Students' experiences of learning in a research environment

Research into the research–teaching ‘nexus’ has undergone significant changes in focus and methodology. From an initial quantitative concern with correlating measurements of research productivity and teaching effectiveness, the empirical emphasis has shifted in favour of exploring the experiences of participants (academics and students). This paper reports the findings of interviews carried out in a New Zealand university with 34 students studying across a range of levels in physics, geography and English. In particular, it focuses on students’ understandings of the purpose of a university education and on students’ experiences of research—how ‘visible’ it is for them, where it is located and who engages in it. Analysis reveals that students’ relationship with research varies across the disciplines in both a spatial and temporal dimension according to the ways in which knowledge is conceived of and explored. Accordingly, some students have an early sense of proximity to and/or participation in a research community, while for others, research remains, through their undergraduate years, a remote phenomenon.     

Teachers' labour,class and the politics of exchange

In this article questions are raised about the adequacy of our theoretical frameworks for analysing teachers as class workers and actors, and as an occupational group. The problem of adequacy stems from using labour process theory and production relations as the only sphere for determining class location and class relations and in doing so fails to capture the complex way in which class relations are formed. Following Marx, the author observes that an adequate framework for conceptualising class must take into account, not only the social relations of production within the sphere of production, exchange, distribution and consumption, but how each mediates and transforms the other. This article focuses upon the sphere of exchange in understanding teachers' social class interests and teachers as political actors. It is argued that recent work on class assets by Wright (1997) and Savage et al (1992 - economic, cultural and organisational - and which the author extends to include social assets, offers a powerful way of understanding the complex nature of production relations and class as it is mediated through the process of exchange. This takes us some considerable distance forward on a much bigger project on developing a coherent theoretical and empirical project on theorising teachers work and social class.     

Time for review: supporting the work of an advisory group

This paper raises methodological issues about the challenges and dilemmas of inclusive research practices reflecting on the work of an advisory group carrying out research on using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance community participation. The interests of three parties can be identified – the commissioning agent, the researchers and the researched – and these interplayed throughout the course of the research determining the outcomes. Given the relationship between inclusive research and advocacy, there were particular gains in enabling the voice of the advisory group to shape the way in which the research was conducted and to disseminate the findings both within the organisation and beyond. However, the fragility of these new structures required organisational changes for the research to be truly empowering. The experience of the group suggests the need for their involvement at all stages of the research process.     

On the choice of effectiveness measures for learning to rank

Most current machine learning methods for building search engines are based on the assumption that there is a target evaluation metric that evaluates the quality of the search engine with respect to an end user and the engine should be trained to optimize for that metric. Treating the target evaluation metric as a given, many different approaches (e.g. LambdaRank, SoftRank, RankingSVM, etc.) have been proposed to develop methods for optimizing for retrieval metrics. Target metrics used in optimization act as bottlenecks that summarize the training data and it is known that some evaluation metrics are more informative than others. In this paper, we consider the effect of the target evaluation metric on learning to rank. In particular, we question the current assumption that retrieval systems should be designed to directly optimize for a metric that is assumed to evaluate user satisfaction. We show that even if user satisfaction can be measured by a metric X, optimizing the engine on a training set for a more informative metric Y may result in a better test performance according to X (as compared to optimizing the engine directly for X on the training set). We analyze the situations as to when there is a significant difference in the two cases in terms of the amount of available training data and the number of dimensions of the feature space.     

Managing open incremental process innovation: Absorptive Capacity and distributed learning

In this conceptual article, we extend earlier work on Open Innovation and Absorptive Capacity. We suggest that the literature on Absorptive Capacity does not place sufficient emphasis on distributed knowledge and learning or on the application of innovative knowledge. To accomplish physical transformations, organisations need specific Innovative Capacities that extend beyond knowledge management. Accessive Capacity is the ability to collect, sort and analyse knowledge from both internal and external sources. Adaptive Capacity is needed to ensure that new pieces of equipment are suitable for the organisation's own purposes even though they may have been originally developed for other uses. Integrative Capacity makes it possible for a new or modified piece of equipment to be fitted into an existing production process with a minimum of inessential and expensive adjustment elsewhere in the process. These Innovative Capacities are controlled and coordinated by Innovative Management Capacity, a higher-order dynamic capability.     

Development of a golf-specific load monitoring tool: Content validity and feasibility

Athletes often record details of their training and competitions, supported by information such as environmental conditions, travel, as well as how they felt. However, it is not known how prevalent these practices are in golfers, or how valuable this process is perceived. The purpose of this study was to develop a golf-specific load monitoring tool (GLMT), and establish the content validity and feasibility of this tool amongst high-level golfers. In the first phase of development, 21 experts were surveyed to determine the suitability of items for inclusion in the GLMT. Of the 36 items, 21 received >78% agreement, a requirement to establish content validity and for inclusion in the GLMT. Total duration was the preferred metric for golf-specific activities, whilst rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was preferred for measuring physical training. In the second phase, feasibility of the tool was assessed by surveying 13 high-level male golfers following 28-days of daily GLMT use. All items included in the GLMT were deemed feasible to record, with all players participating in the feasibility study providing high to very high ratings. Golfers responded that they would consider using a load monitoring tool of this nature long term, provided it can be completed in less than five minutes per day.