This paper explores the conflicts of interest present in science policy and how claims being made for evidence based science can be used to suppress critical social science research. The specific case presented concerns the attempts to ban and censor my work criticising the economics of carbon emissions trading while I was working for the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia. The role of management and the Science Minister are documented through their own public statements. The case raises general issues about the role of epistemic communities in the production of knowledge, the potential for manipulation of information under the guise of quality control and the problems created by claiming a fact-value dichotomy in the science-policy interface. The implications go well beyond just climate change research and challenge how public policy is being formulated in modern industrial societies where scientific knowledge and corporate interests are closely intertwined. (author's abstract) / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

Magister Artium - MA / In this mini-thesis, I explore the New Partnership for Africa's Development's (NEPAD) Economic and Corporate Governance Initiative (ECGI). I argue that although this initiative is not the only means to, nor the end of determining whether the NEPAD is being implemented, the ECGI can be used as a good indicator of whether one important dimension of the NEPAD is implemented. I establish whether, through an analysis of the ECGI, that dimension of the NEPAD is being implemented by looking at the countries where the ECGI was implemented. I maintain the position that through the NEPAD, good governance in African countries is promoted and that is why the authors of the NEPAD document created the ECGI. / South Africa

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / South Africa

This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in fostering good governance practices in Africa. The APRM was established in 2003 subsequent to the launch of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in 2001, as an instrument to monitor the adoption and implementation of policies and practices that would lead to political stability, high economic growth and accelerated regional cooperation and integration as set out in the NEPAD document. The ultimate goal of the APRM is to instil good governance in Africa, which NEPAD considers the sine qua non for Africa’s development. The principal finding of this study is that the mechanism of peer review through the APRM has the potential to foster good governance in Africa, and thus, to pave the way to poverty alleviation and development. The peer review process provides an opportunity for participating countries to become aware of the strengths and shortcomings in their policy-making, governance institutions and practices and to share best practices of administrative, political and economic governance. It offers a forum for dialogue, peer learning, and regional and continental cooperation in which the challenges facing African countries, both individually and collectively, can be tackled. The APRM has initiated a process of dialogue between government and other societal actors (mainly civil society and business) about governance and development issues and how these can best be addressed. This is an important step towards the consolidation of democracy and better governance in Africa. It is for these benefits and for the potential for better governance that the APRM needs all the political and financial support it can get. The APRM is, however fraught with many challenges, which are likely to impede the effectiveness of its contribution. These challenges include the voluntary nature of the APRM, its inability to enforce policy, the absence of adequate funding, poor and limited administrative resources for implementation. In addition, the weak civil society in most African states militates against meaningful participation in and contribution to the process of peer review. Addressing these obstacles is imperative for the APRM to deliver its full potential. To this end, the study proffers a number of recommendations, which include the provision of strong political and financial support from African states, capacity building of national institutions that oversee government performance, such as the parliament and civil society, and the consistent financial support of donors and the international community. The study reveals that the road to a successful and effective APRM, and thus to a peaceful and prosperous Africa may lie in the future, but the foundation for Africa’s political and economic renaissance must be laid now. / Thesis (PhD (Public Affairs))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Cette recherche-action a pour objectif de mesurer les impacts d’une expérimentation de la révision collaborative étayée en didactique de la production écrite en langues étrangères. Un dispositif d’enseignement de la révision collaborative a été élaboré et expérimenté pendant un semestre dans une classe de vingt-deux étudiants vietnamiens de français langue étrangère. Dans la classe expérimentale, les textes ont été révisés par le pair à l’aide d’une grille de révision collaborative, puis réécrits et corrigés par l’enseignant. Dans la classe de contrôle, les textes ont été écrits une fois et révisés par l’enseignant. Un corpus de textes et rétroactions, des interactions orales entre pairs, des tests, un questionnaire d’auto-évaluation, des entretiens semi-directifs ont été recueillis comme données. Les résultats montrent des impacts significatifs de la révision collaborative étayée sur les stratégies de révision, sur la qualité de la cohérence dans les textes et sur la relation entre le rédacteur et le lecteur. Ce nouveau mode d’apprentissage a été bien évalué par les étudiants. / This action-research aims to measure the effects of a trained peer review experiment in L2 writing instruction. A classroom-based study on peer review training was conducted during one semester with 22 Vietnamese students in a writing class. In the experimental group, the drafts were revised by pair with a peer review checklist questions, then rewritten and corrected by the teacher. In the control group, the drafts were written once and corrected by the teacher. Text and feedbacks corpus, pairs oral interactions, tests, questionnaire surveys and semi-directed interviews were collected as data. The analysis shows significant impacts of trained peer review on revision strategies, on quality of text coherence and on relationship between the writer and the reader. This new approach of learning was well evaluated by students.

The emergence of the African Union (AU) is seen as an effort to reposition Africa for the challenges of contemporary global realpolitik and, in particular, it provides a road map towards the attainment of a political union. The institutional architecture of the AU, modelled after the European Union (EU), indicates an intention on the part of the architects of the AU to endow the organisation with supranational attributes. However, none of its institutions has as yet started to exercise supranational powers. It is against this background that this thesis explores the feasibility of transforming the AU from a mere intergovernmental organisation into a supranational entity. In the course of the investigation, it was found that a major obstacle to realising this is the absence of shared democratic norms and standards, a consequence of the unconditional membership ideology of the AU. This thesis argues that the starting point of closer integration in Africa should be the cultivation and adoption of shared norms and values. To address this, the study proposes that the AU design an institutional mechanism for regulating its membership. Using the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as a case study, this study shows that it is possible to establish a regulatory regime based on strict adherence to shared fundamental norms and values. A major recommendation is the transformation of the APRM into a legally binding instrument for setting continental democratic standards, assessing whether member states fulfil these standards and ultimately determining which member states are qualified, based on objective standards, to be part of a democratic AU. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Public Law / unrestricted

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka lärares och lärarstudenters syn på kamratbedömning för textarbeten i årskurs 4–6 samt att se vilka kamratbedömningsmetoder de anser gynnsamma för elevernas textarbeten. Detta är en kvalitativ studie som genomförs via semistrukturerade intervjuer. Både lärare och lärarstudenter intervjuas för att visa likheter och skillnader på både individ- och gruppnivå. Intervjuerna transkriberas och svaren bearbetas utefter en tematisk analys.  Resultaten visar att både lärarna och lärarstudenterna har en övervägande positiv syn på kamratbedömning för textarbeten i årskurs 4–6, men att lärarna kan se fler fördelar och förespråkar metoden mer än vad lärarstudenterna gör. De främsta positiva effekter de anser att kamratbedömning kan bidra till är gemensamt lärande och en utvecklad kritisk granskningsförmåga hos eleverna. De negativa effekter som framförallt betonas är att kamratbedömning kan generera generella och missvisande kommentarer som inte leder till ökat lärande samt att det kan ha en negativ inverkan på sociala relationer.  De metoder som lärarna och lärarstudenterna anser vara gynnsamma för elevernas textarbeten är ”two stars and a wish”, användandet av checklistor eller mallar med genrespecifika kriterier samt digital respons via inspelningsprogram och direktkommentarer i digital text. / The purpose of this study is to examine teachers' and teacher students' view on peer assessment for text work in grades 4–6 and to see which peer assessment methods they consider favorable for students' text work. This is a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. Both teachers and teacher students are interviewed to show similarities and differences at individual- and group level. The interviews are transcribed and the answers are processed through a thematic analysis. The results show that both teachers and teacher students have a mainly positive view of peer assessment for text work in grades 4-6, but the teachers can see more benefits and they advocate the method more than the teacher students do. The main positive effects they see with peer assessment are common learning between students and a developed ability to critically review texts. The negative effects they emphasize are general and misleading comments between students that do not lead to increased learning and possible negative impact on social relationships. The methods the teachers and the teacher students prefer for students' text work are "two stars and a wish", checklists or templates with genre-specific criteria and digital peer review with recording programs and comments in digital texts.

No description available.

Although peer review, in which students evaluate each others' papers, has been shown to be beneficial in many writing classrooms, the benefits of peer review to the reviewer, or the student giving the feedback, has not been thoroughly investigated in the field of second language (L2) writing. The purpose of this study is to determine which is more beneficial to improving student writing: receiving or giving peer feedback. The study was conducted at the English Language Center (ELC) at Brigham Young University (BYU). Ninety-one students in nine writing classes at two different proficiency levels, high beginning and high intermediate, participated in the study. The treatment groups reviewed anonymous papers, but received no peer feedback over the course of the semester, while the control groups received feedback, but did not review other students' papers. Writing samples collected at the beginning and end of the semester were used to evaluate which of the two methods most helped student writers. In addition, a short survey was conducted to investigate the correlation between student attitudes and demographic information and these results. Results of a series of t-tests indicated that the treatment groups, which focused solely on reviewing peers' writing, made more significant gains in their writing over the course of the semester than the control groups. These results were also more significant at the lower than the higher proficiency level. Students? level of comfort with the writing process and desire to learn how to use feedback were found to be significant predictors of these results.

In many ways the current publishing system in rhetoric and composition, which centers on the peer-reviewed journal, undermines core values we hold for ideal scholarly communication. These values include collaboration, dialogue, participation, and public engagement. Though the current system's methods of preserving, distributing, and maintaining quality control of scholarly work contradict our values, technological developments have made possible alternative publishing models that could better uphold our values. Developing a preprint archive where scholars develop and share ideas before submitting them for publication in traditional peer-reviewed journals would bring our publishing process closer to our ideals.