Like a Bridge over Troubled Water: realising the potential of educational research*

Murphy, Roger

doi:10.1080/0141192960220101

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…However, the pressures on academics to publish to the time horizons of the UK Research Assessment Exercises militate against the careful and painstaking study needed to produce material of this calibre. Synoptic reviews of aspects of pedagogy are rare in the higher education journals, though writers such as Murphy (1996) have called for critical reviews, syntheses of findings and the drawing-out of implications for practice. Foster and Hammersley (1998) caution that such exercises are not unproblematic, and offer a useful discussion of the issues which need to be considered.…”

Section: Cumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cloistered Virtue? Pedagogical Research and Policy in UK Higher Education

Yorke

2000

Higher Education Quarterly

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Educational research is under challenge in the UK. Although the current focus of the challenge is school education, pedagogical research in higher educationis not immune from collateral effects. This article examines the relevance of the 'educational research debate' to pedagogical research in UK higher education; outlines the conflicting pressures on pedagogical research; argues a case for an increase in the value placed on pedagogical research; and indicates some policy options through which the status of pedagogical research in higher education could be raised. The ProblemPedagogical research in higher education is undervalued in comparison with other research. The term 'pedagogical research' is taken here to subsume both learning and teaching, and to apply irrespective of the student's age, though some might prefer reference to 'andragogy'. It is in an unusual position vis-à-vis other research being undertaken by those in higher education since its focus is internal, on a key aspect of higher education -the education of students. The roughly quadrennial research assessment exercises [RAEs] undertaken in the UK appear to have had a negative effect on pedagogical research.There is anecdotal evidence that some academics have been 'encouraged' to undertake research in their academic discipline rather than in the pedagogy related to that discipline, and that -despite disclaimerssome RAE panels have accorded greater weight to research in Subject X than to that relating to pedagogy in Subject X. The panel for the 1996 Education Unit of Assessment was composed of academics with interests

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Section: Cumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cloistered Virtue? Pedagogical Research and Policy in UK Higher Education

Yorke

2000

Higher Education Quarterly

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“…Once the congratulations were out of the way, the analysis generally turned fairly quickly to a critique -or a performance of critique -of the worth of the grades obtained. The contest/opposition formula ostensibly signifies 'democratic' debate, albeit at a low political and cultural cost, since it is a convenient, undemanding format, largely unaffected by accounts of aggregated results, which are extremely difficult to interpret-especially given their provisional nature and the unpredictable differences in entry patterns and other demographic features within the population (Murphy et al, 1996;Murphy, 1998). First, wheel out a popular critic of examination/educational standards.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Read All about it!’ UK News Media Coverage of A-Level Results

Warmington

Murphy

2007

Policy Futures in Education

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News coverage of public examination results in the United Kingdom has escalated in recent years. The years 2002 and 2003, in particular, witnessed a bitter media debate over A-level results. Yet, while educationalists often deride the quality of the annual examination debate, there has been minimal research into the specific ways in which exam news issues are constructed by news media. This article discusses the critical findings of an interdisciplinary study, conducted by education and media specialists, of print and broadcast news coverage of the publication of A-level results in August 2002 and 2003. The article focuses upon three particular elements: the distribution of different headline categories and themes; the structural, narrative and presentation templates in which A-level news items were embedded, and the discursive features that have characterised the dominant template for A-level news coverage: the claim that examination standards are 'falling'. The article concludes by briefly considering some of the broader questions about the relationship between the education sector and news media in the United Kingdom, reflecting upon the ritualistic and polarised nature of coverage, the subtext of anxieties over the 'massification' of post-compulsory education and the readiness (or not) of educationalists to engage in a debate being played out for increasingly high stakes.

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“…It is, therefore, possible to describe media coverage of UK assessment results as predictable, simplistic, ritualistic, and based upon long established media templates. Such coverage occurs year after year, apparently provoked by new sets of statistics concerning GCSE and A-level results, but largely unaffected by complicated tables of aggregated results, which are extremely difficult to interpretespecially given their provisional nature and the unpredictable differences in entry patterns and other demographic features within the population (Murphy et al , 1996;Murphy, 1998). How can one account for such a formulaic approach, when media reporting and analysis is a topic of such national interest and importance?…”

Section: Uk Assessment Results Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%