Pro oder Kontra Nanotechnologie? Unterstützung von kritischem Denken und reflektiertem Urteilen im Museum

In the research framework proposed in this dissertation, science exhibitions are conceptualized as dynamic information spaces for knowledge building that are constituted by three major pathways of knowledge communication: museum-to-visitor, visitor-to-visitor, and visitor-to-museum knowledge communication. It is argued that advanced technologies have the potential to support all forms of visitor-to-visitor knowledge communication but additionally, they allow for new forms of knowledge communication among unacquainted visitors and beyond the actual museum visit. Central learning mechanisms are analysed, namely socio-cognitive conflict, internalization of social processes, giving and receiving help, argumentation, co-construction of knowledge/group cognition, and active participation in knowledge building with regard to their relevance for learning in science exhibitions. Prototypical advanced media applications in science exhibitions that address these mechanisms are presented. These analytical considerations are then applied to examine the learning potential of discussion terminals for the communication of emergent technologies and contemporary science topics. For this purpose, a specific exhibition about nanotechnology is used as context. The specific challenge in communicating contemporary science topics is the fact that these topics are often discussed controversially, and science museums therefore face the challenge to adequately represent the ongoing public debate around such issues and to support their visitors in critical thinking and reflective judgement. Discussion terminals are introduced as innovative kind of discussion-based media installations that both can foster individual opinion formation processes and allow for opinion exchange and debate among visitors. In a first study, the impact of expression of opinion and salience of arguments on participants’ argument repertoire, opinion quality, and attitudes towards nanotechnology was tested in a 2x2 experimental design. Expression of opinion was revealed to have an impact on the argument repertoire but was not sufficient for formation of high-quality opinions. In contrary, asking for an overall judgement only seems to trigger top-down processes of opinion formation, that is, opinions and attitudes are formed that are highly dependent from prior attitudes and beliefs (confirmation bias, belief bias). Salience of arguments, however, was shown to be important for the formation of well-founded opinions and attitudes that are independent from prior attitudes. However, the Ss still showed a myside bias in their essays on their personal opinion, that is, they were indeed enabled to generate a valid rationale to support their personal opinion but failed to integrate counterarguments and arguments to refute these counterarguments. This ability, however, is considered as major indicator for good informal reasoning and critical thinking. Thus, study 2 aims at specifying the potential of discussion-based installations to reduce the myside bias in judgement. Encountering disagreement at the discussion terminal was proposed to be a major promoter of critical thinking and reflective judgement: Both awareness of what other people think and some understanding why they think so should foster deliberate opinion formation that takes also counterarguments into account. The assumption that a major potential of discussion-based installations is confronting visitors with the opposing view of others was tested in a second study. Disagreement with others' judgement was shown to reduce the myside bias in the participants’ argument repertoire. Furthermore, disagreement led to higher scores in reflective judgement and improved quality of counterargument generation and rebuttal construction indicating that the study participants deliberately elaborated on the reasons why other people disagreed and were thereby enabled to construct valid rebuttals of others’ counterarguments. Both studies imply that a discussion terminal - when designed carefully - is a valuable facilitator of critical thinking and reflective judgement about contemporary science topics.Im Zentrum der Arbeit stehen die Konzepte „kritisches Denken“ und „reflektiertes Urteilen“: Moderne Wissenschaftsmuseen wollen heute nicht nur Faktenwissen vermitteln, sondern gerade bei gesellschaftlich relevanten und kontrovers diskutierten Wissenschaftsthemen den Besucher mit Perspektiven aus unterschiedlichen Wissenschaftsdisziplinen bekannt machen und ihn befähigen, sich selbst eine Meinung zum Thema zu bilden. Der Besucher muss dazu die Fähigkeit haben, relevante Argumente zu evaluieren, pro und kontra Perspektiven zu integrieren und somit ein eigenes reflektiertes Urteil zu bilden. Die Autorin führt Erkenntnisse der kognitiven Psychologie (reasoning and decision making), der Sozialpsychologie (attitude formation and change) und aus dem Bereich des naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts (classroom debate und argumentation) an um aufzuzeigen, dass Museumsbesucher in ihrem kritischen Denken und reflektiertem Urteilen gezielt unterstützt werden müssen. Demnach steht im Dissertationsprojekt auch die Frage im Vordergrund, wie man die Meinungsbildung zu komplexen und kontroversen Wissenschaftsthemen im Kontext einer Science & Technology-Ausstellung unterstützen kann. In Teil I der Dissertation wird das Setting „Wissenschaftsmuseum“ als komplexer Wissenskommunikationsraum konzeptualisiert, in dem vor allem der Kommunikation zwischen den Besuchen großes Potenzial für Wissenserwerb und Meinungsbildung zugesprochen wird. Zentrale Mechanismen des kollaborativen Lernens werden auf den Museumskontext übertragen. Insbesondere die Mechanismen „Argumentieren“ und „soziokognitiver Konflikt“ werden als zentral für die Unterstützung kritischen Denkens und reflektiertem Urteilens betrachtet. Diese analytische Betrachtung erlaubt in Teil II der Dissertation die Identifikation relevanter Faktoren für das Design innovativer Medienstationen, die diese Lernmechanismen explizit adressieren und damit auch das Potenzial haben, Meinungsbildung im Museum gezielt zu unterstützen. Da eine klare Konzeptualisierung kritischen Denkens und reflektierten Urteilens für den Kontext „Wissenschaftsmuseum“ bisher fehlte, erfolgt zunächst die Integration relevanter Erkenntnisse aus der kognitiven, der pädagogischen und der Sozialpsychologie sowie die Übertragung zentraler Konzepte und Indikatoren einer „guten“ Meinung aus den Forschungsbereichen Science Communication/Science Education und Public Opinion Research. Auf Basis dieser theoretischen Diskussion erfolgen sowohl eine sorgfältige Konzeptualisierung und die darauf aufbauende Operationalisierung von „kritischem Denken“ und „reflektiertem Urteilen“. Identifizierte relevante kognitive Prozesse sind dann die Grundlage für das Design einer Medieninstallation für eine Ausstellung zum Thema Nanotechnologie. Dabei wird der Trend aufgegriffen, im Rahmen von Ausstellungen zu aktuellen und kontrovers diskutierten Wissenschaftsthemen Medieninstallationen zum Meinungsaustausch zwischen Besuchern - so genannte Diskussions- oder Meinungsterminals - zu integrieren, an denen der Museumsbesucher die Möglichkeit zu hat, an aktuellen Debatten um wichtige Wissenschaftsthemen wie Gentechnik, Nanotechnologie oder Klimaänderung teilzunehmen, wichtige Perspektiven und Argumente kennen zu lernen, die eigene Meinung mitzuteilen und Meinungen anderer Besucher kennen zu lernen. Inwieweit ein Diskussionsterminal dazu beitragen kann, Wissenserwerb und Meinungsbildung zu dem sehr kontrovers diskutierten und ambivalenten Thema Nanotechnologie zu fördern, wurde in zwei Experimenten untersucht. Experiment 1 untersucht dabei vor allem den individuellen kognitiven Prozeß der Meinungsbildung. Studie 2 verknüpft theoretische Annahmen der kognitiven und der Sozialpsychologie, um den Effekt von konträren Besuchermeinungen auf das individuelle Urteil zu untersuchen. In beiden experimentellen Studien konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass das konzipierte Meinungsterminal kritisches Denken und reflektiertes Urteilen in Wissenschaftsmuseen unterstützen kann. Insbesondere die Salienz relevanter Pro- und Kontra-Argumente (Studie 1) erwies sich als ausschlaggebend für eine Bewertung, die unabhängig ist von Voreinstellungen. Die Möglichkeit, die Meinung anderer Besucher und dabei auch Gegenpositionen kennen zu lernen (Studie 2), trug in großem Maße dazu bei, dass auch Gegenargumente in die eigene Bewertung einfließen und somit die Qualität der eigenen Meinung steigt. In einer abschließenden Diskussion werden theoretische, methodische und praktische Implikationen ausführlich diskutiert

Collective rumination: When "problem talk" impairs organizational resilience

When adversity strikes, organization members often turn to others in order to vent their negative emotions and re-ceive social support. While social interaction is commonly seen as a major resource for organizational resilience, dysfunctional social interactions and their negative effects on coping with and overcoming adversity are less well understood. This conceptual article develops theory on collective rumination— defined as repetitive and prolonged discussions of adverse events that center on the negative and uncontrollable aspects of the situation— and its detrimental effects on organizational resilience. We elaborate that collective rumination emerges through a vicious circle of a shared negative situational assessment and mutual contagion with highly negative emotions. Based on our theorizing, we propose that collective rumination is negatively related to three core dimensions of organizational resilience: perceptions of control, commitment to joint action, and the acceptance of adversity as a challenge. With our conceptual article, we answer earlier calls to theorize about forms of social interactions that are not valuable but destructive for organizational resilience and elucidate previously neglected social dynamics that are dysfunctional for recovering from adversity

Shedding Light on Team Adaptation: Does Experience Matter?

Investigating the team adaptation process in two laboratory experiments (N = 144 teams, n = 504 participants), we found no benefits for teams with team adaptation experience (vs. without) nor for teams with external team adaptation experience (vs. with internal experience). Collective experience under routine and nonroutine conditions seems to provide teams with the resources to adapt. We further found that executing the team adaptation process did not always lead to high team performance; different team performance requirements might explain these findings. We discuss how our experimental findings can extend our understanding of team adaptation toward new boundary conditions

A Strategic Framework for Achieving Sustainability and Resilience in Global Supply Chains

In order to achieve sustainability and resilience at the same time in global supply chains, a strategic framework and ecosystem collaboration is required to orchestrate the activities of the different supply chain participants to achieve a common goal. While the necessity of ecosystems is understood and accepted, the successful implementation of those remains a challenge. This paper looks from the perspective of practitioners at this challenge, identifying the critical success factors to make a collaboration ecosystem work. Based on the analysis of existing strategy concepts, ESG frameworks and of several ecosystems, a strategy framework is developed that can serve as a blueprint to successfully create global value networks that balance sustainability and resilience concerns using data and analytics

Unlocking Women's Leadership Potential: A Curricular Example for Developing Female Leaders in Academia

Women in academia face unique challenges when it comes to advancing to professorship. Using latest research about gender and academic leadership, we present a training curriculum that is sensitive to the unique demands of women in and aspiring to leadership positions in academia. The context-specific and evidence-based approach and a focus on self-directed leadership development are unique characteristics of the training. It aims to enhance women's motivation to lead, increase their knowledge about academic leadership, and empower them to seek the support they need to proactively work toward appointment to a professorship. We also delineate an evaluation framework, which addresses these targeted outcomes. The findings from a pilot program in Germany confirmed that the curriculum is effective in developing women as academic leaders. The discussion highlights the significance of a context-specific and evidence-based approach to women's leadership development in academia

Prokayrotic Ubiquitin-Like Protein (Pup) Proteome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the first known post-translational small protein modifier in prokaryotes, and targets several proteins for degradation by a bacterial proteasome in a manner akin to ubiquitin (Ub) mediated proteolysis in eukaryotes. To determine the extent of pupylation in Mtb, we used tandem affinity purification to identify its “pupylome”. Mass spectrometry identified 55 out of 604 purified proteins with confirmed pupylation sites. Forty-four proteins, including those with and without identified pupylation sites, were tested as substrates of proteolysis in Mtb. Under steady state conditions, the majority of the test proteins did not accumulate in degradation mutants, suggesting not all targets of pupylation are necessarily substrates of the proteasome under steady state conditions. Four proteins implicated in Mtb pathogenesis, Icl (isocitrate lyase), Ino1 (inositol-1-phosphate synthase), MtrA (Mtb response regulator A) and PhoP (phosphate response regulator P), showed altered levels in degradation defective Mtb. Icl, Ino1 and MtrA accumulated in Mtb degradation mutants, suggesting these proteins are targeted to the proteasome. Unexpectedly, PhoP was present in wild type Mtb but undetectable in the degradation mutants. Taken together, these data demonstrate that pupylation regulates numerous proteins in Mtb and may not always lead to degradation