Moving towards multidimensional evaluation of teaching in higher education: A study across four faculties

The article investigates the issue of teaching evaluation in higher education, providing a picture of the phenomenon into the Italian specific context within a European dimension. Starting from the premise that in Italian universities, teaching evaluation is based on general indicators which reflect a simplification of a complex phenomenon, scientific research related to teaching evaluation in higher education is presented and discussed. In this perspective, it will be argued that nature of teaching evaluation is characterized by multidimensionality and complexity. Only in this way it can represent a useful instrument for the improvement of teaching process and for the comprehension of the importance of being effective teachers. Moreover, on the basis of a participative model, it seems important to involve teachers and students in the formulation of relevant questions related to teaching. The aim of the research is represented by highlighting the specific aspects of teaching process dependent from the context through a comparison among faculties. Seventy interviews have been carried out with teachers and students of the same four faculties (Humanities, Psychology, Educational Sciences, Mathematics and Natural Sciences). Qualitative analysis of the data collected are conducted using the scientific software Atlas.ti. The outcomes confirm our initial assumptions showing differences among the four faculties considering the multiple dimensions of the university teaching.

Nation and National Museums,a Contested Relationship: An Analysis of U.S. National Museums in the Twenty‐first Century

The motivation for this article arose from the wish to share our outside perspectives on how national museums in the U.S. mediate ideas of national identity. We are four students out of a larger group of 15 German students in Cultural Studies at Leuphana University of Lueneburg. We conducted empirical research on various national museums within the Smithsonian Institution and also on the soon‐to‐be‐opened National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City. The objective of our research was to explore the role that American national museums play in a globalized world by investigating how such museums address changing national identities over time.     

Publication and citation patterns among LIS faculty: Profiling a “typical professor”

Research on publication and citation patterns generally focuses on prolific or highly cited authors or on highly ranked programs. This study investigates the work and influence of a cross-section of library and information science (LIS) researchers at various stages of their academic lives, using a random sample of faculty members at programs accredited by the American Library Association. The analysis shows that the number of publications increases steadily as faculty rank advances. Assistant professors publish more conference papers and fewer journal articles, a pattern that is reversed with associate and full professors. Researchers used Web of Science® and Google™ Scholar to determine the influence of the publications. Web of Science reported no citations for most LIS faculty publications. With its broader scope, Google Scholar located more citations and revealed that the works of professors are cited significantly more frequently than publications by assistant or associate professors. When faculty profiles are compared by type of program, faculty members at schools granting doctoral degrees publish significantly more than their counterparts at schools where there is no doctoral program or where the doctoral degree is offered jointly with other academic units. When the comparison is made across ranks, full professors publish significantly more than faculty members at other ranks. There is no significant difference between assistant and associate professors.