Developing,expressing and contesting opinions of science: encouraging the student voice

In a typical science degree, little emphasis is placed on the need for scientists to make judgements about evidence and little value is placed on the development of students' opinions about science, with the focus largely on assessment of declarative knowledge. Yet it is the ability to evaluate evidence that is crucial to the development of the student as a scientist. This study assesses the impact on students' conceptions of science of a course that aims to engage students in discussion and reflection on what scientists do and on their own learning about science. Analysis of written reflective assignments from the three years the course has been run shows that participants become more confident in their expression of opinions about science and also develop a more mature view of science and its inherent uncertainty. It appears that a critical factor enabling this development is the way the course activities are designed to explicitly value students' opinions and to provide a supportive environment in which they can be expressed and contested.     

Universities as partners in U.S. research joint ventures

This paper investigates the conditions when a research joint venture (RJV) will involve a university as a research partner. We hypothesize that larger RJVs are more likely to invite a university to join the venture as a research partner than smaller RJVs because larger ventures are less likely to expect substantial additional appropriability problems to result because of the addition of a university partner and because the larger ventures have both a lower marginal cost and a higher marginal value from university R&D contributions to the ventures’ innovative output. We test this hypothesis using data from the COoperative REsearch (CORE) database, and those data confirm the hypothesis.     

FOREWORD

ABSTRACT

The study reported in this paper examined the types of professional-development activities, support systems, and organizational structures necessary for community college faculty to make transitions from traditional teaching to Web-based teaching. Results indicate that (a) instructional change can by initiated through sustained professional development; (b) change is more meaningful and effective when it occurs in context over a sustained period of time; (c) faculty can embrace innovations when supported by knowledgeable professionals and their peers; and (d) students welcome the use of Web-based components in course work. The implications for practice may be useful to those wishing to increase faculty's online instructional competence.