Museums at the crossroad: Contributing to dialogue, curiosity and wonder in natural history museums

The first natural history collections opened to the public were inspired by a sense of curiosity and wonder about the products of nature. They were ‘cabinets of curiosities’ that offered a first-hand interaction between owner and visitors. Nowadays, these two facets of the museum experience—dialogue and wonder—have been lost, in part, due to the information overload coming via the media and the impersonal nature of the museum visit. This paper offers some reflections on the evolution of the museum visit, suggests some ways to rediscover this ‘sense of wonder’ and provides ideas on how to promote two-way communication with museum visitors. Two examples of exhibitions are offered as illustrations of the points discussed.     

Neuromuscular and technical abilities related to age in water-polo players

Testing is one of the important tasks in any multi-step sport programme. In most ball games, coaches assess motor, physical and technical skills on a regular basis in early stages of talent identification in order to further athletes’ development. The purpose of the study was to investigate anthropometric variables and vertical jump heights as a free throw effectiveness predictor in water-polo players of different age groups. Two hundred and thirty-six young (10–18 years) male water-polo players partitioned into three age groups underwent anthropometric variables’ measures and squat- and countermovement-jump tests, and performed water-polo free throws. Anthropometric variables, vertical jump heights and throw speed – as a proxy for free throw effectiveness – resulted different over age groups. Particularly, throw speed changed from 9.28 to 13.70 m · s^?1 (+48%) from younger to older players. A multiple-regression model indicated that body height, squat-jump height and throw time together explain 52% of variance of throw speed. In conclusion, tall height, high lower limb power and throwing quickness appeared to be relevant determinants for effective free throws. Such indications can help coaches during talent identification and development processes, even by means of novel training strategies. Further research is needed over different maturity statuses.     

Teaching Psychobiology at a Distance

Psychobiology is an area of knowledge that deals with the biological basis of behaviour. Its concretion as a specific area of study originates in the confluence and development of other areas such as physiological psychology, experimental and comparative psychology, ethology, biology and the neurosciences. For some, psychobiology would be that part of the neurosciences that deals with the study of the processes of emotion, motivation, cognition and learning. Others are of the opinion that it covers a much wider area, and that its objective is rooted in the study of all biological mechanisms that govern behaviour — and these, undertaken from a philogenetic and ontogenetic perspective.

In the last decade, we have witnessed the creation of psychobiology departments throughout the world. These departments participate in the teaching of faculties of medicine, psychology, biology and zoology. In some universities, these departments even contribute to the teaching imparted by the faculties of philosophy and educational sciences. Sooner or later, the universities teaching at a distance had to consider the creation of departments of psychobiology to attend to the up‐dating of the curriculum of diversive faculties.

In the National University of Education at a Distance, U.N.E.D. (Madrid, Spain) the teaching of psychobiology is entrusted to a department of the same name which started during the academic year of 1982–83. Even though the experience is very short to be able to advance a complete evaluation, the difficulties encountered in the organization of the form and content of different courses imparted by the department of psychobiology (D.P.) could be useful to the reader. Therefore, these difficulties must be understood within the educational model of teaching at a distance at U.N.E.D.     

The building of weak expertise: the work of global university rankers

University rankers are the subject of much criticism, and yet they remain influential in the field of higher education. Drawing from a two-year field study of university ranking organizations, interviews with key correspondents in the sector, and an analysis of related documents, I introduce the concept of weak expertise. This kind of expertise is the result of a constantly negotiated balance between the relevance, reliability, and robustness of rankers’ data and their relationships with their key readers and audiences. Building this expertise entails collecting robust data, presenting it in ways that are relevant to audiences, and engaging with critics. I show how one ranking organization, the Times Higher Education (THE), sought to maintain its legitimacy in the face of opposition from important stakeholders and how it sought to introduce a new “Innovation and Impact” ranking. The paper analyzes the strategies, methods, and particular practices that university rankers undertake to legitimate their knowledge—and is the first work to do so using insights gathered alongside the operations of one of the ranking agencies as well as from the rankings’ conference circuit. Rather than assuming that all of these trust-building mechanisms have solidified the hold of the THE over its audience, they can be seen as signs of a constant struggle for influence over a skeptical audience.     

The Nature of Scientific Practice and Science Education

There is, broadly speaking, an agreement within the international science education community that comprehension of the nature of science (NOS) should be a key element in the scientific literacy of citizens. During the last few decades, several didactic approaches have emerged concerning what and how to teach NOS. Also, one of the basic objectives of science education is for students to become familiar with the skills typical of scientific practice; however, there is little reference to their need to also acquire meta-knowledge about scientific practice (i.e., an understanding of the nature of scientific practice). Among other reasons, this may be due to NOS being essentially identified in most of the predominant proposals with the nature of scientific knowledge. But why not plan the teaching of science to be in tune with real scientific practice for students to learn about the nature of scientific practice at the same time as they are learning science? The answer to this question has given rise to a proposal grounded in ten essential pedagogical principles for the teaching and learning of science in secondary school. These are the principle of formulating questions, the principle of creativity and imagination, the principle of experimentation, the principle of procedural diversity, the principle of errors as opportunity, the principle of modeling, the principle of cooperation and teamwork, the principle of argumentation and discussion, the principle of communication, and the principle of evaluation. The purpose of this article is to present the justification and fundaments of these principles.     

Books and articles of academic interest

Books and articles of academic interest