La Cuestión Social como Objeto de Estudio: Concepto y Fundamento

Este artículo intenta clarificar conceptos relacionados con disciplinas que se ocupan de lo social. Exige una ardua labor de reflexión, verificación y contraste de los implicados en el estudio y la práctica para elaborar una terminología común. Construir los fundamentos de una ciencia, y/o disciplina científica –Pedagogía Social, Educación Social y Trabajo Social –no es una tarea fácil. Intentamos aportar las bases epistemológicas en las que se sustentan las disciplinas mencionadas. En general, los agentes de lo social no han adquirido la capacidad de pensamiento riguroso que es esencial para una profesión en vías de maduración.     

Geht’s auch mit der Maus? – Eine Methodenstudie zu Online-Befragungen in der Jugendforschung

While internet based surveys have gained importance in recent years, their use in adolescent related research is rare at best. The present paper offers an overview of advantages and disadvantages of online surveys and discusses their use in regard to the questioning of adolescents. In a comparison between two random samples of 13 to 17 year olds, we examine how differences between a telephone (N?= 1,784) and an online (N?= 1,652) survey materialize in regard to the coverage rate, discontinuation behavior, and item-non-response. The sampling is analyzed further with regard to sociodemographic differences. While there are no expected coverage problems for the adolescent target group, the results show that adolescents from educated families, as well as those with a migration background, took part more often in the online survey as opposed to the telephone survey. Also, a more intensive mobile use of the internet, as well as in part greater sports activity, is connected to a higher willingness to take part in the survey which suggests that the survey topic influences the willingness to participate.     

Changing Funding Arrangements and the Production of Scientific Knowledge: Introduction to the Special Issue

With this special issue, we would like to promote research on changes in the funding of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Since funding secures the livelihood of researchers and the means to do research, it is an indispensable condition for almost all research; as funding arrangements are undergoing dramatic changes, we think it timely to renew the science studies community’s efforts to understand the funding of research. Changes in the governance of science have garnered considerable attention from science studies and higher education research; however, the impact of these changes on the conduct and content of research has not received sufficient attention, and theoretical insights into the connections between funding practices and research practices are few and far between. The aim of this special issue is to contribute to our theoretical understanding of the changing nature of research funding and its impact on the production of scientific knowledge. More specifically, we are interested in the interplay between funding and research practices: What is the impact of institutionalised funding arrangements on the production of scientific knowledge?     

Using Megaplanning in CSO Projects— Bringing Social Sectors Together for Measurable and Sustainable Social Impact

ABSTRACT Civil Society Organizations (CSO) can improve their effectiveness and add measurable value to society by using a megaplanning approach as the guiding criteria for their organizational planning. This article shows how Asociación Conciencia, a leading Argentinean CSO, has used megaplanning to clarify its vision, mission, align its goals and programs and update its mission and programs over more than twenty years of critical social changes in Argentina.     

Musikalische Aktivitäten von Kindern und Jugendlichen

This article deals with playing a musical instrument as an important form of music related activities in the development and socialization of children and youth. The authors discuss aspects of arts education and reflect concepts of interest. They focus on the musical socialization and its contexts of today, so the question, which children and young persons are playing an instrument as well as a systematic analysis of places where adolescents are playing music. The self-organized and non-goal oriented learning processes in music activities are focused, reflecting theories of social inequalities. The results of the empirical findings show differences related to social class in playing an instrument and its choice, but not in places where music is done. Especially if adolescents play an instrument with corresponding interest, intensity, forms of activities and motifs of playing do not differ by social background.     

Reasons which influence on the students’ decision to take a university course: differences by gender and degree

After compulsory secondary education; many teenagers face the process of choosing a university degree. This process involves uncertainties referred to their personal abilities, interests, social expectations and professional future. The present work is aimed at determining whether the reasons behind the selection of a particular university degree differ depending on the chosen degree. Another objective is determining whether these reasons differ significantly according to gender. The sample comprises 983 students belonging to the area of social and legal sciences at the University of Seville. The obtained results reveal the existence of four main reasons behind the selection of university degrees for which significant gender-related differences were observed: easy degree, job opportunities, high wages and provision of social services. Besides, these seven reasons are observed to differ widely in six of the considered degrees.     

Upper Secondary Students’ Understanding of the Use of Multiple Models in Biology Textbooks—The Importance of Conceptual Variation and Incommensurability

In this study we investigate students’ ability to discern conceptual variation and the use of multiple models in genetics when reading content-specific excerpts from biology textbooks. Using the history and philosophy of science as our reference, we were able to develop a research instrument allowing students themselves to investigate the occurrence of multiple models and conceptual variation in Swedish upper secondary textbooks. Two excerpts using different models of gene function were selected from authentic textbooks. Students were given the same questionnaire-instrument after reading the two texts, and the results were compared. In this way the students themselves made a classification of the texts which could then be compared with the researchers’ classification of the texts. Forty-one upper secondary students aged 18–19 participated in the study. Nine of the students also participated in semi-structured interviews. Students recognized the existence of multiple models in a general way, but had difficulty discerning the different models and the conceptual variation that occurs between them in the texts. Further they did not recognize the occurrence of incommensurability between multiple models. Students had difficulty in transforming their general knowledge of multiple models into an understanding of content specific models of gene function in the textbooks. These findings may have implications for students’ understanding of conceptual knowledge because research has established textbooks as one of the most influential aspects in the planning and execution of biology lessons, and teachers commonly assign reading passages to their students without further explanation.     

Fostering theory of mind development. Short- and medium-term effects of training false belief understanding / Favorecer el desarrollo de la teoría de la mente. Efectos a corto y medio plazo de un entrenamiento en comprensión de la falsa creencia

Abstract

This study examines the temporal effect of different trainings designed to favour the development of false belief understanding. A sample of 78 pre-school children aged between three years, five months and three years, 11 months was divided into three training conditions. After three training sessions, they were immediately evaluated in post-test 1 and again a month and a half later in post-test 2. The results showed that the efficiency of the training conditions depended both on the type of linguistic communication and on the use of deceptive objects. Also, the effect of the training was maintained for at least a month and a half after post-test 1 and it was transferred from the trained task to other false belief tasks. The results are commented according to the possibility of using language-based trainings to foster children’s theory of mind understanding in educational contexts.