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Striving against invalidity in qualitative research: Discussing a reflective framework
The aim of this paper is to discuss a reflective validation framework related with the study of teaching approaches, teaching styles or teaching orientations of university academics. In the recent years, and particularly since the eighties, there have been a growing number of investigations linking teaching conceptions with teaching practices. The majority of investigations dealing with university teachers’ conceptions and practices draw their conclusions based on indirect observation, since data gathering involves mainly semi-structured interviews or the application of questionnaires and inventories. Therefore ‘only-half-the-story’ has been reported. The presented validation framework has a five-part three-stage structure and was built upon earlier work (Selvaruby, O’Sullivan, & Watts, 2007). In this model validity is conceptualized as an ‘iterative-interactive-process’, therefore integrating a set of specific strategies envisaging the maximization of scientific quality. The application of the model is illustrated by using it for the discussion of a longitudinal study involving the investigation of the relationship between questioning practices and Trigwell and co-workers’ concept of preferential teaching approaches (Trigwell, Prosser & Taylor, 1994). Field work of this naturalistic-interpretative research was conducted during two academic years (2009/2010 and 2010/2011) and implied close collaboration with a group of four university teachers lecturing biology to undergraduates.This work was financed by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BD/44611/2008) and by Fundos FEDER através do Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade – COMPETE e por Fundos Nacionais através da FCT (PTDC/CPE-CED/117516/2010)
Analytical study of tunneling times in flat histogram Monte Carlo
We present a model for the dynamics in energy space of multicanonical
simulation methods that lends itself to a rather complete analytic
characterization. The dynamics is completely determined by the density of
states. In the \pm J 2D spin glass the transitions between the ground state
level and the first excited one control the long time dynamics. We are able to
calculate the distribution of tunneling times and relate it to the
equilibration time of a starting probability distribution. In this model, and
possibly in any model in which entering and exiting regions with low density of
states are the slowest processes in the simulations, tunneling time can be much
larger (by a factor of O(N)) than the equilibration time of the probability
distribution. We find that these features also hold for the energy projection
of single spin flip dynamics.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, published in Europhysics Letters (2005
NoSOCS in SDSS. VI. The Environmental Dependence of AGN in Clusters and Field in the Local Universe
We investigated the variation in the fraction of optical active galactic
nuclei (AGN) hosts with stellar mass, as well as their local and global
environments. Our sample is composed of cluster members and field galaxies at
and we consider only strong AGN. We find a strong variation in the
AGN fraction () with stellar mass. The field population comprises a
higher AGN fraction compared to the global cluster population, especially for
objects with log . Hence, we restricted our analysis to more
massive objects. We detected a smooth variation in the with local
stellar mass density for cluster objects, reaching a plateau in the field
environment. As a function of clustercentric distance we verify that
is roughly constant for R R, but show a steep decline inwards. We
have also verified the dependence of the AGN population on cluster velocity
dispersion, finding a constant behavior for low mass systems ( km s). However, there is a strong decline in
for higher mass clusters ( 700 km s). When comparing the in
clusters with or without substructure we only find different results for
objects at large radii (R R), in the sense that clusters with
substructure present some excess in the AGN fraction. Finally, we have found
that the phase-space distribution of AGN cluster members is significantly
different than other populations. Due to the environmental dependence of
and their phase-space distribution we interpret AGN to be the result
of galaxy interactions, favored in environments where the relative velocities
are low, typical of the field, low mass groups or cluster outskirts.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, Accepted to MNRA
Deterministic Seasonality in Dickey-Fuller Tests: Should We Care?
This paper investigates the properties of Dickey-Fuller tests for seasonally unadjusted quarterly data when deterministic seasonality is present but it is neglected in the test regression. While for the random walk case the answer is straightforward, an extensive Monte Carlo study has to be performed for more realistic processes and testing strategies. The most important conclusion is that the common perception that deterministic seasonality has nothing to do with the long-run properties of the data is incorrect. Further numerical evidence on the shortcomings of the general-to-specific t-sig lag selection method is also presented.unit root; Dickey-Fuller tests; similar tests; seasonality; Monte Carlo
The Order of Integration for Quarterly Macroeconomic Time series: a Simple Testing Strategy
Besides introducing a simple and intuitive definition for the order of integration of quarterly time series, this paper also presents a simple testing strategy to determine that order for the case of macroeconomic data. A simulation study shows that much more attention should be devoted to the practical issue of selecting the maximum admissible order of integration. In fact, it is shown that when that order is too high, one may get (spurious) evidence for an excessive number of unit roots, resulting in an overdifferenced series.
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