The empirical analysis of interview data lends support to the basic hypothesis that academics’ understanding of their disciplinary subject matter influences the approach they take to teaching the evaluation of the literature of that discipline. There are distinct ways of thinking about, talking about, and acting on quality evaluation criteria, which vary according to discipline. Next we compare the findings with the hypotheses drawn fromBecher and Kogan (1992). We will also compare our findings concerning the features of the fields studied withBecher’s (1989)grouping of disciplinary cultures (Table 1).
Hypothesis 2a. Within the hard-pure area teaching is theoretically oriented.
The teaching has clear common goals and the contents of the curriculum are stable and clearly delineated. Because knowledge is cumulatively built, stu- dents must absorb the body of basic knowledge in a predefined order to be able to understand the issues.
Becher’s description of the features of ‘‘hard-pure’’ fields and the hypo- thesis concerning the nature of education within this group have a close fit with findings from the physics case study. Faculty and students within physics saw knowledge within this field as cumulative, impersonal, value- free, quantitative, concerned with universals, and, therefore, requiring a step-by-step absorption. The independent use and searching of literature within physics only really starts at the doctoral level. In graduate studies,
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students were given the topics to study and at least part of the literature to be used in their work. Physics is an urban and convergent field, and the selection of literature was based on knowledge of research groups working on similar problems. Literature was chosen as relevant and evaluated on the basis of research results and the use of research methods. Relevant materials are concentrated in the publication archive at arXiv.organd in each sub- field’s core journals, indexed in Physics Abstracts.
There emerged clear differences between the specialties of applied physics and theoretical physics, however. Studies within applied physics involved more laboratory work and more orientation toward the independent searching and evaluation of literature than those in theoretical physics.
Studies within physics didactics differed even more from those in the parent discipline in the approach to independent literature use and searching.
However, the ‘‘critical thinking skills’’ taught within physics didactics still had a distinct disciplinary sense and meaning.
Hypothesis 2b. Within hard-applied sciences, the goal of teaching is prac- tically oriented. Primary importance is placed on the application of knowledge, and mastery of skills and techniques, not in the assimilation of concepts and theories. The aim is to ensure that students really learn the professional skills required in working life.
This hypothesis about the nature and aims of teaching in hard-applied fields fits particularly well with the medicine case study. The problem-based learning methods used within medicine were oriented toward knowledge application, and the aim was to ensure that studies would result in both the acquisition and absorption of a predefined body of knowledge and in sus- tainable practical and professional skills
Becher’s description of the nature of knowledge in hard-pure fields cap- tures some important elements of the epistemic features of medicine while missing others. The pragmatic orientation of medical knowledge clearly emerged from the case study; as well the purposive and functional (situation-related) criteria for evaluation. The description of hard-pure fields captures less well the fact that although a large part of research within medicine is experimental with an orientation toward causal explanations, such explanations are more concerned with degrees of likelihood than definitive certainty. The informants stressed that many different factors can intervene in experiments and that only some specific factors can be con- trolled in each experiment. Consequently it was stressed that even the well- defined literature evaluation criteria developed and taught within the field did not replace the ability to judge the situational relevance of research
results for real-life circumstances. Medicine is an urban field in that text- books are seen to outdate rapidly, and a convergent field. Informants stressed that research is partly non-cumulative in the sense that it will lean on and test variable hypotheses and theories. This resulted in an emphasis on the ability to critically analyze and evaluate scholarly literature.
Hypothesis 2c. In the soft-applied area, teaching is oriented to practice, and the aim is to develop professional skills for future working life. Practice is based on softer knowledge than in the hard-applied category, related to development of activities within human relationship and service professions.
The Department of Social Politics and Social Work placed equal emphasis on the acquisition of professional skills and theories and schol- arly literature. Even textbooks concerned with professional skills such as those addressing client encounters could, according to student informants, be fairly theoretical in nature. The fact that social politics and social work as fields are related to the development of professional practice within human relationships and service professions emerged in the case study as important to the teaching orientation, but that teaching was also oriented toward developing skills for enhancing practice through research. This was man- ifested in the emphasis on the distinction between professional and scholarly literature and the definition of the former as an object of analysis. Another feature distinguishing the case study from the above hypothesis is the fact that the criteria for analysis and evaluation of scholarly literature incorpo- rated aspects such as positions of knowledge production, and epistemic background assumptions, as much as practical value and the utility of research results. Social psychology and social work is clearly a divergent field in that there is no consensus on the importance of specific problems and topics, theoretical approaches, or best research methods. Social politics and social work represent a rural academic tribe in that there is a great range of choice in research priorities, approaches, and topics, and books are con- sidered to be major sources.
Social psychology and social work did not fit totally with Becher’s description of the nature of knowledge in soft-applied fields. Knowledge within this field is often concerned with the nature of social problems, social interaction, and social theories, and not purely functional or aiming at the development protocols and procedures. Social politics and social work, as it emerged within the case study, had perhaps more in common with sociology than other fields classified by Becher as soft-applied.
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Hypothesis 2d. Within the soft-pure area, teaching and study are individ- ualistic in nature. It is expected that students will build their own study programs and formulate individual interpretations and conceptions of the issues involved. The goals of studies are personally defined, and teaching leaves room for students’ own inclinations.
The case study of literature corresponds well with the hypothesis pre- sented above. Literature students were relatively free to pursue self-selected topics. Both faculty and student informants in literature stressed the holistic, personal, and value-laden nature of knowledge within the field, and the nature of research results as interpretations resulting in understanding.
Informants stressed the existence of disputes over criteria for evaluating scholarly contributions and noted that there is no consensus on what are the most significant questions to study.
Correspondingly, literature evaluation was not systematically taught within literature, though the very essence of the field is to teach critical analytic reading skills. These skills were expected to be applied in the analysis of all texts, regardless of origin, and, in this sense, strict divisions between different kinds of literature were not made. Faculty sought to ensure that students would not be left entirely on their own by offering references to at least some basic authoritative texts (which then could become either objects of criticism or supportive sources). Literature is a rural and divergent academic field in that it takes a long time to develop an approach to a problem, and research efforts are thinly spread among a large number of diverse topics and interests.