The structure of knowledge and departmental social organization

Adkison, Judith A.

doi:10.1007/bf00154586

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…Not only are logical structures and truth criteria tighter in the sciences, physical scientists tend to exhibit more agreement over content but also tighter decision-making processes in the department (Lodahl & Gordon, 1972;Adkinson, 1976). In the Lodahl and Gordon study, however, when professors were asked to judge how much course content would vary among comparable courses in departments in the same discipline, on a scale from 1 (very little) to 10 (a lot), means for physics (3.6) and chemistry (4.7) were not substantially lower than the means for sociology (4.9) and political science (5.8).…”

Section: Between Organizing Principles and Truth Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge and the university curriculum

Donald

1986

High Educ

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What are students learning in university? Can this learning be measured? We do not at this time possess a conceptual framework for understanding what and how knowledge is acquired in different university disciplines. A framework for the acquisition of knowledge would have to account for the manner in which forms of knowledge differ. Disciplinars? differences could be expected to occur at four levels: in the nature of the concepts used; in the logical structure of the discipline; in the truth criteria used; and in the methods employed in the discipline. In this article, such a framework is tested on university courses representative of different disciplines. At the most basic level, characteristics of the most important concepts used in courses across disciplines are investigated. The characteristics include concept familiarity, generality and abstractness. At a second level, differences in the logical structure of disciplines are examined through analysis of the relationships between course concepts, the structure of propositions in the field, and organizing principles which play a major role in the discipline. The truth criteria used by various disciplines suggest more global differences which would affect the acquisition of knowledge. Finally, the methods considered important in different disciplines, and their effect on the development of students' intellectual skills, complete the portrayal of the parameters of knowledge and the university curriculum. Directions for future research are discussed.

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Section: Between Organizing Principles and Truth Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge and the university curriculum

Donald

1986

High Educ

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“…The latter can be penetrated by those students who become teachers and to that extent the progress through BSc and PhD forms an initiation rite into the profession defined by the boundaries of the departmental discipline. An interesting study on how the strength of this boundary is affected by the nature of the discipline is provided by Adkison (1979). Halsey & Trow (1971) draw attention to the power of departments and their professorial heads, and this is strongly confirmed by Moodie & Eustace (1974) who state that "whatever the precise boundaries of departmental autonomy, its existence makes of every university a 'federal' structure rather than a strongly centralised system".…”

Section: The Departmental Ethosmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Even there, great care is needed. Berg & Ostergren (1977, 1979 have shown that, because of the independence of universities, resistances may be created even by external rewards (see below).…”

Section: Departments Under Threatmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…I shall follow in this the approach of Lewin (1961), which has been applied to curricula developments in higher education by Schein (1972) and by Berg & Ostergren (1977, 1979.…”

Section: The Process Of Changementioning

confidence: 98%

“…It will therefore be of particular interest to see how the similar innovations of more recent vintage in other countries will fare over the next 5-10 years, in particular the new universities in Australia and the innovative courses in Sweden, whose progress so far has been so spendidly analysed (Berg & Ostergren, 1977, 1979.…”

Section: The Departmental Ethosmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Can universities change?

Elton

1981

Studies in Higher Education

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The article applies Lewin's theory of change to the question of change in universities which, it is contended, are peculiarly resistant to change. Illustrations are provided by analyses of an attempt to change academic staff through a conference and action programme, of the failure of inter-disciplinary courses to establish themselves, and of the effect of economic pressures on universities. It is argued that the structure of universities through single-discipline departments provides a powerful conservative influence and that a small but significant step towards making change more likely could come about through forms of staff development. In line with Lewin's theory, it is suggested that small earmarked grants to innovators are likely to have an effect out of all proportion to their size, as was indeed the case when the UGC gave a very small grant in 1972 for the improvement of teaching.

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Core Competencies: The Challenge For Graduate Peace and Conflict Studies Education

2009

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This article uses a case study of the assessment of a graduate program in negotiations and conflict management as a springboard for discussing several critical, but unanswered questions in our field. It raises questions regarding the lack of clear core competencies and expectations regarding curricula at the graduate-level of peace and conflict studies programs, as well as concerns over how educators in this field can or should assess their own work and train students for practice. It also addresses, via a comparative case analysis in Tajikistan, the degree to which the competencies and pedagogical approaches in this field are culturally bound. The picture that emerges from these case studies suggests that there have been important omissions in the way that the varied educational programs and the larger peace and conflict studies field itself have developed thus far.Re´sume´-COMPÉ TENCES FONDAMENTALES : LE DÉ FI D'UN ENSEIGNE-MENT POUR DIPLÔ MÉ S DES É TUDES DE LA PAIX ET DU CONFLIT -Cet article utilise une e´tude de cas de l'e´valuation d'un programme pour diploˆme´s de ne´gociations et de gestion de conflits comme un tremplin pour discuter de plusieurs questions critiques mais reste´es sans re´ponse dans notre domaine. Il soule`ve des questions concernant aussi bien le manque de compe´tences fondamentales claires et les attentes concernant les programmes d'e´tudes au niveau diploˆme´des e´tudes de la paix et du conflit, que les pre´occupations quant a`la fac¸on dont les e´ducateurs peuvent ou devraient e´valuer leur propre travail dans ce domaine et former des e´tudiants pour la pratique. Il aborde e´galement, par l'interme´diaire d'une e´tude de cas comparative au Tadjikistan, le degre´auquel les compe´tences et les approches pe´dagogiques dans ce domaine sont culturellement lie´es. L'image qui e´merge de ces e´tudes de cas sugge`re qu'il y a eu d'importantes omissions dans la manie`re dont les programmes e´ducatifs divers et le champ plus large des e´tudes de la paix et du conflit lui-meˆme se sont de´veloppe´s jusqu'a`pre´sent.

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The structure of knowledge and departmental social organization

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

Knowledge and the university curriculum

Knowledge and the university curriculum

Can universities change?

Core Competencies: The Challenge For Graduate Peace and Conflict Studies Education

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