Tools of the Trade: UK Research Intermediaries and the Politics of Impacts

In recent years questions concerning the impact of public research funding have become the preeminent site at which struggles over the meanings and value of science are played out. In this paper we explore the ‘politics of impact’ in contemporary UK science and research policy and, in particular, detail the ways in which UK research councils have responded to and reframed recent calls for the quantitative measurement of research impacts. Operating as ‘boundary organisations’ research councils are embroiled in what might be characterised as the ‘politics of demarcation’ in which competing understandings of the cultural values of science are traded, exchanged and contested. In this paper we focus on the way the UK’s ‘Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’ (EPSRC) has responded to contemporary policy discourses concerning the impacts of public research expenditure. We argue that, in response to the shifting terms of contemporary science policy, the EPSRC has adopted three distinct strategies. Firstly, in collaboration with other research councils the EPSRC have emphasised the intellectual and metrological challenge presented by attempts to quantify the economic impact of public research expenditure, emphasising instead the cumulative impacts of a broad portfolio of ‘basic science’. Secondly, the EPSRC has sought to widen the discursive meaning of research impacts – specifically to include societal and policy impacts in addition to economic ones. Thirdly, the EPSRC has introduced a new framing into the ‘impact agenda’, preferring to talk about ‘pathways to impact’ rather than research impacts per se. In responding to government priority setting, we argue that the EPSRC has sought to exploit both the technical fragility of auditing techniques and the discursive ambiguity of notions of impact.     

Committees of division 15 1974–1975

A meta-analysis was undertaken to reexamine near- and far-transfer effects following working-memory training and to consider potential moderators more systematically. Forty-seven studies with 65 group comparisons were included in the meta-analysis. Results showed near-transfer effects to short-term and working-memory skills that were sustained at follow-up with effect sizes ranging from g = 0.37 to g = 0.72 for immediate transfer and g = 0.22 to g = 0.78 for long-term transfer. Far-transfer effects to other cognitive skills were small, limited to nonverbal (g = 0.14) and verbal (g = 0.16) ability and not sustained at follow-up. Several moderators (e.g., duration of training sessions, supervision during training) had an influence on transfer effects, including far-transfer effects. We present principles for how best to improve working memory through training in the narrow-task paradigm and conjecture how best to improve basic cognitive functions in complex activity contexts.     

The Effects of Collaborative Care of Living Animals in Biology Lessons on Students’ Relatedness Toward Their Teacher Across Gender

Research in Science Education - The transition from elementary school to the upper grades can lead to ambiguous feelings toward the new, male teachers. This study investigated whether collaborative...     

Zwischen Wollen, aber nicht k?nnen und K?nnen, aber nicht wollen: übergangsprobleme von Jugendlichen in Japan am Beispiel der ?Freeter“ und ?NEETs“

Die Untersuchung von übergangsprozessen vom Bildungs- in das Besch?ftigungssystem ist vor dem Hintergrund der Jugendarbeitslosigkeit von besonderer Bedeutung. In Japan wird der übergang vielfach als gelungen tituliert. In den letzten Jahren mehren sich allerdings Zeichen, die auf eine ver?nderte Sachlage hindeuten. Der vorliegende Aufsatz analysiert diese Problematik am Beispiel der beiden japanischen Personengruppen „Freeter“ und „NEET“. Dabei handelt es sich um Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene, die nicht (direkt) in ein regul?res Besch?ftigungsverh?ltnis eintreten. Zun?chst werden hier die Ursachen analysiert, dann werden bildungspolitische Ma?nahmen zur Beseitigung der Probleme kommentiert. Durch die Heranziehung von wissenschaftlich fundierten Erkl?rungsans?tzen wird gezeigt, dass sich die beiden genannten Personengruppen durch eine geringe formale Schulqualifikation auszeichnen. Die soziale Herkunft ist hingegen nicht von entscheidender Relevanz, allerdings deutet sich an, dass die finanziellen M?glichkeiten der Eltern hinsichtlich des Besuchs von hochrangigen Bildungsinstitutionen zunehmend an Bedeutung gewinnen. Die in der japanischen ?ffentlichkeit vielfach konstatierten abweichenden Werte und Einstellungen dieser jüngeren Personengruppen lassen sich auf Basis der existenten empirischen Befunde gleichfalls nicht eindeutig fundieren. In der Konsequenz sind Gründe für die übergangsprobleme eher in Zusammenhang mit einer durch die lang anhaltende Wirtschaftskrise angespannten Arbeitsmarktlage auszumachen. Neben einigen Initiativen der Bildungspolitik wird es für Japan daher in Zukunft darauf ankommen, die Integration der schrumpfenden Schul- und Hochschulabg?ngerkohorten effizient zu regulieren.     

Light damage to selected organic materials in display cases: A study of different light sources

The protection of works of art and cultural assets against light-induced aging is vital when planning exhibitions. Newly developed lighting systems render the selection of suitable light sources more difficult, not least in the context of energy–economical systems. This study accordingly examines different lighting systems (fluorescent tubes, halogen lamps, low-voltage metal halide lamps, and LED lamps) in terms of the damage potential they hold for the materials concerned. The changes in color were evaluated using the CIEDE2000 color-difference formula. This study focuses on selected organic materials and shows that changes in color already occur after only a brief exposure time. The color changes induced by the fluorescent tubes were consistently more intense than those induced by the other light sources. The results obtained with the remaining lamps show that the color changes depend more on the material under investigation than on the source used. The changes determined after a relatively short exposure period (five months) vividly demonstrate that exposing sensitive materials to light for longer terms (as is the case during a permanent exhibition) is most definitely a non-viable option.     

Teleology as a tacit dimension of teaching and learning evolution: A sociological approach to classroom interaction in science education

Teleology has been described as an intuitive cognitive bias and as a major type of student conception. There is controversy regarding whether teleological explanations are a central obstacle to, are legitimate in, or are even supportive of science learning. However, interaction in science classrooms has not yet been investigated with regard to teleology. Consequently, this study addresses the question of how teleological explanations emerge in science classroom interactions about evolution and how teachers and students address emerging teleology. In this article, we introduce a theoretical and methodological framework drawing from the sociology of knowledge and systems theory, suggesting that this framework may enrich the understanding of knowledge construction and of social practices in the science classroom because it enables distinguishing between explicit and tacit knowledge. We investigated seven secondary school units about evolution and present data from four grade-12 classes in Germany, a country with very few creationists, to contrast two ways in which teleology is addressed. In the first type, the teachers combine intentional and need-based teleological explanations with aspects of scientific theories in an ambiguous way. Contrastingly, in the second type, the teachers construct a duality between correct mechanistic and incorrect teleological explanations by discrediting preceding scientific theories. In the discussion, we argue that the presented sociological approach can also be valuable in other science education contexts, such as creationism, the nature of science and socio-scientific issues, because classroom interaction involves tacit communication, such as a tacit epistemology, which are essential grounds for the students' knowledge construction.     

Performanzfortschritt in der Lehrerausbildung durch die Arbeit an eigenen video- und textbasierten Unterrichtsfällen? Eine Interventionsstudie zur Verbesserung des Feedbacks bei angehenden Sportlehrkräften

This intervention study examines the different effects that work on video- or text-based teaching cases has on improving feedback-related performance (dependent variable) for trainee PE teachers. Within a teaching-learning arrangement, one group (n?=?24) worked with video-based teaching cases while another group (n?=?9) worked with text-based ones. In addition, both groups completed a school practicum. Additionally, a control group (n?=?23) completed the practicum, without any teaching case intervention. The quality of the feedback-related performance of the trainee PE teachers was recorded using video vignettes both before and after the respective interventions and then evaluated on the basis of an external assessment (expert rating). The results show that the work on video- and text-based teaching cases was effective, but that the videobased procedure had more of an impact, with a high level of practical significance. The control group was unable to improve on the basis of the placement within a school. The results demonstrate their usefulness for future training and competence diagnostics.