S. Schwartz: Reflections and future direction of the ILSCR in the light of summer school and mini-conference
In June, 28 at the seminar of the International SEL of sociocultural research were discussed the results of last summer school devoted to the measurement of values and socio-economic behavior. Seminar participants had the opportunity to watch the videos of interviews conducted with foreign experts who participated in the summer school.
Both participants and experts (P. Schmidt, V. Chirkov, E. Davidov and others) noted a high degree of interactivity of the process: lectures were held in the form of a dialogue between speaker and the audience. An important factor, which emphasized the foreign experts, was also a high degree of interest of the participants in the acquisition of new knowledge. One big advantage of the summer school was a possibility of young researchers to get a feedback from the experts: the participants not only asked questions in the allotted time for that after the lectures, but also came to the experts after the main working time, adjusted their own projects, working in project teams.
At the end of the summer school laboratory staff received feedback from each participant of school. Thus, the most interesting performances, according to most participants were lectures of Professors Y. Kashima and S. Schwartz, and most practically important for the participants were speeches by P. Schmidt and Y. Kashima. The participants also evaluated the benefit of the Summer School presentations of young researchers.
The main suggestions for the future of schools were focused on adding more practical courses aimed at developing research methods. The participants expressed the wish to increase time for discussion, as well as the organization of round tables.
Scientific director of the laboratory Shalom Schwartz motivated the laboratory staff to develop their own research to examine the relationship of values with other factors such as creativity, religion, political activism, etc. The report also indicated the main activities of the laboratory: validation of a new version of the questionnaire S. Schwartz PVQ-R, comparison analysis between ESS & PVQ-R, improving abilities of values and improving theory, study of innovativeness attitudes, etc.
The next scientific seminar of the laboratory is expected in September.
Trainee Researcher
Alexander Stefanov