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The first PhD thesis in the field of Chemistry Education at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, was defended in 1992. This can be regarded as the symbolic dawn of Chemistry Education as a scientific discipline in this region. After the official breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, research that had started in the 1980s, and which was focused on the development of tools for assessing the quality and flexibility of student knowledge, was continued through the 1990s. This research included the application of computers to chemistry teaching, as well as the development of appropriate chemistry learning programmes. In the following period, research focused on the analysis of chemical teaching programmes in the Republic of Serbia, with a special emphasis on the possibility of including eco-chemical content in curricula. Accordingly, potentially efficient models were suggested. The most recent research has been focused on the investigation of the effectiveness of instructional strategies based on a systemic approach and a triplet model of content representation, using combined measures of students’ performance and mental effort. In this regard, tools for the efficient assessment of knowledge (systemic synthesis questions, context-based questions) have been developed along with tools for the efficient assessment of students’ misconceptions (multi-tier tests). Furthermore, in order to make teaching more effective, procedures for assessing the cognitive complexity of chemical problems have recently been developed and subsequently validated both statistically and by applying Knowledge Space Theory. (DIPF/Orig.)

© 2020, University of Ljubljana. All rights reserved. The first PhD thesis in the field of Chemistry Education at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, was defended in 1992. This can be regarded as the symbolic dawn of Chemistry Education as a scientific dis-cipline in this region. After the official breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, research that had started in the 1980s, and which was focused on the development of tools for assessing the quality and flexibil-ity of student knowledge, was continued through the 1990s. This research included the application of computers to chemistry teaching, as well as the development of appropriate chemistry learning programmes. In the following period, research focused on the analysis of chemical teaching programmes in the Republic of Serbia, with a special emphasis on the possibility of including eco-chemical content in curricula. Accordingly, potentially efficient models were suggested. The most recent research has been focused on the investigation of the effectiveness of instructional strategies based on a systemic approach and a triplet model of content repre-sentation, using combined measures of students’ performance and mental effort. In this regard, tools for the efficient assessment of knowledge (sys-temic synthesis questions, context-based questions) have been developed along with tools for the efficient assessment of students’ misconceptions (multi-tier tests). Furthermore, in order to make teaching more effective, procedures for assessing the cognitive complexity of chemical problems have recently been developed and subsequently validated both statistically and by applying Knowledge Space Theory.

To investigate the domain-specificity of research competencies, higher education students from the social sciences were assessed with a standardized test in four disciplines: (a) sociology, (b) political science, (c) educational studies, and (d) psychology. The measure covered declarative and procedural knowledge of research methods, methodology, and procedures. Quantitative and qualitative research traditions were represented equally by test items. The domain-specificity of the measure was examined by detecting and explaining differential item functioning (DIF) between the disciplines. It was hypothesized that due to differences in opportunities to learn (OTL), students from different disciplines responded differently to subgroups of items. As expected based on the OTL-patterns, research traditions significantly explained variance in DIF. While psychology students were more likely to correctly answer items addressing quantitative methods than students with the same overall ability level but from different disciplines, students of all other disciplines were more likely to solve items addressing qualitative methods. These differences coincided with differences in OTL. Overall, the findings suggest that research competencies are similar across the social sciences, but differences between disciplines exist in their focus on quantitative or qualitative methods. (DIPF/Orig.), Um die Domänenspezifität von Forschungskompetenz innerhalb der Sozialwissenschaften zu untersuchen, wurde ein Test zur Messung von Forschungskompetenz in Sozial-, Politik-, Bildungswissenschaften und Psychologie eingesetzt. In diesem Kompetenztest wurde deklaratives und prozedurales Wissen zu quantitativen und qualitativen Forschungsmethoden sowie übergreifendes Forschungsprozesswissen erhoben. Testaufgaben zu quantitativen und qualitativen Forschungsmethoden waren zu gleicher Anzahl vorhanden. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) zwischen den Studienfächern wurde analysiert. Es wurde erwartet, dass sich Unterschiede in den Lerngelegenheiten (OTL) zwischen den Fächern im Antwortverhalten der Studierenden widerspiegeln. Wie erwartet konnte auf Basis von Unterschieden in OTL ein substantieller Anteil an Varianz zwischen DIF Parametern der Testaufgaben erklärt werden. Psychologiestudierende zeigten eine relative Stärke in quantitativen Methoden, die Studierenden der anderen Studienfächer bei qualitativen Methoden. Die beobachteten Stärken spiegeln erwartungsgemäß die curricularen Schwerpunkte und OTL der Studienfächer wider. Zusammenfassend weisen die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass die Bestandteile von Forschungskompetenz zwar weitgehend fachübergreifend sind, sich jedoch Unterschiede zwischen den Studienfächern zeigen, je nachdem, ob der Schwerpunkt auf quantitative oder qualitative Forschungsmethoden gelegt wird. (DIPF/Orig.)

Since the latter part of the 1990’s, the English-speaking medical education community has been engaged in a debate concerning the types of research that should have priority. To shed light on this debate and to better understand its implications for the practice of research, 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted with “influential figures” from the community. The results were analyzed using the concept of “field” developed by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. The results reveal that a large majority of these influential figures believe that research in medical education continues to be of insufficient quality despite the progress that has taken place over the past 2 decades. According to this group, studies tend to be both redundant and opportunistic, and researchers tend to have limited understanding of both theory and methodological practice from the social sciences. Three factors were identified by the participants to explain the current problems in research: the working conditions of researchers, budgetary restraints in financing research in medical education, and the conception of research in the medical environment. Two principal means for improving research are presented: intensifying collaboration between PhD’s and clinicians, and encouraging the diversification of perspectives brought to bear on research in medical education.

The internationalization of the Polish academic profession is studied quantitatively in a comparative European context. A micro-level (individual) approach relying on primary data collected in a consistent, internationally comparable format is used (N = 17 211 cases). The individual academic is the unit of analysis, rather than a national higher education system or an individual institution. The authors' study shows that research productivity of Polish academics (consistent with European patterns) is strongly correlated with international collaboration: the average productivity of Polish academics involved in international collaboration ("internationalists") is consistently higher than that of Polish "locals" in all academic fields. Polish academics are less internationalized in research than the European average but the research productivity of Polish "internationalists" is much higher than that of Polish "locals". The impact of international collaboration on average productivity is much higher in Poland than in the other European countries studied, a finding with important policy implications. (DIPF/Orig.)

Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 58 (2012) 3, S. 354-370, All over Europe educational institutions (school, family, university, youth care etc.) are undergoing profound transformations. This paper explores on a more general level of what it could mean to deal with them, to relate to them, and to take up the challenge they offer for philosophy of education. In order to do so, the paper first recalls how Hannah Arendt in the preface to her book "Between past and future" entitled "The gap between past and future", describes her own philosophical work as "exercises in/of thought" implying a particular gesture and stance in relation to what happens. To further indicate what such exercises entail (what they actually are about) and what they require (in terms of equipment and preparation) a concrete and topical example of such an exercise is presented: the cinema of the Belgian Dardenne Brothers. Then, finally, these exercises are related to a proposal to create "laboratories", to set up experiments, and to do a kind of "fieldwork" in relation to the actual transformations of educational institutions. (DIPF/Orig.)

Tertium comparationis 10 (2004) 1, S. 105-117, In the modern scientific disciplines, scholarly journals fulfil a key role. Journals both secure the shared values of a scientific community and endorse what that community takes to be certified knowledge. Publications in scholarly journals have become the basic units of scientific communication in a discipline. Against this background, [the author] analyses in this paper the evolution of the leading scholarly journal in the field of education in the Netherlands, viz. Paedagogische Studiën [Studies in Education]. He pays particular attention to the changing role of the editorial board of the journal, and to the use of citations in this journal in the period 1920-1975. Because of the close relationship between journal and discipline, this analysis highlights basic characteristics of the patterns of communication in educational science in the Netherlands. (DIPF/Orig.)

The Quarterly newsletter of the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition 12 (1990) 1, S. 37-52, “… psychology from the very beginning has been struggling for its identity as a human science. Although psychology may seem to have successfuIly come of age, it is still an open question whether or not it can be further developed according to the principles of natural science, or whether it should have some unique features. Human beings, the way they think, feel and act, cannot easily be explained by "natural laws" alone; "cultural rules" have also to be taken into consideration. But these rules are genuinely of another ontological status than natural laws because they are themselves human creations, and hence are not binding because human beings can change them.” Whereas the author is “convinced that in the long run what psychology really has to deal with is exactly the tension between biological laws and cultural rules he restricts his argument “to the "cultural side" of this problem. He takes “a normative stance” and argues “that if some trends in cross-cultural research and theorizing are taken seriously, then cross-cultural psychology as well as mainstream psychology, will move towards what one might call "cultural psychology," i.e., a psychology which explicitly contains "culture" as a feature unique to human beings.” (DIPF/ ssch)