How Many Brains Does It Take to Build a New Light: Knowledge Management Challenges of a Transdisciplinary Project

ABSTRACT— The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Center for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) carried out the Learning Sciences and Brain Research project (1999–2007) to investigate how neuroscience research can inform education policy and practice. This transdisciplinary project brought many challenges. Within the political community, participation in the project varied, with some countries resisting approval of the project altogether, in the beginning. In the neuroscientific community, participants struggled to represent their knowledge in a way that would be meaningful and relevant to educators. Within the educational community, response to the project varied, with many educational researchers resisting it for fear that neuroscience research might make their work obsolete. Achieving dialogue among these communities was even more challenging. One clear obstacle was that participants had difficulty recognizing tacit knowledge in their own field and making this knowledge explicit for partners in other fields. This article analyzes these challenges through a knowledge management framework.     

Should We Use a Capital Framework to Understand Culture? Applying Cultural Capital to Communities of Color

Social science research on communities of color has long been shaped by theories of social and cultural capital. This article is a hermeneutic reading of metaphorical capital frameworks, including community cultural wealth and funds of knowledge. Financial capital, the basis of these frameworks, is premised on unequal exchange. Money only becomes capital when it is not spent, but is instead invested, manipulated, and exploited. Metaphorical capitals have been criticized as imprecise, falsely quantitative, and inequitable. Some research assumes that, rather than reinforcing economic class, metaphorical capital somehow nullifies class or replaces economic capital. Yet marginalized students, by definition, have been excluded by dominant culture. Compared to low socioeconomic status (SES) students of color, high SES students have a wealth of capital, in all forms. Metaphorical capital conjures the economic worldview of capitalism, imposing a capitalist, market-based worldview. Frameworks of metaphorical capital use neoliberal vocabulary, arguably endorsing capitalism's hegemony. The supposed metaphorical capital is not capital at all; by presenting it as capital, researchers’ goals become inconsistent with their own theoretical frameworks. There may be better ways to theorize culture. This article concludes by proposing four frameworks—possibilities that interpret culture without relying on capital.     

评定复杂协调性项目运动员能力的理论依据和测试选择

专项运动员协调能力始终是竞技后备人才培养问题的焦点。为了确定协调能力与技/战术能力、调整能力发展水平、青少年运动员和成年运动员心理/生理功能发育之间的相互关系,评定复杂协调性项目运动员能力,利用测试作业对训练过程各个阶段中协调能力的发展动态进行跟踪,比较这些结果,同时对各个运动项目运动员的协调训练程度进行比较分析。测试结果有助于了解青少年运动员协调训练程度的基本概貌,编制针对具体基础性协调能力发展水平的分辨性评定的标尺,同时确定协调训练程度总的水平。结果显示:协调能力作为制约比赛活动效果的因素之一,其意义越来越重要,从而决定了开展针对研制诊断协调训练程度计划的研究的必要性。作为测试作业的基础应当是有科学依据的理论,它不仅使监督性测试具有心理/生理学含义,而且能揭示某一种协调能力发展中存在的个体差异的本质。     

Participation in Online Problem‐based Learning: Insights from postgraduate teachers studying through open and distance education

This article reports on work undertaken within Phase 2 of a pilot study concerned with the design, development, and evaluation of online resources. Drawing on recent developments in the application of technology within open and distance education, these resources were structured around the principles of problem‐based learning (PBL) for use with postgraduate teachers. The article explores the responses of one cohort of students studying on a programme for teachers of children with visual impairment, to learning through the use of these resources. In line with recent literature in this area, the findings demonstrate that with the appropriate design and use of technology, PBL, traditionally viewed as a campus‐based approach, can be adapted for use with students in higher education studying through open and distance education. The findings highlight a number of potential barriers to learning and participation that can serve to reduce effective participation in the online PBL activities. Future planned research by the authors will explore the extent to which each of these barriers can be reduced through appropriate planning and design, and provisional recommendations are included to assist in this process.     

Saying Grace: Praying over the Loss of African-American Religious and Food Culture (and How They are Related)

This article investigates the joint losses of food and religious culture in the African-American community, which has had a significant impact on the African-American community. Beginning with a historical perspective on the role of food in both a religious and cultural context, the article offers an analysis of why the dual losses have occurred, identifies the consequences of the losses, and suggests strategies for redressing the problem.     

Strategies to improve public service activities in urban universities

Summary Some of the strategies utilized by universities to carry out the public service mission to their communities include cooperative extension, evening colleges, workshops and seminars, community forums, research and technical assistance, and minority outreach.A conceptual framework originally developed by Armand Lauffer for describing continuing education in the human services, was found useful in analyzing the multiplicity of public service activities of an urban university. The framework indicates that continuing education activities are targeted either at the individual or an agency, and that such programs are oriented either to service or change. Within the framework Lauffer identified four models of practice: (1) the consumer choice model (services provided to individuals); (2) the training model (changes planned for individuals); (3) the systems change model (changes planned for agencies or organizations); (4) the consultative model (services to agencies or organizations).On the basis of the foregoing framework, four general categories of activities within urban universities were discussed: continuing education schools or colleges, public affairs departments or colleges, traditional academic departments or colleges, and university externalities. It was concluded that most continuing education units serve through the consumer choice model, that public affairs units tend to emphasize the training and systems change models, and that the traditional collegial units tend to fit the consultative model.The concluding part of this paper suggests that the delivery of public services by urban universities would be enhanced by developing facilitative structures, establishing a common definition of the public service mission, clarifying goals and responsibilities, inventorying public service activities and interests, and reviewing and evaluating existing public service functions.Don Deppe is Director, Center for Applied Urban Research, University of Nebraska at Omaha.David Hinton is Assistant Dean, College of Public Affairs and Community Service, University of Nebraska at Omaha.John Kerrigan is Dean, College of Public Affairs and Community Service, University of Nebraska at Omaha.