1,721,022 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
Attitude towards the discipline of physics-chemistry and school achievement: revisiting factor structure to assess gender differences in Portuguese high-school students
Get PDFThe importance of attitudes and other variables of the affective domain in education is acknowledged for a long time. In this study, we used an attitude questionnaire to survey 498 Portuguese 9th-grade students to determine the predictive ability of the attitudes towards the discipline of Physics-chemistry on school achievement. Possible gender differences were also investigated after establishing the measurement invariance of the factor structure. The survey instrument presented some issues regarding factor structure. After a new factor analysis using more robust statistical methods, a four-factor structure of attitudes towards Physics-chemistry – Competence to discipline, Pleasure in learning, Anxiety, and Utility – was established and used in this study. The means of the Competence and the Pleasure in learning factors were significantly higher in the boy’s group while the factors Anxiety and Utility were not significantly different between genders. Competence was the most important achievement predictor, with significant positive effects, while the factors Anxiety and, surprisingly, Pleasure in learning presented significant negative impacts on the grades. The possible reasons and consequences for these results are discussed, and some suggestions are made about the importance of considering the relevance of affective variables on teaching and learning high-school Physical sciences
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
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
Science teachers designing context-based curriculum materials : developing context-based teaching competence
Get PDFThe intended new context-based curriculum for four science subjects (AS-MaT1, biology, chemistry, and physics) in senior general secondary education and pre-university education has been the subject of numerous research and teacher professionalisation efforts in the Netherlands for the last seven years. Following international forerunners, the context-based approach was chosen to counter falling interest in future education in science among students. The governmentally instituted innovation committees were committed to have input from teachers as well as university experts as to what the various curricula should contain. In the discussions on context-based education the focus has mainly been placed on the details on what a context-based approach should entail for each science subject. The committees were prepared to test the new curriculum in years 10-12 in secondary education, including the national exams, for which they needed new context-based cur- riculum materials. These context-based curriculum modules were made by teams of teachers and academic experts, although the actual line-up of the teams varied, from one teacher working alone and testing the material in the own classroom, to several teachers and experts working together with the final product being edited by a professional editor. The teachers working in these design teams for context-based curriculum material are expected to have learned more about the context-based approach than their peers without this experience. The learning of teachers in design teams for context-based materials was the topic of this thesis. The aim was to construct an optimal professional development programme for science teachers based on the experiences of these designers. First a definition of context-based education that would do justice to the national and international literature needed to be constructed. Then a translation from this definition to the teaching practice was made, by defining five teaching competences important for teaching context-based education. These competences were context handling, regulation, emphasis, design, and school innovation. The general research question in this thesis was: How does the participation of teachers in context-based design teams (ASMaT, biology, chemistry, and physics) contribute to their professional development towards contextbased teaching, and which factors concerning the design experience hinder or facilitate this development? A composite instrument able to measure the five context-based teaching competences was constructed and tested in a pilot study. Quantitative parts of the composite instrument were evaluated further in two national studies. The composite instrument was found to be valid and reliable for measuring the context-based competence of teachers. The validated instrument was used in a larger study amongst teachers who designed curriculum materials for the context-based innovation and teachers who were not involved in designing. Designers were found to have acquired more context-based competence than non-designers. An influence of the material used in class on context-based competence was also dis- covered. Using a combination of context-based curriculum modules and a standard textbook in class resulted in more context-based competence. The designers were interviewed on their design experience. The answers were analysed to find that some kind of structure should be used when de- signing curriculum materials. This structure could be a learning continuity pathway, a project planning and task division, or rules of thumb to ensure the designed curriculum material contained everything it should. The context-based teaching competence of the designers was also correlated with characteristics of their design experience. Influencing factors were participants in the team, time spent on designing materials, and use of context-based materials in the own class. A professional development programme was designed and executed with six teachers using these factors and factors identified from literature on teacher professional development. The programme was successful in changing teachers context-based competences. The general conclusions include the confirmation of the five teaching competences in demand in context-based education as well as suggestions for additions to these competences. As stated above, not only has designing curriculum materials been found to influence context-based teaching competency, but also the use of a combination of standard textbook with context-based curriculum modules has a positive influence. For a professional development programme success factors have been identified, both general and specific to context-based education. These findings can be useful to the teaching practice, textbook publishers, institutions for teacher professional development and teacher training
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