Provides an organizing framework for literature on undergraduate teaching and learning, distinguishing between hard pure, soft pure, hard applied, and soft applied fields of study and hence making it possible to highlight generally unremarked similarities and differences between the various research findings. Offers separate analyses of…

Reviews quality assurance and quality control procedures of the main requirements affecting United Kingdom medicine, pharmacy, law, accountancy, architecture, and structural engineering. Provides a taxonomy of different forms of quality maintenance and offers comparative material which may be of interest and relevance to academic readers. (EV)

This interim report analyzed attitudes of 69 practicing professionals (doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, accountants, architects, and engineers) toward professional continuing education in the United Kingdom, particularly as it becomes institutionalized. The study identified some characteristic approaches to coping with unfamiliar demands and…

An ethnographic account of the community of professional historians constructs a picture of what history is like as a discipline, what features of its epistemology differentiate it from others, and what characterizes the profession in career structure, value system, and preferred modes of communication. (Author/MSE)

An empirical enquiry into the nature of academic disciplines is described. The main similarities and differences of six academic disciplines--physics, history, biology, sociology, mechanical engineering and law--are outlined. Different research styles are identified and characterized as urban and rural research styles. (Author/MLW)

An ethnographic account of the community of academic physicists is based on interviews, and a picture of what physics is like as a discipline is constructed. The features of its epistemology that differentiate it from other disciplines and characteristics (career structure, value-system and preferred modes of communication) are described.…

The distinctive cultural characteristics of the different disciplines and implications for higher education research, policy, and practice are examined. It is argued that these differences are often ignored in policy analysis, resulting in inadequate analysis. Discussion focuses on disciplinary activities at three levels: systemwide;…