A structural equation modelling approach

The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which personality traits, after controlling for general intelligence, predict academic performance in different school subjects. Upper secondary school students in Sweden (N = 315) completed the Wonderlic IQ test (Wonderlic, 1992) and the IPIP-NEO-PI test (Goldberg, 1999). A series of hierarchical structural equation models showed that general intelligence, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Neuroticism were significantly linked to overall academic performance. There were also different findings for a lower level of personality traits, e.g. different personality traits were associated with different subjects. The findings are discussed with regard to previous results on personality traits as determinants of academic performance in different school subjects and the fact that lower level traits may facilitate achievement in particular subjects.     

Ethnography at a distance: globally mobile parents choosing international schools

The research we report on was conducted from our computer desktops. We have not met the people we have studied; they are part of what Eichhorn described as a “textual community”, gathered around the threads of online conversations associated with a website servicing the needs of English-language speakers in Germany. The thread in question started in 2008 with a query from someone about to move to Berlin, seeking advice about the best international school in which to enrol her three children. The ensuing conversations are revealing, not only because of the schools canvassed and the manner in which they are discussed, but also because of the schools that are not charted into the discussion. This paper raises questions about qualitative research methodologies in online settings, particularly in relation to studies of the global middle-class. It examines claims about an emerging commitment to “nonlocal ethnography” and the surmising one can make about research subjects one never meets, but who remain comprehensible because of the broader cultural context in which they are situated. The research carries the promise of “rich enough” ethnography, reflecting a commitment to understanding what people do, documenting and analysing the intricate realities influencing and shaping individual choices people make, the complexities they face and the realities they help create. The fact that it was done “at a distance”, in so-called virtual spaces, does not undermine its ethnographic authenticity.     

Routes of Knowledge: Toward a Methodological Framework for Tracing the Historical Impact of International Organizations

Recent trends in the historiography of international organizations are occupied with tracing their historical impact on national contexts. There is, however, no consensus on how to conduct this type of analysis methodologically. This article examines the methodological challenges arising from this type of research. While a great deal of inspiration can be gathered from contemporary impact assessment studies, substantial conceptual and theoretical development is needed to make the idea of “impact” operational and feasible in historical studies. It is, we argue, through the focus on impact levels, space, and movement that the idea of tracing the historical impact of international organizations becomes a promising research agenda.     

Believing in Neuromyths Makes Neither a Bad Nor Good Student‐Teacher: The Relationship between Neuromyths and Academic Achievement in Teacher Education

Neuromyths have been discussed to detrimentally affect educational practice, but the evidence for this assumption is still very scarce. We investigated whether 255 student‐teacher' beliefs in neuromyths are related to their academic achievement (overall grade point averages and first‐year practical courses). Believing or rejecting neuromyths that make no direct assumptions about learners' educability was not related to academic achievement. Believing in neuromyths that explicitly deny the educability of learners was only marginally related to academic achievement. We conclude that self‐reported beliefs in neuromyths do not differentiate between high‐ and low‐achieving initial teacher education students.     

Valuations of experimental designs in proteomic biomarker experiments and traditional randomised controlled trials

This article examines the shifting conditions for biomedical knowledge production by studying trends in the design of biomedical experiments. The basic premise of the study is that the very act of establishing a research design entails a process involving a series of valuations where different values are evoked, ordered, and displaced. In focus is the articulation and ordering of what counts as central values in research design for two kinds of biomedical treatment trials, namely the traditional randomised controlled trial (RCT) and the emerging new form of biomarker trials used to assess biomarker/treatment combinations (BTTs). The empirical material consists of textbooks (RCTs) and journal articles (BTTs). We ask how these materials articulate the various scientific, medical, and economic values at play. Among the differences uncovered are a difference in relation to what counts as ethical in relation to prior knowledge, differences in the flexibility in design as well as the valuation of the risk for false positives and false negatives. More broadly, the study shows how textual accounts of different ways of producing knowledge are linked to partly different valuations of ethics, flexibility, and risk as part of establishing the research design of biomedical experiments.     

The blind Indus dolphin, Platanista indi

The Indus dolphin is an endemic, relict species, well adapted to the turbid water of the river. It is a constant swimmer with extremely short sleep phases, besides being a continuous emitter of sound. Loss of sight is compensated by an efficient sonar system. Alone among cetaceans, the Indus dolphin swims on its side, feeling its way along the bottom with the right or left flipper. These are secondary adaptations in a species whose Miocene ancestors inhabited clear coastal waters.     

A key to the future: the attitudes and values of adolescent Europeans

Based on original empirical data collected from adolescents in Europe (N = 9003) this paper focuses the lifeworlds of young people. It analyses negative and positive patterns of attitude and combines them with further concepts: personal life perspectives, various key values and political attitudes. Technically, the attitude towards Europe acts as the dependent variable whereas the remaining concepts are used as independent variables. The empirical results show Turkish and Polish adolescents are more critical towards Europe than adolescents living in ‘old’ Europe. Furthermore, the data show that those who hold negative expectations about their personal futures are likely also to be Eurosceptical.