Impact 'agenda' or impact 'phantom'?

Responding to an emerging debate around the changing nature of the impact agenda in the UK, Richard Watermeyer, argues that the current moment presents a point of change; an opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of previous regimes of incentivising and assessing impact, and step towards a more meaningful social compact

Blocked and thwarted – public engagement professionals in higher education deserve greater recognition.

Professional service staff specialising in public engagement in higher education institutions often occupy precarious and poorly defined positions. Drawing on a largescale qualitative study of public engagement professionals (PEPs), Richard Watermeyer and Gene Rowe discuss persistent issues described by PEPs in developing effective cultures of public engagement within higher education institutions and the ways in which the important boundary spanning roles they fulfil are often marginalised by university administrative structures

Selling impact: how is impact peer reviewed and what does this mean for the future of impact in universities?

Despite a wealth of guidance from HEFCE, impact evaluation in the run-up to REF2014 was a relatively new experience for universities. How it was undertaken remains largely opaque. Richard Watermeyer and Adam Hedgecoe share their findings from a small but intensive ethnographic study of impact peer-review undertaken in one institution. Observations palpably confirmed a sense of a voyage into the unknown. Due to the confusion and uncertainty, there was a tendency to prioritise hard (or more immediately certain) impacts over those deemed more soft (or nebulous)

Institutionalizing public engagement through research in UK universities:Perceptions, predictions and paradoxes concerning the state of the art

In this article, we draw on open-text responses taken from an online attitudinal survey provided by public engagement (PE) professional service staff working across universities in the United Kingdom (UK). These are individuals employed to support and sometimes lead academic staff, principally research active academics, in PE activities. Their responses provide an insight into the current and future status of PE in UK higher education (HE) and shed light on the working lives of PE support staff and the various ‘professional’ and organizational challenges they face in attempting to embed and ameliorate PE activity within UK universities. More significantly, these accounts intimate the contraction and homogenization of the university mission, where the efficacy attributed to and investment made in PE is only guaranteed, when it is perceived as an undertaking that supports and ameliorates institutional competitiveness

Public dialogue with science and development for teachers of STEM: linking public dialogue with pedagogic praxis

Despite evidence of quality teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subject domains and insistence on the part of many national governments on the economic value of STEM, education, recruitment and retention into STEM subject fields and occupations is said to be continually blighted by a ‘leaky pipeline’. In the UK context, schools are seen to benefit from a multitude of external STEM engagement and enrichment providers and initiatives. However, despite evidence of the positive impacts of STEM engagement on learners, there exists a dearth of understanding related to how principles of STEM engagement can facilitate STEM teachers in becoming more pedagogically innovative and relevant and, therefore, engaging of their learners in the classroom context. In this article, we employ a secondary data analysis of two prominent cases of public engagement in science and technology (PEST) in the UK to elicit combined lessons for STEM engagement and the pedagogical development of teachers. We consider the successes of science dialogue in establishing principles of best practice that might be transposed to the development of teachers as more able and effective in the engagement of learners in STEM

Curriculum alignment, articulation and the formative development of the learner

Articulating and aligning the curriculum is a complex and time-consuming endeavour, requiring the cooperation and collaboration of teachers, educational managers and regulators. Synergies of this sort may however not always be forthcoming or can be problematized by issues of individual autonomy—or its disappearance—and issues of capacity and infrastructure. For example, schools as the micro centres of learning are increasingly outmoded where in a globalized age the school community is heterogeneous and made up of myriad identities and cultural, social and economic backgrounds. Learner toolkits may be massively inconsistent, and no matter how much teachers plan, their capacity to steer or facilitate learning may be hindered by factors external to the learning environment.For the IB, as an international provider of education, an awareness of the different social, cultural, economic and political contexts is preconditional to the shaping of curriculum, not least in ensuring that what is taught matches the requirements for national requirements and that what is “written” as curriculum is transferable as a “taught” curriculum. It is essential to appreciate that curriculum is never static nor immutable but is a process of constant evolution in response to an ever-changing world. The principal educational offerings of the IB—the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme, the Diploma Programme and the IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC)—serve to respond to the interconnectedness of a globalized world. The IB stresses an emphasis on the acculturation of the individual as a cohesive whole or as a learning citizen and this comes from a seamless learning trajectory or interweaving of learners within the fabric of the learning experience. Elucidating learners’ social, cultural, economic and political relationship to the world comes most effectively where the learning space facilitates smooth learning transitions, where the powers of cognition are reinforced and expanded by being able to look reflectively at the knowledge and skills that have brought him/her thus far. In the IB vision of the holistic learner, the self-recognition of the learner as an active agent within a knowledge continuum is key. The cultivation of a positive learner identity, the building of self-efficacy, legitimacy and mobility comes from the enlargement of learning capital. Crucially, learning capital is not the exclusive entitlement of the socio-economically advantageous but is something realistically attainable for those whose experience of education is of learning as focused, meaningful and relevant. Learners ought therefore to be not only inhabitants but authors of the learning experience. They must be cognizant of the roadmap plotting their educational journeys. In so doing, learners may be more suitably equipped to tackle the multiple challenges of the labour market and their role as knowledge workers within a knowledge economy.To promote better understanding of theoretical and practical aspects of curriculum articulation and alignment, this literature review report, Curriculum alignment, articulation and the formative development of the learner by Dr Richard Watermeyer initially examines various definitions of curriculum alignment and articulation; analyzes possible impacts of credentialism, assessment and marketization of education on the development of varied and involved curriculums; explores initiatives and approaches of articulating and aligning in international contexts, at the school level and also beyond the classroom, and identifies issues related to curriculum articulation and alignment such as inequality, misalignment, social diversity, equality and mobility. Consequently, implications for the development of the IB education and programmes are drawn from the review

Social network science:Pedagogy, dialogue and deliberation

The online world constitutes an ever-expanding store and incubator for scientific information. It is also a social space where forms of creative interaction engender new ways of approaching science. Critically, the web is not only a repository of knowledge but a means with which to experience, interact and even supplement this bank. Social Network Sites are a key feature of such activity. This paper explores the potential for Social Network Sites (SNS) as an innovative pedagogical tool that precipitate the ‘incidental learner’. I suggest that these online spaces, characterised by informality, open-access, user input and widespread popularity, offer a potentially indispensable means of furthering the public understanding of science; and significantly one that is rooted in dialogue

A conceptualisation of the post-museum as pedagogical space

This paper explores the idea of the post-museum as an immersive knowledgeexperience facilitating conceptual and strategic directions in public engagement with science and technology. It considers the extent to which the museum has evolved from repository of cultural artefacts to experience-based process of knowledge acquisition and production. The post-museum is invoked as a model of participatory pedagogy that moves beyond traditional forms of learning,knowledge acquisition and knowledge interface, and conceptualisations of the learner in science. It is presented as an educational and recreational experience, which locates and translates knowledge to the novice or non-traditional patron using rich social narratives that ground scientific expertise in the practice of everyday life. The experience of science is thus made familiar and relevant and concurrently regulated and owned by the visitor. The learner is consequentlyrecast from passive recipient of information-bites to choreographer, translator and innovator within a scientific knowledge continuum