Eine soziologische Systemanalyse und sozio-ökonomisches Review der Soziotechnik Energiewende

The transition of the energy supply system in Germany from fossil-nuclear energy resources to renewable energies is a policy issue and defines a society technics. Society technics takes responsibility for an essential societal need and should be based on an agreement between all actors in all involved systems. According to a society-technics there are benefits for encouraging research, good governance for political support, public understanding of science (PUSH), and academic consultation for politics.Positive implementation will results in optimal coordination as all systems will function and all actors will work for synergy-effects. But a sociological system analyses works out many “dyssynergies”, handling the transition only as technological challenges and failing in underlying this transformation as a socio-technical system. Using renewable energies will not only change the technological system architecture but also modifying social systems and individual attitudes.     

Smart Meter-Angebote: Eine empirische Untersuchung von Kundenpräferenzen

The implementation of smart meters in German households by 2032 is a major step in the transition towards an intelligent and connected energy system. Despite of federal legislation providing a structured plan for the nationwide smart meter rollout including basic product requirements, actors within the energy market have the opportunity to take an active part in shaping the market through appealing product offers and hence to create competitive advantage. This study identifies relevant features of smart meters from literature und business practice, and measures customer’s preferences for these features. Results indicate predominantly positive customer evaluations of smart meter features, amongst which the availability of consumption data, the installation price and rental charges as well as time variable tariffs contribute most to overall utility of smart meters. Finally, findings suggest targeting customers by defining strategies to address privacy concerns, to educate about saving potentials as well as to create differentiated pricing schemes.     

Is abusive supervision an absolute devil? Literature review and research agenda

Abusive supervision has received increasing attention in the field. However, few studies have qualitatively reviewed its latest developments. The current paper reviews 48 studies on abusive supervision using content analysis. We identify six emerging trends of abusive supervision, including inconsistency of abusive behaviors, comparison between perceived and objective behaviors, reciprocity, team-level climate, coworker effects, and comparisons between theoretical perspectives. Based on a review of those six trends and some emerging findings, we identify and validate the possible positive effects of abusive supervision from an integrated analysis. We also determine the moderating role that Asian culture plays in differentiating the negative and positive effects of abusive supervision. Specifically, we identify the differences between Asian and Western cultures, and then explore the moral mechanisms (i.e., violation of moral standards, conflict of moral principles) through which abusive supervision may exert positive effects in the Asian cultural context. Finally, we clarify our theoretical implications and provide suggestions for future research.     

Informing a pedagogy for design and problem-solving in hard materials by theorising technologists’ learning experiences

Design and problem solving are central to technology and have distinguished learning in technology from other curriculum areas. This research investigated how expert technologists learn design and problem solving through experience. Data was collected from four expert technologists and this information was analysed using learning theories that focus on learning through experience—that is experiential learning theory, situated cognition, distributed cognition and activity theory. This framework of analysis provided evidence that learning through experience is central to these experts’ development and justify a broader construct of experience than normally associated with hard materials. This information supports curriculum development in hard materials technology that employs a wide range of experiences and provides justification for curriculum developers and teachers to justify, inform and develop effective design and problem solving learning programmes focussed on a broadened construct of experience.     

Learning design and technology through social networks for high school students in China

The subject of design and technology was introduced to the curriculum for high schools in China 10 years ago. However, the teaching and learning of this subject have become difficult for both teachers and students because there is a lack of qualified teachers with design background to deliver this subject in a way to stimulate the learning interests of the students. This paper presents a research that is aimed at improving this situation by integrating the teaching and learning of design and technology within a computational environment as part of social networks sites. The purpose is to enable the collaboration among the students and interaction between teachers and students. In this research, a series of investigations were conducted, by following through several taught subjects in design and technology in prominent high schools in China. Based on these investigations, a theoretical framework for web-based design learning and teaching system in the style of social networking is developed, implemented and tested, emphasizing three features of design: innovation, collaboration, and interaction. This framework has been tested among high school students and teachers in a high school in Nanjing. It identified and validated necessary techniques and design features required to make an education-related social networking site effective and affective for the students and teachers. The results of this research indicated that social networking sites have significantly positive values in design education, especially for the collaboration and interaction on the subject of design and technology.     

The design and development of creative instructional materials: the role of domain familiarity for creative solutions

The design and development processes of instructional materials might be considered simple and clear because the pre-established instructional goals can lead the way. However, in practice, there are lots of issues to be considered during these processes. The quality of the material, appropriate visual design, usability, and acceptable amount of cognitive load are some of these issues. On the other hand, an instructional material needs to be as original as possible. In this study, we focused on the creativity of the instructional materials designed and developed by second year students from the Computer Education and Instructional Technologies (CEIT) department. We divided students into two groups: (1) CEIT students designing and developing materials about Information Technology (IT); (2) CEIT students designing and developing materials about Math. The main aim of this study is to understand how CEIT students’ instructional materials differ when they design and develop materials, which are out of their field of experience. In other words, we tried to compare how the creativity of materials change when students create materials with familiar domain (IT) in comparison to unfamiliar domain (Math). Students worked on ten instructional materials such as digital story, animation, and worksheet for 14 weeks. The materials of students were evaluated in terms of creativity, and then they were interviewed. The students worked in groups of 4–5, and during the material development period, we as researchers observed and took notes about the whole process. The findings indicated that materials developed in familiar domain were higher in creativity than those of the unfamiliar. Students’ explanations of creativity and their evaluations about the process helped us to understand the reasons of the produced materials’ creativeness. Technical skills, authentic contributions, material type, and the boundaries of the content or familiarity were found as the primary factors affecting the design and development of creative instructional materials.     

Development of a Technology Education Cascading Theory through community engagement site-based support

If teachers are not equipped to teach Technology Education subject nationally and internationally, the continent of Africa will continue to bear the brunt of unsavoury results unless radical interventions are implemented to transform the situation. It is against this background that action research methods became a useful site-based support to empower Technology teachers at three sampled schools from Tshwane South Circuit in Gauteng Province of South Africa. The purpose of this study was to share fresh perspectives on how a sample of Technology teachers responded to content-related classroom practices during reflective action research activities that took place during community engagement contact sessions. These teachers, who are under qualified and unqualified to teach this subject, were engaged in circular and spiral action research cycles. The teachers’ engagement brought forth the development of Technology Education Cascading Theory. It was evident that community engagement activities served as a podium to transform teachers’ teaching of Technology Education and enhance learners’ achievement. The study was underpinned by cooperative enquiry theory and engaged participants in reflective practices of developmental action paradigm. Interaction with Technology Education teachers further revealed that most of them need their schools to budget for this Technology subject they are teaching.     

New Zealand secondary technology teachers’ perceptions: “technological” or “technical” thinking?

Technology education in the New Zealand context has seen significant change since it’s inception as a technical subject. The changing nature of the subject in New Zealand secondary schools is influenced by some teachers’ preoccupation with the making of quality product outcomes, rather than their enactment of the curriculum, which conceptualises a wider remit. Research into the perceptions of technology teachers’ interpretation and enactment of the curriculum suggests that to enable change, teachers need to adopt a form of “technological thinking”, in support of their “technical thinking”. Technological thinking is a notion presented to support teachers to explore a range of differing pedagogical approaches and learning outcomes, reflective of the intent of the New Zealand curriculum, which aims to foster learning environments that are innovative and responsive to students’ social and academic needs.