Science-based Profession Research Articles

The DSW to the Rescue? A Response to Feldman

Feldman's appraisal of the current status of social work research, using as its touchstone the 1991 Austin Report, is a frank and fair appraisal of how the discipline has come short of fulfilling its aspirations to become a more science-based profession. In many ways, Feldman has stood in the center of research developments within our field for the past 40 years or longer. He offers informed and thoughtful analyses of what we have accomplished and what is left undone. He asserts that part of the problem is the sluggish growth in the number of research doctorates being produced in our field. Obviously, without the production of highly trained social work researchers, the scholarly and science-based contributions to our field are limited. In this response, I contend that the burgeoning growth of the number of practice doctoral graduates, Doctor of Social Works (DSWs), may provide significant resources to augment the science of social work. In reality, the older generation of DSW graduates made highly important contributions to the science of social work, and the new generation stands poised to replicate this phenomenon.

Some Philosophical Principles for Social Work Research

As the applied field of social work attempts to become more of a sciencebased profession, it is relying more on the findings from empirical research studies. Withinsocial work there is little discussion of the philosophy of science underlying conventional research inquiry. This paper introduces some major philosophical principles that undergird scientific investigations of the causes of societal and psychosocial problems and of the effectiveness of structured programs, policies and practices to ameliorate social ills. Among the principles introduced are the philosophical concepts of determinism, empiricism, realism, operationalism, scientific materialism, parsimony, logic, and positivism. Together these philosophical assumptions provide a pragmatic framework to design and conduct scientific research of value to the social work profession and other fields.

The Motivational Factors of Choosing Diagnostic Radiology as a Profession Among Saudi Radiography Students.

PurposeTo identify factors influencing Saudi students to choose radiography as their academic major and future career field.Material and MethodThis study involved quantitative (online questionnaire) and qualitative (semi-structured interview) approaches. An online questionnaire was distributed among (n = 308) students. The questionnaire contained 30 questions covering the following three domains: economy, vocational and personal. A total of 25 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposive sampling of radiography students in seven universities (public and private) across the western region of Saudi Arabia. Interview responses were coded, and main themes were extracted based on Miles and Huberman’s framework.ResultsThe findings demonstrated that radiography was the first option as profession for 44% of the study participants. Several factors that study participants considered important were in the realm of patient care, helping patients, radiographer–patient relations, science-based profession, and the desire to work in the healthcare system. A few participants (14%) reported that they are planning to change their profession to another medical speciality. Four themes were identified from the interviews: 1) Profession decision-making, 2) changing career”, 3) difficulties and challenges, and 4) recommended radiography as a profession.ConclusionThe results of the study support the need to bridge the gap between high school, universities, and employment through a collaborative network to assist students in exploring their career path by providing sufficient information and experience.

Teaching business as business

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the early days of business education with the aim of understanding how the Harvard Business School (HBS) contributed to the constitution of “management” as a science-based profession. The research focuses on HBS signature pedagogy, the case method and its role in the institutionalization of managerial knowledge.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a qualitative content analysis of HBS Annals published between 1908 and 1930. Through a manual coding of the Annals, the paper traces the diffusion of the case method in the curriculum and connects it with the institutional transformations that took place between 1908 and 1930.FindingsThe data show how HBS curriculum transitioned from lectures to case teaching in the aftermath of First World War. This pedagogy allowed HBS to demonstrate the possibility of systematically investigate management problems and to deliver business education at scale. The discussion argues that the case method, acting as a boundary object between business praxis and management theories, constituted management as a science-based profession.Originality/valueRecent debates have emerged about case method’s ability to critically question socio-economic structures within which business is conducted. This paper contributes to the debate arguing that the historical and institutional factors leading to the affirmation of this pedagogical approach had a substantive role in the type of knowledge produced through its application. The findings challenge the idea that the affirmation of the case method is attributable to its epistemological primacy in investigating business problems.

Industry-school projects as an aim to foster secondary school students\u2019 interest in technology and engineering careers

Industry-school partnerships offer authentic learning opportunities and can support the development of students’ interest in a STEM career. The expectancy-value model of achievement-related choice can help to explain how several factors influence career choice. Interest-enjoyment values and attainment values are most important in students’ motivation to participate in out-of-school technology and design activities. Our research question is the following: Is there a development in secondary school students’ career interests in science-based technology-related professions while participating in industry-school partnerships? We employed a longitudinal, mixed-methods research design. The sample consists of 213 secondary school students from 9 classes and 72 students from 4 classes in 4 neighbouring schools who served as a control group. All of the students filled out a questionnaire before and after the visit. The questionnaire items were based on scales relating to an expectancy-value model. Four groups of students were interviewed with respect to the industry visit experiences. Analyses indicated that attitudes for applying technology became relevant for predicting career interest in a technology profession in the project group after the end of the project. However, career interest did not increase over time. In the qualitative analysis, four topics emerged that elucidated why career interest did not increase. Overall, the results demonstrate that factory visits combined with embedded tasks are one way to overcome fixed ability self-concepts and allow the students to reconsider a career in the technology and engineering industry towards the end of secondary school.

Management as a profession: A grand societal challenge

The future of management as a profession is dependent on the rise of new forms of management, including both circularity and distributed leadership. This requires a transition away from the widespread belief that management is something done by a few individuals at the top of an organisation. As part of this transition, there is a need to shift attention from human agents towards management technologies. Professor Georges Romme, from Eindhoven University of Technology, explains how the quest for management as a science-based profession can be revitalised.

The Sexual Diversity Debate in Brazilian Psychology: Professional Regulation at Stake

Abstract So-called “sexual reorientation therapies” represent a challenge to the scientific and professional development of Psychology, and to the exercise and free expression of sexual orientation as a human right. Since 1999 the Brazilian Federal Council of Psychology (CFP) has implemented a ban against the pathologization of homosexuality. The validity of that normative instrument, known as Resolution 01/99, has been contested by moral entrepreneurs within the profession, self-identified as Evangelical Christians, who pose a broader challenge to Psychology, standing as a secular, science-based profession. The controversy created by the challenge to CFP’s positions on homosexuality and on religion extrapolates the domain of Psychology and its regulation as a science and profession, and becomes one more dispute related to sexual politics in Brazil. In this paper we explore the process by which sexual diversity has become a contentious issue for Brazilian Psychology, affecting the politics and regulation of the profession.

Are they publishing? A descriptive cross-sectional profile and bibliometric analysis of the journal publication productivity of Italian physiotherapists

BackgroundIn a clinical science-based profession such as physiotherapy, research is mandatory to update knowledge and to provide cost-effective, high quality treatments. This study aimed to provide point prevalence of Italian physiotherapists who are academics, holding a PhD degree, or being authors of scientific papers. The scientific journal productivity of physiotherapists was also thoroughly analyzed.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on all Italian physiotherapists. Academics, postdoctoral research fellows, and PhD graduates were identified by searching the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), Italian Society of Physiotherapy, and university websites. Then, authors of articles indexed in Scopus were searched. The following data were extracted: type of affiliation, authorship order, H-index, number of publications and citations, name of journals, year of publication, and journal’s Impact Factor.ResultsThe prevalence of academics, physiotherapists holding a PhD, or being author was 0.01%, 0.05%, and 0.56%, respectively. We identified 1083 papers co-authored by Italian physiotherapists, and their number has progressively increased over the years (p < 0.001). There was a significant difference between researchers and clinicians in both publication productivity (p < 0.01), citations (p < 0.01), and H-Index (p = 0.05). Articles were published in 359 different journals, receiving a total of 13,373 citations.ConclusionsDespite the low prevalence of faculty members and the reduced availability of PhD programs in Italy (forcing some students to study abroad), the quantity and quality of journal productivity is growing fast, and an increasing number of physiotherapists are involved in research activities.

Variable decision knowledge representation: A logical description

Decision-making is important in all science-based professions, where specialists apply their knowledge to making valuable decisions. In Formal Concept Analysis, decision-making problem is handled within decision contexts and in the form of decision implications. In this paper, we introduce the notion of variable decision implication to generalize decision implications and uncertain decision implications. We describe the semantic aspect of variable decision implications by defining the notions of follow, non-redundant, complete, etc., and provide the syntactical description by presenting three inference rules and proving their soundness and completeness. This paper also provides a re-explanation of deduction of associative rules, and should be regarded as a starting point for effectively reducing the size of associative rules.

Management as a science-based profession: a grand societal challenge

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how the quest for management as a science-based profession, conceived as a grand societal challenge, can be revitalized.Design/methodology/approachA reflective approach is adopted by questioning some of the key assumptions made by management scholars, especially those that undermine their capacity to inform management practice. One key assumption is that management needs to be done by a few people at the top of the organization; this idea is widespread but false.FindingsAn important finding is that the future of the management discipline may largely depend on the rise of new forms of management drawing on distributed intelligence and circularity of power and authority. Management scholars thus need to shift their attention from an almost exclusive focus on managerial intentions and behaviors to (the development and use of new) management technologies, similar to how modern aviation technology involves airplanes that only to a limited extent require intervention and control by a single pilot.Practical implicationsThe practical implications of the shift from managerial behavior to management technology are illustrated by means of so-called circular management practices, also known as holacracy and sociocracy.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel perspective on how the quest for science-based professionalism in management, as a grand societal challenge, can be revitalized.

Ethics in Action: Ethical Considerations in Management Practice

Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Information To take the Continuing Professional Education quiz for this article, log in to www.eatrightPRO.org, go to the My Account section of the My Academy Toolbar, click the “Access Quiz” link, click “Journal Article Quiz” on the next page, and then click the “Additional Journal CPE quizzes” button to view a list of available quizzes. As an established science-based profession, forms of ethical reasoning and decision-making should be consistently reexamined in order to forge a stronger and credible membership. Remarkably, 6 years have quickly passed since former Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Academy) President Martin Yadrick, MBA, MS, RDN, FAND, summarized his personal experience in a President’s Page to encourage ethical behaviors among registered dietitian nutritionists and nutrition and dietetics technicians, registered, throughout their dietetic occupations and careers. 1 Yadrick M. Ethics: A word for all of us to live by. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009; 109: 593 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar Today, the expectations for management practitioners to simply act ethically are no less important or complex. To take the Continuing Professional Education quiz for this article, log in to www.eatrightPRO.org, go to the My Account section of the My Academy Toolbar, click the “Access Quiz” link, click “Journal Article Quiz” on the next page, and then click the “Additional Journal CPE quizzes” button to view a list of available quizzes.

Evidence-Based Policing

It is a hallmark of a science-based profession that its members conduct and publish research. In her 2012 address to the Police Superintendents Association for England and Wales, the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom called on the British police to do just that. Since the Home Secretary is equivalent to the Attorney General of the United States or the Minister of Interior in many other countries as the chief elected official responsible for policing, her injunction to publish research is a major reflection on the police profession. This volume is one response to her injunction. It will not be the last. Police research was once the sole domain of professional social scientists. No longer. Police professionals now make major contributions to research, just as practicing professionals do in other fields. Medical research is full of practicing clinicians, many of whom split their time between research and practice. Surgeons are first authors of important research articles, with their statisticians in second authorship spots. This volume reflects an aspiration to see the same pattern develop in policing in which research leadership moves from academics to professionals. The articles in this volume are therefore as remarkable for their authorship as they are for their contents. Fully half of the authors are current or former police professionals. Five of the seven first authors of these articles are police professionals. All of the police professionals hold master’s degrees in evidence-based policing from the University of Cambridge, and one (Peter Neyroud) is a Cambridge PhD candidate—after commanding thousands of police officers in two large British police agencies. They are all in the vanguard of the kind of evidence-based police profession that the U.K.’s new ‘‘College’’ of Policing (a professional membership and standard-setting body founded in 2012) is designed to promote, by identifying and applying the best evidence of what works in policing for over its core membership of 200,000 U.K. police professionals (see www.college.police.uk) and academics from universities across Britain. Authors in this volume are also active in the Society of Evidence-Based Policing (SEBP; www.sebp.police.uk), whose 2,000 members globally are linked to universities on four continents and whose winter 2015 U.K. conference included presentations from police-research partnerships from nine universities and police services.

Self-denigrating actions.

Congratulations on one of the best editorials I’ve read in my 35 years in pharmacy. Thanks for enumerating a few “actions that defame our profession.”1 Personally, I think there are more than that. There are still some “snake-oil vendors” in our own profession who are not convinced that pharmacy is a science-based profession. Thanks to pharmacists like you who are trying to push our profession forward with evidence-based pharmacy. Continue your good work!

Knowledge and Knowers in Engineering Assessment

In multidisciplinary technology-based engineering diploma programmes in South Africa, the curriculum is often structured into distinctly theoretical and practical components, each of which is taught and assessed at different stages by different disciplinary or technical specialists. This separation does not necessarily reflect the complexity of such emerging regions, nor allow for the opportunity to assess multidisciplinary competence in the context of real world practice. Although the Exit Level Outcomes, endorsed by the Engineering Council of South Africa, are intended to provide a holistic framework of achievement in engineering qualifications, it is evident that these outcomes mean different things to the various stakeholders involved in curriculum design, delivery and evaluation. The moment of final academic assessment presents a number of challenges. Who is in a position to assess whether or not a candidate has successfully demonstrated the required level of competence? Legitimation Code Theory offers a lens through which to consider the nature of and relationship between the epistemic and social aspects of the assessment of complex performance, particularly in the South African socio-historical context. This paper presents the analysis of a single engineering assessment case study in which the knowledge and knower values that emerged among a group of assessors are interrogated.'The findings suggest that in the absence of specific epistemic expertise, the default assessment position relies on knower attributes. This may have implications for the assumption in science-based professions that what you know matters more than who you are.

Multidisciplinary Decision-Making Approach to High-Dimensional Event History Analysis through Variable Reduction Methods

As an analytical approach, decision-making is the process of finding the best option from all feasible alternatives. The application of decision- making process in economics, management, psychology, mathematics, statistics and engineering is obvious and this process is an important part of all science-based professions. Proper management and utilization of valuable data could significantly increase knowledge and reduce cost by preventive actions, whereas erroneous and misinterpreted data could lead to poor inference and decision-making. This paper presents a class of practical methods to analyze high-dimensional event history data to reduce redundant information and facilitate practical interpretation through variable inefficiency recognition. In addition, numerical experiments and simulations are developed to investigate the performance and validation of the proposed methods.

In The Context of Cipp Model: A Case for Re-Engineering Higher Education in Nigeria for Employment and Productivity

There is a growing concern about the quality of the products of our tertiary institutions. There is equally a concern about the high level of unemployment, especially of graduates of our various institutions. Using the Content, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model as the guide, the paper discusses how positioned higher education in Nigeria is in meeting its mandate of manpower development for employment and expected productivity levels. It observes that the input resources and process components fall short of what is ideal. It equally observes that the internal and external environmental contexts in which higher education is given is not suitable for producing quality graduates that are employable and productive even if employed. The paper therefore recommends an overhaul of higher education and re-orientation of the academic courses, community and the larger society in such a way that permits closer ties. I. Introduction Education is the means by which knowledge, skill and attitude are largely transmitted from one generation to another. One of Nigeria's educational goals, derived from the main national goals, is the acquisition of appropriate skills and development of physical, social abilities and competencies of the society (Federal Government of Nigeria, 2004). Bamiro (2012) has a rather ambitious and idealistic view of what a university education function should be and captures it thus: A university should move radically from brewing graduates looking for employment to be seen as crucial national assists on addressing many policy prorates and as sources of new knowledge and innovative thinking; providers of skilled personnel and credible credentials contributors to innovation; attraction of international talent and business investment; agent of social injustice and mobility contributors to social and cultural vitality and determinants of health and well-being. This perception of the university role applies to a large extent to all categories of the nation's tertiary institutions including colleges of education, Polytechnic and monotechnic A cardinal mandate of higher education of the nation is the production of high level power for national development that meets all of Bamiro,s goals. However, with regards to this role, there is a growing public concern among different groups: industrialists, educators, educationalists, employers, parents and government officials that the products of out higher institutions in recent times are below our expectations. This is coupled with the feeling in some quarters that many of the graduates of these institutions are not even employable. According to Agih (2011), it is a fact that manpower production in Nigeria today is comparatively higher than any other time in the past, but this work force is seriously deficient in terms of required knowledge, skills and quality. He strongly believes that what is primarily responsible for this lapse among others is the poor quality of the products of our tertiary institutions of learning. The effectiveness of any institution in discharging its duties depends to a very large extent on its quality. Recent ratings of Nigerian higher institutions, especially the universities, have been comparatively low at the global level. To ensure that the institutions turn out graduates of the expected quality, the institutions should be of reasonably high quality. Tagoe (2011) strongly contend that the quality of institution is a sine qua non for its effectiveness in realizing its set goals. This paper makes a case or posits for re-engineering our higher education systems in order to make them adequately fit for the purpose of producing graduates that are both employable (by themselves and others) and productive to their employers. II. Concept Clarification There is a need to properly define the key terms of this paper. Engineering is the science-based profession and activity by which the physical forces of nature and properties of matter are made useful to human beings in the form of structure, machines (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010); and process involved is done at a reasonable care. The field involves the application of science to the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to the uses of humankind. It involves bringing, knowledge to bear on practical problem in order to solve them. Engineering also involves conceiving, designing, creating, implementing apparatuses or process to solve

‘Disciplining witnesses’ in the teaching of physiotherapy: Some insights into the practical accomplishment of a science-based healthcare profession

Physiotherapy in the UK defines itself as a "science-based healthcare profession". Physiotherapy students must undertake at least one thousand hours of learning in live practice settings. Adopting an analytic stance shaped by interaction analysis and workplace studies, and drawing on observational data of placement settings, this paper examines some features of the means by which physiotherapy education is practically accomplished. The paper introduces and utilises a novel notational system for capturing movement and touch in ethnographic fieldwork notes. Our analysis draws upon ideas from Lynch and Macbeth's (1998) study of elementary school science classes. We focus in particular on their notion of "disciplining witnesses" to illustrate how science is enacted -- and plays a privileged role -- within the everyday accomplishment of practice-based physiotherapy education. We show how patients are disciplined to provide information on cue and to act as props for therapeutic demonstrations, while students are disciplined to co-produce standard interpretations of the science of physiotherapy. We conclude the paper with a brief discussion of the ways in which these insights offer a new perspective for physiotherapy practitioners and educators in understanding the nature of interactions entailed in their professional practice, and the role of patients within those interactions.

Beyond theoretical orientations: The emergence of a unified scientific framework in professional psychology.

Psychology has been remarkably successful as both a basic and applied science despite serious and persistent conflict between its many theoretical camps and schools of thought. By far the most influential approaches to conceptualizing clinical practice in psychology have been the traditional theoretical orientations, even though they are widely viewed as inadequate and incomplete. This manuscript reviews the underlying reasons for these conflicts and then discusses the emergence of a unified scientific framework that moves the profession beyond these problems. Outmoded conceptual frameworks are not appropriate for a science-based profession, and professional psychology needs to consider making a systematic transition to a comprehensive scientific approach to understanding human development, functioning, and behavior change.

The Convergence of Excellence and Relevance

Colleagues, I stood before you 1 year ago as your president-elect to outline the leadership agenda for the next year. I stated that we need a more balanced way to reward the diversity of excellence that exists among us, especially with regard to excellence in teaching. We need to develop preceptors as integral to the quality of the education we offer, providing evidence-based standards of excellence which we can acknowledge publicly and to which preceptors can aspire. I asked for an improved balance of our advocacy portfolio in the areas of education and research scholarship. I described significant enhancements to our research and graduate education efforts. Finally, I said for all to hear in a manner as conspicuous as I could summon, pharmacy is a science-based profession. From the perspective of an educator whose greatest thrill and fulfillment in my career has come from teaching, I have said for years that we need an academic reward system that matches what we say in our literature and public statements, a system that rewards excellence in teaching in parity with excellence in scholarship. We aspire to excellence in all areas of our mission, but our people are diverse in passion and talent. Some of us are better at one element of our mission than others, whether that is teaching or scholarship. Excellence is worthy of reward, wherever it exists. A problem has been that our metrics for assessment of teaching excellence are less developed than for scholarship. That was among the charges that I asked Dr. Melissa S. Medina and her team on the Academic Affairs Committee to tackle. Education is the central mission of academic pharmacy. How can we evaluate and measure excellence in teaching? The committee contrasted scholarly teaching with the scholarship of teaching. They outlined and defined the 6 standards of scholarly teaching: * Clear goals * Adequate preparation * Appropriate methods * Significant results * Effective presentation * Reflective critique They describe in their report how to collect evidence in a systematic way and document it. Among their several recommendations to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) is the creation of a fellow designation--FAACP--that would recognize excellence in scholarly teachers and the scholarship of teaching and learning. The most exciting part of the report that thrilled me right down to my college professor bones was proposed evaluation rubrics for each of the 6 standards of scholarly teaching. At last! We have at least the beginning ofa system we can use to qualitatively and quantitatively assess excellence in teaching, just as we have done for scholarship. To Melissa, staff liaison Cecilia Plaza, and members of the Academic Affairs Committee, thank you! We all agree that the quality of education that our students receive in the experiential program is just as important as any other part of the curriculum. It is the largest part of our curriculum. Much of the experiential curriculum is conducted by preceptors who are not fulltime professional educators, often volunteers. Based on a demanding and rigorous program for documenting excellence among public schoolteachers in Mississippi, called Master Teachers, I asked Dr. Betty J. Harris and her team on the Professional Affairs Committee to consider how we can create a similar development and recognition program for pharmacy preceptors. I want standards of excellence we can all recognize and offer to our preceptors as evidence of what we and they aspire to achieve. Utilizing a variety of resources and with the invited contributions on the committee of key staff and leaders from the American Pharmacists Association, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the committee has proposed a national master preceptor recognition program, to be administered by AACP, based on rigorous criteria assembled in a portfolio of evidence, evaluated by the leadership of the Experiential Education Section and representatives of national practice organizations. …

Babraham Bioscience Boot Camp inspires a new generation of scientists

The Babraham Institute's Bioscience Boot Camp took place in July this year, enlisting 20 eager sixth formers from around the region for an exceptional learning experience and insight into the world of research. Established in 2007, this innovative one-week programme provided students with handson research experience and a chance to engage with role models in science-based professions, from academia to early-stage bioscience companies, and the pharmaceutical industry.