The Problem of Observing Sociotechnical Entities in Social Science and Humanities Energy Transition Research

The notion of “sociotechnical” is an important concept for interdisciplinary research on the transformation of the energy supply. Different branches of research agree that the provision, transmission, and distribution of energy are not simply a matter of physics. The transformation of the energy infrastructure is significantly a societal project, carried by technical innovation and social change. However, in social science and humanities research the interrelation between technical and social processes is often not explicitly explored, even though the interrelationship is the decisive descriptor that distinguishes sociotechnical entities from their environment. This article examines the merits of enriching the concept of sociotechnical by adding the distinction between tight and loose couplings in technical operations and human activities. While tight couplings are necessary to sustain control, they hamper change, and while loose couplings are necessary to adapt and to uphold choice, they increase complexity. Additionally, the article concludes that the introduction of “smart” technologies—an essential vision of the energy transformation—changes the composition of tight and loose couplings. Technical ideas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence go beyond mere automation. We might as well face a new sociotechnical reality. The introduction of intelligence in systems makes more loose couplings necessary. Paradoxically, this allows for new functionality and services by establishing complex operations while at the same time diminishing control by social systems

Conceptual learning opportunities in teachers’ differentiated task designs for inclusive mathematics education

International audienceInclusive mathematics education creates new challenges to teachers, requiring additional knowledge and possibly changed classroom practices. One teaching job gaining importance is differentiating through task design, as teachers need to provide conceptually rich learning opportunities even to students with mathematical learning disabilities. However, more insight is needed into how teachers engage in this job. This study analyses teachers’ designed tasks during a professional development course to reconstruct their categories of differentiation for percentage problems. The observed teachers tend to differentiate in a way that excludes low-achieving students from conceptually rich learning opportunities on percentages. This can be explained by the differentiation strategy of splitting and partitioning teachers’ envisioned ideal-typical solution paths to percentage problems

Was ist normal? – Individuelle Konzepte von Normalität als Fundament für den Vorstellungsaufbau in der Statistik

Mit den Bildungsstandards Mathematik ist der beschreibenden Statistik eine größere Rolle in der Schule zugekommen (Eichler & Vogel 2009, KMK 2003). Eng verbunden mit der Entwicklung von statistischem Denken ist der Begriff des Informal Inferential Reasoning (im Folgenden IIR; Makar, Bakker & Ben-Zvi 2011). Konstituierend für die Statistik ist hierbei nicht die reine Beschreibung von Daten, sondern die Fähigkeit, statistische Inferenzen zu ziehen. Dabei werden anhand von Daten allgemeine Aussage über die grundlegenden, unbekannten Phänomene getroffen, die diese Daten erzeugt haben (Makar & Rubin 2009). Lernprozesse zum IIR von Lernenden mit nur wenigen Vorerfahrungen werden dabei von der Forschung nur selten in den Blick genommen (Eichler & Vogel 2012). Der Verlauf solcher Lernprozesse (mit möglichen Zugänge für Lernende, vorunterrichtlichen Vorstellungen und intendierten Zielvorstellungen) muss weiter untersucht werden

Reflexion im Lernprozess anregen und aufdecken

Die Fähigkeit einer kritischen Betrachtung von mathematischen Modellen und ihren Auswirkungen auf Kommunikation und Gesellschaft bildet einen wichtigen Grundpfeiler mathematischer Bildung (Jablonka, 2003). Ein Weg zur Erlangung einer solchen Bildung besteht in der Reflexion von Mathematik (Skovsmose, 1998). Ansätzen zur Reflexion ist dabei häufig gemein, dass sie die Auswirkungen fertiger Mathematik reflektieren, und damit am Ende eines Lernprozesses stehen. In diesem Beitrag wird stattdessen ein Ansatz vorgestellt, der Reflexionsmomente im Prozess aufzudecken versucht

The (Un)availability of Human Activities for Social Intervention: Reflecting on Social Mechanisms in Technology Assessment and Sustainable Development Research

This article considers human activities as a central but deeply problematic aspect of sustainability. We argue that radical reduction in human activities could be an important lever to counter problems such as climate change. However, instead of pursuing a normative hypothesis that human activities ought to be subjected to specific kinds of sustainability measures, we pursue the hypothesis that human activities are largely unavailable for sustainability measures, because as an aggregated global phenomenon they are subject to social mechanisms, which accelerate rather than slow down activities. While social mechanisms are human inventions that render (inter)actions unlikely likely in the first place, they have evolved towards structural and historical embeddedness, which makes them unavailable for any instrumentalized design. The question is, how can we, experts in technology assessment, recognize social mechanisms in strategies to reduce human activities and to achieve a transformative impact on systemic reproduction. Our discussion centers on technical, psychological, and communicative social mechanisms of reproduction, and experiments with ideas of how to utilize social mechanisms and the (un)availability of human activities in technology assessment and sustainable development research