Practical Scientific Knowledge Research Articles

THE CONTENT OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL ON MECHANICAL SCIENCE IN THE TRAINING OF FUTURE LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHERS

The article deals with the solution to the problem of the low level of machine science knowledge of pre-service teachers of labor education and technology. It has been found out that it is based on a contradiction between the real content of mechanical training of students and the content of technological education of schoolchildren. The goal of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of students' knowledge of mechanical engineering, based on the study of the technology of transformation of mechanical energy of rotational movement. The methods of analysis and synthesis of achievements of machine science and scientific achievements of technological education have been used. It has been found that in the work of researchers of mechanical science, as well as researchers of technological education of schoolchildren, there are enough guidelines for a well-founded choice of the subject of study. It is described that it should meet a number of different level requirements, for example to contribute to the formation of the technical outlook of schoolchildren; correspond to the content of technological education of schoolchildren; have a polytechnic character; simultaneously belong to different types of working machines. Technical knowledge about it must be integrated with knowledge of mathematics and physics. It must be used in educational projects of schoolchildren being a model of implementation of natural and scientific knowledge in practice, and suitable for technical construction of schoolchildren. The machine drive as a subject of the study meets all the specified requirements. It has been revealed that the subject of study for the formation of students' general idea about machines should provide a large amount of knowledge about the types of working machines and at the same time a moderate content. It has been established that such contradictory requirements are met by the drive of the machine as a subject of study. It is described that the concept of drive has the property of fractality as far as it enables a free transition from the study of the drive of any mechanism to the study of the drive of any working machines. It is described that the condition for choosing the content of educational material for the formation of students' general idea about machines is the use of the mental operation of abstraction and the corresponding transition from the level of description of the morphology and functions of technical objects to the level of energy conversion technology. It has been substantiated that the didactic value of the basic technical phenomena of the machine drive is the transmission of mechanical motion to a distance, the change of the kinematic parameters of the mechanical motion and the change of the power parameters of the mechanical motion. There has been revealed the importance of the results of this study for the disclosure of approaches to the use of the project method, as well as the use of technical construction for the visual presentation of the basic technical phenomena

(Re)defining expert in science instruction: a community-based science approach to teaching

Instructional practices in science education often create dichotomies of “expert” and “outsider” that produce distinct power differences in classrooms. Building upon the idea of “making present practice” to disrupt these binaries, this paper presents select findings from a year-long study investigating two urban teachers' use of community-based science (CBS) instructional practices to create relational shifts that reframe expert and expertise in science instruction. By examining how CBS instructional practices reframe power through co-learning experiences, our findings demonstrated that teachers positioned youth as knowledge constructors through three instructional practices: (a) creating space for students to share their knowledge and experiences, (b) positioning students’ lives and experiences as assets to/within science, and (c) being responsive to assets in future lessons. We use these findings to demonstrate how CBS instructional practices support shifts in relational dynamics by creating spaces of rightful presence, where students are viewed as legitimate classroom members who contribute scientific knowledge in practice and have power in the classroom space. By relinquishing traditional boundaries in science teaching to deconstruct ideas of who holds power, we position CBS instructional practices as a means to expand educational equity by legitimizing students’ diverse sensemaking and re-mediating hierarchical structures in classroom spaces.

THE CONTENT OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL ON MECHANICAL SCIENCE IN THE TRAINING OF FUTURE LABOR AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHERS

The article deals with the solution to the problem of the low level of machine science knowledge of pre-service teachers of labor education and technology. It has been found out that it is based on a contradiction between the real content of mechanical training of students and the content of technological education of schoolchildren. The goal of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of students' knowledge of mechanical engineering, based on the study of the technology of transformation of mechanical energy of rotational movement. The methods of analysis and synthesis of achievements of machine science and scientific achievements of technological education have been used. It has been found that in the work of researchers of mechanical science, as well as researchers of technological education of schoolchildren, there are enough guidelines for a well-founded choice of the subject of study. It is described that it should meet a number of different level requirements, for example to contribute to the formation of the technical outlook of schoolchildren; correspond to the content of technological education of schoolchildren; have a polytechnic character; simultaneously belong to different types of working machines. Technical knowledge about it must be integrated with knowledge of mathematics and physics. It must be used in educational projects of schoolchildren being a model of implementation of natural and scientific knowledge in practice, and suitable for technical construction of schoolchildren. The machine drive as a subject of the study meets all the specified requirements. It has been revealed that the subject of study for the formation of students' general idea about machines should provide a large amount of knowledge about the types of working machines and at the same time a moderate content. It has been established that such contradictory requirements are met by the drive of the machine as a subject of study. It is described that the concept of drive has the property of fractality as far as it enables a free transition from the study of the drive of any mechanism to the study of the drive of any working machines. It is described that the condition for choosing the content of educational material for the formation of students' general idea about machines is the use of the mental operation of abstraction and the corresponding transition from the level of description of the morphology and functions of technical objects to the level of energy conversion technology. It has been substantiated that the didactic value of the basic technical phenomena of the machine drive is the transmission of mechanical motion to a distance, the change of the kinematic parameters of the mechanical motion and the change of the power parameters of the mechanical motion. There has been revealed the importance of the results of this study for the disclosure of approaches to the use of the project method, as well as the use of technical construction for the visual presentation of the basic technical phenomena

Scientific Basis of Agroforestry Homegardens in Matara District, Sri Lanka: Present Status and Improvement Needs

High diversity of species in agroforestry homegardens play main agro-ecological roles in complex and sustainable land use systems. Efforts are being made in valuing and protecting the age-old practices of agroforestry on scientific basis in homegardens. This study attempted to analyse the scientific basis of households’ practices and to develop strategies for the promotion of sustainable agroforestry homegardens in Matara district of Sri Lanka. Selected households were interviewed measuring their concern using 5-point Likert scale, and analysed the qualitative data using non-parametric statistics. The study revealed that scientific basis of household practices in agroforestry homegardens are moderate in selection of appropriate trees and plants, and management of trees and plant health care. Households pay little concern on scientific basis in planning and site placement, land preparation and establishment of trees/crops, and implementing proper cultural practices. There is no significant correlation between scientific basis of practices in agroforestry in relation with size of homegardens, educational level of households, and across the category of their occupations. Resources to use scientific knowledge in practice, and opportunity to improve scientific skills have moderate correlation significantly while availability of scientific information and access to scientific knowledge have significant but low correlation as applying knowledge on scientific basis. The interest to acquire scientific knowledge, and sufficient time to improve scientific knowledge, and other reasons have no significant correlation with scientific basis of household practices. Carefully planned interventions including policy adjustments and effective extension programs for learning and experimenting together with supportive programs would enhance scientific basis of household practices for agroforestry in homegardens.

Gordon Tullock meets Phineas Gage: The political economy of lobotomies in the United States

Incentives affect the ways in which scientific research is disseminated and translated into practice. From 1936 to 1972, approximately fifty thousand lobotomies were performed in the US, with the majority occurring during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Curiously, the lobotomy's popularity coincided with a consensus within the medical community that the procedure was ineffective. To explain this paradox, we follow the framework developed by Tullock (2005) to examine how financial incentives within the scientific community affected how scientific research is used in practice. We argue that government funding for public mental hospitals and asylums expanded and prolonged the use of the lobotomy, despite mounting scientific evidence. We demonstrate that the lobotomy was used less in private mental hospitals and asylums. This paper provides an explanation for the use of scientifically discredited procedures due to the lack of responsiveness of government funding agencies. The results have implications for the dissemination and translation of scientific knowledge in practice.

Discussing Paths Trodden by PCK: an Invitation to Reflection

Some researchers have investigated teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) concerning scientific practices. However, from a review of the literature on the PCK construct and its use for characterising teachers’ knowledge of scientific practices, as well as from a discussion of possible interpretations that emerge from the derived construct PCK of scientific practices, this paper discusses the current complexity of PCK from an analysis of the paths that have been taken in the last few decades. From this, we (i) raise some points and questions aiming at fostering reflections on the use of the PCK construct to characterise teachers’ knowledge related to scientific practices and (ii) emphasise the need to think about alternative models for this purpose. Thus, one of the contributions of this paper is to emphasise the need for further studies aiming at characterising teaching knowledge in domains of scientific practices.

Knowledge Asymmetries Between Research and Practice: A Social Systems Approach to Implementation Barriers in Organic Arable Farming

AbstractThis article discusses the problem of implementing scientific knowledge in practice. The discussion is based on a case study of barriers to implementing research‐based principles of sustainable organic arable farming. The current literature tends to see this problem either as a dissemination issue (the linear approach) or as a failure of science to address real‐world problems (the co‐constructive approach). We argue that Luhmann's theory of social systems offers a way to understand the shortcomings of existing approaches and enables us to identify knowledge gaps that have often been overlooked so far. This theoretical claim is substantiated by an empirical analysis based on 10 in‐depth interviews with owners of organic arable farms. The farmers were interviewed about barriers to the implementation of research‐based knowledge in practice. The analysis points to the operational closure and the observational blindness of both research systems and farming systems as the keys to understanding knowledge gaps and suggests new ways of dealing with the problems of implementing research knowledge in practice.

A Network for Eating and Nutrition as a platform for cooperation over the organisational borders between healthcare sectors in Sweden

Introduction: Requirements to implement scientific knowledge in practice within the Swedish health and social care sectors have increased during the last decades. One of these networks was the Network for Eating and Nutrition that began in 2003. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate how the Network for Eating and Nutrition has functioned during a period of ten years and in what way it has affected work practice.Methods: This is a descriptive qualitative study. Data sources for this study were meeting records collected over 10 years and two evaluation surveys (at five and 10 years). Participants were members of the Network for Eating and Nutrition (n=12 at five years and n=10 at 10 years). The manifest qualitative content analysis was used.Results: The Network for Eating and Nutrition was seen as offering support for personal and organisational knowledge development. Further aspects of support from the workplaces of the members and the significance for the work places were described. Further the Network for Eating and Nutrition reached out to care receivers by using specifically tailored education programmes and material. The Network for Eating and Nutrition results and recommendations were described as important references for the development of nutrition routines.Conclusion: Networks between organisations with different professional backgrounds can form a basis for knowledge exchange both for focus on the specific topic but also on how to work with quality improvement, i.e. evidence based practice.

Современная инфраструктура инновационно-культурной среды


 The need for science to master the new reality inevitably involves a radical change of philosophical, methodological patterns and mechanisms of cognition. This poses a number of problems that are difficult to solve only on the basis of sound scientific methods. Required is also the use of new cognitive mechanisms, including psychological protection of man and his ability to influence the processing of the incoming information on the merits. Traditional scientific mechanisms are limited in their capabilities and therefore require an intuitive getting into the known and innovative thinking. Development of innovative thinking requires the society, which is radiating energy of creative environment, aimed at innovative transformations. Within this single concept formed a very important process, automatically pushing superconscious to the fore. The ratio of the rational and the intuitive turns a new paradigm of scientific knowledge in practice of creative noosphere, the sphere of synergy. The two systems can operate simultaneously in the operation of market institutions, providing a synergistic effect. The results of the analysis associated with the formation of innovation and cultural environment necessary for the formation and development of innovative processes in the countries and at the international level. It is noted that the combination of traditional culture and innovation and cultural environment should be assessed as the competitive advantages of the country. In the interests of achieving the unity of the individual, the people and the state play a positive role in adherence to the principles of national traditions of collectivism and catholicity.
 In the transition to the path of innovative development the main component affecting the internal and external transformation of society, according to the authors, is represented by perfectly formed innovation infrastructure in innovation-cultural environment. The innovative active person should be recognized as a priority. Progressive system, that takes into account the interests of the majority rather than a particular group, increases its positive potential. This is crucial, as without it cannot be implemented models of modernization of the real sector of the Russian economy and its integration into the modern international economy. The article examines the key issues of this economic development.

Governance’s New Spectacles

This stance has given rise to endless debate in public administration: How useful is scientific knowledge in practice? Can what practitioners know really be considered knowledge? Is there a way to bridge the theory-practice divide? All of these questions come from the separation that science makes between itself and life experience. In my view, they have made the gap between theory and practice wider than it needs to be.

The Four Types of Organizational Learning and their Impact on Innovation

The paper presents a learning model that explains the influence of four types of learning (i) conceptualization (ii) experimentation (iii) experience (iv) reflection learning, on the innovation performance of firms. Conceptualization and experience learning represent the competency of firms in developing scientific research and technological experience. Experimentation refers to the competency of firms to apply their scientific knowledge in practice for creating new technologies. Reflection is the extent to which firms have the ability to relate their technological experience back to science and draw lessons from it. Our results show that the competency of firms in conceptualization does not guarantee them valuable innovation. It is only by the application of scientific knowledge to the innovation process through experimentation and reflection that firms can transform their scientific competency into valuable innovation. One important research implication from the study is that firms need to be ambidextrous in experimentation and reflection learning as well as in using their experience learning in order to generate valuable innovation.

Impact of Organisational Culture on Use of Scientific Knowledge in Nursing Practice

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to answer the question: How does organisational culture influence nurses' use of scientific knowledge in practice? The culture of the health care organisation was analysed mainly in terms of professionals (nurses, physicians and managers). All three professional subcultures, medical, nursing and managerial, seem to be very important from the patients' point of view. Nursing subculture has, for example, different philosophy, knowledge and values about the purpose and practices of the work. Despite this, many nurses hold medical norms, values and expectations to be more important than those of their own subculture. Consequently, when caring for patients such nurses act and behave according to medical knowledge and cultural assumptions. The influence of cultural factors on use of scientific knowledge in nursing practice can be classified as follows: (1) the nursing subculture is strong but old‐fashioned and conservative, (2) the nursing subculture is weak and nurses are expected to act according to some of the competitive subcultures, (3) the content and construction of the process of work socialisation prevent the application of new scientific knowledge. These results must be confirmed in further empirical studies to determine their general validity for the primary health care system in Finland. The cultural analysis of health care system provides new information about why systematic scientific knowledge has not changed nursing practice as much as expected.