Showing papers on "Judgement published in 2004"

Still no pedagogy? Principle, pragmatism and compliance in primary education

Abstract: This article revisits Brian Simon's 1981 judgement that for deep‐seated historical reasons English education lacks a coherent and principled pedagogy. Given that since 1997 the tide of educational centralisation has added teaching methods to those aspects of schooling which the UK government and/or its agencies seek to prescribe, it is appropriate to test the continuing validity of Simon's claim by reference to a major policy initiative in the pedagogical domain: the government's Primary Strategy, published in May 2003. This article defines pedagogy as both the act of teaching and its attendant discourse and postulates three domains of ideas, values and evidence by which both are necessarily framed. It then critically assesses the Primary Strategy's account of some of the components of pedagogy thus defined, notably learning, teaching, curriculum and culture, and the political assumptions which appear to have shaped them. On this basis, the Primary Strategy is found to be ambiguous and possibly dishonest,...

Is there a ‘Democratic Deficit’ in World Politics? A Framework for Analysis

Abstract: Many scholars, commentators and politicians assert that international organizations suffer from a severe ‘democratic deficit’. This article proposes a basic framework for evaluating this applied ethical critique of global governance. It rests on two criteria. The first, philosophical coherence, dictates consistent adherence to one or more conception of democratic legitimacy (libertarian, pluralist, social democratic or deliberative). The second, pragmatic appropriateness, requires that any philosophical standard be calibrated to reasonable expectations in the ‘second-best’ world constrained by transaction costs, commitment problems, and justice claims. The latter judgement is in large part empirical, for which existing constitutional practices in advanced industrial democracies provide the most reasonable baseline. By these two criteria – regardless of which specific conception of democracy is adopted as a starting point – the European Union appears to be democratically legitimate. This establishes a point of democratic legitimacy on the continuum of international institutions that could be analysed using this framework.

Improving judgement with prepaid expert advice

Abstract: Decision makers (“Judges”) often make decisions after obtaining advice from an Advisor. The two parties often share a psychological “contract” about what each contributes in expertise to the decision and receives in monetary outcomes from it. In a laboratory experiment, we varied Advisor Experitise and the opportunity for monetary rewards. As expected, these manipulations influenced advice quality, advice taking, and Judge post-advice decision quality. The main contribution of the study, however, was the manipulation of the timing of monetary rewards (before or after the advising interaction). We found, as predicted, that committing money for expert—but not novice—advice increases Judges' use of advice and their subsequent estimation accuracy. Implications for advice giving and taking are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A framework for teaching

Abstract: Teaching, like other professions, involves the performance of contingent functions. This suggests three basic questions: What do teachers do? What affects what they do? How do they do it? Together, these questions provide a three-dimensional framework which can be used to plan, analyse and evaluate teaching. Such a framework falls short of a prescriptive theory but can inform the judgements that teachers and students make. It also offers one way of conceptualising teaching as a unitary discipline.

Uncertainty and monetary policy

Abstract: Keynes's philosophical analysis of decision making under uncertainty. It is concluded that more analytical attention needs to be devoted to agents' own model uncertainty, and to judgement. But ultimately the scope for synthesis between the model uncertainty and Keynes uncertainty approaches rests on whether or not the subject matter is such that knowledge of it is best represented by one formal model.

Plausibility judgement in schizophrenic patients: Evidence for a liberal acceptance bias

Abstract: Previous work conducted with the probabilistic reasoning task has provided support for the claim that patients with delusional disorder and schizophrenia display a jumping to conclusions bias (early decisions on the basis of little evidence). Various explanations for this response pattern have been proposed. The goal of the present study was to provide further insight into the underlying mechanism(s) of this reasoning bias using a novel task for which competing accounts of the jumping to conclusions bias make opposing predictions. Twenty-nine schizophrenic patients and 28 healthy controls were administered pictures from the Thematic Apperception Task (TAT) and were asked to judge the plausibility of various interpretations for each picture. The results demonstrated that patients gave relatively high plausibility ratings for those interpretations that were judged as poor or unlikely by controls, but did not display abnormality on interpretations judged as good or excellent by controls. Contrary to a strict jumping to conclusions account, patients did not converge on one particular interpretation, but rather pursued multiple alternatives. Liberal acceptance is seen as a possible contributor to the emergence or maintenance of delusions: initial ambivalence may subsequently promote the acceptance of fallible interpretations.(German J Psychiatry 2004; 7: 66 -74).

Humanizing science education

Abstract: This paper argues that the diverse curriculum reform agendas associated with science education are strongly and critically associated with the educational characteristics of the humanities The article begins with a survey of interpretations of the distinctive contribution which the humanities make to educational purposes From this survey four general characteristics of the humanities are identified: an appeal to an autonomous self with the right and capacity to make independent judgements and interpretations; indeterminacy in the subject matter of these judgements and interpretations; a focus on meaning, in the context of human responses, actions, and relationships, and especially on the ethical, aesthetic, and purposive; and finally, the possibility of commonality in standards of judgement and interpretation, under conditions of indeterminacy Inquiry and science technology and society (STS) orientated curriculum development agendas within science education are explored in the light of this analysis It is argued that the four characteristics identified are central to the educational purposes of these and other less prominent modes of curriculum development in science, though not unproblematically so In the light of this discussion the prognosis and challenges for science curriculum development are explored © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc Sci Ed88: 762–784, 2004

: From inference to reasoning: The construction of rationality

Abstract: Inference is elementary and ubiquitous: Cognition always goes beyond the data. Thinking—including problem solving, decision making, judgement, planning, and argumentation—is here defined as the deliberate application and coordination of one's inferences to serve one's purposes. Reasoning, in turn, is epistemologically self-constrained thinking in which the application and coordination of inferences is guided by a metacognitive commitment to what are deemed to be justifiable inferential norms. The construction of rationality, in this view, involves increasing consciousness and control of logical and other inferences. This metacognitive conception of rationality begins with logic rather than ending with it, and allows for developmental progress without positing a state of maturity.

Risk Assessment: Actuarial Prediction and Clinical Judgement of Offending Incidents and Behaviour for Intellectual Disability Services

Abstract: Background Research on prediction of violent and sexual offending behaviour has developed considerably in the mainstream criminological literature. Apart from one publication [Quinsey (2004)Offenfers with Developmental Disabilities, pp. 131–142] this has not been extended to the field of intellectual disabilities. Methods Work on actuarial instruments, dynamic variables, clinical judgement and structured clinical judgement is reviewed. Results A number of studies comparing actuarial instruments in terms of their predictive validity are reviewed. Relative effectiveness and applicability to intellectual disability is considered. A framework for dynamic variables is outlined and the importance of dynamic variables for inclusion in risk prediction is established. Strengths and limitations of clinical judgement are reported and the importance of reliability is noted. Finally, structured clinical judgement is reviewed in terms of the way in which it combines the other three groups of variables. Conclusions The information regarding different methods of risk assessment is integrated with research and opinion contained in the Special Issue. Risk prediction will always be a judgement and as such there will always be errors in judgement. As clinicians, researchers and policy makers it is our duty to employ the latest research information to make predictions that are as accurate as possible. However, we must also help to promote a culture that can be tolerant of inevitable errors.

What is happening when we assess, and how can we use our understanding of this to improve assessment?

Abstract: In an attempt to gain a fuller understanding of the basis of grading, ten assessors each assessed two portfolios drawn from the course archive which had been produced by participants on a course in teaching in higher education. Assessors gave a grade or judgement on each of a portfolio's 75 portfolio elements, reasons for each judgement they made, and recorded any alternative judgement they had considered. There were substantial differences between the judgements made during the study and those made when the portfolios were originally assessed. This article explores the differences between the original and experimental assessments, and then analyses reasons given by assessors for the judgements made. Beyond these particulars, the paper suggests some fundamental and problematic issues about the conduct and the reform of assessment, and offers a process which can be used to investigate and improve the quality, in particular the reliability, of any summative assessment.

What Counts as Evidence in Self-Studies of Teacher Education Practices

Abstract: Answers to this question depend on what you and I are looking for and the contextual influences in our ways of seeing. Each reader could be looking for something different. My gaze is focused on evidence from the self-studies of teacher education practices that show contributions to the growth of educational knowledge. These contributions include my own self-study ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’ as a teacher-educator and educational researcher at the University of Bath between 1973–2003. I will undoubtedly bring some of my biases as a white, middle-class male, working in the Academy, into this enquiry. However, I have learnt much about my own biases from the enquiries of others who work with different perspectives to my own. My analysis of this learning is focused on the evidence of five kinds of contribution to the growth of educational knowledge. These contributions are to educational theories, to educational standards of judgement, to educational research methodologies, to the logic of educational enquiries and to understandings of educational influence. The evidence of understanding educational influence is considered in the education of the s-step researcher, in the education of others, and in the education of social formations.

Judgement post-stratification with imprecise rankings.

Abstract: SUMMARY. Judgement post-stratification, which is based on ideas similar to those in ranked set sampling, relies on the ability of a ranker to forecast the ranks of potential observations on a set of units. In practice, the authors sometimes find it difficult to assign these ranks. This note shows how one can borrow techniques from the literature on finite population sampling to allow a probabilistic ranking of the units in a set, thus facilitating use of these sampling plans and improving estimation. The same techniques provide one approach to estimation using a judgement post-stratified sample with multiple rankers. The technique is illustrated on allometric data relating brain weight to body weight in different species of mammals, and on a study of student performance in graduate school.

The geographical lives of commodities: problems of analysis and critique

Abstract: In two programmatic essays, Peter Jackson has reviewed new critical research on the geographical lives of commodities. This paper offers a constructive critique of his particular reading of this research. It is argued that three major issues require urgent attention if critical geographers and fellow‐travellers are to take their commodity research forward. First, there is too much imprecision in the use of the related terms ‘commodities’, ‘commodification’ and ‘commoditization’. This threatens to render all three terms meaningless or at the very least confusing. Secondly, this lack of conceptual clarity is linked to the problem of superficial engagements with normative issues. It is argued that the recent geographical research on commodities has thus far glossed over important questions of both academic and lay judgement. Finally, the paper suggests that the ‘modest’ role for critical academics envisaged by Jackson and other commodity researchers is only defensible if questions of voice, message and audie...

Research Ethics Committees: Differences and Moral Judgement

Abstract: Many people argue that disagreements and inconsistencies between Research Ethics Committees are morally problematic and there has been much effort to 'harmonise' their judgements. Some inconsistencies are bad because they are due to irrationality, or carelessness, or the operation of conflicting interests, and so should be reduced or removed. Other inconsistencies, we argue, are not bad and should be left or even encouraged. In this paper we examine three arguments to reject the view that we should strive for complete consistency between committees. The first argument is that differences in judgement are not necessarily incompatible with ideas of justice for patients who are potential participants of research reviewed by different committees. We call this 'the justice argument.' The second argument is that such committees do not have access to a single moral truth, to which their judgement is supposed to correspond. We call this the 'moral pluralism argument.' The third argument is that the process of ethics committee review is also morally relevant and not solely the outcome. We call this the 'due process argument.' While we fall short of establishing exactly how much variation and on what substantive issues would be ethically permissible, we show that it is largely inevitable and that a certain amount of variation could be seen as a desirable part of the institution of medical research.

Schizophrenia (2nd edn)

Abstract: Eight years have passed since the first edition of this scholarly and definitive compendium of our knowledge of schizophrenia. I am not a psychiatrist, and my main credential for passing judgement on the book is sympathy for medical scientists working on an intractable problem, even if it is not in

Research ethics committees: differences and moral judgement.

Abstract: Many people argue that disagreements and inconsistencies between Research Ethics Committees are morally problematic and there has been much effort to ‘harmonise’ their judgements. Some inconsistencies are bad because they are due to irrationality, or carelessness, or the operation of conflicting interests, and so should be reduced or removed. Other inconsistencies, we argue, are not bad and should be left or even encouraged. In this paper we examine three arguments to reject the view that we should strive for complete consistency between committees. The first argument is that differences in judgement are not necessarily incompatible with ideas of justice for patients who are potential participants of research reviewed by different committees. We call this ‘the justice argument.’ The second argument is that such committees do not have access to a single moral truth, to which their judgement is supposed to correspond. We call this the ‘moral pluralism argument.’ The third argument is that the process of ethics committee review is also morally relevant and not solely the outcome. We call this the ‘due process argument.’ While we fall short of establishing exactly how much variation and on what substantive issues would be ethically permissible, we show that it is largely inevitable and that a certain amount of variation could be seen as a desirable part of the institution of medical research.

The conversational practicality of value judgement

Abstract: Analyses of moral value judgements must meet a practicality requirement: moral speech acts characteristically express pro- or con-attitudes, indicate that speakers are motivated in certain ways, and exert influence on others' motivations. Nondescriptivists including Simon Blackburn and Allan Gibbard claim that no descriptivist analysis can satisfy this requirement. I argue first that while the practicality requirement is defeasible, it indeed demands a connection between value judgement and motivation that resembles a semantic or conceptual rather than merely contingent psychological link. I then show how a form of descriptivism, the interest-relational theory, satisfies the requirement as a pragmatic and conversational feature of value judgement – thereby also accommodating its defeasibility. The word ``good'' is always indexed to some set of motivations: when this index is unarticulated in many contexts the speaker conversationally implicates possession of those motivations.

Knowledge of Freedom

Abstract: "All the richness of the imagination," Kant cautions in the Critique of Judgement , "in its lawless freedom produces nothing but nonsense." Nonsense, then, does not befall the imagination like a foreign pathogen; rather, it is the very law of imaginations own "lawlessness." Kant therefore prescribes a rigid antidote: even in the field of the aesthetic, understanding must "severely clip the wings" of imagination and "sacrifice . . . some" of it. (1)

Competence to consent to treatment of geriatric patients: judgements of physicians, family members and the vignette method.

Abstract: Objective In absence of a gold standard of methods to assess competence, three judgements of competency of geriatric patients are evaluated: the judgements of a physician, the judgement of a family member, and the judgement of an instrument. Methods Competence of 80 geriatric patients was judged both by a physician and a family member. Decision making capacity was assessed with a vignette. A vignette describes a treatment choice, after which the following abilities are evaluated: evidencing a choice, understanding, reasoning and appreciating a situation. Cognitive functioning was measured with the Mini-Mental State Examination. Results Most of the geriatric patients were judged competent by all three methods. Disagreement between the three judgements was found for 25 patients. Agreement about incompetence was only reached for one patient. Physicians appeared to be most lenient in their incompetency judgement: only three patients were judged incompetent. These patients scored significantly lower than competent patients on cognitive functioning, the decisional ability of understanding, and the total vignette score. Family members appeared to be most stringent in their judgement: they considered 22 patients incompetent. Incompetent patients scored significantly lower than competent patients on cognitive functioning, reasoning and the total vignette score. Conclusions The disagreement between the judgements suggests a difference in factors given emphasis by the three methods. The finding that both the judgement of physicians and family members are associated with the assessment of the vignette, suggests that the vignette method has more than a legal theoretical base and is associated with daily life experience and knowledge as well. Physicians can be helped to assess competence by the vignette method to evaluate decisional abilities and by family members who can provide more information about patients' values. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

On priority method of triangular fuzzy number complementary judgement matrix

Abstract: This paper studies the multi-attribute decision making problem, in which the decision information takes the form of triangular fuzzy number complementary judgement matrix. Some concepts such as triangular fuzzy number consistent complementary judgement matrix, etc., are given and a linear objective programming model is established. The weight vector of triangular fuzzy complementary judgement matrix is obtained by solving the model. By using a existing priority formula of triangular fuzzy numbers, the decision alternatives are ranked. Finally, a numerical example is given.

Donor, father or parent? Conceiving paternity in the Australian Family Court.

Abstract: Planned parenthood within the international lesbian and gay communities has attracted considerable attention and controversy in the past decade. On 5 April 2002, Guest J of the Family Court of Australia acknowledged a lesbian couple as resident parents of 2-year-old 'Patrick'. This judgement was remarkable in that it signalled a break with the well-documented international legal non-recognition of lesbian non-biological parents. However, the judgement was actually a loss for the two women, who had initiated legal proceedings in a bid to have the biological father's contact visits with the child reduced. Contrary to their wishes, the biological father was awarded increased contact and a notion of 'father' was separated in law from 'parent.' In this article, via analysis of the judgement, several issues are examined. First, one dilemma Guest J was faced with was: are the best interests of a child in a lesbian-parented family served by recognizing a father as a means for a child to make sense of his biological origins, or, by allowing the child to form and maintain a 'father-like' social relationship? This dilemma made visible the somewhat arbitrary and subjective nature of the 'best interests' standard when it comes to deciding between characterizations of paternity that recognize the symbolism of biological connections versus those that recognize the blood tie as grounds for a regular paternal social relationship. In the absence of an obvious 'best interests' conclusion, the judge found himself in the difficult position of assessing both the original terms or intent of the parental agreement between the parties and the quality of the existing social relationship between biological father and child. It is argued that his assessment of both issues was, at times, coloured by an unsubstantiated assumption that the lesbian parents' concept of kinship was irrational. The 'Patrick' case also indicated the extent to which lesbians and gay men may have entirely different expectations and understandings of 'known donor' relationships. This finding is contextualized within broader historical and political developments within lesbian and gay cultures. The author's conclusion is that there is a pressing need for legislative, policy and community-based initiatives to guide and assist individuals who identify with these communities in the task of bringing children into the world.

The RoutledgeFalmer reader in higher education

Abstract: 1. Higher Education as a Field of Research 2. 'Classification' and 'Judgement': Social Class and the 'Cognitive Structures' of Choice in Higher Education 3. Misconception about the Learning Approaches, Motivations and Study Practices of Asian Students 4. Student, Critic and Literary Text: A Discussion of 'Critical Thinking' in a Student Essay 5. The Pressures of Assessment in Undergraduate Courses and their Effect on Student Behaviours 6. Assessment for Learning: The Differing Perceptions of Tutors and Students 7. The Validity of Student Evaluation of Teaching in Higher Education: Love Me, Love My Lectures? 8. Graduate Employment and Work in Selected European Countries 9. The PhD and the Autonomous Self: Gender, Rationaliety and Postgraduate Pedagogy 10. Conceptualising Curriculum Change 11. Coming to Know in Higher Education: Theorising Faculty Entry to New Work Contexts 12. Agency, Context and Change in Academic Development 13. Moving With the Times: An Oral History of a Geography Department 14. Conceptions of Research: A Phenomenographic Study 15. Flights of Imagination: Academic Women Be(com)ing Writers 16. Keeping Up Performances: An International Survey of Performance-Based Funding in Higher Education 17. The Regulation of Transnational Higher Education in Southeast Asia: Case Studies of Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia 18. Globalisation, New Managerialism, Academic Capitalism and Entrepreneurialism in Universities: Is the Local Dimension Still Important? 19. Innovation and Isomorphism: A Case Study of University Identity Struggle 1969-1999

A Longitudinal Study on the Development of Moral Judgement in Korean Nursing Students

Abstract: This longitudinal study examined the development of moral judgement in 37 nursin students attending a university in Suwon, Korea. The participants completed the Korean version of the Defining Issues Test to allow analysis of their level of moral judgement. The development of moral judgement was quantified using 'the moral development score' at each stage (i.e. the six stages detailed by Kohlberg) and the 'P(%) score' (a measure of the overall moral judgement level). The results were as follows: (1) the moral development score for stage 5A was consistently the highest across the four years of the students' course, showing significant differences in some sociodemographic factors including home, birth order and monthly income; and (2) the P(%) score was higher in fourth-year (47.47 +/- 11.21) than in first-year (46.13 +/- 9.73) students. There was no significant difference in the P(%) score according to sociodemographic factors. Further studies will examine in detail the correlation between curriculum and moral judgement development. We suggest that courses in ethics education should be made more relevant.

Medical and nursing clinical decision making: a comparative epistemological analysis.

Abstract: The aim of this article is to explore the complex forms of knowledge involved in diagnostic and interventional decision making by comparing the processes in medicine and nursing, including nurse practitioners. Many authors assert that the practice of clinical decision making involves the application of theoretical knowledge (acquired in the classroom and textbooks) as well as research evidence, upon concrete particular cases. This approach draws on various universal principles and algorithms to facilitate the task. On the other hand, others argue that this involves an intuitive form of judgement that is difficult to teach, one that is acquired principally through experience. In an exploration of these issues, this article consists of three sections. A clarification of terms commonly used when discussing decision making is provided in the first section. In the second section, an epistemological analysis of decision making is presented by examining several perspectives and comparing them for their use in the nursing and medical literature. Bunge's epistemological framework for decision making (based on scientific realism) is explored for its fit with the aims of medicine and nursing. The final section presents a discussion of knowledge utilization and decision making as it relates to the implications for the education and ongoing development of nurse practitioners. It is concluded that Donald Schon's conception of reflective practice best characterizes the skillful conduct of clinical decision making.

Decision making using the analytic hierarchy process in mining engineering

Abstract: Experience and intuition have traditionally been central to decision-making in mining because of the frequent lack of quantitative data. Qualitative analysis is based primarily on the judgement, knowledge and experience of one or more experts. In cases where limited information is available, then subjective probabilities, based on general professional experience, knowledge, and opinion of experts, can be the basis for analysis. A methodology for qualitative decision-making using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) mathematics and sensitivity analyses is presented herein. This paper presents a series of case studies in different mining scenarios to demonstrate the application of AHP. These relate to: investment analysis of new technology; ground support design; tunnelling systems' design; shaft location selection; and mine-planning risk assessment. A review is given of the AHP methodology for qualitative decision making based on field applications.

Bodily Sensibility: Intelligent Action

Abstract: Introduction 1 Bodily Representations, Behaviour and the Brain 2 Demythologizing the Emotions 3 Aesthetic Judgement, Discrepancy and Inquiry 4 Moral Sensibility and Social Cohesion 5 Drives and Explanations Conclusion: Corporeal Representations

Speaking the Incomprehensible God: Thomas Aquinas on the Interplay of Positive and Negative Theology

Abstract: Aimed at specialists in Aquinas and others interested in the God-talk dialogue this book finds that Aquinas' analogy is more a matter of judgement and truth than of concept and meaning; despite his own presuppositions, Aquinas bases his theological analogy more on the insights of faith than reason.