Final answer:
Catalytic consultation serves to facilitate change and provide new perspectives, while altering incentives for schools and encouraging research and development involves changing motivational factors and providing support through financial means and partnerships.
Step-by-step explanation:
The function of "catalytic" consultation can be varied depending on the context, but generally it relates to facilitating a process or a discussion in such a way as to encourage change, provide new perspectives, or drive action. When education experts place emphasis on altering the incentives for U.S. schools rather than increasing budgets, they are looking at different motivational factors that can lead to improved educational outcomes. This can include, but is not limited to, performance-based funding, greater autonomy in curricular decisions, and rewards for innovation in teaching methods.
To encourage research and development, the government can take several steps such as providing tax credits, grants, and subsidies for R&D activities, creating partnerships between universities and industry, and investing in infrastructure and education to foster a skilled workforce capable of conducting high-level research.