Politics by other means? STS and research in education

ABSTRACT

Science and Technology Studies (STS) has been surprisingly slow to become widely known and deployed in the field of education. Yet STS has a rich array of concepts and analytical methods to offer to studies of: knowledge practices and epistemic cultures; the interrelationship between states and knowledge; regulatory practices, governance and institutions; and classrooms, pedagogy, teaching and learning. Most importantly, it provides a fresh perspective on how power operates in ordering societies, disciplining actors and promoting ideas and practices. In this paper, we provide an introduction to STS and elaborate what it offers education scholars. Using examples from the emerging body of STS work in the field of education, and in particular from the papers in this special issue, we argue that STS is not only useful, but an exciting and generative form of critique – one that is especially suited to investigating contemporary issues in education policies and practices.     

Effects of Reward on Self‐regulation,Intrinsic Motivation and Creativity

This article evaluates the effects of two types of rewards (performance‐contingent versus engagement‐contingent) on self‐regulation, intrinsic motivation and creativity. Forty‐two undergraduate students were randomly assigned to three conditions; i.e. a performance‐contingent reward group, an engagement‐contingent reward group and a control group. Results provide little support for the negative effects of performance rewards on motivational components. However, they do indicate that participants in the engagement‐contingent reward group and the control group achieved higher rated creativity than participants in the performance‐contingent reward group. Alternative explanations for this finding are discussed.     

Teachers' Assessments of Students' Achievements: The Ecological Validity of Studies Using Case Vignettes

In two studies, we investigated the extent to which research using case vignettes of fictitious students is able to yield research results that are ecologically valid representations of teachers' assessments of students' educational achievement in their real classrooms. The type of assessment was teachers' tracking decisions from primary to secondary school. In Study 1, which was conducted in the German educational system, teachers decided which secondary school track their own students would attend and were subsequently confronted with the same decision for fictitious students described in vignettes. Study 2 was a replication in the Luxembourgish educational system. Ordinal and logistic regression models were used to compare decision making in the two conditions of actual students versus case vignettes. No major differences were found between the two conditions. Results are discussed with respect to the ecological validity of research designs that use case vignettes.     

Curriculum debate and policy change

This article investigates the underlying themes and principles that inform curriculum debate and how they are articulated in current school policy discussions. This topic is approached with the help of a case study covering the debate on which subjects should be mandatory for students at the upper secondary school curriculum in Sweden. The focus is on the arguments for and against the inclusion of History among these core subjects. The aim is to order and structure this debate and to link the arguments found to basic underlying principles. Why was History considered important or unimportant? What arguments are found about the best way to teach History? This study employs a 4-fold distinction which distinguishes between perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, and reconstructivism as four schools of thought, each outlining its own particular view on what kind of knowledge is important and how such knowledge should be taught. One major finding is that two of the schools—progressivism and essentialism—completely dominate the debates under study. There existed a major fault line between those who emphasized the instrumental value of History as a tool for fostering good citizens, and those who considered History part of essential general knowledge about society.     

Bildung and educational action research: resources for hope in neoliberal times

This paper draws upon empirical research to provide insights into current teacher learning practices under broader neoliberal conditions, and how the latter might be resisted. The paper contrasts neoliberal approaches to teachers’ learning with the Nordic tradition of educational action research and ‘Bildung’ as alternative resources to guide teachers’ and principals’ collective learning practices in schools, and draws upon empirical research to provide evidence of the benefits and challenges of doing so. The paper draws upon research into the learning practices of primary teachers in Australia, early childhood teachers in Sweden, and principals in Finland. The research reveals the influence of more Bildung-informed conceptions of educational action research, even as these are challenged by existing administrative cultures, and neoliberal pressures. The research presents ‘resources for hope’ to promote collective learning based on democratic values, not in an idealized or abstract manner, but in a way which is simultaneously cognizant of empirical realities.     

Implementation of integrated services – the example of family centres in North Rhine-Westphalia

This paper deals with the implementation of integrated services providing early support for young children and their families. The integration of services is considered to have highly positive effects on the development of children and on the prevention of child neglect and maltreatment. Therefore, childcare centres have been developed into family centres offering different services in order to foster this integration. The implementation of integrated services requires adequate governance structures on different levels. The external level concerns the framework the state offers for the integration of services. On an intermediate level, the cooperation between different institutions on the local level is to be considered. The internal level is related to questions of management, organisational development and team building. Based on experiences from family centres in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), the paper focuses on these different aspects of the governance of integrated services.     

Regulation During Cooperative and Collaborative Learning: A Theory-Based Review of Terms and Concepts

This article reviews the terms and concepts that have been used for describing regulation of learning during cooperative and collaborative learning and suggests differentiating them on the basis of which parts of a regulatory feedback loop model are being shared. During cooperative and collaborative learning, not only self-regulation but also the regulation of the group process is important. This regulation might occur on both an individual level and a social level. Several modes of regulation have been identified, but the terms used for them vary tremendously—including social regulation, socially shared regulation, coregulation, and other-regulation. This article seeks to clarify the diverse terminology. To this end, we use a theoretical framework based on Winne and Hadwin's (1998) model of self-regulated learning to analyze how the different terms are used in the literature. We make and exemplify suggestions for a consistent usage of terms.     

Why Instructional Explanations Often Do Not Work: A Framework for Understanding the Effectiveness of Instructional Explanations

Although explanations are a common means of instruction, research shows that they often do not contribute to learning. To unravel the factors giving rise to the ineffectiveness of instructional explanations, we propose a framework that brings together empirical work on instructional explanations from a variety of research fields, including classroom instruction, tutoring, cooperative learning, cognitive skill acquisition, learning from texts, computer-supported learning, and multimedia learning. In our framework, we identify the distinctive characteristics of instructional explanations, present general guidelines for designing instructional explanations, and describe factors influencing both the generation and use of instructional explanations. It is argued that future research should uncover in more detail the interrelations between the different aspects of providing and using instructional explanations and their specific effects on learning.