Academic Survey Research Articles

SLS/BIALL Academic Law Library Survey 2010/2011

AbstractThis is the latest report analysing the results of the Academic Law Library Survey conducted on behalf of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) and the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL). It has been written by David Gee, Deputy Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

European Geography Higher Education Fieldwork and the Skills Agenda

The Bologna Declaration focuses on skill acquisition as a means of improving student employability and fieldwork is considered to be a pivotal teaching method for geography students to obtain such skills. This paper presents results from a major substantive survey of European geography academics and students which investigated their perspectives with regard to the role of geography fieldwork in the gaining of transferable employability skills. Results are compared with past research in the wake of the European Commission's geography ‘TUNING’ project, which provided a set of subject-specific and generic skills attained through fieldwork.

Academics' perceptions of the purpose of undergraduate research experiences in a research-intensive degree

The inclusion of research experiences as core components of undergraduate curricula implies that students will be exposed to and situated within the research activities of their university. Such experiences thus provide a new prism through which to view the relations between teaching, research and learning. The intentions and actions of academics supervising these activities will be strongly influenced by their beliefs regarding the nature of research, and the relation between research and learning in the undergraduate context. Surveys of academics supervising such experiences reveal a range of intentions, only some of which address the higher order and critical thinking skills associated with research or independent learning. This may indicate a lack of deep reflection on the purpose of exposing undergraduates to research, but may also be due to the predominance of a hierarchical view of the process by which one makes the transition from student to researcher.

International Relations in Ireland: A Survey of Academics

In the most comprehensive survey of its kind in Ireland, this article analyses the growing field of international relations and international politics, examining what scholars working in universities in the Republic of Ireland think about international politics and what they are teaching the current generation of students. The article also provides for international comparisons with 10 other countries as the survey is part of a larger cross-national survey, led by academics at the college of William and Mary in Virginia, USA on teaching, research and international policy. The picture of Irish international relations that emerges from the first survey of Irish IR scholars is one of an internationally engaged community of scholars. Irish IR scholars themselves are very international; half come from countries other than Ireland and most speak at least one language other than English. This diversity within the Irish academy exposes students to varied global perspectives and helps them to better understand problems that are increasingly global in nature, such as environmental and health issues. Given this, the ‘internationalisation’ of Ireland's IR community may be one of the field's greatest strengths and indeed the Irish academy's comparative advantage. Perhaps because of this diversity, IR scholarship and teaching at Irish universities does not fall under any single hegemonic theoretical, methodological or ideological perspective. Instead, the field is characterised by vibrant theoretical and methodological debates drawing on scholarship and evidence from the United States, Western Europe and other countries and regions. Individual scholars in Ireland, however, do seem to be less likely to draw equally on rationalist and constructivist approaches in their work, more likely than their international colleagues to see their work exclusively in one approach, and much more likely than international colleagues to describe their work exclusively as rationalist.

Hybrid Methodology Involving Scrum and Waterfall Model towards the Software Project Development in Academic Knowledge Centers

Software project development in academia has the core objective to provide the student with an effective space to work in a team, interact with users, develop prototype, develop documentation, and improve presentation skills. An academic survey was done and it was found that the major challenge being faced by the institutes is the slack in controlling and tracking the project development activities. This results in poor quality software product which is in no way comparable with the industrial projects. Also, the ineffective use of tools and technologies are of great concern. The lack of proper and effective communication among the team members as well as with their project supervisor is also a major problem. Factors like, lack of enthusiasm, commitment, and financial support invite unwarranted risks. Such unstructured and uncontrolled way of working often leads to unsuccessful projects. All these factors show that academia is lacking more on the managerial issues rather than technological issues. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v1i1.456

Primary Treatment for Cleft Lip and/or Cleft Palate in Children in Japan

To investigate current trends in primary treatment for children with cleft lip and/or cleft palate in Japan. Nationwide, retrospective study under the direction of the Academic Survey Committee of the Japanese Cleft Palate Association based on analysis of data obtained via a booklet-style questionnaire completed by institutions providing primary treatment for cleft lip and/or palate patients. PARTICIPANTS, PATIENTS: Patients were 4349 children undergoing primary repair for cleft lip and/or palate at 107 participating institutions between 1996 and 2000. Cleft type, laterality; use of infant palatal plate; and timing and technique of primary repair for cleft lip and/or palate were evaluated by cleft surgeons at 107 participating institutions. Of a total of 2874 patients with cleft lip and palate or cleft palate only, infant palatal plates were used with 1087 (37.8%) and were not used with 1787 (62.2%). Primary unilateral lip repair was performed at the age of 2 to 6 months in more than 90% of patients. Bilateral cleft lip was treated by one-stage repair in 285 patients (44.5%) and by two-stage repair in 258 (40.2%). Primary one-stage palatal repair was performed in 2212 (76.9%) and two-stage palatal repair in 262 (9.1%) cleft palate patients. Information on treatment of the remaining 400 (14%) patients was unavailable. This investigation clarified current trends in primary treatment for cleft lip and/or palate in Japan. The results suggest the need for an increase in regional core hospitals and greater variation in treatment options.

The Demography of the Brief Authoritarian Scale

Which groups in the general US public are more or less authoritarian? This paper reports the demographic correlates of the Brief Authoritarian Scale of Professors Schuman, Bobo, and Krysan. Analyzing data in the leading US academic survey of attitudes, the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey, I find that education is the strongest predictor of authoritarian attitudes as measured by this scale. Though men and women do not differ significantly, authoritarianism does vary by race, political party, and liberal-conservative orientation (as well as education). These attitudinal differences are set out in a series of simple charts.

Worth it? Findings from a study of how academics assess students’ Web 2.0 activities

Educational commentators have offered many pedagogical rationales for using Web 2.0 to support learning in higher education, and academics are being encouraged to find ways for their students to use social web technologies. Questions arise as to the value of these activities compared to more conventional assignments, and whether implementing such changes to student assessment is worth the effort. We conducted a survey of academics’ assessment of students’ Web 2.0 activities in Australian universities and found that this form of assessment is being conducted by a small number of academics, in a range of fields of study, but mainly in Humanities and Social Sciences, with varying kinds of intended and actual learning outcomes. Blogging and wiki-writing predominate, low and medium-stakes assessment are most common, and different methods of marking and feedback are in use. Qualitative feedback from the survey and follow-up interviews gave further insights into benefits and challenges ofWeb 2.0 assessment in relation to pedagogy, policy and practice. It appears that academics’ conservative approaches to conducting assessment and their novice approaches to utilising social web technologies are factors which seriously limit realising the potential of Web 2.0 for medium or high-stakes assessment.Keywords: assessment; assignments; higher education; social web; Web 2.0(Published: 3 February 2012)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20: 16153 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0/16153

Motivations and Obstacles to a Career in Surgery in Developing Countries: An Association for Academic Surgery Survey of Medical Students in West Africa

Motivations and Obstacles to a Career in Surgery in Developing Countries: An Association for Academic Surgery Survey of Medical Students in West Africa

Barriers to Professional Development among Contingent Academic Employees: An Australian Case Study

Internationally higher education institutions are increasingly reliant on precariously employed non-tenured academic staff, contingent academics. At the same time, institutions are facing great difficulties in replacing and replenishing their aging academic workforce. Although contingent academics are responsible for a significant proportion of teaching, they are frequently excluded from professional development opportunities that would allow them to form part of the solution to the shortages among tenured academics. Additionally, in Australia poor outcomes in teaching and learning are often attributed to the presence of high numbers of contingent academics, but little is known of the accuracy of these accusations. This paper reports on a research project based on a survey of contingent academics in the disciplines of business and law at an Australian university. The survey sought information and perceptions on academic development and support, teaching practices, and motivation and satisfaction with their employment situation. The impact of these factors, especially professional development and support, on the ability of such employees to establish tenure track positions and deliver quality teaching and learning outcomes is analysed. Results demonstrate high levels of satisfaction with teaching, but low levels of satisfaction with development and career opportunities. The paper concludes with suggestions for improving access to professional development and career progression for contingent academics.

Report : Middle East Medical Journals and Middle East Academic Survey 2011

Report : Middle East Medical Journals and Middle East Academic Survey 2011

Chris Abani’s Graceland and Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation: Nonstandard English, intertextuality and Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Sozaboy

This article explores the use of nonstandard English forms and intertextuality in two recent works by Nigerian writers in English living abroad. To date, Chris Abani’s Graceland and Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation have attracted little critical commentary, far less any academic survey of their language, yet each book is in its own way representative of conflicting treatments of nonstandard varieties of Nigerian English by writers in the diaspora. Beasts of No Nation owes a considerable debt to the linguistic and stylistic experiments Ken Saro-Wiwa made in his novel Sozaboy and Iweala has drawn heavily on this work in his use of a first person narrator and his assignment of a limited, if forcefully expressive, language to his hero. According to Saro-Wiwa, Sozaboy is written in a mixture of Nigerian Pidgin (NP), Standard English (SE) and other forms. Graceland, however, makes selective use of nonstandard forms for reasons closer to those of earlier writers and makes this clear through its author’s insertion of intertextual elements. After providing an overview of the background to and characteristic features of NP and Nigerian English this article surveys their use in Nigerian literature and concludes by examining the language of Graceland and Beasts of No Nation through a linguistic comparison of shared episodes and a consideration of thematic similarities in order to place these two novels in a continuum of Nigerian writing in English through their use of language.

Exploring the ‘follow-through experience’: a survey of Victorian midwifery students and academics

Exploring the ‘follow-through experience’: a survey of Victorian midwifery students and academics

Dream narratives of Muslims' martyrdom: Constant and changing roles past and present.

Islamic literature is replete with many thousands of accounts of dreams, testifying to the great importance that Muslim societies have attached to dreaming throughout their history. Dreams are contained in the Qur’an and Hadith (the records of Prophet Muhammad’s sayings and actions). They are also frequently present in biographies and histories, travel writing, and popular storytelling, among other genres. Medieval guides to dream images have survived in a large number of manuscripts and a more limited range of printed books. Today, there is evidence of a continuing strong belief among many Muslims worldwide that their dreams really matter, that they can show them the way to a prosperous future, warn them of impending dangers, and enable their moral and spiritual development. However, not all dreams are thought to have equal value, and this is reflected in the Arabic terminology for different types of dream. A dream may be designated hulm (pl. ahlam) when it is thought to be a product of the human brain or sent by the devil to cause distress and confusion, or it may be used as a general term for a dream. It is distinguished from the ru’ya (pl. ru’an), derived from the Arabic ra’a, “to see,” meaning a vision seen in either a dream or waking life. The ru’ya is the much-esteemed veridical dream sent by God. It is this true dreaming that is highly valued across Muslim regions, subcultures, and social strata. It is reflected, for example, in a survey of academics at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, who reported their belief in God-given true dreams and the influence that they had on their lives (Amanullah, 2009, pp. 106 –107). Further examples are provided in

Institutional Repositories, Open Access, and Scholarly Communication: A Study of Conflicting Paradigms

The Open Access movement of the past decade, and institutional repositories developed by universities and academic libraries as a part of that movement, have openly challenged the traditional scholarly communication system. This article examines the growth of repositories around the world, and summarizes a growing body of evidence of the response of academics to institutional repositories. It reports the findings of a national survey of academics which highlights the conflict between the principles and rewards of the traditional scholarly communication system, and the benefits of Open Access. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which academic libraries can alleviate the conflict between these two paradigms.

Academic Dishonesty among Tertiary Institution Students: An Exploration of the Societal Influences Using SEM Analysis

This study examined the influence of societal factors on academic dishonest conducts of the Nigerian tertiary education students. A total of two hundred and thirty-one Nigerian students drawn from three of the public universities in Malaysia (IIUM, UPM, & USM) were included in the study. An instrument tagged: “Academic Dishonesty Survey (ADS)” was used for data collection. Both the Principal Component Analysis method (PCA), reliability tests via (cronbach’s alpha), and average variance extracted (AVE) were employed to generate adequate supports for convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs of the instrument. The result of the full-fledged structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that societal factor had indirect effect on academic conducts of students through cognitive processes. Implications of the study were discussed and suggestions were advanced. This study examined the influence of societal factors on academic dishonest conducts of the Nigerian tertiary education students. A total of two hundred and thirty-one Nigerian students drawn from three of the public universities in Malaysia (IIUM, UPM, & USM) were included in the study. An instrument tagged: “Academic Dishonesty Survey (ADS)” was used for data collection. Both the Principal Component Analysis method (PCA), reliability tests via (cronbach’s alpha), and average variance extracted (AVE) were employed to generate adequate supports for convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs of the instrument. The result of the full-fledged structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that societal factor had indirect effect on academic conducts of students through cognitive processes. Implications of the study were discussed and suggestions were advanced.

Gender, management education and the willingness for academic entrepreneurship

This article explores the determinants of academic entrepreneurship. In particular, it investigates the effects of gender and supplementary management education on academics' willingness to start up a company. The analysis is based on a survey of academics. Controlling for academic achievement, field of science and perceived hampering factors, we find that female academics show a significantly lower propensity to have a high willingness to start up. Our results indicate that supplementary management education does not in general have a significant effect on the willingness to start up. Yet, for female academics supplementary management education exerts a significantly positive effect almost offsetting the gender effect.

Teaching History at University through Communities of Inquiry

Most academic historians in Australia are also teachers. Yet history academics have seldom been as assiduous in researching the traditions of their teaching as they have been in researching their subjects-matter. Prompted by a recent Australian survey of history students and academics, this article draws on new developments in social and educational psychology to suggest ways of overcoming the individualism and passivity of many established traditions of teaching and learning of history in universities. These new ways seek to re-position history learners in the university as researchers who collaborate. The aim is to widen the range of performances history students undertake, helping to make students more active and self-aware in their historical thinking, and enabling them to expect more and more to make knowledge, not just to receive it.

Beyond potential: a two-year study of iPod use in a Japanese university

There is much literature on implementing mobile technologies for higher education teaching and learning. Positive statements derived from student surveys about the potential of so-called mobile learning can be read in a number of academic papers and the media. Unfortunately, academic surveys and media commentaries are too often interpreted as evidence of learning. Empirical research reveals otherwise. This paper describes a two-year study of Japanese students using iPods in a communications course during which they accessed and recorded audio podcasts. The results of pre and post standardised tests revealed no significant difference in scores. Moreover, the quantitative data disputes the students' survey statements in both 2008 and 2009 cohorts. It is posited that institutional, academic and media statements of the 'potential' of mobile learning and anytime/anywhere access to information need to be explicitly supported with empirical evidence.

Providing vocational skills and academic knowledge to the professional building appraisers of the future

This article looks at educating and training building appraisers of the future. It outlines a different form of building appraisal, where those engaged in the surveying are actually the clients, and the recipient of the report facilitates the survey's outcomes. By establishing the preference of three of the four stakeholders to surveying education for incorporation of vocational skills training, as well as academic learning, the author justifies the use of simulated surveying instructions to meet these dual requirements. The article focuses on a case study of one such simulation carried out with the final-year undergraduate Building Surveying students at Sheffield Hallam University. Pedagogy is proposed and justified using established enquiry-based learning techniques, and vocational instruction taken from published works on professional building surveying. Requirements of a professional surveyor are established from one of the stakeholders’, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, code of practice guidelines and by using feedback from clients obtained from an academic survey. Specialist legal advice with regard to surveyor negligence and contractual obligation is applied. Details of the property, the surveys undertaken and the methodology employed by the learners on site are described. Outcomes from the surveys are evaluated to form conclusions about whether this form of building appraisal successfully delivers both vocational and academic learning, and consequentially whether such surveys should become more commonplace.