Both critical and applied? Action research and transformative change in the UK water sector

Social research on water is often critical or applied but rarely both. In this chapter, we share our experiences of negotiating tensions of critical and applied action research through the interdisciplinary and cross-sector UK water research project TWENTY65. By stressing a variety of perspectives, and highlighting the plurality of available options, we argue that action research on water can be constructive, collaborative and yet still critical. However, three key issues of performing action research seeking to support transformative change in technical fields are identified. These issues relate to translation and integrity, applicability, and influence. Despite this, we argue that action research is particularly suitable for working in technical fields because these areas significantly impact upon society and the environment and still are dominated by technocratic decision making with limited democratic or social justice input. Action research in technical areas provides an opportunity for social science to present its perspectives outside of ‘normal’ social science contexts, supporting greater attention to ethical, justice and environmental concerns. Applying critical action research to water management enables informed dialogue with technical decision makers, raising and pushing forward socially and environmentally progressive futures

Ein Neues Verfahren zur Messung der Bakteriziden Fähigkeit des Vollblutes

Das oben erwahnte Verfahren hat vor den anderen Methoden besonders die Vorzuge, 1) da&#946; man dadurch zu einem sicheren Resultat gelangen und gleichzeitig auch jedes Datum mit exakten Ziffern zum Ausdruck bringen kann, 2) da&#946; bei diesem Verfahren keineswegs erforderlich ist, eine bestimmte Anzahl von Keimen einschlie&#946;ende Bakterienaufschwemmung herzusteHen und auch Kontrollversuch anzustellen, 3) da&#946; es von den Fehlern des Mischverhaltnisses zwischen der Bakterienlosung und dem Blut nicht so erheblich beeinflu&#946;t wird, und 4) da&#946; man durch dieses Verfahren gleichzeitig mehrere bakterientotende Faktoren untersuchen kann. Ferner hat dieses Verfahren auch den Vorzug, da&#946; es praktisch sehr einfach auszufuhren ist und nur 6 Stunden nach der Blutentnahme bereits das Ergebnis liefert. Es gestattet ferner, die bakterizide Kraft des Blutes gleichzeitig bei 6 - 8 Menschen zu untersuchen, was mich zur Uberzeugung fuhrt, da&#946; es in der Klinik hochgeschatzt werden wird. Auch das Verfahren und die ebenfalls vom mir aufgestellte Formel zur zusammenfassenden Beurteilung kann man nach meinem Erachten durch entsprechende Veranderungen einiger Faktoren ohne jede Schwierigkeiten auch fur andere Bakterienarten anwenden. Man wird wohl gegen eine einzige Lucke dieses Verfahrens, da&#946; die mikroskopische Untersuchung und die Berechnung allzu verwickelt zu sein scheint, Einwand erheben, eine Lucke, zu deren Schlu&#946; jedoch nur eine kurzfristige Ubung erfordert wird, durch welche die mikroskopische Untersuchung innerhalb 30 Minuten, die Berechnung nur in 5 Minuten vollendet werden kann. (Zur Berechnung bedarf es einer Gauss'schen Logarithmentafel.) Obgleich das geschilderte Verfahren noch viele, genauere Prufungen erheischende Punkte in sich einschlie&#946;t, mu&#946; es hier, wenn auch in Grundzugen, jetzt schon angefuhrt werden,. da ich der festen Uberzeugung bin, da&#946; es im Vergleich zu den bisherigen Methoden ein dem wirklichen Wert der Bakterizidie des Vollblutes im lebenden Organismus viel naheres Resultat liefert.</p

Supporting children’s social play with peer-based intervention and instruction in four inclusive Swedish preschools

This multiple case study investigated a peer-based intervention and instruction (PBII) for social play, Play Time/Social Time (PT/ST), in four inclusive Swedish preschools. PT/ST contains 28 learning activities where children playfully practice six social skills with significance for social play and friendships. One teacher in each preschool was trained and instructed to implement PT/ST, two with coaching early in the implementation, and two without. At each preschool, one child with special educational needs (SEN) in social play (n = 4) and one or two socially skilled peers (n = 6) participated. The study aimed to explore how the teachers perceived the influence of PT/ST on social engagement and social play skills in the children with SEN, with/without coaching, and if PT/ST supported social play between the children with and without SEN. It also aimed to examine the feasibility of PT/ST and the influence on preschool inclusion quality in the preschools, with/without coaching. Observational assessments and video observations were used. The results indicate that PT/ST was beneficial for the children with SEN to engage in social play with peers and practice social skills, and for the preschool’s inclusion quality regarding involvement in peer interactions and guidance in play, both with/without coaching for the teachers. However, the coaching strengthened the intervention fidelity. Social play occurred between the children with and without SEN in activities where they seemed similarly attracted by the toys and play materials and when they all could engage in the play goals, tasks, and roles. For this, they sometimes needed instructions and encouragement from the teachers

A trigger-substrate model for smiling during an automated formative quiz: engagement is the substrate, not frustration

INTRODUCTION: Automated tutoring systems aim to respond to the learner’s cognitive state in order to maintain engagement. The end-user’s state might be inferred by interactive timings, bodily movements or facial expressions. Problematic computerized stimuli are known to cause smiling during periods of frustration. METHODS: Forty-four seated, healthy participants (age range 18-35, 18 male) used a handheld trackball to answer a computer-presented, formative, 3-way multiple choice geography quiz, with 9 questions, lasting a total of 175 seconds. Frontal facial videos (10 Hz) were collected with a webcam and processed for facial expressions by CrowdEmotion using a pattern recognition algorithm. Interactivity was recorded by a keystroke logger (Inputlog 5.2). Subjective responses were collected immediately after each quiz using a panel of visual analogue scales (VAS). RESULTS: Smiling was fie-fold enriched during the instantaneous feedback segments of the quiz, and this was correlated with VAS ratings for engagement but not with happiness or frustration. Nevertheless, smiling rate was significantly higher after wrong answers compared to correct ones, and frustration was correlated with the number of questions answered incorrectly. CONCLUSION: The apparent disconnect between the increased smiling during incorrect answers but the lack of correlation between VAS frustration and smiles suggests a trigger-substrate model where engagement is the permissive substrate, while the noises made by the quiz after wrong answers may be the trigger

Struggling for recognition and inclusion—parents' and pupils' experiences of special support measures in school

During the last decade an increasing use of differentiated support measures for pupils with special educational needs, indicative of a discrepancy between educational policies and practices, has been witnessed in Sweden. Another trend has been the increased use of medical diagnoses in school. The aim of this study was to explore the main concern of support given to pupils with special educational needs and how pupils and parents experience and handle this. Interviews were conducted with eight pupils in Grades 7–9—and their parents—at two compulsory schools in a city in northern Sweden. A grounded theory approach was used for analyzing the interview data. A conceptual model was generated illuminating the main concern of special support measures for pupils and parents. The core category of the model, struggling for recognition and inclusion, was related to two categories, which further described how this process was experienced and handled by the participants. These categories were labeled negotiating expertise knowledge within a fragmented support structure and coping with stigma, ambivalence, and special support measures. The developed conceptual model provides a deeper understanding of an ongoing process of struggle for recognition and inclusion in school as described by the pupils and parents

Association between CMD signs and symptoms, oral parafunctions, race and sex, in 4–6-year-old African-American and Caucasian children

The associations between oral parafunctions, signs and symptoms of craniomandibular disorders (CMD), race, and sex were analysed in recordings from 203 4-6-year-old African-American and Caucasian children. Significant correlations were found between bruxism, nail biting, thumb sucking and most of the CMD signs and symptoms. There were also significant associations between most of the signs and symptoms and race, while significant association with sex was found only regarding headache, TMJ sounds and chewing pain. Significant associations were found between most CMD signs and TMJ sounds supporting the view that joint sound recordings have diagnostic value. There were also significant associations between the pain variables recorded by questionnaire and those recorded by palpation, which indicates that reliable data can be obtained by interviewing children as young as five. The results of this study support the concept that oral parafunctions have a significant role in the aetiology of CMD. The results also show that race and sex need to be considered when analysing the possible aetiological role of oral parafunctions in CMD. Longitudinal studies, beginning with low age groups are needed to better determine the role of childhood oral parafunctions in CMD aetiology.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75673/1/j.1365-2842.1995.tb00241.x.pd

Reflexive adaptation for resilient water services: lessons for theory and practice

‘Adaptive management’ concern attempts to manage complex social-ecological and socio-technical systems in nimble ways to enhance their resilience. In this paper, three forms of adaptive management are identified, ‘scientific’ forms focused on collation of scientific data in response to management experiments, but more recent developments adding processes of collaboration as well as emphasising the need for reflexivity, that is, conscious processes of opening up debates to different perspectives and values. While reflexive adaptive management has been increasingly discussed in theory, there is a lack of examples of what its application means in practice. As a response, this paper examines an ‘Adaptive Planning Process’ (APP), seeking to apply reflexive adaptive management as a means to improve climate resilience in the UK water sector. The APP’s three inter linked workshops – Aspiration, Scenario and Roadmapping – were co-developed and trialled in a water utility. By describing and justifying the choices made in the development of the APP, the paper aims to reveal some of the challenges that arise when trying to design processes that achieve reflexive adaptation. The paper concludes that, if applied to planning for climate change, reflexive adaptation has the potential to explore multiple value positions, highlight different potential futures and acknowledge (and hence, partly address) power differentials, and therefore to offer the possibility of real change. On the basis of the trial, we argue that through tapping the depth and breadth of internal knowledge the APP process created the potential for decision making to be joined up across different parts of the utility, and hence offering new strategies and routes for addressing uncertainties and delivering more resilient water services

Lingering delays in a go/no-go task: mind wandering delays thought probes reliably but not reaction times

BACKGROUND: In a go/no-go task, changes to the inter-trial interval (ITI) or the press percentage (PP) are known to have decelerating effects on both reaction time and on thought probe response time. The mental causes of these delays remain obscure. AIMS: To see whether the delaying effects of ITI and PP are additive, and to determine whether these timing effects are linked with mental states detectable by subjective ratings. METHODS: An 18-minute online experiment with 60 participants who each performed 8 versions of the ToVA with different ITIs and PPs. At the end of each block were mind wandering (MW) thought probes and rating scales for subjective effort and awareness. RESULTS: The decelerating effects of long ITIs, low PPs, and MW seem to be synergistic, but the effects of individual factors on thought probes seem brittle. A version of the ToVA with zero no-go-stimuli spontaneously and implicitly accelerated mean reaction time significantly. That version also quickened three subsequent response times for rating tasks by hundreds of milliseconds, which suggests that the basis of this effect is a lingering mental state (or substrate). None of the subjective ratings measured were strongly related to the reaction time delay, although MW seems to delay the thought probe response. CONCLUSION: The strategic effect on both the reaction time and the thought probe response time is presumably a change in the speed-accuracy trade-off in which the participant adopts a mental strategy that speeds up thinking by reducing caution, so caution needs to be subjectively measured

Intentional mind wandering is objectively linked to low effort and tasks with high predictability

BACKGROUND: Intentional Mind Wandering (IMW) is proposed to be a low executive control state in response to boredom, to distinguish it from unintentional mind wandering (UMW), which may be a low arousal state in response to exhaustion of resources. AIMS: To demonstrate that the objective differences between IMW and UMW reflect the subjective difference that IMW is linked to a low effort and high predictability strategy. METHODS: The metronome response task (MRT) requires participants to predict when the next tone in a regular series will occur. Inter-Trial Interval (ITI) variants of the MRT were presented in blocks of ∼ 90 seconds. RESULTS: The most predictable version of MRT resulted in the percentage of reported IMW doubling, whereas UMW remained similar in all three versions of the MRT. IMW necessitates subjective effort to be low (capped at 5 on a 1-9 scale). IMW in easy and predictable versions of the task resulted in normal performance, whereas IMW during difficult tasks that required sustained attention led to poor performance and occasional errors. IMW during the least predictable MRT led to a significantly higher rate of omission errors (compared to on-task or UMW), and also to a higher maximum-in-block reaction time, as predicted by the worst performance rule. Conscientiousness was linked to reduced IMW (but not reduced UMW), higher on-task probes, increased effort, and improved prediction accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: Subjective assessment of task difficulty predisposes IMW, with transient increases of both omission errors and slow lapses due to diminished allocation of cognitive resources