Evaluating Science And Scientists

This book examines scientific evidence in both civil and criminal contexts.

This text uses non-technical vocabulary to explain the research process. It covers six problem areas: limitations of science; preparing for research; measurement; research designs; data analysis; and philosophical issues.

What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as: When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of scienceâ€"about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science educationâ€"teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.

The shift to a market economy in post-communist Eastern Europe has had a profound impact on science and scientists across the region, leading to reforms in research management practices and to drastic cuts in funding levels everywhere. Many countries are moving to a system of competitive research grants awarded on the basis of peer review. The introduction of peer review is not simply a technical matter. It signifies a fundamental change in the social structure of science, enhancing profession-al autonomy and giving working scientists a voice in the allocation of resources. This book combines first-hand accounts of the reform process with analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of both peer review and quantitative indicators.

Contents: Leon KOJ: Methodology and values. - Leon KOJ: Science as system. - Adam GROBLER: Explanation and epistemic virtue. - Piotr GIZA: Intelligent computer systems and theory comparison. - Henryk OGRYZKO-WIEWIEROWSKI: Methods of social choice of scientific theories. - Kazimierz JODKOWSKI: Is the causal theory of reference a remedy for ontological incommensurability? - Wolfgang BALZER: On approximative reduction. - C. ULISES MOULINES: Is there genuinely scientific progress? - Adam JONKISZ: On relative progress in science."

Evaluation researchers are tasked with providing the evidence to guide programme building and to assess its outcomes. As such, they labour under the highest expectations - bringing independence and objectivity to policy making. They face huge challenges, given the complexity of modern interventions and the politicised backdrop to all of their investigations. They have responded with a huge portfolio of research techniques and, through their professional associations, have set up schemes to establish standards for evaluative inquiry and to accredit evaluation practitioners. A big question remains. Has this monumental effort produced a progressive, cumulative and authoritative body of knowledge that we might think of as evaluation science? This is the question addressed by Ray Pawson in this sequel to Realistic Evaluation and Evidence-based Policy. In answer, he provides a detailed blueprint for an evaluation science based on realist principles.

Reforms in the evaluation and funding of scientific research are a key element in the broader process of economic reform in Eastern Europe. This text examines the introduction of competitive funding systems based on peer review, surveys Western experience in the design and management of evaluation systems, and offers suggestions for dealing with some of the problems encountered by East European reformers. This text is aimed at postgraduate and upper-level undergraduate courses on science policy, the sociology of science and science and society.