1,720,981 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
A systemic functional linguistic analysis of the utterances of three Pietermaritzburg physical science educators.
Get PDFThesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.In South Africa, Physical Sciences educators play a crucial role in contributing to equal life chances for Physical Sciences learners. This is because they have the opportunity to employ functional language features for increasing access to scientific literacy - a goal of the Physical Sciences National Curriculum Statement. However, no studies were found in the literature which explicitly explored this aspect of a Physical Sciences educator's pedagogical content knowledge in the South African context.
This study employs the sociocultural view of science as a language and the complementary theoretical framework of systemic functional linguistics to explore the nature of the utterances of three Pietermaritzburg Physical Sciences educators during Physical Sciences lessons. The focus is on the functional language features of nominalisation, lexical density, functional recasting, and lexical cohesion in terms of repetition and cohesive harmony index. Using a multi-case study methodology, pragmatic paradigm and mixed-methods approach, this study provides a sophisticated description of the utterances of Physical Sciences educators in language contexts characterised by varying proportions of English Second Language to total number of learners.
The results reveal that lexical cohesion, measured by the cohesive harmony index and proportion of repeated content words relative to total words, increased with an increasing proportion of English Second Language to total number of learners. Nominalisation and lexical density did not decrease with an increasing proportion of English Second Language to total number of learners. The functional recasting results provide insight into numerous types of functional recasting available to Physical Sciences educators. In addition, a model is proposed regarding how the outcomes to which the functional recasting types contribute, impact on movement towards the everyday or scientific registers of English. Furthermore, each individual Physical Sciences educator had a „signature‟ talk, unrelated to the language context in which they taught.
This study has significant implications for the development of pedagogical content knowledge in pre-service and in-service education and training of Physical Sciences educators. Training programmes need to place a greater emphasis on the functional use of language in order to empower Physical Sciences educators to adequately apprentice their learners into the use of the register of scientific English
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
A survey of life sciences teachers' understanding of the theory of evolution.
Get PDFThesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.The theory of evolution is relatively new to the majority of teachers who teach Life Sciences in South African schools. It was introduced into the Grade 12 Life Sciences curriculum in 2008.
The purpose of this study was to examine the subject matter knowledge of Life Sciences teachers regarding the theory of evolution. Furthermore the study aimed at finding out about the challenges that the Life Sciences teachers encounter during the teaching of evolution to their learners and how they deal with those challenges. This study also aimed to contribute to the field of research regarding Life Sciences teacher’s understanding of the theory of evolution in a South African context. The focus of the research was on the teachers who were teaching Life Sciences at Grade 12 level in 2008. This study was underpinned by the conceptual framework developed by Lee Shulman (1986; 1987). Shulman (1986; 1987) argues that the subject matter knowledge should be the foundation for teaching.
The research was conducted within the pragmatic paradigm. The data was collected from the Life Sciences teachers under Vulindlela Circuit in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. The methods of collection included questionnaires and individual interviews with selected teachers. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS while qualitative data were analysed using thematic content analysis.
The findings indicated that the Life Sciences teachers who were enacting the new curriculum do possess some knowledge of the theory of evolution. However there were some gaps in their understanding of the concepts related to the theory of evolution by natural selection. Probably Life Science teachers will also increase their knowledge and levels of understanding of evolutionary concepts as they teach these year after year. This was evident from the scores of the teachers under the section of genetics. They scored high marks in this section because genetics was introduced into the Biology curriculum more than twenty years ago. Fossils, biogeography and natural selection were introduced in 2008, and teachers had much less knowledge about these topics than about genetics. This study also found that some teachers do encounter problems such as the views of students which contradict with that of evolution by natural selection. Teachers mentioned that they do not know how to handle such problems in the classroom during teaching in a manner that would not criticise religious beliefs of other learners.
This study concluded that professional development of teachers in the form of workshops and in-service training should be an ongoing process within the Department of Education in order to help teachers with the ever-changing curriculum
Some strategies used by isiZulu-speaking learners when answering TIMSS 2003 science questions.
Get PDFThesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.The purpose of this study was to describe the performance of the South African Grade 8 learners in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 science test, to explore the translatability of TIMSS 2003 science items into isiZulu without significant loss of meaning, and to explore the strategies used by isiZulu-speaking learners when answering questions in the TIMSS 2003 test. Thirty six isiZulu-speaking learners were tested using written test questions taken from the science test in the TIMSS 2003. The degree to which a sample of 36 learners represented their understanding of the questions in a written test compared to the level of understanding that could be elicited by an interview is presented in this study. The findings of this study are presented, interpreted and discussed using Pollitt & Ahmed's (2001) model of question answering process as well as other relevant literature. The key findings of this study are as follows : • the South African Grade 8 learners performed very poorly on TIMSS 2003 science test, • close translation of TIMSS 2003 science items into isiZulu is possible if conducted with care by expert teachers, • the language of the test had some effect on isiZulu-speaking learners' performance on TIMSS 2003 science test, • the strategies used by isiZulu-speaking learners when answering science questions included: • translating the question into isiZulu before trying to answer it, • choosing an answer containing a word/term common in the question stem and in the options, • choosing the answer containing a familiar/unfamiliar word in the options, •guessing , •looking at patterns of previous choices, •'picture memory', and •'general knowledge'. When Pollitt & Ahmed's (2001) model of question answering is applied to isiZuluspeaking learners, two 'new' phases are introduced. The findings of this study suggest that language factors are embedded within other factors, importantly, the appropriate level of cognitive proficiency to enable correct answering of science questions. The findings of this study further suggest the need for development of cognitive/academic language proficiency (CALP) in both English and isiZulu languages, or in one of them
Learning to change : a study of continuing teacher development in two contexts of educational reform.
Get PDFThesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.Systemic educational reforms entail major changes at the different levels of the system, of
which classroom practice is ultimately crucial to obtaining the desired output. Within this
paradigm shift, experienced teachers have to replace what they are likely to consider good
teaching and learning approaches with unfamiliar strategies. Continuing professional teacher
development (CPTD) plays a key role in successfully changing classroom practices.
This in-depth case study research —six teachers in two different countries, Canada and South
Africa—looks into the information acquisition process of instructors. Interviews were
performed at different levels of the educational system – policy makers, pedagogic/subject
advisors as well as teachers for which questionnaires and classroom observation were also
used to collect data. A research-based analytical tool developed by Laura Desimone
(Desimone, 2009) guided the exploration of the vast data collected and served as the analytical
framework for the various data sources, drawing a link between the intended, implemented and
attained policies. The thorough discourse analysis situated in the interpretivist framework
gives global insight into the teachers’ perception of the impact of CPTD as it enables a deep
understanding of the information acquisition and utilization by teachers. The examination of
teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in different reform contexts brings a profound
perspective on how professional development activities contribute to the professional capital
of educators, as envisaged by Hargreaves and Fullan (2012).
Data suggest that policies related to professional development are adequate in Québec and in
South Africa, but that planning around implementation is hasty or lacking altogether.
Regardless of the socio-economic environment and the professional development accessibility,
teachers do not perceive CPTD as being a major vector of change and they were found to lack
the necessary capacity to change their practices to reflect their beliefs. Finally, teachers
reported that the most influential factor on practices is the availability of teaching and learning
material and learners’ reaction to it.
In conclusion, in the two contexts observed, CPTD was not emphasised to the level required
for a paradigm change such as constructivist-based systemic reforms. I suggest adapting
CPTD delivery methods to teachers’ need by ensuring widespread and reform-aligned
professional development. In addition, access to information through appropriate teaching
materials combined with appealing and applicable activities should be facilitated
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
