The Great British Broadcasting Competition

The business reasons behind the decision to start the BBC television service in 1936 remain unclear despite the volume of literature on the subject. Additionally, controversy has persisted regarding foreign involvement in what has been considered a fully British system. What is apparent from the literature is an emphasis placed on the technical development, generally under-representing other aspects of television. A new multi-disciplinary approach is proposed and applied here to explore the circumstances around the emergence of the service, together with hitherto neglected industry aspects: the business and commercial issues relating to broadcaster and suppliers. This paper highlights the primacy of the BBC television service as providing the first instance of what became a common template for live television creation whilst illustrating, with new evidence, foreign influence on British engineering development for the BBC service.     

Nothing but the Facts?

This paper seeks to understand how journalists deal with storytelling and truth-seeking in their daily news practice. While storytelling is usually studied through texts, we approached it from a practice perspective, combining data from three ethnographic studies in which 36 beat reporters and 13 journalistic storytelling experts were extensively interviewed. Because of the emphasis journalists place on “finding out the truth” in public discourses, it is tempting for academics to present them as naive truth-seekers. However, by means of an interpretative repertoire analysis of their “practice” discourses, we seek to enlarge the discursive space to talk about the supposed tension between story and reality. Although departing from the idea that all news making is storytelling, the interviewed journalists consider news making and storytelling as distinct—and sometimes opposing—practices. These professional practices serve as the framework around which five storytelling repertoires are organized.     

Leben am Rande? Dimensionen der Benachteilung von Jugendlichen

?konomisches, soziales und kulturelles Kapital z?hlen zu den zentralen Determinanten des übergangs von Jugendlichen in die Ausbildung und in den Beruf. Allerdings zeichnen sich diese Faktoren durch eine relativ hohe interpersonelle Variabilit?t aus, die gerade in Bezug auf benachteiligte junge Erwachsene einer differenzierten Analyse bedarf. Der folgende Beitrag m?chte deshalb zun?chst in Anlehnung an die Kapitalientheorie von Pierre Bourdieu die Frage untersuchen, ob es innerhalb der Gruppe von benachteiligten Jugendlichen Unterschiede in der Kapitalausstattung gibt, und ob diese eine Wirkung auf den Verbleib in und den Anschluss an eine Ma?nahme haben. Anhand eines Datensatzes, der im Rahmen der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung des Modellprogramms „Freiwilliges soziales Trainingsjahr“ (FSTJ) durch das Deutsche Jugendinstitut generiert wurde, werden theoretische Annahmen zu unterschiedlicher Kapitalausstattung benachteiligter Jugendlicher im FSTJ und ihre Wirkungen empirisch überprüft.     

Inequalities in the education system and the reproduction of socioeconomic disparities in voting in England,Denmark and Germany: the influence of country context,tracking and self-efficacy on voting intentions of students age 16–18

This article performs exploratory research using a mixed-methods approach (structural equation modelling and a thematic analysis of interview data) to analyse the ways in which socioeconomic disparities in voting patterns are reproduced through inequalities in education in different national contexts, and the role of self-efficacy in this process. The evidence suggests that in Germany and England students with lower socioeconomic status (SES) have lower levels of general self-efficacy, and that this is reinforced through early experiences of inequalities in the education system, such as within- or between-school selection. Low levels of general self-efficacy are then found to reduce political self-efficacy and voting intentions. In Germany and England, it is these students who enter initial vocational education and training (IVET). The experience of IVET then reinforces the distinctions in civic engagement, probably either through peer socialisation and/or curriculum differences. In Denmark, where SES has a weaker association with track placement, the experience of being placed in IVET plays a stronger role in reducing political self-efficacy and voting intentions.     

The experiences of Vietnamese university faculty in relation to their faculty development

As Vietnam higher education has explored ways to integrate into the international community, professional development of faculty is becoming a key element. However, there is a significant shortage of faculty development (FD) in Vietnam, resulting in a large gap in quality, quantity, and qualifications between Vietnamese faculty and their colleagues in Southeast Asia. We conducted a phenomenological study to gain insights into the experiences of Vietnamese faculty in their FD. Four themes emerged: faculty’s perceptions of faculty roles, FD activity participation, factors affecting their FD, and FD desires. To improve the quality of FD in Vietnam, we offered a number of recommendations for faculty members, policymakers at different levels, and further research.     

Designing Learning Environments for Critical Thinking: Examining Effective Instructional Approaches

Fostering the development of students’ critical thinking (CT) is regarded as an essential outcome of higher education. However, despite the large body of research on this topic, there has been little consensus on how educators best support the development of CT. In view of some of the controversies surrounding the teaching of CT skills in higher education, this study examined the effects of embedding CT instruction systematically in domain-specific courses (Immersion vs. Infusion) on the acquisition of domain-specific and domain-general CT skills and course achievement. First-year university students (N = 143) enrolled in an introductory physics course were assigned to one of three instructional conditions: Immersion, Infusion, and control. The Immersion and Infusion conditions followed lessons designed systematically based on the First Principles of Instruction model, whereas the control condition followed a regular instruction. Results showed that participants in the Immersion and Infusion conditions significantly outperformed those in the control condition on domain-specific CT proficiency and course achievement. However, neither the Immersion nor the Infusion condition was helpful in fostering the acquisition of domain-general CT skills. The findings generally demonstrated that embedding CT instruction systematically in domain-specific courses requires greater clarity about what set of CT skills could be targeted in domain-specific instruction, how specific subject-matter instruction could be designed considering CT as an integral part of domain-specific instruction, and how best CT outcomes be assessed. Some considerations for the design of CT-supportive learning environments are discussed.     

The role of guidance in computer-based problem solving for the development of concepts of logic

The effect of two instructional variables,manipulation of objects and guidance, inlearning to use the logical connective,conditional, was investigated. Instructions for72 first- and second year social sciencestudents were varied in the computer-basedlearning environment Tarski's World, designedfor teaching first-order logic (Barwise &Etchemendy, 1992). Guidance, which wasoperationalised by giving the learners problemsthat guided them to all different types ofbasic problem situations that could be derivedfrom the conditional by stimulating them tomanipulate or to imagine to manipulate thegeometrical objects, significantly influencedthe scores from pre- to post test.Manipulation, which was operationalised bygiving the learners a visual representation inwhich (concrete) geometrical objects could bemanipulated, yielded significant results frompost- to retention test. The results supportthe authors' view that guidance in combinationwith the possibility to manipulate objects in adomain, support the acquisition of knowledgeand skills in that domain. Guidance leads tothe students seeing all situations that arerelevant for the development of new knowledge,which has a positive effect directly afterinstruction. The possibility to manipulateleads to the students playing around in such away that they (systematically) experience theresults of their actions by the feedback given,having an effect after two weeks ofnon-instruction.