1,720,980 research outputs found
The Recruitment of Student-Athletes: Building Trust Between Coaches and Players
No full textThis study is focused on the recruitment of college athletes. Specifically, research centered on the aspects of the recruitment process and how they influenced a prospective student-athlete’s decision. The theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, provided a framework for this study. A total of seven participants were interviewed using a qualitative research method. Each participant was a current or former Virginia Tech men’s basketball player who went through the recruitment process. After a thorough analysis of the data, five themes emerged: Relationships, Playing in the ACC, Coaching Style, Honesty/Transparency/Trust, and Academics. These were the aspects that mattered most to recruits and weighed heavily on their decision. Based on these findings, recommendations were made to current and future coaches. These recommendations include focusing on building relationships with players, maintaining honesty/transparency throughout the recruitment process, and highlighting academics and their coaching style.MAL
The Effect of a New Coaching Staff on Team Culture
No full textThis study shows the importance of culture within college athletic teams and how a coaching staff has an effect on the culture of a program. Study participants included twelve individuals who are currently or had once been affiliated with the Virginia Tech Volleyball Program. Each individual answered a series of interview questions to the best of their ability. Each question followed Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change. Using semi-structured interviews, the information was gathered and sorted into codes and eventually turned into categories, revealing themes. Five themes emerged, which are explained in the findings section. The themes are: building relationships, establishing communication, displaying recognition and reward, dependability and changing culture. This study may be able to give coaching staff a better understanding of what different athletes are saying about the culture of their program and how it can be changed. It is aimed at coaches who believe their culture is hindered. New coaching staffs can understand how important team culture is within college athletics and instill it within their programs. If they do not follow Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change, their program may not be as successful. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to coaching staff. This can also be used for coaches who are concerned as to why their program is not excelling.MAL
Virginia Tech Student-Athletes’ Involvement with Student-Athlete Development and Their Future Success after College
No full textThis project determines the ways in which the office of Student–Athlete Development (SAD) helped Virginia Tech (VT) football players to be successful in life after college athletics and allows for a better understanding of football student-athletes’ involvement within the (SAD) department. SAD is a resource provided to student-athletes that assists athletes in their career choices and develops a plan for life after college. Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) was the theoretical framework used during the study. During the research, qualitative interviews were conducted with former VT football players. After the interviews were conducted, they were transcribed and coded which helped to establish common themes. Four themes emerged including: time difficulties/opportunities missed: participation in SAD/lack of attention to SAD: knowing the role of SAD: and participants’ recommendations. The results showed that the SCCT was an effective theoretical framework to support the research purpose provided. Recommendations for SAD involving student-athletes include improving communication, mandating events, and improving partnership with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The limitations include personal bias, only using one university and sport, small response rate, and invalid responses.MAL
The Transition from High School Girls Basketball to Division One ACC Women’s Basketball at Virginia Tech
No full textThis research study evaluated the strategies and resources available to support female basketball players as they transition from high school to college at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). This study highlights the importance of fulfilling these resources that are needed to ensure the success and smooth transition for the student-athletes. Interviews were conducted and data was analyzed to provide recommendations. Specifically, six interviews were conducted with freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior student-athletes on the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team. Interview questions focused on the challenges that they faced when they transitioned from high school to college, the expectations they had when they arrived and how those may have differed, and the resources they have used to assist them with the transition. With this analysis, those who are in leadership positions can improve their programming efforts and ensure they are built around helping female student-athletes and supporting their specific needs. It was found that many of the interviewees had similar responses to the questions asked. The themes that were found within the interviews were building relationships within the program, being welcomed in - the importance of the culture, time management, stress management and advice they would offer based on their experiences. The study showed that with support and sufficient resources, the experience was more pleasant and was smoother for the student-athletes.MAL
Positive Youth Development in a Sports-Based Youth Program
No full textPositive youth development (PYD) is a framework where organizations and systems focus on promoting the health and well-being of youth rather than simply eliminating their problems (Mahoney & Lafferty, 2003). Youth programs, including sports-based programs, strive to foster PYD through the implementation of life skills building activities. Positive youth development through sport concentrates tremendously on transferring these life skills to various settings, like school, home, and the workforce (Holt et al., 2020). The concept is mainly philosophical and theoretical at its core, so the Five C’s were established as a way to measure PYD. The Five C’s include competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring (Lerner, et al., 2005). Using an outcome evaluation, this study determined how effective a sports-based youth program, Elite Youth of America (EYA) Sports, was at implementing positive youth development. Specifically, this study focused on activities that influenced changes in the character, confidence, and connection of program participants. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to answer the research questions, as interviews and surveys revealed the valuable insight on program operations. The data collection process revealed EYA Sports promotes character by modeling correct behaviors and helping youth develop traits of good, contributing citizens. They promote confidence by consistently encouraging their youth participants and having an intense attention to detail that allows athletes to see their growth. Lastly, the sports-based youth program promotes connection by creating a family atmosphere and being relatable and accessible to their youth.MAL
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
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
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