Sorts Of Outcomes Research Articles

Revealing problems, pointing fingers, and creating impact A survey of investigative reporters/editors regarding journalistic impact

One measure of success for investigative reporting is impact: Did the story lead to any sort of outcome, from public awareness and dialogue to meaningful policy change? While investigative reporting is historically impact-oriented, there is a dearth of academic scholarship as to what journalists seek and expect when it comes to generating impact. Using data from a national survey of investigative reporters/editors, this research develops a more holistic conceptualization of journalistic impact.

One Busy Day! A Critical Analysis of New Faculty Orientation Programs

New faculty orientation programs can serve as an important introduction to an academic community. They can create expectations, provide exposure to technical assistance, and welcome faculty members to new communities. The current study explored new faculty orientation programs, cataloging their activities to identify the most common practices in research-centered universities. Findings revealed a strong reliance on one-day programs that often host a variety of speakers from different offices, yet they rarely were found to have any sort of outcomes based approach to their design. To be effective, these programs should possibly incorporate longer activities that might last an entire semester or academic year. Further, these programs might include virtual as well as in-person opportunities to learn about the institution, the students they serve, and the offices and other tools that the institution provides to help faculty be successful. Further study on the effectiveness of different models is also recommended.

What should community organisations consider when deciding to partner with researchers? A critical reflection on the Zilla Budakattu Girijana Abhivrudhhi Sangha experience in Karnataka, India

BackgroundCommunity organisations and community members are increasingly being involved in health research projects worldwide as part of the engagement movement. Achieving deeper forms of community engagement like partnership demands that decision-making power be shared with community partners. However, how can community partners assess if meaningful engagement and shared decision-making will be possible when approached by prospective research partners? In this paper, we explore how community organisations decide to join health research projects when approached by health researchers.MethodsCase study research was undertaken on a health systems research project in Karnataka, India called Participation for Local Action, which was carried out by local researchers in partnership with the Zilla Budakattu Girijana Abhivrudhhi Sangha, a community development organisation. In-depth interviews were conducted with the researchers, Sangha leaders and field investigators from their community.ResultsThematic analysis identified two main themes – ‘context’ and ‘deciding to engage’. The Sangha’s experience offers lessons to other community organisations that can help them when deciding to engage with researchers in terms of what features to look for in research partners and in proposed research projects, what requests to make of prospective research partners, and what sorts of outcomes or partnership agreements to accept. These lessons may be especially applicable in contexts where relationships of trust already exist between partners and where they have the skills to lead data collection and analysis.ConclusionsWe hope that this guidance will help empower community organisations to select good research partners and promote more equitable partnerships between community partners and academic researchers.

A Study On Outcome-Based Education – Issues And Challenges

Outcome-based education, a performance- based approach at the cutting edge of curriculum development, offers a powerful and appealing way of reforming and managing medical education. The emphasis is on the product-what sort of doctor will be produced-rather than on the educational process In study and unambiguously specified. These determine the curriculum content and its organization, the teaching methods and strategies, the courses offered, the assessment process, the educational environment and the curriculum time table. They also provide a framework for curriculum evaluation. A doctor is a unique combination of different kinds of abilities. A three-circle model can be used to present the learning outcomes in medical education, with the tasks to be performed by the doctor in the inner core, the approaches to the performance of the tasks in the middle area, and the growth of the individual and his or her role in the practice of medicine in the outer area. Medical schools need to prepare young doctors to practice in an increasingly complex healthcare scene with changing patient and public expectations, and increasing demands from employing authorities. Outcome-based education offers many advantages as a way of achieving this. It emphasizes relevance in the curriculum and accountability, and can provide a clear and unambiguous framework for curriculum planning which has an intuitive appeal. It encourages the teacher and the student to share responsibility for learning and it can guide student assessment and course evaluation. What sort of outcomes should be covered in a curriculum, how should they be assessed and how should outcome-based education be implemented are issues that need to be addressed. In the era of globalization, traditional education system is losing its relevance. In today’s world, everything changes very rapidly and continuously. More skills are required to work with very fast developing technology. The educational institutions should produce graduates to cope with technological development. Thus to overcome the requirement, it is mandatory to shift from traditional education system to Outcome Based Education (OBE), which includes Program Outcomes (PO), Program Specific Outcomes (PSO), and Course Outcomes.

Situated Cyborg Knowledge in Not so Borderless Online Global Education: Mapping the Geosocial Landscape of a MOOC

ABSTRACTTheorising situated knowledge formation in relation to geopolitics, geoeconomics and the geosocial, this article adds to the growing literature that evaluates Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) by studying who actually participates in them, how, and with what sorts of outcomes. Doing so, this article argues against a geoeconomic view of MOOCs as the revolutionary technology of borderless ‘flat world’ education. Instead, it outlines the far-from-borderless landscape of MOOC participation in terms of geosocial unevenness using evidence from the discussion boards of a global MOOC on globalisation. Based on this empirical evidence, this article suggests that MOOCs can enable forms of connective action through online educational networking, but that these forms of cyborg knowledge formation are possible precisely because they are not ‘borderless, gender-blind, race-blind, class-blind and bank account blind’.

Ten years of corporate action on climate change: What do we have to show for it?

Abstract A significant proportion of the world's greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to corporate activities. An increasing number of companies have set targets and have adopted initiatives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, raising the question of what sorts of outcomes can realistically be expected from corporate action on climate change? This paper aims to shed some light on this issue through an analysis of the climate change performance of the UK supermarket sector. This sector is directly responsible for around 1% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, but it has been estimated that indirectly it may be responsible for up to 10% of emissions. In the period between 2000 and 2010, the major UK supermarkets transformed their approach to climate change. This paper examines the outcomes that resulted from these actions. It finds that there have been significant and steady improvements in energy efficiency, but that these efficiency gains are often outstripped by the impacts of business growth. For most companies, short of a radical redesign of their business activities, or an expansion of the scope of their energy management initiatives to include their indirect emissions, total greenhouse gas emissions will tend to increase over time.

Comment

Comment

UN Climate Finance Negotiations: What after Tianjin, and How?

This paper gives an assessment of the state of the finance negotiations under the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UN climate change conference in the Chinese town of Tianjin (2-9 October 2010) was the final preparatory UN meeting for the 16th annual UN Conference of Parties (COP-16) held in Cancun, Mexico in December 2010. The aim of this paper is to assess how the momentum achieved in Tianjin can be harnessed to deliver the sort of outcomes required for a comprehensive deal. The analysis is divided into two sections – the first elaborates what needs to be done, while the second focuses on how to achieve it.

Knowledge, Trade‐Offs, and Tracking Truth

There are so many ideas in Roush’s dashing yet meticulous book that it is hard to confine oneself to a manageable menu of issues. Here I will reluctantly omit discussion of scientific realism, fallibilism, contextualism, and much else. My focus will be on one core part of Roush’s account of the ‘‘tracking’’ of facts, and the relation between tracking and knowledge. In approaching rival ‘‘theories of knowledge’’ it is helpful to distinguish three sets of facts. An imaginary complete philosophical theory in this area would have things to say on three different matters. First, there are facts about our ordinary concept of knowledge, and related concepts such as those of evidence and justification. The term ‘‘concept’’ might (should) be suspicious here, and I use it in a low-key sense. Perhaps it is better to imagine a complete account of how the words ‘‘knowledge’’ and ‘‘know’’ (etc.) are used, in both everyday circumstances and special ones. A second set of facts concerns how we human beings, and perhaps other organisms, are actually connected to the world with respect to epistemic matters. What sort of coordination and contact with external affairs do our perceptual states, beliefs, and theories achieve, when things go well and when things go badly? What sort of outcomes can be reasonably hope for, when we set out on the task of representing the world? Philosophers have to use some terms and concepts when developing this second body of theory, but they need not be familiar, everyday terms like ‘‘knowledge.’’ A third set of facts follows from, and concerns the relation between, the first two. How do the terms, concepts, and pictures that people ordinarily employ in this area relate to our actual epistemic attributes?

Clumsiness: why isn't it as easy as falling off a log?1

The process by which Arsenal Football Club found the site for its new stadium started off quite elegantly – just the market actor (Arsenal) and the hierarchical actor (Islington Council) – but was soon clumsified by the entry of an egalitarian actor (the Highbury Community Association). The result was a solution, totally overlooked in the early stages, that gave each of these contending actors more of what it wanted (and less of what it did not want) than it would have got if it had somehow established hegemony and “gone it alone.” This “clumsy solution” came about more or less by accident, and it stands in marked contrast to the sort of outcomes that we usually get, especially in relation to policy issues that have a high scientific input: environment and development in the Himalayan region, for instance. All of which raises the question: “How can we get clumsy solutions by design.” One important part of the answer is: “By doing pretty well the exact opposite of what policy orthodoxy says we should do.” Rather than a single, agreed definition of the problem, we need to move towards noisy and argumentative institutional arrangements in which all three voices (each with its distinctive definition of the problem – a definition, moreover, that cannot be reconciled with the other two) are (a) able to make themselves heard and (b) are then responsive to one another. Indeed, policy subsystems can be plotted on a 3×3 matrix in terms of accessibility and responsiveness, with deliberative quality increasing markedly as we move from (1,1: closed hegemony) to (3,3: clumsy institution). Any move that is uphill on this three-dimensional landscape is a move in the right direction (if we value deliberative quality and democratization, that is); any move that is downhill should be avoided like the plague.

End of life decision‐making in paediatrics

End of life decision‐making in paediatrics

Desired Outcomes for Children and Adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Within children's services, frameworks for assessing outcomes have been developed in the absence of consultation with children with autistic spectrum disorders and their parents. The research reported here worked with parents, other key adults and children with autistic spectrum disorders to identify desired outcomes. It found similarities with non‐autistic children in terms of the broad types of outcomes desired. However, the presence of autism meant either new or different sorts of outcomes were reported. Implications in terms of the ways outcomes for autistic children are defined and measured, and the role of services in achieving outcomes is discussed. © 2006 The Author(s).

Desired outcomes for children and young people with complex health care needs, and children who do not use speech for communication

Within recent policies and initiatives, there is a growing emphasis on outcomes-focused practice and user-defined outcomes to ensure that the children and families most at risk of social exclusion have every opportunity to build successful and independent lives. However, we still know little about what children and young people with disabilities consider constitutes a good quality of life. The present paper reports the findings of a qualitative research project that aimed to identify the desires and aspirations of children and young people with complex health care needs (CHNs), as well as those who do not use speech for communication (NS) and their parents. Fifty families participated in this study; 26 families had a child with CHNs and 24 had a child with NS. Semistructured interviews were carried out with 50 parents, 18 children and 17 other informants (teachers and other non-parent carers who knew the child well). A range of visual or non-verbal techniques were used to facilitate interviews with children. The research found that, while children and their parents aspired to the same sort of outcomes as those of non-disabled children, such as to have friends, interests and future independence, the specific meaning they attached to certain outcomes and the way they prioritised aspirations differed. These findings have implications for the ways in which outcomes are defined and measured, and the role of services in achieving these outcomes.

Facilitating Idea Generation and Decision-Making with Concept Maps

This paper contains a description of the creation of Concept Maps in facilitated sessions to promote idea generation and group decision-making. A number of issues pertain to facilitated Concept Mapping, including the number of facilitators, the optimal or manageable size of groups, the sorts of group interactions that are encountered and their impacts on the proceedings, and the sorts of outcomes that can be expected. This article describes these basic issues as well as attributes, concerns, and skills required of facilitators. It presents two case studies illustrating methodological issues pertaining to the facilitation process and the sorts of outcomes that can be achieved.

Competence and quality in the training of teachers for the post compulsory sector in the UK

This issue addresses the broad theme of quality learning. When we invited authors to submit papers for this special issue. we were not prescriptive about what we meant by quality learning However. we were especially interested in some aspects of learning that are particularly important to teacher education at the present time. One of these relates to the quality of the learning outcomes that are achieved by teacher education students. What sort of outcomes should prospective teachers achieve before they take on the complex task of helping others learn?

AMEE Guide No. 14: Outcome-based education: Part 1-An introduction to outcome-based education

Outcome-based education, a performance-based approach at the cutting edge of curriculum development, offers a powerful and appealing way of reforming and managing medical education.The emphasis is on the product-what sort of doctor will be produced-rather than on the educational process. In outcome-based education the educational outcomes are clearly and unambiguously specified. These determine the curriculum content and its organisation, the teaching methods and strategies, the courses offered, the assessment process, the educational environment and the curriculum timetable.They also provide a framework for curriculum evaluation. A doctor is a unique combination of different kinds of abilities. A three-circle model can be used to present the learning outcomes in medical education, with the tasks to be performed by the doctor in the inner core, the approaches to the performance of the tasks in the middle area, and the growth of the individual and his or her role in the practice of medicine in the outer area. Medical schools need to prepare young doctors to practise in an increasingly complex healthcare scene with changing patient and public expectations, and increasing demands from employing authorities. Outcome-based education offers many advantages as a way of achieving this. It emphasises relevance in the curriculum and accountability, and can provide a clear and unambiguous framework for curriculum planning which has an intuitive appeal. It encourages the teacher and the student to share responsibility for learning and it can guide student assessment and course evaluation. What sort of outcomes should be covered in a curriculum, how should they be assessed and how should outcome-based education be implemented are issues that need to be addressed.

National Vocational Qualifications, Skills Training and Employers’ Needs: beyond Beaumont and Dearing

ABSTRACT A central claim made for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) concerns their role in providing the skills which employers and industry are said to need. This claim is challenged through the examination of a range of critical studies which indicate that employers are neither centrally involved in nor satisfied with the sort of outcomes associated with NVQs. Since NVQs are failing to provide the knowledge and skills which people on all sides of education and industry claim are required to enhance vocational education and training (VET), and upgrade workforce skills, it is suggested that the public funding of skills training should no longer be determined by the agenda of the NCVQ or the objectives of the professional training lobby. Speculative proposals for alternative strategies are examined against the background of recent policy developments in the field following the Beaumont and Dearing reviews

Health for all—Lessons from HIV/AIDS reflections of a jobbing public health doctor

The World Health Organisation initiative 'Health for All by the Year 2000' has laudable objectives, but are they relevant for health care? The history of HIV/AIDS services in one district suggests that the multisectoral participative approach can be fruitful and can contribute to quality services. It is noted that this was demanding in time and effort, and occurred in particular circumstances, and it is queried whether it will be possible for public health doctors acting as purchasers to set successful contracts which achieve the same sort of outcome for all services.

The Inverse Gambler's Fallacy and Cosmology—A Reply to Hacking

The gambler's fallacy is committed by one who thinks that a run of one kind of result when rolling dice say makes another outcome more probable. Ian Hacking has argued ('The Inverse Gambler's Fallacy: the Argument from Design. The Anthropic Principle Applied to Wheeler Universes', Mind, I987, pp. 33I-40) that there is also an inverse gambler's fallacy which is committed by one who thinks that an improbable result produced by rolling dice provides good reason for believing that this result comes from the last of a lengthy sequence of rolls. He goes on to argue that this fallacy is involved in a popular objection to the argument from design for God's existence and is also committed by anyone who tries to explain the supposedly improbable character of the universe by reference to John Wheeler's model of sequential universes. Hacking has drawn attention to what is undoubtedly a genuine fallacy, but his claim that this is involved in certain attempts to explain the improbable character of the universe seems to me to be mistaken. The inverse gambler reasons that since an improbable result, such as a double six, is far more likely to occur when a pair of dice is rolled many times than when it is rolled only once, it is reasonable to conclude, when informed that a double six has turned up, that this is the last of a lengthy sequence of rolls. What he overlooks is that every roll of the dice produces an improbable result. That a single roll should produce an improbable result is not itself therefore an improbable happening. In fact it is as certain as anything can be, since no other sort of outcome is possible. An improbable outcome from a single roll of dice requires no further explanation therefore. But does someone who argues that the improbable character of the universe is explained by the fact that it is the last of a lengthy sequence of universes commit this fallacy? I do not think so. Hacking has misrepresented the sort of reasoning employed by someone who appeals to the Wheeler model to explain the delicately balanced nature of the universe we inhabit. This reasoning is not like that of a gambler who says: 'That particular roll of dice produced an improbable result, namely a double six; therefore, it is likely to have been the last of a lengthy sequence of rolls'. Instead it should be compared to the reasoning of someone who at the beginning of a dice-rolling session says to the players: 'I am about to take a nap; please call me if a double six turns up'; and when called, says: 'You must have rolled the dice quite a number of times; otherwise it is unlikely you would have had a double six.' This is perfectly legitimate reasoning. The sleeper knows in advance that he is unlikely to be roused if the dice are rolled only a small number of times. If he has some knowledge of probability theory or is acquainted with the famous exchange between Pascal and Chevalier de Mere, he knows that if the dice are rolled twenty-four times or less, then it is more probable than not that he will remain undisturbed; and if they are rolled twenty-five times or more, then it is more probable than not that he will be

Projecting the Outcome in 1984

A catalog of the general sources of change in the politics of presidential selection, with applications to 1984, might suggest that this politics has become more changeable—and hence more unpredictable—in the modern era, the period marked off by the extensive procedural reforms enacted after 1968. Yet an initial comparison of the period from 1968 through 1980 with the period from 1848 through 1860, from 1876 to 1888, or from 1912 through 1924—to pick several periods of a dozen years each—does not suggest that the ultimate decisions on nomination and even election in the modern era are any more (or less) unpredictable than in certain earlier periods.What such a comparison does suggest is that thesourcesof unpredictability in presidential nomination and election contests are different than they once were. Once, the difficulty in calculating presidential outcomes was rooted in the fact that nominations were often realized inside national party conventions, where the bloc structure of the official party and the rules for balloting itself made all sorts of outcomes—many of them unforeseen—politically possible. Now, the comparable difficulty in calculating presidential outcomes is rooted in the process of delegate selection, where volatile public preferences and levels of participation, the constantly changing formal course of nomination politics, and the interaction among the candidates, the issues, and the other participants continue to make projection (equally) difficult.