Ljubljana colloquium on Research Skills in TS and their acquisition

 


The EST Board has been trying to provide guidance in research to younger colleagues, in particular through the Research Issues section on our website and through the 2005 Ghent colloquium on publishing in TS. A colloquium was held at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Saturday, September 23, 2006. It was designed in the same mindset and was essentially devoted to research skills and their acquisition.

 

 

1. Rationale

 

The rationale underlying the program was the following:

 

1.  Weaknesses regularly observed and reported in studies conducted by TS scholars seem to reflect lacunae in basic rather than advanced skills and methods (see for example Gile and Hansen’s paper in the last EST Congress proceedings, 2004). It therefore seems useful to discuss these research skills in a colloquium on the basis of specific, concrete experience in TS.

 

2.  The mindset and norms of empirical researchers seem to differ to some extent from the mindset norms of researchers in the liberal arts (see the “research issues” page in the EST web site). It therefore makes sense to have two speakers, one representing essentially the viewpoint of the empirical science paradigm (ESP), and the other the viewpoint of the liberal arts paradigm (LAP).

 

3.  Once the set of skills required are discussed, it makes sense to discuss their acquisition. This will be the role of the 3rd speaker.

 

4.  As is stressed time and again in the literature, interdisciplinarity is important in TS. To what extent is this linked to research skills? This topic will be introduced by the 4th speaker.

 

All 4 speakers contributed to all 4 topics, but their brief was to focus on their assigned topic in their presentation to provide a basis for the discussions which followed.

 

2. Program

 

 

08h45-09h00   Introduction

09h00-09h30   Presentation on research skills in LAP – Speaker: Radegundis Stolze

09h30-10h00   Presentation on research skills in ESP – Speaker: Delia Chiaro

10h00-10h30   Break

10h30-12h00   Q&A on research skills in LAP and ESP

12h00-14h00   Lunch break

14h00-14h30   Presentation on the teaching/learning/acquisition of research skills – Speaker: Andrew Chesterman

14h30-15h15   Q&A

15h15-15h45   Break

15h45-16h15    Presentation on interdisciplinarity in TS – Speaker: Miriam Shlesinger

16h15-17h00    Q&A

17h00-17h20    Synopsis and Conclusion

 

Papers from the symposium were posted in the Research Issues page of this site.