The combined use of the participatory dialogue method and survey methodology to evaluate development projects: A case study of a rural development project in Bangladesh

This is a case study that shows how the qualitative and participatory dialogue method was combined with survey methodology to evaluate the impact of a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) supported bilateral and credit-based rural development project (RD-12) for the landless poor in Bangladesh. The article argues that although the necessity and importance of statistical and quantitative evaluation is not denied, qualitative participatory evaluation has a complementary role to play in producing a body of unique and illuminative data on qualitative developmental impacts. The findings on the social and economic impacts of the project obtained using the dialogue method were integrated with the quantitative data obtained from the survey. The findings show how the qualitative details and insights enriched the bare-bone statistical information. A more comprehensive body of knowledge on the psychosocial changes among the beneficiaries and the development process at large was elicited from the survey questionnaire. More importantly, the developmental impacts were described and viewed from the beneficiaries’ own perceptions and perspectives and in their own words. The article lists a number of lessons that were learned while using the dialogue method to evaluate this project.     

Teaching knowledge as conversation: A philosophical hermeneutical approach to education

This article argues that educational thinking and practices based on knowledge as conversation understood from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics will make schools more democratic institutions and education generally more sensitive to variously constructed social realities.     

Restructuring partitioned knowledge: the role of recoordination in category learning

Knowledge restructuring refers to changes in the strategy with which people solve a given problem. Two types of knowledge restructuring are supported by existing category learning models. The first is a relearning process, which involves incremental updating of knowledge as learning progresses. The second is a recoordination process, which involves novel changes in the way existing knowledge is applied to the task. Whereas relearning is supported by both single- and multiple-module models of category learning, only multiple-module models support recoordination. To date, only relearning has been directly supported empirically. We report two category learning experiments that provide direct evidence of recoordination. People can fluidly alternate between different categorization strategies, and moreover, can reinstate an old strategy even after prolonged use of an alternative. The knowledge restructuring data are not well fit by a single-module model (ALCOVE). By contrast, a multiple-module model (ATRIUM) quantitatively accounts for recoordination. Low-level changes in the distribution of dimensional attention are shown to subsequently affect how ATRIUM coordinates its modular knowledge. We argue that learning about complex tasks occurs at the level of the partial knowledge elements used to generate a response strategy.     

The clinical psychology of lightner witmer: A case study of institutional innovation and intellectual change

The name Lightner Witmer is rarely invoked in the historian's litany of psychological saints. Neither a grand systematizer nor an ardent experimentalist, the “world's first clinical psychologist” is even dismissed by contemporary clinicians because of his purported failure to achieve for psychologists professional hegemony over the “problem child.” Yet disciplinary ventures which in Joseph Ben-David's phrase fail to “take off” represent extremely illuminating indicators of a discipline's shifting ideas, roles, and aspirations. Explicitly urging that historians pay more attention to subgroups of larger disciplines, this paper constitutes an attempt to assess the impact of changing social roles upon psychologists' intellectual stances through an examination of Witmer's novel activities at the University of Pennsylvania.     

Road safety knowledge and policy: A historical institutional analysis of the Netherlands

This paper explores the institutional development of Dutch road safety policy over the last century and the role of knowledge therein. After a theoretical exploration of the concept of institutionalization, the article sketches an overview of the institutionalization of road safety policy in the Netherlands between 1900 and 2010. In particular, it reports on the rise of knowledge organizations and national policy departments since the 1960s. Furthermore, it indicates an increasing importance of the regional and local level of governance since 1990 in road safety, while knowledge relevant at that level is hardly produced. This recent mismatch between knowledge production and policy making results in two barriers for knowledge utilization in road safety policy: Dutch road safety knowledge is neither well tailored to regional and local governments, nor does it pay sufficient attention to the needs of regional and local governments to weigh various interests with road safety. This study presents an example of an investigation on how institutional patterns may enable and constrain knowledge utilization.     

Modeling influence of change readiness on knowledge acquisition process: A case study

Change readiness (CR) has important impact on the success of knowledge acquisition (KA). So it is necessary for managers to know how KA is shaped by CR elements. Review of the extant literature shows a paucity in this regard specially regarding intra-organizational rather than inter-organizational level. Therefore, to bridge this gap, this study aims to present a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) model in which interactions among CR elements for KA are identified. To do so, first, elements for measuring CR for KA were extracted from the relevant literature. Then, the identified elements were screened through distributing the first designed questionnaire among the select sample of survey organization. Then, the second questionnaire was used to measure the select elements and find the relation between them, using FCM and Mental Modeler Software. To improve CR for KA, some scenarios are suggested by the managers and the impact of each scenario on the whole CR elements is identified using sensitive analysis of the FCM model. After comparing the scenarios, it is concluded improving more elements in one scenario does not necessarily result in better impact on the whole CR for KA. This is due to the interaction among the elements which sometimes could be negative. The proposed model might help managers of the survey organization evaluate their CR improvement plans for KA before taking any actions. In addition, this study can give an idea to other organizations and industries to apply this approach according to their own relevant criteria. This study is among the first in its kind which presents a model using FCM method in which the interactions among the CR elements influencing KA are considered.     

Computer use in psychology instruction: A survey of individual and institutional characteristics

This paper reports the results of a national survey of psychology faculty regarding their instructional use of computers. The survey was designed to answer three general questions: (1) In what ways and to what extent are psychologists using computers in their instruction? (2) What individual characteristics differentiate among levels of users? (3) What institutional characteristics appear to promote or inhibit the instructional use of computers? The results reveal that, although there appears to be extensive use of computers to support instruction, there are both institutional and individual characteristics that differentiate among levels and types of use. Several factors are identified that could lead to increased instructional use of computers, but their impact will largely be determined by the characteristics of the individual and the institution.     

The use of multitreatment modalities in early intervention: A quantitative case study

A quantitative single case study is presented to illustrate how an early intervention program used two therapeutic modalities to treat a depressed mother and her 2-month-old son. Drawing upon an ecological, transactional model of development, the case study utilized a multimethod, longitudinal approach to assess the infant's developmental competence and attachment status, the mother's history and current psychosocial functioning, patterns of mother-infant interaction, and components of the family's social ecology. Measures were administered during a baseline period to assess pre-intervention functioning and were systematically repeated throughout the 2-year period of intervention. The treatment modalities included psychodynamically oriented individual therapy and Parent-Infant Relationship Treatment (PIRT) in which the dyad was also seen by a second therapist to foster more adaptive mother-infant transactional patterns. The findings indicated increased infant developmental competence and a shift from an insecure to a secure attachment classification, improved maternal psychosocial functioning, and a decline in the dyadic interactional pattern of maternal intrusiveness and infant withdrawal. The advantages of using two treatment modalities and a single case approach to evaluation are discussed.     

Communication,representation, and scientific knowledge: A conceptual framework and case study

What is the significance of communication in science? Though the question has been addressed by researchers in a number of fields, most have tended to see communication as an intermediary step on the way to some other phenomenon of interest, aprocess that is only interesting insofar as it produces some other structural or functionalproduct, e.g., documents, organizations, or social groups. From a communication research perspective, however, the communication processes themselves are the object of study. The diversity and flexibility of scientists’ communication behavior, and the complexity of their communication channels, styles, messages and networks, have not been assessed as a set of related phenomena. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to draw together several analytical concepts regarding scientific communication processes that have been proposed by the author elsewhere, including the issue of social representations (Lievrouw, 1990), the scientific communication cycle (Lievrouw and Carley, 1991), and the scholarly research narrative (Lievrouw, 1989, and Mokros and Lievrouw, 1991). The concepts are combined here into one conceptual framework and applied to the case of a single biomedical specialty, lipid metabolism research, which has developed from an esoteric biochemical subfield to a large and well-funded specializaiton with a great deal of influence on American culture’s preoccupation with heart disease.     

Jewish education and formation in Glasgow: a case study

This article explores the formational provision within a faith community when faith schooling ends at the primary stage. A case study, part of a larger multi‐faith study, examined the Jewish community in the greater Glasgow area—a small, and shrinking, community with a long history of relatively peaceful integration but increasingly pressurised by secularisation, assimilation and emigration. There is a well‐attended Jewish primary school, but no secondary school. A range of approaches to youth formation and education for children of secondary age has evolved—approaches linked to a variety of conceptions of Jewish identity. The aim, ultimately, is to include all Jewish children, no matter how they construct their Jewish identity, in the community.     

Inexpensive techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive psychology to enhance educational practice

The need to improve the educational system has never been greater. People in congress and business argue for expensive technological applications to improve education despite a lack of empirical evidence for their efficacy. We argue that one inexpensive avenue for improving education has been largely ignored. Cognitive and educational psychologists have identified strategies that greatly improve learning and retention of information, and yet these techniques are not generally applied in education nor taught in education schools. In fact, teachers often use instructional practices known to be wrong (i.e., massing rather than interleaving examples to explain a topic). We identify three general principles that are inexpensive to implement and have been shown in both laboratory and field experiments to improve learning: (1) distribution (spacing and interleaving) of practice in learning facts and skills; (2) retrieval practice (via self testing) for durable learning; and (3) explanatory questioning (elaborative interrogation and self-explanation) as a study strategy. We describe each technique, provide supporting evidence, and discuss classroom applications. Each principle can be applied to most subject matters from kindergarten to higher education. Applying findings from cognitive psychology to classroom instruction is no panacea for educational problems, but it represents one helpful and inexpensive strategy.     

Social science and Sozialwissenschaft: Categorical and institutional boundaries of knowledge

This article explores how linguistic categories affect boundary work in scholarly knowledge production. Whereas the German language knows the unified concept of Wissenschaft for all branches of scholarship represented at universities, the English language separates science from the arts or humanities and does not commonly engage an overarching concept. This has had consequences for American social science, which are traced both in the discourse shaping its development and in the deployment and distribution of institutional resources.     

Professionalising teachers in career dialogue: an effect study

As a result of the changing notions of work, schools are increasingly acknowledging that they have a strong responsibility in guiding students not only in their academic growth, but also in their career development. This paper presents the results of a study about the effects of teacher training on career dialogues promoting career competency development in students. For the quantitative part of the study, a quasi-experimental research design was used to measure effects among 2291 students. Video recordings of conversations were used to do qualitative research. The results show that only when off-the-job training is followed by on-the-job coaching, the professionalising of teachers proves to be effective as measured on student level. Students notice that the guidance conversations are more appreciative, reflective and activating and that they focus more on self-image development, work and career action. The observations made with regard to the guidance conversations also show that these conversations become more career related.