Introduction to the Special Forum on Critical Making as Research Program

This special issue spotlights the growing diversity of critical making practices in a range of disciplinary contexts both inside and outside of the academy, and begins to develop perspectives that will foster the emergence of critical making as a coherent field. On one hand, we see great value in incorporating material practices into existing information systems (IS) and science and technology studies (STS) research programs. In particular, forms of material engagement can help overcome the ineffectual linguistic bias of traditional critiques of technoscience. On the other hand, we believe that current material practices can benefit from the conceptualization of knowledge and social organization that are foundational to IS and STS research. In this introduction to the special issue we call attention to the mechanisms by which such practices may combine representational and material work to foster and support the development of new knowledge-making communities and institutions. We believe such work can serve as a framework for others engaged in critical making practices to better contextualize and expand the relevance of their work. We intend this special issue to serve as a “stake in the ground” for research on new forms of material-conceptual critique and their incorporation in the repertoire of critical technoscience scholarship.     

Teaching manuals and the blackboard: accessing historical classroom practices

The blackboard, a useful teaching tool in nineteenth-century England, was transformed into a teaching necessity in the decades follwing 1870, when the Education Acts made school free and mandatory for all children. The resulting huge population of schoolchildren inspired the development of teaching techniques appropriate for large-group learning. Many of these techniques relied on the blackboard as a reusable demonstration space visible to the entire class at once, unlike a book or slate. To share these new practices among teachers, particularly the novice teachers recruited to serve the increased school population, dozens of teaching manuals were published around the turn of the twentieth century. These manuals’ instructions for how to teach reading, writing, arithmetic and nature study to elementary school students offer historians a rare glimpse into teachers’ and students’ school experiences by suggesting how the blackboard shaped classroom practices in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England.     

Potential benefits of dietary nitrate ingestion in healthy and clinical populations: A brief review

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the current literature relating to the efficacy of dietary nitrate (NO₃^?) ingestion in altering aspects of cardiovascular and metabolic health and exercise capacity in healthy and diseased individuals. The consumption of NO₃^?-rich vegetables, such as spinach and beetroot, have been variously shown to promote nitric oxide bioavailability, reduce systemic blood pressure, enhance tissue blood flow, modulate muscle O₂ utilisation and improve exercise tolerance both in normoxia and in hypoxia, as is commonly observed in a number of disease states. NO₃^? ingestion may, therefore, act as a natural means for augmenting performance and attenuating complications associated with limited O₂ availability or transport, hypertension and the metabolic syndrome. Recent studies indicate that dietary NO₃^? might also augment intrinsic skeletal muscle contractility and improve the speed and power of muscle contraction. Moreover, several investigations suggest that NO₃^? supplementation may improve aspects of cognitive performance both at rest and during exercise. Collectively, these observations position NO₃^? as more than a putative ergogenic aid and suggest that increasing natural dietary NO₃^? intake may act as a prophylactic in countering the predations of senescence and certain cardiovascular-metabolic diseases.     

Narrative-Based Learning Activities for Science Ethics Education: an Affordance Perspective

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Boasting a wide range of interactive and engaging features, narrative-based learning has become increasingly popular in educational settings....     

Disseminating Standards in Higher Order Learning: Systemically Valid Instruments for Standards-Based Education Reform

A decade of British experience in assessing and reporting higher order learning using a scale of national standards has important lessons for countries currently embarking on programmes of standards-based education reform. The architects of the British National Curriculum envisaged that the reliability of measures of higher order learning could be assured through a comprehensive auditing programme involving expert teachers. However, plans for a national auditing programme in Britain were never realised for financial reasons. This article argues that, in the absence of orthodox auditing procedures, modern information handling techniques have an important role to play in enhancing the technical fidelity of instruments for measuring higher order learning, by making the combined professional wisdom of experienced teachers available to the assessor at the time of marking. The higher order skill of creative writing is used to illustrate the calibration of a systemically valid computerised assessment tool, applicable to any standards-based assessment framework.     

Children's Thinking about Air Pollution: a systems theory analysis

A methodology for probing systems thinking was developed and used to investigate the way children think about the natural environment. Thirty five primary school children (aged 8 and 11 years) participated in semi‐structured interviews about air pollution. The analytical framework consisted of cycles (of inputs, processes and outputs), interventions, outcomes and links. Differences between the groups were found for the numbers of complete cycles, inputs, outputs and longest chain of linked cycles about which the children could talk. Although more of the older children showed evidence of a high level of systemic thinking — cycles with interventions and their likely outcomes — than the younger children, a large proportion of the 8‐year‐olds demonstrated that they were capable of this kind of thinking. The results suggest that children can engage in systemic thinking earlier than predicted by traditional developmental research.     

Reproductive biology in the Oneida Community, 1848-1880

The Oneida Community -- a communistic settlement that originated in 1848 and was located in central New York State -- made medical history in the areas of birth control, sexuality, and selective breeding. The perfectionist theology of the Community's leader, John Humphrey Noyes, held that the 2nd coming of Christ had already occurred, that true believers had already been "saved," and that he had been designated as an agent of God to proclaim "Heaven on Earth." This spiritual condition involved freedom from sin, universal love, community property, and total unselfishness. All members of the Community were in effect married to all other members, in that Heaven "they neither marry, nor are given in marriage." "Complex marriage" was the term used for this sexual relationship. Some method of birth control was essential as a corollary of complex marriage. Noyes introduced as his "invention" a principle which he termed "male continence," meaning that the man voluntarily avoided a sexual climax. Noyes published pamphlets on the subject of "male continence" and suggested methods for its achievement. From a practical perspective, the successful application of male continence required some special considerations. In the Community, women were accepted on a par with men and were free to either choose or refuse intercourse with any man, as long as there was no "special love" involved. 20 years following its founding, Noyes believed that the Community was economically ready to have children, and during the following ten years 58 children were born. 45 of these were the result of selective breeding.     

Academic-industry liaison in the United Kingdom: economic perspectives

In recent years, higher educational institutions (HEIs) have been under increasing pressure to liaise more closely with industry. This paper draws on some relevant areas of economic theory to analyse the relationship between HEIs and industrial organisations. The nature of the benefits from liaison is examined, and the implications for financing liaison activities are considered. It is argued that liaison can frequently strengthen the traditional functions of HEIs by contributing to teaching and research. However, there is justification for the fears of many academics that in practice the outcome of closer industrial involvement may be to weaken these functions. Such undesirable outcomes reflect the weaknesses of the internal organisation of HEIs; in particular, the scope for opportunistic behaviour provided by the incompleteness of the academic contract, and the informational disadvantages suffered by senior management. In the light of these arguments, the final section considers alternative systems for organising liaison, drawing on examples from the United Kingdom. The criteria for assessment are concerned with the likely effectiveness of the systems in reducing the costs of both facilitating and policing liaison activities.