1,720,955 research outputs found
Factors influencing lecturers’ retention in a South African university
No full textDissertation (M.Ed.(Education Management and Leadership))--University of the Free State, 2023Most university first-year students do not get an opportunity to graduate in the presence of their first-year lecturers because their lecturers would have moved to another university. The identified challenge for this study is that universities cannot retain their lecturers. The question now is why are they are failing to retain their lecturers for longer. The research question was formulated from the research problem, i.e., what factors influence the lecturers’ retention in a South African University? Subsequently, the aim of the study was formulated as the focus was on exploring factors influencing lecturers’ retention in a South African University. The qualitative research approach was chosen for collecting and analysing the data. The University stakeholders are the population, and the sample consists of fourteen participants. That is six lecturers with more than three years of working experience, four Human Resource Management (HRM) staff and four Deans/Heads of Departments (HoDs). Sampling was done using three forms of selection: purposive, convenient and snowball. As a result, a rural campus in South Africa was selected as the research site. The above-mentioned participants were interviewed by means of semi-structured interviews as a method of collecting data. Thereafter, Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis method was adopted for analysing the data with the use of the themes. Once the data was analysed and interpreted, the findings were as follows: universities are not providing a conducive work environment for teaching and learning. Additionally, as minor as it may seem, poor internet connection is a major challenge for lecturers. The excellence awards ceremony and incremental payments resulting from outstanding performance should be implemented as part of the reward systems. One of the recommendations for universities is to build housing units for lecturers on campus. Consequently, it will have a competitive advantage when the university can retain its lecturers by satisfying their needs. As a result, stakeholders such as HRM staff will focus on other matters than always filling the lecturers’ vacancies, and students will have the first-year lecturers present at their graduation ceremony. In addition, there will be a rich pool of experienced supervisors to guide the post-graduate students from the beginning until the end
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Navigating the challenges of lecturers’ retention in South Africa: Perspective of a rurally located university
Full text linkMost university students do not get the opportunity to graduate in the presence of their first-year lecturers because those lecturers may have moved to another university. The identified challenge is that universities, notably those located rurally, cannot retain their lecturers for extended periods. Therefore, the study explores the challenges hindering lecturers’ retention in a rurally located South African University. The qualitative study included 14 participants from the selected university, using purposive and convenience sampling methods. A semi-structured interview was used to elicit information from the participants within the principles of Participatory case study design. Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis method was adopted to analyse the data thematically. The study found that salaries and benefits, along with physical working conditions, are institutional challenges to retaining lecturers, while factors such as lack of stability and loss of interest at work are internal and external challenges affecting lecturers’ retention in their workplaces. The study concluded that institutional challenges are within the control of university administration and addressing them can help retain more lecturers. On the other hand, internal and external challenges, such as lack of stability and loss of interest at work, are more complex and require individual attention from the lecturers themselves
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe 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
Factors influencing lecturer’s retention in a South African University
Full text linkUniversity stakeholders are a united entity; whenever one party does not hold up their end of the deal, it eventually becomes a challenge for all the stakeholders. In this case, universities that are struggling to retain lecturers pose a challenge to the universities’ goodwill. Accordingly, this study examines factors influencing lecturers’ retention in a South African university, and the guidelines for the universities to enhance lecturer retention policies are investigated. Herzberg’s two-factor theory was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The qualitative research approach was adopted within the Transformative paradigm using Participatory case study as a research design. A total of 14 participants were selected using a purposive sampling method amongst a pool of university stakeholders. As a result, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that less promotional opportunities and less recognition are factors influencing lecturers’ retention in a South African university. In addition, flexible work arrangements together with the promotion of teamwork, were suggested as guidelines for universities to enhance lecturer retention. Therefore, promoting deserving lecturers, counteroffers, recognising hard-working lecturers, flexible work schedules and promoting teamwork are the recommendations to transform retention problems in universities
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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