Methods for assessing higher education research team collaboration: comparing research outputs and participant perceptions across four collaborative research teams

ABSTRACT

This article suggests that situations in which multiple research teams are convened under similar conditions present an opportunity to discover factors that lead to productive collaboration. It argues that social network analysis of research team outputs becomes more valuable when paired with data about research participant perceptions; and that any variables used as indicators of collaboration need to be calibrated using datasets from multiple studies with cross-team comparisons. The article provides an example of the kind of methodology needed to achieve this, describing a study with data from four research teams based at an Australian university campus, reporting their research performance over four years under conditions in which many variables were controlled and with results augmented by a survey of participant perceptions. Findings from the study indicate that there were exceptions to hypothesized associations between participant perceptions of collaboration and specific social network analysis measures over co-authorship data. The article suggests that, given the methodological challenges of studying research teams in the field, multiple datasets combining findings such as those in the present study are a path towards the development of indicators of productive higher education research collaboration.     

Contemporary school knowledge democracy: possible meanings,promising perspectives and necessary prerequisites

ABSTRACT

The basic aim of this paper is to discuss the concept ‘Knowledge Democracy’ (KD) and what it can mean in the school context, its implications on knowledge production and dissemination and on the educational practices. We try to enrich this discussion by presenting action research projects to provide case studies of how thinking about KD can reshape educational practice. We consider that the discussion on KD has to be enriched as the concept seems very promising with good prospects towards school’s democratization. On the other hand, as it is quite new, it can encompass internal contradictions that can cause problems at the level of practice. So, we consider very important any contribution to this discussion not as another theoretical sample of the debate on the ‘politics of knowledge’, but because any improvement at the thinking of the issue can be reflected on school practices. Any challenge to traditional politics of knowledge can lead to a deeper understanding of the world of schooling and to transformations through new discourses and new approaches to teaching and learning in school.     

Value for learning during this time of transformation: the first-year students’ perspective

ABSTRACT

Formal education was used by the apartheid government to prepare black South Africans for manual labour, thus there was little curricular focus on the development of higher-order cognitive skills. With the abolition of apartheid in 1994, the education system was re-valued and re-evaluated to provide wider access to quality education; the focus of education policies moved towards the development of self-regulation and higher-order cognitive skills for all learners. There is now a generation of learners who have experienced their schooling in the transformed education system, and it would be useful to understand, from their perspective, what they value in their development of learning within the higher education space. This study answers the question ‘Post-apartheid, what learning methods and resources do first-years perceive to be valuable to their learning when they enter university?’ Participants included 344 students taking a Biology course provided to medical science students at a South African university in 2018. Two questionnaires were administered towards the end of a six-week lecture period, responses were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. The first survey, comprised of Likert-style questions, was conducted to determine the students’ views on the mechanisms which they used to support their learning. The second questionnaire comprised open-ended questions and focused on the students’ perception of their learning experience in the course. The findings show that there was a significant (p?<?.001) percentage of first-years who thought that rote-learning would suffice for examination preparation at university, and preferred to engage with their peers and the textbook before they engaged with their lecturers when navigating challenging concepts. Schwartz's model of social values is used to show that more needs to be done for the development of higher-order thinking and self-regulation when students enter university, and to mitigate alienation between students and staff.     

关于情报科学的研究：情报科学的出路何在

本文较详细地分析了情报科学产生以来的历史;探讨了当今这门学科为什么出现衰微的原因,分析了情报科学理论研究为什么不能取得进展的若干因素,并提出了一些加强理论研究的建议。     

教师专业化的困惑及其对策

教师专业化是我国当前教师教育改革的重要目标。推进教师专业化应建立一套完善的实习制度，教师应具备“望”、“闻”、“问”、“切”等基本技能。     

试论培训后勤职工与发挥后勤德育功能

高校后勤具有很强的德育功能。培训高校后勤职工具有多方面的重要性。高校后勤工作具有繁杂性，微利服务性和部分福利性等特点。队伍和素质参差不齐、年龄老化、学历偏低、劳动技术较弱和部分职工打工仔意识强，主人翁意识弱等现状表现出了搞好后勤职工培训的必要性和紧迫性。因此，要对后勤职工搞好四个方面的培训，通过四条途径发挥其德育功能。     

刘裕霸府政治述论

刘裕依靠京口集团的力量,击败桓玄,恢复名义上的东晋统治,实际上,刘裕确立起霸府统治,控制东晋的军国大权,东晋皇帝成为傀儡,东晋的朝廷机构形同虚设。刘裕的车骑将军府、太尉府、相国府、宋国机构是当时实际的政治、军事权力中心。     

论人文教育与科学教育的互动与融合

人文教育与科学教育互动与融合是大学教育教学改革的重要课题 ,本文基于人类知识发展史的梳理和通才教育分析 ,论述了 STS教育思想对改革现代大学教育的重要意义 ,并对南开大学“文以治国、理以强国、商以富国”的教育理念和推进人文教育与科学教育互动融合作了全面介绍     

打破区隔和边界 走向对话和融通——教育学科分类的社会学反思

教育学科分类有多重目的,目的不同,其对学科发展造成的影响也不同,要避免学科发展的两极化可能,学科之间必须走向对话和融通。     

人力资源:推动城市社区建设的关键

城市社区的建设离不开人的参与，而随着“单位人”向“社会人”的转化，群体性社会人群在社区中的作用日渐变现。因此，社区人力资源的协调与整合，人力资源力量的充分发挥是推动城市社区建设和发展的不可忽视的重要力量。