University students’ perceptions of summative assessment: The role of context

We report on a mixed-method study that compared students’ perceptions of summative assessment across two distinct disciplines – education and mathematics, at two research-intensive institutions in the UK. The disciplines chosen represent opposing positions in Biglan’s classification of academic disciplines, as well as having very different assessment practices. Results suggest that these education students prefer to be assessed by methods they perceive to discriminate on the basis of academic abilities. Moreover, they perceive the traditional closed-book examination as inadequate to assess the capabilities which are key to being successful in their subject, which fits some but not all of the general findings in the literature. However, comparing these results with those of an identical study with mathematics students, we find that the perceptions of summative assessment are very different. We account for that difference by suggesting that students’ epistemic beliefs play a role in shaping these perceptions and conclude that, in designing summative assessment in higher education, generalised and centralised forces for change need to be tempered by contextual and disciplinary factors.     

Researching research: mathematics education in the Political

We discuss contemporary theories in mathematics education in order to do research on research. Our strategy consists of analysing discursively and ideologically recent key publications addressing the role of theory in mathematics education research. We examine how the field fabricates its object of research by deploying Foucault’s notion of bio-politics—mainly to address the object “learning”—and ?i?ek’s ideology critique—to address the object “mathematics”. These theories, which have already been used in the field to research teaching and learning, have a great potential to contribute to a reflexivity of research on its discourses and effects. Furthermore, they enable us to present a clear distinction between what has been called the sociopolitical turn in mathematics education research and what we call a positioning of mathematics education (research) practices in the Political.     

Technology transfer in schools: from research to innovation

Technology transfer should be a central objective of research into educational information technology, as it is generally acknowledged that the quality of this process is a critical factor in effectively bringing about innovation. The central focus of this paper is on this problem. In particular, we discuss the peculiarity of information technology transfer in schools as opposed to the transfer of technology in companies; we indicate some central problems of this transfer and discuss a typology of approaches to the transfer of educational information technology from research to school.     

Developing alternative frameworks for exploring intercultural learning: a critique of Hofstede's cultural difference model

Hofstede's model of cultural difference has been used widely for exploring aspects of culture in educational settings. In this paper, we review Hofstede's model and explore some of its limitations, particularly in relation to the field of higher education. These limitations include an oversimplification of cultural differences, inconsistencies between his categories, lack of empirical evidence from educational settings and overall a model of culture as static (instead of dynamic). We argue that educationalists interested in the field of students’ experiences in internationally diverse settings ought to treat Hofstede's model more critically. Other models are recommended that take into account flexible notions of culture, based on research evidence from a range of educational settings, which can be critically and explicitly examined against different educational theories.     

Plasticity of altruistic behavior in children

The present study investigates the plasticity of altruistic behavior in children, analyzing the effect of a short intervention on 6- to 7-year-olds. After a 10-session intervention performed in a school context, altruism significantly increased. The intervention, which included relaxation practices, cooperative activities and emotional security priming, positively modulated altruistic behavior in children, beyond reciprocation and reputation. The experiences of collaborating, feeling emotional security and attaining moments of relaxation increased participants’ awareness of themselves and of others, favoring the emergence of intrinsic altruism. These results are in line with our hypothesis that altruism is an embodied human resource, highly susceptible to experience within social contexts.     

Estimating Business and Management journal quality from the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise in the UK

The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise in the UK involved the peer review of over 12,500 research outputs in Business and Management, of which 92% were journal articles. Each output was graded on a 4-point scale from “world leading” to “national” with a fifth point being unclassified. These grades were accumulated for each department to provide an overall quality profile in terms of the proportions of its outputs in each category. The assessments of individual papers were not made public but the papers submitted by each department were. This data provides a major opportunity for addressing issues of concern about the evaluation of research and the effects of journal rankings, as well as the possibility of reconstructing the judgements made by the Panel about journal quality. Given the submission details and the resulting grade profile for each department, we have used linear programming to produce the best estimate of the grades awarded to papers from each journal that had more than three entries. This provides both a grade profile for each journal and a single quality estimate. The results are shown to have good validity in comparison with other journal rankings. Apart from providing a ranking of 700 journals based on the RAE results, the paper is also able to shed light on issues such as the accuracy and coverage of the ABS ranking; the degree of selectivity of submissions; the dispersion of grades for a journal; and differences between different subject areas.