scholarly journals Covid-19 as an opportunity to teach epistemic insight: findings from exploratory workshops on Covid-19 and science with students aged 15–17 in England

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Berry Billingsley ◽  
Joshua M. Heyes ◽  
Mehdi Nassaji

AbstractThe contributions of science and scientists to combatting Covid-19 have been at the forefront of media attention throughout 2020 and early 2021, exposing the public to the processes of science in an unprecedented manner. The pandemic has highlighted the necessity of scientists working collaboratively with other disciplines in informing thinking about a complex, evolving real-world problem. This draws attention to recent efforts, both in the UK and internationally, towards curriculum reform integrating epistemic insight (knowledge about knowledge, including about what disciplines are and how they interact), with significant implications for the teaching of science in schools. We present findings from two exploratory workshops with 15–17-year-old students in England on the role of science during the pandemic. We found that the workshops provided space for students to begin to develop epistemic insight regarding how science informs decision-making in dialogue with other disciplines. We make recommendations proposing pedagogical approaches using live, complex, real-world problems to address issues around understandings of the nature of science, misinformation, trust and participation in science.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Joel M. Topf ◽  
Paul N. Williams

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an avalanche of information, much of it false or misleading. Social media posts with misleading or dangerous opinions and analyses are often amplified by celebrities and social media influencers; these posts have contributed substantially to this avalanche of information. An emerging force in this information infodemic is public physicians, doctors who view a public presence as a large segment of their mission. These physicians bring authority and real-world experience to the COVID-19 discussion. To investigate the role of public physicians, we interviewed a convenience cohort of physicians who have played a role in the infodemic. We asked the physicians about how their roles have changed, how their audience has changed, what role politics plays, and how they address misinformation. The physicians noted increased audience size with an increased focus on the pandemic. Most avoided confronting politics, but others found it unavoidable or that even if they tried to avoide it, it would be brought up by their audience. The physicians felt that confronting and correcting misinformation was a core part of their mission. Public physicians on social media are a new occurrence and are an important part of fighting online misinformation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Warnaby ◽  
David Bennison ◽  
Barry J. Davies

The role of town centre management (TCM) schemes in the UK has expanded to incorporate a more overt and explicit focus on marketing and promotion. This paper considers the marketing/promotional activities of TCM schemes in the UK. TCM schemes operate at the interface of the public and private sectors. The implications of this are discussed, including the need for a consensual approach by a wide range of urban stakeholders, and the actual activities undertaken, influenced by the funding imperative under which such schemes operate (which impacts on the feasibility of certain activities and the efforts made to evaluate them). Comparisons are drawn between specific place marketing practice by TCM schemes and wider place marketing strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-662
Author(s):  
Franco Zappettini

This paper discusses how emotions were mobilised by the British tabloid press as discursive strategies of persuasion during the public debate on the implementation of Brexit. Using the case study of the Suns coverage of the alleged UKs humiliation at the Salzburg meeting (2018) during the Brexit negotiations, the analysis addresses the questions of how and through which linguistic means actors and events were framed discursively in such an article. The findings suggest that The Sun elicited emotions of fear, frustration, pride, and freedom to frame Brexit along a long-established narrative of domination and national heroism. The discourse was also sustained by a discursive prosody in keeping with a satirical genre and a populist register that have often characterised the British tabloid press. In particular the linguistic analysis has shown how antagonistic representations of the UK and the EU were driven by an allegory of incompetent gangsterism and morally justified resistance. Emotionalisation in the article was thus aimed both at ridiculing the EU and at representing it as a criminal organisation. Such framing was instrumental in pushing the newspaper agenda as much as in legitimising and institutionalising harder forms of Brexit with the tabloids readership. Approaching journalist discourse at the intersection of affective, stylistic, and political dimensions of communication, this paper extends the body of literature on the instrumental use of emotive arguments and populist narratives and on the wider historical role of tabloid journalism in representing political relations. between the UK and the EU.


Author(s):  
Michael Hardman ◽  
Mags Adams ◽  
Melissa Barker ◽  
Luke Beesley

With the concept of Urban Agriculture (UA) growing in popularity, more cities and towns are exploring opportunities to enable the practice and transform neglected spaces into havens for produce. This chapter provides an insight into one such town, Todmorden and its Incredible Edible movement, located in the heart of England. This chapter adopts a qualitative approach to critically exploring the IET movement and to understand its impact on Todmorden. We engaged with key actors and the public in order to ascertain views towards the schemes, analysing the positives and negatives of the model. Findings revealed that the scheme has an overwhelmingly positive impact on the town, with social, environmental and economic benefits. Furthermore, it was made clear that IET is helping to create a more just food movement in Todmorden, particularly through its free for all philosophy. However, some negatives were also highlighted during the course of the research, predominately around maintenance issues and a lack of perceived inclusivity in parts. Overall, the scheme was highly valued and seen as a powerful method for growing the wider UA movement; recommendations centred on further replicating the model and helping local food to prosper in similar locations globally.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Fjelsted Alrøe ◽  
Egon Noe

<p>Cross-disciplinary use of science is needed to solve complex, real-world problems, but carrying out scientific research with multiple very different disciplines is in itself a non-trivial problem. Perspectives matter. In this paper we carry out a philosophical analysis of the perspectival nature of science, focusing on the synchronic structure of scientific perspectives across disciplines and not on the diachronic, historical structure of shifting perspectives within single disciplines that has been widely discussed since Kuhn and Feyerabend. We show what kinds of cross-disciplinary disagreement to expect due to the perspectival structure of science, suggest how to handle different scientific perspectives in cross-disciplinary work through perspectives of a second order, and discuss some fundamental epistemic differences between different types of science.</p>


Design Issues ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Pierri

In what has been defined as an “era of participation,” design practices have become very central to the process of making publics and in bringing to life the dream of developing new ways of political engagement. By reflecting on my professional practice, I highlight the overly optimistic attitude that—most of the time—over-simplifies the role of design, especially when applied in public and community organizations. I illustrate participation as a paradox in itself, by problematizing the role and meaning of participatory encounters, and revealing some complex dynamics of exclusion and self-exclusion that are at play in the public realm.


2020 ◽  
pp. 217-230
Author(s):  
Philip Garnett ◽  
Sarah M. Hughes

In this chapter, Garnett and Hughes focus on the role of big data in accessing information from public inquiries. Looking at the Chelsea Manning court martial in the US and the Leveson Inquiry in the UK, they argue that the manner in which information pertaining to inquiries is made public is, at best, unsatisfactory. They propose a variety of means to make this information more accessible and hence more transparent to the public through employing big data techniques.


2021 ◽  
pp. 125-194
Author(s):  
Eva Micheler

This chapter describes the role of the directors. The duties of the directors are owed to the company and while the shareholders are the primary indirect beneficiaries of those duties, the law integrates the interests of creditors and also of wider society. The law is primarily focused on ensuring compliance with the Companies Act and the constitution rather than with the enhancement of economic interests. The Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 serves as a mechanism through which the public interest is integrated into company law, while the UK Corporate Governance Code adds a further procedural dimension to the operation of the board of directors. The chapter then looks at how the idea of designing remuneration in a way that guides the directors to act either for the benefit of the shareholder or for the benefit of the company is flawed and has served as a motor justifying increasing rewards without bringing about commensurate increases in performance. It also analyses the duties of the directors to keep accounting records and to produce financial reports.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 746-753
Author(s):  
Susan Denton ◽  
Krishni Manorajan ◽  
Pahim Miah

Physician associate (PA) is a new profession that has the potential to change healthcare delivery in the UK. However, it is poorly understood by both the medical profession and the public. Evolving health needs, patient expectations, treatment and delivery of healthcare have led to proposed new care models that require a different skill mix to underpin health delivery. We explore the role of PAs, who as part of a multi-disciplinary team while being supervised by doctors, can help support a sustainable future for primary care.


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