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Selection effects in students' evaluation of teaching : methodological pitfalls for the measurement of teaching quality
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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
Selection bias in students’ evaluation of teaching : causes of student absenteeism and its consequences for course ratings and rankings
No full textSystematic sampling error due to self-selection is a common topic in methodological research and a key challenge for every empirical study. Since selection bias is often not sufficiently considered as a potential flaw in research on and evaluations in higher education, the aim of this paper is to raise awareness for the topic using the case of students’ evaluations of teaching (SET). First, we describe students’ selection decisions at different points of their studies and elaborate potential biases which they might cause for SET. Then we empirically illustrate the problem and report findings from a design with two measurement points in time showing that approximately one third of the students do not attend class at the second time of measurement, when the regular SET takes place. Furthermore, the results indicate that the probability of absenteeism is influenced by course quality, students’ motivation, course topic, climate among course participants, course- and workload, and timing of the course. Although data are missing not at random, average ratings do not strongly change after adjusting for selection bias. However, we find substantial changes in rankings based on SET. We conclude from this that, at least as regards selection bias, SET are a reliable instrument to assess quality of teaching at the individual level but are not suited for the comparison of courses
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
Studentische Lehrveranstaltungsevaluation : Grundlagen, Befunde, methodische Fallstricke
No full textDie studentische Lehrveranstaltungsevaluation (LVE) ist das am weitesten verbreitete Instrument zur Erfassung der Lehrqualität aus studentischer Perspektive. Vor dem Hintergrund des flächendeckenden Einsatzes des Instruments bei gleichzeitig anhaltend starker und weit verbreiteter Kritik gegenüber der studentischen LVE soll der vorliegende Beitrag daher einen methodisch informierten Überblick zu Möglichkeiten und Grenzen des Instruments liefern. Hierfür werden zentrale Anforderungen an die Messung diskutiert und mit empirischen Befunden zur Zuverlässigkeit und Validität verknüpft. Grenzen der Messbarkeit werden dann anhand zwei verschiedener Arten von Validitätseinschränkungen aufgezeigt. Erstens wird die Diskussion zu möglicherweise verzerrenden Einflüssen aufgegriffen und anhand der Beispiele „Notengebung“ und „studentisches Interesse“ illustriert. Zweitens wird auf die bislang weitgehend vernachlässigte Frage nach potenziellen Selektionseffekten, d.h. den Konsequenzen einer unvollständigen Abdeckung der Hörerschaft bei der Befragung, aufmerksam gemacht und mit unterschiedlichen Erhebungsverfahren in Verbindung gebracht. Abschließend werden praktische Aspekte der Implementation von LVE aufgegriffen
The Past, Present and Future of Factorial Survey Experiments: A Review for the Social Sciences
Get PDFFactorial survey experiments (FSEs) are increasingly used in the social sciences. This paper provides a review about the use of FSEs and aims to answer three research questions. (1) How has this specific research field developed over time? (2) Which methodological advances have been made in FSE research and to what degree are they applied in empirical studies? (3) Which questions remain unresolved and should be addressed in future research? Using the Web of Science and Scopus databases, we conducted a literature review of FSEs published between 1982 and 2018. Our findings show that the field is developing quickly and that FSEs are becoming increasingly accepted in different research areas. Thereby, FSEs are being widely used not only to study attitudes, but also to explore the determinants of behaviour. Most research applies state-of-the-art techniques in terms of statistical analysis; however, to a lesser extent, studies rely on more sophisticated sampling procedures to draw samples from a large vignette universe. Finally, several methodological questions remain unresolved concerning the realism and complexity of vignettes, social desirability, and the predictive validity of FSEs regarding behaviour due to their hypothetical nature. Against this background, we call for more methodological research to assess the general applicability of FSEs for different research areas. Further, our review suggests the need for better documentation and reporting standards to evaluate methodological aspects of FSEs
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
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
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