Scientific method & Education

The paper examines ontological presuppositions and epistemological branches of Peace and Conflict Studies. It describes the narrower use of the concepts ‗ontology‘ and ‗epistemology‘ as sub-branch and branch of philosophy respectively and later focus on their meanings in the context of particular areas of inquiry. It highlights the most basic of the core field definition and distinction issues in Peace and Conflict Studies—what peace is; the nature, causes, outbreak, and dynamics of conflict; and the means for resolving conflict and building sustainable peace. It presents and offers answers to key ontological questions: what exist, in what form do they exist, what are the conditions under which they exist, what is their relationships with other things that are said to exist regarding the field of Peace and Conflict Studies. Furthermore, the paper reviews ways of knowing, understanding, explaining and justifying the ontological presuppositions. Thus it discusses the three epistemological branches of Peace and Conflict Studies proposed by Johan Galtung—empirical peace studies, critical peace studies, and constructive peace studies—and their implications for values, empirical data and theory. In light of this epistemology, the author posits that values, followed by data, take preeminence in the applied Social Sciences field of Peace and Conflict Studies.

The metaphor of scaling up is the wrong one to use for describing and prescribing educational change. Many of the strategies being employed to achieve scaling up are counter-productive: they conceive of practitioners as delivery agents or consumers, rather than as co-constructors of change. An approach to educational innovation based on the concept of taking local innovations to scale carries the danger of turning schools into franchises and of reducing the global diversity of educational ideas. Sound educational ideas get scaled up not only (or primarily) through a linear, topdown model that begins with a laboratory test and ends with a road show of workshops and training sessions. They also get scaled up-in the sense of disseminated and then adapted in ways that change practice-through researchers sharing with practitioners thickly described, contextualized examples of innovative practices and then inviting practitioners to decide how best to adapt these innovative practices for their local settings.

It will be shown that at least four foundational concepts of Cultural Historical Activity Theory were previously formulated by Hegel, viz., (1) the unit of analysis as a key concept for analytic-synthetic cognition, (2) the centrality of artifact-mediated actions, (3) the definitive distinction between goal and motive in activities, and (4) the distinction between a true concept and a pseudoconcept.

This Impact Report identifies and summarises the diverse impacts, resulting from the £500m of UK funding of Science and Technology in 2013, using numerous quantitative metrics and short case study extracts.  It shows how the varied impacts of a national science and technology organization and its many funded programmes can be annually identified, captured, tracked, and summarised in a public document.

The report was produced for, and by, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) -  the UK Research Council responsible for funding: (1) all UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics research, (2) related UK science and technology facilities (e.g. as Harwell and Daresbury), (3) the UK contribution to international science (e.g. CERN, international telescopes and space missions), (4) innovation and business spin-off programmes, and (5) UK public engagement activities.

The Report was co-researched and co-authored by the STFC Impact Team, including myself while Impact Evaluation Manager in 2013, with Dr. Claire Dougan-McCallie (lead author/Head of Impact) and Jenny Beard, with additional input from senior managers, and many data and case study contributions from other key managers across STFC.

Varied key impacts are identified and reported including:

• Research amongst the best (by citation impact) in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics.
• Supported research of 226 Principal Investigators in 70 universities, led to 1,100 peer-reviewed papers in 2012.
• Facilities (the Diamond Light Source, ISIS and CLF) were used in 2012/13 by over 4,200 unique users , in over 2,400 experiments, producing over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

• Technology from CERN benefited the UK economy by over £100 billion every year.
• Funding the development of the UK’s space, internet and computer animation industries, returned over £500 billion to the UK economy per annum.
• Funded Innovation Campuses hosted over 230 enterprises and supported over 5,000 jobs.
• UK industry won £43 million in contracts from the international subscriptions funded, and had accumulated a total of £150 million since 2005.

• Funded research inspired future generations to study STEM subjects, attracting 90% of UK undergraduates to study physics, funded 782 PhD students  and 16,800 student training days.
• Between 2009 to 2012 public engagement programmes engaged people on 58 million occasions, with 2 million people engaged in face-to-face activities in 2013 alone.

This paper deals with a topic that has received little discussion: the ethical, social and scientific requirements grammar books should fulfill. The linguistic norm must be based on reasoning and research, never on dogma and authoritarianism. In an objective manner, grammar books should strengthen speakers’ self-esteem and selfconfidence (§2). Since their readers are the speaker communities and the general public, grammar books should define the concepts they use and pursue a coherent and understandable writing (§4). These features would help to deploy a critical learning. In the Valencian case, the Grammar of the Valencian Academy of the Language (GNV) should aim to enhance social cohesion, overcoming the division in the interpretation of the nature of the Valencian language and defending its public use (§1.2). Analyzing GNV (2006), this paper shows how grammar books are plentiful of violations of the principles of the scientific method (§4). The conclusions show which theoretical, social and ethical criteria grammar books of the Language Academies should follow (§5.1). A program to study GNV is also included (§5.2).

The goal of this paper is to report on the SERVQUAL gap which causes unsuccessful service delivery at a University of Technology in South Africa. Using a quantitative research design, the study adopts a SERVQUAL model adapted to a tertiary environment containing five dimensions of service quality (tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, and reliability). A convenience sampling technique was applied, the data were collected from 280 respondents at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), and the results and discussion are presented. The findings reveal that, on average, customers had high expectations in tangibles, reliability, and assurance dimensions and their highest perceptions were found in the assurance dimension. This study will benefit management of higher education institutions in identifying cost-effective ways of reducing service quality gaps.

The paper raises the following question: What are the fields of Tesla’s self-education and how can we ascertain these? In search of an answer, the paper offers consideration of Tesla’s major contributions, of the fields he studied noninstitutionally and those he familiarized himself with through reading (bearing in mind the formal education gained), of the lectures he delivered and the articles he wrote, of the traces he left with regard to what he had read judging on his personal library.
As the next step, light is cast on the correlations between those subjects: that is, the subjects are considered contextually, as the way to getting closer insights into Tesla’s attitudes to some areas of knowledge and the scientific techniques applied in his solving of invention-related and experimental issues, as well as the material for one’s understanding of the scope of knowledge Nikola Tesla aspired to acquire, and – finally – as the guidance toward the horizon of Tesla’s ultimate objective in his research/inventional work and reflexions. The latter includes Tesla’s philosophy of technology and his view of the world, the world of one/merged reality.
Related thereto, and preceding these, attention is drawn to the basic developmental characteristics of the science in the time of Tesla’s cognitive maturement and the characteristics of the institutions at which academic education could be gained (until) then.
The conclusions summarize the information we gain about Nikola Tesla’s education and self-education from the texts of his lectures, scientific writings and articles. Moreover, they present the presence of cognitive mobility in Tesla’s search for knowledge and in his thought, as well as the reflections of this mobility on his view of the world, science, culture, engineering/technology and education. Finally, there is a survey  of Tesla’s familiarity with, and reliance on, libraries and books, indicating what the books from his personal library reveal about Tesla’s self-education and the extent to which he relied on professionally relevant reading and knowledge.

(The paper is translated from Serbian into English by Angelina Čanković Popović.)

Key words: Nikola Tesla, creativity, education and self-education, cognitive and cultural mobility and change in paradigm, all-embracing reality, unus mundus, history and philosophy of sciences, philosophy of technologies.

Rad postavlja pitanje: koje su oblasti samoobrazovanja Nikole Tesle i kako da ih utvrdimo? Imajući u vidu najznačajnije doprinose Nikole Tesle i formalno obrazovanje koje je stekao, tragajući za odgovorom na to pitanje, rad razmatra predavanja koja je Tesla održao i članke koje je napisao i  njihovu analizu sadržaja, kao i oblasti koje je neformalno i/ili samostalno proučavao ili se u njih čitanjem upućivao, a sudeći prema tim njegovim tekstovima, zatim  prema onome za šta je ostavio trag da je čitao i sudeći prema njegovoj ličnoj biblioteci.
Osvetljavaju se korelacije svih ovih navedenih elemenata, odnosno oni se kontekstualno razmatraju kao put do bližeg uvida u Teslin odnos prema obrazovanju/samoobrazovanju i prema znanjima i naučnom metodu u rešavanju pronalazačkih i eksperimentalnih problema.
Predavanja i članci Nikole Tesle razmatraju se i kao građa za sagledavanje obuhvata kome je Nikola Tesla kroz samoobrazovanje težio i kao oni sadržaji koji nas vode do horizonta krajnjeg cilja istraživanja, pronalazaštva i refleksija Nikole Tesle. U sklopu ovog poslednjeg su i Teslina filozofija tehnologije i njegov pogled na svet, svet jedinstvene stvarnosti.
S tim u vezi, pethodno, obraća se pažnja na osnovne razvojne karakteristike nauke vremena u kome je Nikola Tesla saznajno stasavao, kao i na karakteristike institucija u kojima se akademsko obrazovanje (tada i do tada) sticalo.
U zaključcima rezimira se šta o vaninstitucionalnom obrazovanju i samoobrazovanju Nikole Tesle saznajemo iz tekstova njegovih predavanja, radova i članaka. Takođe, predočava se prisutnost saznajne pokretljivosti u Teslinom traganju za znanjima i u njegovoj misli i odraz ove pokretljivosti na njegovo viđenje sveta, nauke, kulture, tehnike/tehnologije i obrazovanja. I, konačno, izlaže se Teslino druženje s bibliotekama i knjigama, te ukazuje na to šta iz pogleda na knjige iz njegove lične biblioteke saznajemo o njegovom samoobrazovanju i koliko se on oslanjao na stručnu literaturu i znanje.

Ključne reči: Nikola Tesla, kreativnost, obrazovanje i samoobrazovanje, saznajna i kulturna pokretljivost i promena paradigme, jedinstvena stvarnost, unus mundus, istorija i filozofija nauka, filozofija tehnologija.

What are the correspondences and disparities between Theravada Buddhism and Scientism? Is there a compatibility between the the epistemological methods of Buddhism and Scientism? Is the Theravada Buddhist ontological schemata similar to the physicalist ontological schemata? Is Theravada Buddhist meditation a suitable practice for modern science? Why is Buddhism rapidly gaining adherents in the Western world? Most of these questions have been relatively unattended. The objective, scholastic study of Buddhism is in its infancy. Western society began inquiring into Buddhism during the 19th century. Early studies on Buddhism were repeatedly distorted through the lens of Christianity by European scholars. The prevalence of Christian influence on politics and society naturally demarcated Eastern religions, including Buddhism, as primitive and superstitious. Given this setback, it has taken Buddhism additional time to gain unbiased recognition in the West as an objective, serious, worthwhile pursuit. Since belief structures and sects are numerous within Buddhism, I shall solely focus on the Theravada tradition. Theravada Buddhism shares many similar epistemological methods and ontological beliefs as Scientism. For this paper, Scientism will be the umbrella term for empiricism, logic, materialism, humanism and atheism.
In this paper I will discuss: Theravada Buddhist teachings, epistemology, ontology, and sotierology as well as the  epistemology, ontology, and sotierology of Scientism. Theravada Buddhism focuses on first person experience, pragmatism and  personal liberation. Scientism focus on viewing reality from an objective third person, advancing technology, and creating our own meanings in life. I will explain the progression of scientific paradigms which influence epistemology, ontological beliefs and theories. I will explore the similarities between Theravada Buddhism and Scientism, namely the importance of logic, reason, pragmatism, personal observation, personal judgment, debate, and unbiased inquiry, which all aid validity in the search for truth. I will explore the methods, goals, and transformative personal practice each system advocates.

EDIT: There are a few grammatical errors in this version. Email me at [email protected] for my updated Thesis.

Introduction: Toothbrushing is an important activity to prevent teeth and mouth diseases, but children behaviour towards it is still low. One of methods to improve the children toothbrushing behaviour is by giving a health education. The aim of this experiment is to found out the effect of health education using modified snake ladders simulation game methods towards toothbrushing's knowledge, attitude, and action application changes for school age children. Methods: The design used in this study was quasi-experimental design. The samples were gathered by using purposive sampling method consisted of 38 respondents based on the inclusion criteria which were divided into control and experimental groups. The independent variable was health education using modified snake ladders simulation game methods and the dependent variables were knowledge, attitude, and action application in toothbrushing. The data were analyzed by using Wilcoxon

Al fine di raggiungere le finalità e gli obiettivi il modello partirà dal riconoscimento e la classificazione dei minerali e attraverso il rapporto solidi-legami arriverà alla struttura delle particelle atomiche. Il tema-chiave proposto - I minerali e la luce- pone una domanda-sfida “serve fare della Mineralogia?”. Il percorso di lavoro inizia con una attività laboratoriale e interattiva introduttiva per insegnare agli allievi a formare un gruppo di lavoro coeso che “sappia fare” l’esperimento proposto dall’insegnante. Gli incontri successivi si svolgeranno in aula dove verranno proposte letture di articoli su quotidiani e riviste scientifiche divulgative e letture di testi risalenti alla prima guerra mondiale e al primo dopoguerra per recuperare il contesto storico-sociale ed economico delle risorse utilizzate nella realtà quotidiana. L’attività si articolerà su “questioning” provenienti dagli allievi, video-lab, software e non sulla presentazione asincrona da parte del docente di argomenti. L’incontro finale si svolgerà in laboratorio dove ogni gruppo, ormai coeso, presenterà a tutti un lavoro esperienziale conclusivo che ha autonomamente realizzato, portando una soluzione ad un problema quotidiano che gli verrà richiesto dal docente.
ABSTRACT
In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the model will start from the recognition and classification of minerals and through the relationship solid-ties will come to the structure of atomic particles. The key issue in proposed - Minerals and light- poses a question-challenge "serves to make of Mineralogy?". Work path starts with a workshop activity and interactive introduction to teach the students to form a cohesive working group that "know how" the experiment proposed by the teacher. Subsequent meetings will take place in the classroom where they will be proposed readings of articles in newspapers and journals outreach and readings of texts dating back to the First World War and the first post-war period to recover the historical and social and economic resources used in everyday life. The activity will consist of "questioning" coming from students, video-lab, software and not on asynchronous presentation by the teacher of topics. The final meeting will take place in the laboratory where each group, now cohesive, will present to all an experiential work conclusively that has independently created, bringing a solution to an everyday problem that will be asked by the teacher.

The teaching of biology and in particular of representations around phenomena on a microscopic scale represents a challenge for teachers, both because of the level of abstraction required, and because of the need for specific instruments that contribute to the construction of scientific representations in schools. This work presents the design and evaluation of a low cost microscope model, called “Micro-Hoek”, in public school environments and with economic difficulties of access to adequate technical instruments. In the first part of the work a documentary analysis for the design of the “Micro-Hoek” is presented; and in the second part, the design and evaluation of the “Micro-Hoek” by 62 students of basic education and 23 teachers of basic education of public establishments of the Region of Coquimbo in Chile is presented. The participants elaborated the prototype that contemplates the use of cell phones and low-cost recyclable material, and later answered a highly reliable questionnaire. “Micro-Hoek” was positively evaluated by teachers and students, in the dimensions of access to materials, as well as in the assembly of the same. It is also concluded that the model allows an in situ visualization of instrumental representations of the cell and offers access to low cost optical instruments in school institutions.

This paper addresses ways of researching the pedagogy involved in building research methods competencies in the social sciences. The lack of explicit and shared pedagogy in this area make it particularly important that research is conducted to stimulate pedagogic culture, dialogue and development. The authors discuss the range of methods used in one study with the aim of teasing out pedagogical content knowledge, making implicit pedagogic knowledge more explicit and thereby malleable. The research design and methods deliberately foster dialogue with, rather than cast a judgmental gaze upon, teachers and learners of research methods. Rejecting observational methods on this basis, and declining action research because of the level of participant pedagogic knowledge and commitment required, the authors examine a combination of expert panel, video stimulated dialogue and diary methods for building pedagogic knowledge and culture. These 'methods that teach' are argued to offer value for other researchers working in new and emerging teaching fields, where pedagogy is particularly 'hard to know' and pedagogic content knowledge and pedagogic culture are underexplored or underdeveloped.

This is the published version of Haack's Agnes Cuming Lectures at University College, Dublin, downloadable free. The first lecture ("Science, Yes; Scientism, No") shows why, while the achievements of the sciences deserve our respect and admiration, undue deference to anything and everything bearing the label "scientific" is inappropriate. The second lecture ("Scientific Philosophy, Yes; Scientistic Philosophy, No") first shows what's wrong with various recent forms of scientistic philosophy, and develops Haack's own approach to the hard questions about human mindedness that these cannot answer.

download FREE: https://roundedglobe.com/html/038f7053-e376-4fc3-87c5-096de820966d/en/Scientism%20and%20its%20Discontents/

The goal of this paper is to report on the SERVQUAL gap which causes unsuccessful service delivery at a University of Technology in South Africa. Using a quantitative research design, the study adopts a SERVQUAL model adapted to a tertiary environment containing five dimensions of service quality (tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, and reliability). A convenience sampling technique was applied, the data were collected from 280 respondents at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), and the results and discussion are presented. The findings reveal that, on average, customers had high expectations in tangibles, reliability, and assurance dimensions and their highest perceptions were found in the assurance dimension. This study will benefit management of higher education institutions in identifying cost-effective ways of reducing service quality gaps.

This paper primarily highlighted the variations of conceptions held by science learners about scientific experimentations. Although there are numerous ways of how experiments are carried out, students tend to think that there is only one and universal standard in carrying out experiments which is referred to as The Scientific Method. This paper shared the findings gained through the phenomenographic way in approaching data which involved two different educational levels. The analysis revealed that there are two categories emerged from the investigation. They are 'accurate data ' and 'systematic approach'. This paper also disseminated some insights to other researcher interested in the similar field. Implications and ways of improving the current practices of scientific inquiries are discussed.

O livro “(Com)Textos III: Diálogos de ensino para a Educação Científica e Tecnológica" dá continuidade à série de mesmo nome e tem o propósito de possibilitar maior circulação e visibilidade para os trabalhos elaborados nas disciplinas ofertadas pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Científica e Tecnológica da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (PPGECT-UFSC), bem como contribuir com o desenvolvimento de práticas de educação científica e tecnológica em consonância com questões contemporâneas presentes na área de pesquisa em ensino de Ciências e Matemática. Para tanto, apresentam-se propostas de Sequências Didáticas voltadas para a Educação Básica e para a Educação Superior.

Education is not necessarily associated with inclusive research and the label of inclusive research is little used in our discipline. It is an umbrella term encompassing participatory, emancipatory and community/peer-led research. This is research in which those (such as learners and teachers) who tend to be the objects of other people's research become agents in the conduct of research, ensuring that such research addresses issues that are important to them and includes their views and experiences (see Walmsley & Johnson, 2003 and Nind, 2014 for more on definitions). Conceptualising some research as inclusive is part of a concern with the democratization of the research process and with social justice-in and through-research; it represents an interest in the people outside of academia being active and credible producers of knowledge. Education has an important history of teacher research and in the UK the work of Lawrence Stenhouse and colleagues (1985) helped to raise the profile of teacher experimentation and teacher knowledge working alongside, in dialogue with, or in place of, academic knowledge. The debates about the separation or otherwise or educational research from teachers' agendas and practice (e.g. Hargreaves 1996/2007; Hammersley 2007) are well known. Modern versions of teacher-research have stressed local relevance (Groundwater-Smith and Mockler 2007), enhanced capacity for learning (Christie and Menter 2009) and the bringing together of different perspectives (Bartlett and Burton 2006) and knowledges (Cain 2010). Education also has a deep seam of action research in which the dynamics and power relations of researching on educational players is unsettled and in which allies and researchers overlap and merge in seeking practical benefits (Elliott 1991, 2007). Recent work on student voice and children as researchers has brought other ways of knowing and more participatory research methods in the mix (e.g. Leitch et al. 2007; O'Brien and Moules 2007; Cox and Robinson-Pant 2008). To our knowledge, though, this is the first collection of papers to fully and explicitly focus on the methodological challenges of researching inclusively in education. Certain conditions need to be in place for inclusive research. Walmsley (2004, 69) argues that 'only the excluded need inclusive research'. This might explain why there is much more explicit discussion of inclusive research in the field of learning disabilities, for example, with special issues in the British Journal of Learning Disabilities and the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities marking the prominence of this work. Whilst there is a wealth of inclusive research in the field of learning disabilities, there are still some areas that have been underdeveloped and unchallenged. For example, a current ESRC funded seminar series is examining the often ignored issues of participatory data analysis and the participation of people with high support needs [1]. Often forms of inclusive research, such as decolonizing research (Smith 2012), arise in opposition to what has gone before where people have been oppressed, colonized, marginalised or rejected by research (Nind 2014). It may be that teachers and learners have not felt the force of this and this has subdued any drive to inclusive research. Inclusive research is associated with social movements such as selfadvocacy (Walmsley and Johnson 2003), user-led services (Frankham 2009), and community

Охрана окружающей среды кажется главным образом предметом практическим. СМИ, популяризаторы науки да и сами исследователи, обсуждая экологические проблемы, подают их как неотложные нужды, чьë решение важно, но развитие собственно науки происходит где-то. Этот устойчивый стереотип при преподавании надо развенчивать: именно природоохранная практика очень много даёт развитию фундаментальной науки. Ею обусловлена смена парадигм в экологии и теории эволюции-переход от описания видимого к пониманию скрытого, утверждение одновременности экологических и (микро)эволюционных процессов-раньше считали, что они следуют друг за другом и т.д.. Поднятые ею проблемы интеллектуально сложны, как всякий анализ реакции сложных систем с их контринтуитивностью ответов на воздействие, почему будут особенно интересны учащимся. Увы, эта "фундаментальная" сторона чаще всего игнорируется, что снижает интерес учащихся к предмету (особенно у мотивированных стать биологом, хотя им он особенно необходим), исключает сопряжение природоохранных знаний со знаниями фундаментальных биологических дисциплин-притом что оно безусловно необходимо для понимания. Как писал наш великий философ Эвальд Ильенков, школа должна учить мыслить, и стоит назвать самые явные способы это делать в преподавании охраны природы.

The motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (MSLQ) is widely used as a self-report instrument to assess students' motivation and self-regulation. This study utilized the MSLQ Junior High to examine the motivational beliefs and self-regulation of secondary school students (Grades 8 and 9) from Singapore. The instrument was slightly modified and administered to students (N ¼ 610) in mathematics and science classes. In the first sample, 314 students completed the MSLQ Junior High while a second sample of 296 students completed the revised MSLQ Junior High. Using a congeneric approach of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the five-factor measurement model was determined with the first sample. This measurement model was further supported using a second sample and its goodness-of-fit indices were compared with other CFA models. Statistical findings showed that the five-factor structure of the revised MSLQ Junior High had a good model fit. The present study contributes a novel methodological approach by investigating the parsimony confirmatory factor structure of the revised MSLQ Junior High in local academic contexts.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), Founder of the Aligarh Muslim University, was a great social activist and reformer. He worked hard for Muslim uplift and intellectual development through modern education and Islamic thought so that they can live a dignified life and contribute for betterment. With this painting, I offer my sincere tribute to him- Prof Shafiq-ur-Rehman (Khagawi), Srinagar, Kashmir (J&K) India.

Calls to list polar bears as a threatened species under the United States Endangered Species Act are based on forecasts of substantial long-term declines in their population. Nine government reports were written to help US Fish and Wildlife Service managers decide whether or not to list polar bears as a threatened species. We assessed these reports based on evidence-based (scientific) forecasting principles. None of the reports referred to sources of scientific forecasting methodology. Of the nine, Amstrup et al. [Amstrup, S. C., B. G. Marcot, D. C. Douglas. 2007. Forecasting the rangewide status of polar bears at selected times in the 21st century. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK.] and Hunter et al. [Hunter, C. M., H. Caswell, M. C. Runge, S. C. Amstrup, E. V. Regehr, I. Stirling. 2007. Polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea II: Demography and population growth in relation to sea ice conditions. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center,
Anchorage, AK.] were the most relevant to the listing decision, and we devoted our attention to them. Their forecasting procedures depended on a complex set of assumptions, including the erroneous assumption that general circulation models provide valid forecasts of summer sea ice in the regions that polar bears inhabit. Nevertheless, we audited their conditional forecasts of what would happen to the polar bear population assuming, as the authors did, that the extent of summer sea ice would decrease substantially during the coming decades. We found that Amstrup et al. properly applied 15 percent of relevant forecasting principles and Hunter et al. 10 percent. Averaging across the two papers, 46 percent of the principles were clearly contravened and 23 percent were apparently contravened. Consequently, their forecasts are unscientific and inconsequential to decision makers. We recommend that researchers apply all relevant principles properly when important public-policy decisions depend on their forecasts.

RESUMEN El artículo trata de la enseñanza de la arqueología prehistórica en la escuela y en el museo; plantea cómo la historia, la física o la química tienen sistemas de razonamiento diferentes, llamados " razonamiento informal " , para la primera, y razonamiento formal, para las segundas. La arqueología, por su origen, participa de ambos sistemas de razonamiento; por este motivo es una disciplina rica en procedimientos metodológicos y ello la convierte en un poderoso instrumento educativo. A partir de esta constatación se comenta cómo es posible, a partir de métodos utilizados por la arqueología, introducir a los adolescentes en el estudio de diversas ciencias, desde las matemáticas o las ciencias naturales a la física o la química. Finalmente, el artículo muestra y comenta una experiencia didáctica desarrollada en un museo en la cual se ha evaluado un proyecto basado en los supuestos anteriormente explicados. Se presentan los materiales didácticos del proyecto, que se di...

Education is not necessarily associated with inclusive research and the label of inclusive research is little used in our discipline. It is an umbrella term encompassing participatory, emancipatory and community/peer-led research. This is research in which those (such as learners and teachers) who tend to be the objects of other people's research become agents in the conduct of research, ensuring that such research addresses issues that are important to them and includes their views and experiences (see Walmsley & Johnson, 2003 and Nind, 2014 for more on definitions). Conceptualising some research as inclusive is part of a concern with the democratization of the research process and with social justice-in and through-research; it represents an interest in the people outside of academia being active and credible producers of knowledge. Education has an important history of teacher research and in the UK the work of Lawrence Stenhouse and colleagues (1985) helped to raise the profile of teacher experimentation and teacher knowledge working alongside, in dialogue with, or in place of, academic knowledge. The debates about the separation or otherwise or educational research from teachers' agendas and practice (e.g. Hargreaves 1996/2007; Hammersley 2007) are well known. Modern versions of teacher-research have stressed local relevance (Groundwater-Smith and Mockler 2007), enhanced capacity for learning (Christie and Menter 2009) and the bringing together of different perspectives (Bartlett and Burton 2006) and knowledges (Cain 2010). Education also has a deep seam of action research in which the dynamics and power relations of researching on educational players is unsettled and in which allies and researchers overlap and merge in seeking practical benefits (Elliott 1991, 2007). Recent work on student voice and children as researchers has brought other ways of knowing and more participatory research methods in the mix (e.g. Leitch et al. 2007; O'Brien and Moules 2007; Cox and Robinson-Pant 2008). To our knowledge, though, this is the first collection of papers to fully and explicitly focus on the methodological challenges of researching inclusively in education. Certain conditions need to be in place for inclusive research. Walmsley (2004, 69) argues that 'only the excluded need inclusive research'. This might explain why there is much more explicit discussion of inclusive research in the field of learning disabilities, for example, with special issues in the British Journal of Learning Disabilities and the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities marking the prominence of this work. Whilst there is a wealth of inclusive research in the field of learning disabilities, there are still some areas that have been underdeveloped and unchallenged. For example, a current ESRC funded seminar series is examining the often ignored issues of participatory data analysis and the participation of people with high support needs [1]. Often forms of inclusive research, such as decolonizing research (Smith 2012), arise in opposition to what has gone before where people have been oppressed, colonized, marginalised or rejected by research (Nind 2014). It may be that teachers and learners have not felt the force of this and this has subdued any drive to inclusive research. Inclusive research is associated with social movements such as selfadvocacy (Walmsley and Johnson 2003), user-led services (Frankham 2009), and community

Education is seen as an important vehicle to foster relationships with countries in the Asia-Pacific regionparticularly with Australia's most important economic partner, China. There are many prior studies that have explored the impact of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) on users, through a variety of research designs. However, the diversity of research designs used means that the nuances and subtleties of the diverse approaches, particularly in the context of Australia and China are unknown. The purpose of this literature review is to compare the research designs employed by empirical studies of LMS usage in Australia and China. This review explores the similarities and differences in research methodologies (quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods), research approaches (confirmatory or exploratory) and data collection methods commonly used in a selection of contemporary studies from both countries. The findings indicate Chinese studies employ quantitative methodologies more than Australian studies; confirmatory research is more prevalent in China than Australia; and that there is a distinct preference for surveys in Chinese studies. This review will assist the developers of future collaborative research projects between China and other countries, to construct study designs that are compatible with the identified research strengths.

Gerald Dillenbeck, M.Div., MPA, PDC

Old misunderstandings of how Earth
and Her species
evolve,
regeneratively and degeneratively change,
sometimes in revolutionary expansive/implosive quick and great transitions,
but more traditionally in slow-grow emergent spacetime development,
are often summarized in secular capitalism's
Might Makes Fertile Right.

Tanto en nuestra imágenes pre-teóricas de la ciencia, como en buena parte de la literatura especializada, el sentido crítico aparece como un elemento fundamental en la construcción del conocimiento científico, y eventualmente como uno de los pilares que asegura la racionalidad de la ciencia y su potencialidad epistémica. A nivel intuitivo, puede vincularse el sentido crítico con las pretensiones de objetividad que usualmente acompañan a la ciencia. Una vez que la ciencia es una actividad que busca dar cuenta del mundo objetivamente, cualquier hipótesis científica puede ser revisada y expuesta a crítica en función del material experimental disponible. De esta manera, el sentido crítico remite a la actitud metodológica de tomar toda afirmación científica como falible o pasible de revisión. La ciencia se distingue así de otras actividades no científicas, en cuanto las hipótesis que los científicos hacen sobre el mundo son resultado de este diálogo siempre inacabado con la experiencia, en el marco del cual no resultan aceptables las hipótesis sustraídas de la crítica o carentes de consecuencias empíricas. Si se defienden estos términos, puede pensarse que el desarrollo de la capacidad crítica es uno de los objetivos fundamentales de la educación científica, involucrando no sólo los procesos concretos de apropiación de conocimiento, sino la imagen general que los científicos forjan acerca de la naturaleza de su disciplina.

ABSTRACT Drawing on the experience of carrying out a literature review commissioned to support the Review of Teacher Education in Scotland, this paper discusses the role of literature reviews within the movement for ‘evidence-based policy’ making. The first part of the paper discusses the purposes of such reviews and some of the misconceptions that may be associated with them. Several critical questions that shape the work of reviewing are identified. By examining the particular case in which the authors were involved, it is demonstrated how the establishment of terms of reference and definitions of scope are critical factors in determining the outcome of such a project. But so too are the relationships established between those undertaking the project and the commissioners of the work. The conclusion is that reviewing literature is much more of a deliberative process than is commonly understood.

This study explores the opportunities and dilemmas that have been encountered by researchers seeking the views of young people with autism. Twelve researchers were interviewed about their experiences in this field. Through exploration of the complex methodological and ethical issues that they encountered, this study aims to better understand how researchers can improve the way they listen to, and engage with, the views of children and young people with autism. This article discusses four themes that emerged from the interviews: power dynamics; building rapport; communication; and meaningful processes and outputs.