Project Studies: Embeddedness in Field and Theory

How to Be a Better Scientist

Academic research in Canada involving Aboriginal peoples has changed dramatically during the last 20 years. From an academic researcher’s perspective, the changes have recently become formalised in the release of the 2nd edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethics in Human Research. In this article we examine similarities and differences in the way ethical review is constructed and approached from university, Aboriginal and, in particular, Inuit perspectives. We begin our argument with a general comparison of research ethics as expressed in academic and Aboriginal sources in order to find areas of commonality, difference, and potential ambiguity between the two perspectives. We then briefly review our own experience with a multiyear research project involving several Inuit governments of different spatial and administrative scales. We conclude with discussion of a common issue arising from academic research, including our own work with Inuit and the research ethics board chaired by one of the authors. It concerns how to address potential tension between critical inquiry associated with Western scientific paradigms and respect and use of Inuit knowledge within a collaborative research process. In conclusion, we offer some “best practice advice” to academic researchers who face such a dilemma.

H ow worried should you be that getting a Fields medal might destroy your research career? The question seems preposterous, but a recent paper [BD14] by two economists, George Borjas and Kirk Doran, suggests that this is a question that we, the mathematical and scientific community, should consider. Happily, readers over the age of forty do not need to worry, but perhaps young researchers should take this problem seriously. Of course there are so few Fields Medals that the likelihood of being hit by one seems to be virtually zero. Nevertheless, they do not strike randomly. With one exception, only people with a PhD in mathematics have received Fields Medals. Young readers of the Notices of the AMS have a roughly 1:8000 chance of getting one, much higher than being in an airplane crash (about 1:11,000,000),1 a danger many people worry about, but much lower than being considered a nerd (nearly 1:1.1 for mathematicians). Surprisingly, even in the very comprehensive and otherwise excellent encyclopedic volume [Gow08], in Section VIII.6 titled “Advice to a young mathematician,” Atiyah, Connes, and Gowers give not even a hint on what to do should you get a Fields Medal. The paper by Borjas and Doran, while not offering any practical advice, is the first to call attention to this issue. All joking aside, [BD14] is a serious paper about a serious question. The need to understand the right choice of rewards and incentives appears everywhere, from the mundane (should you pay your teenager for taking out the trash?) to some of the basic questions society is wrestling with (should bankers be paid billions?). Labor economists have long tried to understand the optimal level of reward for work done. For a company or organization, but also for society as a whole, it is important to know which rewards encourage better work and which ones do not. There has also been an interest— especially among the intellectual 1 percent—in understanding whether exceptional rewards for exceptional work are the best way to encourage achievement, a question studied by Tournament Theory. The Fields Medals occupy a unique place among the prizes offered for exceptional achievement. Nobel Prizes—perhaps contrary to the original intent—are frequently awarded near the end of a career, at an average age of fifty-nine. Thus, in practice, a Nobel Prizes rewards a lifetime of work. In the economic analysis, its main value is that people who aspire to it work hard before getting it, thereby adding to our store of knowledge. There is no requirement of further scientific work, though many recipients continue to perform exceptionally, occasionally leading to a second Nobel Prize (Bardeen, Curie, Pauling, and Sanger). Janos Kollar is professor of mathematics at Princeton University, and he was a member of the 2014 Fields Medal Committee. His email address is kollar@math. princeton.edu. www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/how-risky-isflying.html.

This case study aims to provide researchers who are interested in developing international research projects with some practical advice in terms of research design and implementation. This case study centres on a transnational higher education research project that occurred in 2014. This study sought to engage faculty members in both the United Kingdom and China, who deliver Sino-British ‘joint programme’ partnerships. This study aimed to understand how the operational activities of faculty members tasked with delivering these partnerships, affected the development of social relationships. As trade in overseas higher education increases, how these relationships develop is important, particularly if transnational higher education partnerships are to survive and generate value over time. This case study outlines in detail four choices the researcher faced when investigating three ...

Qualitative research methods have become more prominent in professional psychology training over recent years, yet there are relatively few published accounts of how students learn to use these methods. In this article we describe the experiences of three British trainee clinical psychologists as they learn to use one qualitative method, Discourse Analysis, for their major research project. Based on these experiences, we discuss key aspects of the research process (e.g. supervision) and delineate dilemmas, theoretical questions, suggestions, and practical advice. Extracts from a group discussion conducted involving the supervisor and supervisees (after the trainees had completed their studies) are provided to illustrate some of these themes.

Scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the need to approach their teaching with the same expectations for evidence that they use in their science. They are coming to recognize that, just as in science research, research on undergraduate science education has a literature as well as standards for practice. I (M.L.L.) am a recent convert to this way of thinking. I taught for 30 years using mostly a lecture style and believed myself quite revolutionary when I used projected images to make cell biological points in class. I now teach using the results of discipline-based education research (DBER) and do my best to use instructional strategies that are demonstrated to improve student learning.

Sustaining diabetes prevention and care interventions: A multiple case study of translational research projects.

While qualitative fieldwork in cross-cultural settings is central to human geography, there has been limited focus in the literature on the expectations and skills required to succeed as a field researcher in this area. Some practical advice is available for researchers who are new to cross-cultural fieldwork (e.g. graduate students, junior faculty members) and for advisers preparing young academics for such endeavours; however, themes are often treated individually rather than as a collective whole. This paper provides suggestions for novice field researchers by drawing on the experiences of four female graduate students engaged in qualitative geographic research. It identifies some major issues that influence the feasibility and efficacy of cross-cultural fieldwork, and provides practical suggestions to help prospective researchers plan for and implement field-based research projects in these contexts.

Primary prevention programmes are recommended for eating disorders as they are debilitating, time-consuming to treat and in some cases fatal. However, current methods have found limited success. Research suggests this is because of both teaching content and teaching style. The aim of this research was to explore the views of adolescent girls on the content and teaching style of primary prevention programmes for eating disorders. A convenience sample of 22 female participants aged 10–14 took part in this qualitative research project, using focus groups and interactive tasks to collect the data. Framework analysis using the framework model developed by Ritchie and Spencer (1994) was used to analyse results. Findings revealed that participants had a basic knowledge of eating disorders and their predisposing risk factors, including the negative impact that the media has on body image. Key recommendations include: improving information sources for young people on eating disorders, practical advice on healthy lifestyles and how to help someone who has an eating disorder and a range of teaching strategies, including effective use of the media to deliver the messages.

The purpose of this chapter is to critically reflect on the practice of conducting grounded theory research as a doctoral student. There will be a reflection on personal experience undertaking a qualitative enquiry for a PhD research project which primarily used a constructivist grounded theory approach. The development of a philosophical perspective will be explored, rationalising a relativist ontological and constructivist epistemological positioning. Discussing the underpinning philosophy will also include the influence of the pragmatist paradigm and a symbolic interactionist theoretical framework. Current political debates about grounded theory research will be examined and related to the methodological choices as a novice researcher. The application of newly learned grounded theory methods within the constructivist grounded theory study will be critiqued, which also integrated dimensional analysis into the research design. The process of being a doctoral student informs the chapter throughout, including support received from supervisors, peers and a grounded theory special interest group. Practical advice and guidance on undertaking grounded theory research for the first time will provide insight to other students and novice researchers considering grounded theory methodology and methods.

Prelims

BackgroundOwing to different governance structures and procedures outside NHS organisations, independent hospices often face challenges to conduct research (Perkins et al., 2014). Yet, The Commission into the Future of Hospice...

This paper reports a study of utilizing the action research educational method to the application and evaluation of the Community of Practice (CoP) principle to individual postgraduate project courses in IT at the Australian National University.Two CoPs were formed, comprising the students enrolled in research and implementation project courses and the project co-ordinator (the author) of the first semesters of 2006 and 2007. The 7 students in the 2006 CoP were predominantly local students, whereas the 10 in the 2007 CoP were almost all international students, having significantly different language and cultural backgrounds. The action research method was applied over two phases each semester, the first in weeks 1--7 (involving 5 meeting sessions), and the second in weeks 10--15 (involving 4 meeting sessions), and also between semesters.Data for evaluation includes student feedback (including an entry and exit survey, and anecdotal remarks), observation of the CoPs, and evaluation of student performance in relevant aspects of their project work.The results of the evaluation indicate that the CoP approach, combined with the action research method, was very effective in teaching research skills and significantly improved the students' project experience. There was consistent evidence of desirable group behavior emerging, including the establishment of a mutually supporting environment. Even through the projects were individual, the commonality of learning research skills and peer feedback was sufficient to establish a cohesive and effective community. A number of design principles and factors that are important to achieve positive results are identified. While this was a limited trial of the approach, we feel that it is promising to apply to technical student projects in other areas, and it is a valuable approach in supporting research-based education.

The aim of this thesis is to comprehensively investigate the reliability of the Functional Movement Screen ™ (FMS). The study presents the findings of a comprehensive reliability study, which demonstrates differences between the intra‐ and inter‐ rater reliability of the FMS. The intra‐rater reliability of the FMS shows excellent levels of agreement (0.86), while the inter‐rater reliability shows moderate levels of agreement (0.57). Further analysis shows that certification status of raters does not affect the reliability, with both certified and non certified raters showing very similar levels of agreement (0.57 & 0.56). In conclusion, a single rater should use the FMS over time to assess subjects in order to maintain reliable data. Comparing athletes using a variety of raters should be avoided, and where possible in‐service training sessions should be provided to raters in order to ensure rating is as similar as possible. This thesis adds much needed research into the understudied area of FMS reliability, while providing practical advice that will benefit practitioners who utilise the FMS in their practice.

In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of incorporating diversity into research projects, focusing on both how they are conducted and their content. Funding organizations have started to require that research applicants pay attention to inclusion and diversity by considering gender dimensions and other diversity factors in their project plans and ensuring gender equality during execution. Based on an extensive literature research and expert discussions on how to develop and implement diversity strategies in large collaborative research projects, we argue that there is a lack of practical advice in existing literature. Drawing from our own experiences in conceptualizing and implementing a Diversity Program across four universities in Germany, we propose a framework for effectively integrating diversity into collaborative research initiatives across various academic fields.