Bibliometrics in Academic Recruitment: A Screening Tool Rather than a Game Changer

This paper investigates the use of metrics to recruit professors for academic positions. We analyzed confidential reports with candidate evaluations in economics, sociology, physics, and informatics at the University of Oslo between 2000 and 2017. These unique data enabled us to explore how metrics were applied in these evaluations in relation to other assessment criteria. Despite being important evaluation criteria, metrics were seldom the most salient criteria in candidate evaluations. Moreover, metrics were applied chiefly as a screening tool to decrease the number of eligible candidates and not as a replacement for peer review. Contrary to the literature suggesting an escalation of metrics, we foremost detected stable assessment practices with only a modestly increased reliance on metrics. In addition, the use of metrics proved strongly dependent on disciplines where the disciplines applied metrics corresponding to their evaluation cultures. These robust evaluation practices provide an empirical example of how core university processes are chiefly characterized by path-dependency mechanisms, and only moderately by isomorphism. Additionally, the disciplinary-dependent spread of metrics offers a theoretical illustration of how travelling standards such as metrics are not only diffused but rather translated to fit the local context, resulting in heterogeneity and context-dependent spread.

     

Managing mergers — governancing institutional integration

Despite striking similarities, the adoption and implementation of policy shifts regarding higher education governance vary considerably across the globe, suggesting a mixed picture of diversification and isomorphism both within and across national higher education systems. By unpacking one particular structural reform process, this paper focuses on mergers as both a governance tool and a governance result in higher education. The paper analyzes the strategic decisions taken by Norwegian higher education institutions during 2014 in the light of a proposed national reform to merge institutions in order to enhance quality in higher education. The empirical basis of the paper consists of analyses of the commissioned self-evaluations of the higher education institutions, and the strategic choices and dilemmas they expressed. The process can be seen as organizational engineering in the sense that it emerges from the self-evaluation process, but is also subject to governancing on the part of the ministry.     

Towards professionalisation? Restructuring of administrative work force in universities

This article examines the restructuring ofadministrative staff in universities throughempirically documenting such processes andproviding a theoretically foundedinterpretation and analysis of change. Theempirical material is drawn from a context ofNorwegian universities the last two decades.Two major changes can be observed in thisperiod. First, a period of steep growth inuniversity administration in early 1990sfollowed by a period of moderate growth and insome cases even decline. The second dominantdevelopment pattern in the 1980s and 1990s isthe change within administrative staff,which could be interpreted as a professionalisation of administrative staff.The article concludes by presenting possibleexplanations to the structuring of theadministrative work force in universities onthe basis of different theoretical approachesto organisational change.     

Inquiry-based science education: towards a pedagogical framework for primary school teachers

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been promoted as an inspiring way of learning science by engaging pupils in designing and conducting their own scientific investigations. For primary school teachers, the open nature of IBSE poses challenges as they often lack experience in supporting their pupils during the different phases of an open IBSE project, such as formulating a research question and designing and conducting an investigation. The current study aims to meet these challenges by presenting a pedagogical framework in which four domains of scientific knowledge are addressed in seven phases of inquiry. The framework is based on video analyses of pedagogical interventions by primary school teachers participating in open IBSE projects. Our results show that teachers can guide their pupils successfully through the process of open inquiry by explicitly addressing the conceptual, epistemic, social and/or procedural domain of scientific knowledge in the subsequent phases of inquiry. The paper concludes by suggesting further research to validate our framework and to develop a pedagogy for primary school teachers to guide their pupils through the different phases of open inquiry.     

The role of the governing board in higher education institutions

More autonomy to institutions andincreased focus on institutional policiesimplies that institutional governing bodies arebecoming central actors in developingstrategies for universities or colleges. TheBoard of the institution is an important actorin the decision-making process and formallythe most central elected strategic body at theinstitutional level. The governing Board can beviewed as an important arena for institutionalchange and is also responsible for qualityassurance, efficiency and effectiveness. Thisarticle investigates the role of the governingBoards in higher education institutions. Threeperspectives on organisations are used in orderto illuminate the Board's roles. Aninstrumental perspective focuses on roles thatmay be expected according to the mandate of theBoard. The point of departure for this approachis the legal base of the Board.Neo-institutional theory focuses attention onthe possible decoupling between the formalstructure and actual behaviour, and discussesthe circumstances under which this arises. In apolitical model the Board is seen as an arenafor the practice of power and promotion ofinterests where the members have conflictingpreferences which they attempt to advancethrough negotiation and formation ofcoalitions.     

Inquiry-based science education: scaffolding pupils’ self-directed learning in open inquiry

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a multiple case study on open inquiry-based learning in primary schools. During open inquiry, teachers often experience difficulties in balancing support and transferring responsibility to pupils’ own learning. To facilitate teachers in guiding open inquiry, we developed hard and soft scaffolds. The hard scaffolds consisted of documents with explanations and/or exercises regarding difficult parts of the inquiry process. The soft scaffolds included explicit references to and additional explanations of the hard scaffolds. We investigated how teacher implementation of these scaffolds contributed to pupils’ self-directed learning during open inquiry. Four classes of pupils, aged 10–11, were observed while they conducted an inquiry lesson module of about 10 lessons in their classrooms. Data were acquired via classroom observations, audio recordings, and interviews with teachers and pupils. The results show that after the introduction of the hard scaffolds by the teacher, pupils were able and willing to apply them to their investigations. Combining hard scaffolds with additional soft scaffolding promoted pupils’ scientific understanding and contributed to a shared guidance of the inquiry process by the teacher and her pupils. Our results imply that the effective use of scaffolds is an important element to be included in teacher professionalisation.     

Systems Modelling and the Development of Coherent Understanding of Cell Biology

This article reports on educational design research concerning a learning and teaching strategy for cell biology in upper‐secondary education introducing systems modelling as a key competence. The strategy consists of four modelling phases in which students subsequently develop models of free‐living cells, a general two‐dimensional model of cells, a three‐dimensional model of plant cells, and finally they are engaged in formal thinking by modelling life phenomena to a hierarchical systems model. The strategy was thought out, elaborated, and tested in classrooms in several research cycles. Throughout the field‐tests, research data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews, audio‐taped discussions, completed worksheets, written tests, and questionnaires. Reflection on the research findings eventuated in reshaping and formalizing the learning and teaching strategy, which is presented here. The results show that although acquiring systems thinking competence at the metacognitive level needs more effort, our strategy contributed to improving learning outcomes; that is, acquisition of a coherent conceptual understanding of cell biology and acquisition of initial systems thinking competence, with modelling being the key activity.     

Norwegian deaf teachers' reflections on their science education: implications for instruction

In this study, undertaken in an attempt to expand our understanding of science learning by deaf students, five teachers are interviewed about their views, based on their own experiences as Deaf students. They are all my former students and were among the first to successfully complete the upper secondary school with a university entrance certificate from a Norwegian school for deaf students. Physics was their major subject. These teachers see the systematic work in class discussions, especially on the concepts of physics, as a major contributor to their success, and they try to use similar methods in their own teaching. They believe that a thorough discussion of a topic using sign language prior to the reading of the textbook is crucial.     

Investigating salt decay of stone materials related to the environment,a case study in the St. James church in Liège,Belgium

Salt crystallization is recognized as a major cause of damage to porous building materials, threatening the sustainable preservation of our valuable built heritage. Unfortunately, the crystallization behavior of the detected salt mixtures is complex and not fully understood. While the deliquescence points of single salts are well documented, this is not the case for salts in a mixture where one is confronted with the presence of different cations and anions. In this paper the salt content of the murals and the limestone tracery of the main entrance porch from the sixteenth century church of St. James in Liège, Belgium is investigated and related to the climatic conditions of its environment. Concerning the salt load, the research consists of hygroscopic moisture content measurements, quantitative ion analyses, and the prediction of phase equilibria using the thermodynamic model ECOS/RUNSALT. This model can predict the salt crystallization sequences of a particular ion mixture. The output is mathematically evaluated with collected temperature and relative humidity data, which enables the calculation of the number of salt crystallization–deliquescence cycles. The results show that even small amounts of salts can cause damage over a long period of time when the environment causes frequent cycles of crystallization–deliquescence over time. It is shown how a mixture of small amounts of (double) salts, including hygroscopic ones, can have a significant effect on the decay of historic building materials in the case of daily changing climatic conditions and periods of extreme drought. As a result, the crystallization of double salts and hygroscopic salts such as calcium nitrate cannot be ignored. The scientific method and the results are described.     

The Achievement Motives Scale (AMS): theoretical basis and results from a first try‐out of a Czech form

The achievement motive concept refers to a relatively stable personality characteristic in terms of a capacity to anticipate affects in achievement situations. The motive to achieve success (M _s ) refers to the individual's capacity to anticipate positive affects, and the motive to avoid failure (M _f ) refers to a capacity to anticipate negative affects in achievement situations. Based, among other things, on the conceptualizations of motives, a measurement was constructed to tap the two aspects (M _s and M _f ) of motivation. Over the years the scale has been translated to several languages and used in a number of studies. The Czech version of the scale is an adapted translation of the English one, and was administered to 179 pupils in the sixth grade in 1989. Further, the subjects were retested after an interval of 12 weeks. The analyses indicate that the psychometric properties of the Czech version of AMS are promising.