Download or read book Students Understanding of Research Methodology in the Context of Dynamics of Scientific Progress written by Mansoor Niaz and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-20 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses how to improve high school students’ understanding of research methodology based on alternative interpretations of data, role of controversies, creativity and the scientific method, in the context of the oil drop experiment. These aspects form an important part of the nature of science (NOS). The study reported in this volume is is based on a reflective, explicit and activity-based approach to teaching nature of science (NOS) that can facilitate high school students’ understanding of how scientists elaborate theoretical frameworks, design experiments, report data that leads to controversies and finally with the collaboration of the scientific community a consensus is reached. Most students changed their perspective and drew concept maps in which they emphasized the creative, accumulative, controversial nature of science and the scientific method.
Download or read book Social Science Research written by Anol Bhattacherjee and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.
Download or read book The Essence of Research Methodology written by Jan Jonker and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-03-10 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Methodology is the ?eld which is indisputably complex. In the academic world, it is often said to be important, yet in everyday academic practice, it is not always treated accordingly. In teaching, methodology is often a mandatory course. Usually, it consists of learning how to adopt several common approaches when doing research, and how to conceive a research design (often leading to a survey). This usually leads to collecting data on a modest scale and – when the opportunity arises – analysing the data with the help of some statistics. Ask the students of their opinion at the end of such a course and they tend to heave a deep sigh of relief and say, “I have got through it. ” Then their real courses start again, in which methodology often does not play a role at all. We are of the opinion that writing-off methodology in this way is a real pity. It ignores the valuable role that methodology should play in academic teaching as a whole. Here, methodology is presented as a form of thinking and acting that, while obviously entailing research work, can also include the design and change of organisations. This broad approach has been purposefully chosen, as it is almost obvious from research and graduation projects that the students do not really have a clue what methodology involves and, therefore, wasting their time by producing work that has a little quality.
Download or read book From Science in the Making to Understanding the Nature of Science written by Mansoor Niaz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-02-06 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nature of Science is highly topical among science teacher educators and researchers. Increasingly, it is a mandated topic in state curriculum documents. This book draws together recent research on Nature of Science studies within a historical and philosophical framework suitable for students and teacher educators. Traditional science curricula and textbooks present science as a finished product. Taking a different approach, this book provides a glimpse of “science in the making” — scientific practice imbued with arguments, controversies, and competition among rival theories and explanations. Teaching about “science in the making” is a rich source of motivating students to engage creatively with the science curriculum. Readers are introduced to “science in the making” through discussion and analysis of a wide range of historical episodes from the early 19th century to early 21st century. Recent cutting-edge research is presented to provide insight into the dynamics of scientific progress. More than 90 studies from major science education journals, related to nature of science are reviewed. A theoretical framework, field tested with in-service science teachers, is developed for moving from ‘science in the making’ to understanding the Nature of Science.
Download or read book Managing Science written by Frederick Betz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-11-30 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is science? How is it performed? Is science only a method or is it also an institution? These are questions at the core of Managing Science, a handbook on how scientific research is conducted and its results disseminated. Knowledge creation occurs through scientific research in universities, industrial laboratories, and government agencies. Any knowledge management system needs to promote effective research processes to foster innovation, and, ultimately, to channel that innovation into economic competitiveness and wealth. However, science is a complicated topic. It includes both methodological aspects and organizational aspects, which have traditionally been discussed in isolation from each other. In Managing Science, Frederick Betz presents a holistic approach to science, incorporating both philosophical and practical elements, in a framework that integrates scientific method, content, administration and application. Illustrating all of the key concepts with illustrative case studies (both historical and contemporary, and from a wide spectrum of fields), Betz provides in-depth discussion of the process of science. He addresses the social, organizational, institutional, and infrastructural context through which research projects are designed and their results applied, along the path from experimentation to innovation to commercialization of new products, services, and processes. This practical approach to science is the foundation of today's knowledge-intensive and technology-enabled industries, and positions the management of science within the broader context of knowledge management and its implications for organizations, industries, and regional and national technology management policies. Managing Science will be an essential resource for students in all areas of research, industry scientists and R&D specialists, policymakers and university administrators, and anyone concerned with the application of research to economic growth and development.
Download or read book Evolving Nature of Objectivity in the History of Science and its Implications for Science Education written by Mansoor Niaz and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-26 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the evolving nature of objectivity in the history of science and its implications for science education. It is generally considered that objectivity, certainty, truth, universality, the scientific method and the accumulation of experimental data characterize both science and science education. Such universal values associated with science may be challenged while studying controversies in their original historical context. The scientific enterprise is not characterized by objectivity or the scientific method, but rather controversies, alternative interpretations of data, ambiguity, and uncertainty. Although objectivity is not synonymous with truth or certainty, it has eclipsed other epistemic virtues and to be objective is often used as a synonym for scientific. Recent scholarship in history and philosophy of science has shown that it is not the experimental data (Baconian orgy of quantification) but rather the diversity / plurality in a scientific discipline that contributes toward understanding objectivity. History of science shows that objectivity and subjectivity can be considered as the two poles of a continuum and this dualism leads to a conflict in understanding the evolving nature of objectivity. The history of objectivity is nothing less than the history of science itself and the evolving and varying forms of objectivity does not mean that one replaced the other in a sequence but rather each form supplements the others. This book is remarkable for its insistence that the philosophy of science, and in particular that discipline’s analysis of objectivity as the supposed hallmark of the scientific method, is of direct value to teachers of science. Meticulously, yet in a most readable way, Mansoor Niaz looks at the way objectivity has been dealt with over the years in influential educational journals and in textbooks; it’s fascinating how certain perspectives fade, while basic questions show no sign of going away. There are few books that take both philosophy and education seriously – this one does! Roald Hoffmann, Cornell University, chemist, writer and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Download or read book Feyerabend s Epistemological Anarchism written by Mansoor Niaz and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-01-27 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the traditional image of Feyerabend is erroneous and that, contrary to common belief, he was a great admirer of science. It shows how Feyerabend presented a vision of science that represented how science really works. Besides giving a theoretical framework based on Feyerabend ́s philosophy of science, the book offers criteria that can help readers to evaluate and understand research reported in important international science education journals, with respect to Feyerabend’s epistemological anarchism. The book includes an evaluation of general chemistry and physics textbooks. Most science curricula and textbooks provide the following advice to students: Do not allow theories in contradiction with observations, and all scientific theories must be formulated inductively based on experimental facts. Feyerabend questioned this widely prevalent premise of science education in most parts of the world, and in contrast gave the following advice: Scientists can accept a hypothesis despite experimental evidence to the contrary and scientific theories are not always consistent with all the experimental data. No wonder Feyerabend became a controversial philosopher and was considered to be against rationalism and anti-science. Recent research in philosophy of science, however, has shown that most of Feyerabend ́s philosophical ideas are in agreement with recent trends in the 21st century. Of the 120 articles from science education journals, evaluated in this book only 9% recognized that Feyerabend was presenting a plurality of perspectives based on how science really works. Furthermore, it has been shown that Feyerabend could even be considered as a perspectival realist. Among other aspects, Feyerabend emphasized that in order to look for breakthroughs in science one does not have to be complacent about the truth of the theories but rather has to look for opportunities to “break rules” or “violate categories.” Mansoor Niaz carefully analyses references to Feyerabend in the literature and displays the importance of Feyerabend’s philosophy in analyzing, historical episodes. Niaz shows through this remarkable book a deep understanding to the essence of science. - Calvin Kalman, Concordia University, Canada In this book Mansoor Niaz explores the antecedents, context and features of Feyerabend’s work and offers a more-nuanced understanding, then reviews and considers its reception in the science education and philosophy of science literature. This is a valuable contribution to scholarship about Feyerabend, with the potential to inform further research as well as science education practice.- David Geelan, Griffith University, Australia
Download or read book Reproducibility and Replicability in Science written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-10-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the pathways by which the scientific community confirms the validity of a new scientific discovery is by repeating the research that produced it. When a scientific effort fails to independently confirm the computations or results of a previous study, some fear that it may be a symptom of a lack of rigor in science, while others argue that such an observed inconsistency can be an important precursor to new discovery. Concerns about reproducibility and replicability have been expressed in both scientific and popular media. As these concerns came to light, Congress requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a study to assess the extent of issues related to reproducibility and replicability and to offer recommendations for improving rigor and transparency in scientific research. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science defines reproducibility and replicability and examines the factors that may lead to non-reproducibility and non-replicability in research. Unlike the typical expectation of reproducibility between two computations, expectations about replicability are more nuanced, and in some cases a lack of replicability can aid the process of scientific discovery. This report provides recommendations to researchers, academic institutions, journals, and funders on steps they can take to improve reproducibility and replicability in science.
Download or read book Research Methods in Human Development written by Paul C. Cozby and published by WCB/McGraw-Hill. This book was released on 1989 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For undergradute social science majors. A textbook on the interpretation and use of research. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Download or read book Supporting the Understanding of Team Dynamics in Agile Software Development Through Computer Aided Sprint Feedback written by Fabian Kortum and published by Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While modern project management systems support teams during planning and development activities, primarily through performance-related process information, the equally relevant human factors are often insufficiently considered for explaining team dynamics (e.g., the affect of moods in teams). However, understanding team behavioral patterns are crucial for the accurate planning and steady execution of development tasks throughout an ongoing project. A computer-aided feedback concept is described, unifying interdisciplinary foundations and methods from the software engineering, data science, organizational, and social psychology fields for disclosing team dynamics in agile software projects. The concept covers the systematic capture of sociotechnical data combined with descriptive, predictive, and exploratory model-based methods that support understanding behavioural changes during the development process. Design science from information systems research is used in academic and industrial case studies to conceptualize and operationalize the feedback methods into a practical Jira plugin. A concluding evaluation through an action research method in two industrial software projects results in quantitative and qualitative findings regarding the feedback utilization and utility during agile development processes (e.g., team communication changes related to accomplished performances). The case studies underscore the practical relevance for systematic feedback and the need to better understand human factors in software projects.
Download or read book Representations of Nature of Science in School Science Textbooks written by Christine V. McDonald and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together international research on nature of science (NOS) representations in science textbooks, the unique analyses presented in this volume provides a global perspective on NOS from elementary to college level and discusses the practical implications in various regions across the globe. Contributing authors highlight the similarities and differences in NOS representations and provide recommendations for future science textbooks. This comprehensive analysis is a definitive reference work for the field of science education.
Download or read book Research Methodologies Innovations and Philosophies in Software Systems Engineering and Information Systems written by Mora, Manuel and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophical paradigms, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies make up the answering and problem solving systems that define current research approaches. While there are multiple research method books, the subject lacks an update and integrated source of reference for graduate courses. Research Methodologies, Innovations and Philosophies in Software Systems Engineering and Information Systems aims to advance scientific knowledge on research approaches used in systems engineering, software engineering, and information systems and to update and integrate disperse and valuable knowledge on research approaches. This aims to be a collection of knowledge for PhD students, research-oriented faculty, and instructors of graduate courses.
Download or read book Critical Appraisal of Physical Science as a Human Enterprise written by Mansoor Niaz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-02-07 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is generally believed that doing science means accumulating empirical data with no or little reference to the interpretation of the data based on the scientist’s th- retical framework or presuppositions. Holton (1969a) has deplored the widely accepted myth (experimenticism) according to which progress in science is presented as the inexorable result of the pursuit of logically sound conclusions from un- biguous experimental data. Surprisingly, some of the leading scientists themselves (Millikan is a good example) have contributed to perpetuate the myth with respect to modern science being essentially empirical, that is carefully tested experim- tal facts (free of a priori conceptions), leading to inductive generalizations. Based on the existing knowledge in a field of research a scientist formulates the guiding assumptions (Laudan et al. , 1988), presuppositions (Holton, 1978, 1998) and “hard core” (Lakatos, 1970) of the research program that constitutes the imperative of presuppositions, which is not abandoned in the face of anomalous data. Laudan and his group consider the following paraphrase of Kant by Lakatos as an important guideline: philosophy of science without history of science is empty. Starting in the 1960s, this “historical school” has attempted to redraw and replace the positivist or logical empiricist image of science that dominated for the first half of the twentieth century. Among other aspects, one that looms large in these studies is that of “guiding assumptions” and has considerable implications for the main thesis of this monograph (Chapter 2).
Download or read book Innovating Science Teacher Education written by Mansoor Niaz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How teachers view the nature of scientific knowledge is crucial to their understanding of science content and how it can be taught. This book presents an overview of the dynamics of scientific progress and its relationship to the history and philosophy of science, and then explores their methodological and educational implications and develops innovative strategies based on actual classroom practice for teaching topics such the nature of science, conceptual change, constructivism, qualitative-quantitative research, and the role of controversies, presuppositions, speculations, hypotheses, and predictions. Field-tested in science education courses, this book is designed to involve readers in critically thinking about the history and philosophy of science and to engage science educators in learning how to progressively introduce various aspects of ‘science-in-the-making’ in their classrooms, to promote discussions highlighting controversial historical episodes included in the science curriculum, and to expose their students to the controversies and encourage them to support, defend or critique the different interpretations. Innovating Science Teacher Education offers guidelines to go beyond traditional textbooks, curricula, and teaching methods and innovate with respect to science teacher education and classroom teaching.
Download or read book Innovating Science Teacher Education written by Mansoor Niaz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an overview of the history and philosophy of science, explores its methodological and educational implications, and develops innovative teaching strategies, based on actual classroom practice, that emphasize ‘science-in-the-making'.
Download or read book Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning written by Jaap Boonstra and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook focuses on the complex processes and problems of organizational change and relates current knowledge of individual and group psychology to the understanding of the dynamics of change. Complementary and competing insights are presented as overviews of theory and research Offers helpful insights about choosing models and methods in specific situations Chapters by international authors of the highest quality
Download or read book Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences written by Jaan Valsiner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All psychological processes—like biological and social ones—are dynamic. Phenomena of nature, society, and the human psyche are context bound, constantly changing, and variable. This feature of reality is often not recognized in the social sciences where we operate with averaged data and with homogeneous stereotypes, and consider our consistency to be the cornerstone of rational being. Yet we are all inconsistent in our actions within a day, or from, one day to the next, and much of such inconsistency is of positive value for our survival and development. Our inconsistent behaviors and thoughts may appear chaotic, yet there is generality within this highly variable dynamic. The task of scientific methodologies—qualitative and quantitative—is to find out what that generality is. It is the aim of this handbook to bring into one framework various directions of construction of methodology of the dynamic processes that exist in the social sciences at the beginning of the 21st century. This handbook is set up to bring together pertinent methodological scholarship from all over the world, and equally from the quantitative and qualitative orientations to methodology. In addition to consolidating the pertinent knowledge base for the purposes of its further growth, this book serves the major educational role of bringing practitioners—students, researchers, and professionals interested in applications—the state of the art know-how about how to think about extracting evidence from single cases, and about the formal mathematical-statistical tools to use for these purposes.
