ACADEMICS’ VIEWS ABOUT THEIR RESEARCH NEEDS AND A MOBILE PERFORMANCE SUPPORT SYSTEM OFFERED AS A CORRESPONDING SOLUTİON[i]

Nilgün Özdamar Keskin1 & Abdullah Kuzu 2

Distance Education 1, Computer Education and Instructional Technologies 2

Anadolu UIniversity

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Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the needs of academics in Turkey in the scientific research context and to get their views about mobile performance support systems (MPSSs) offered as a corresponding solution to their needs. For this, academics’ views about professional needs in the scientific research context were taken by conducting interviews with two different focus groups that consisted of six academics each. The results of the analysis of their views suggested that most of academics need support regarding research design, research methods, and new research approaches as well as a performance support system to access just in time information, to solve their problems, and to provide interactive coaching and guidance.

Keywords: Scientific Research Needs; Focus Group Interview; Mobile Performance Support System

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

In the information age, during which the advances in information and communication technologies happen, knowledge increases incrementally and numerous changes and innovations occur, individuals are required to be innovative, to attain information at any condition, and to generate information. In this period, the academics in Turkey who work at universities should update their knowledge constantly because of their responsibilities such as doing scientific research, teaching, supporting national development, spreading innovations by adapting to change. Otherwise, the competencies, which academics have, cannot fulfill the effective performance in the case of differing environment conditions (Odabaşı 2000). It can be resulted in the case that the academics encounter the problem of academic obsoleteness.It is essential for academics to give importance to professional development to prevent such problems caused by this change.

Professional development is defined as the activities planned to improve academics’ knowledge and skills in their duty fields related to teaching, research, and institution performances (Sheets Schwenk, 1990). According to this definition, professional development can be explained as the activities designed to improve academics’ performances in the duties assigned fortheir teaching, research and institutional skills and to increase their effectiveness. As regards to another definition, professional development is defined as the whole of activities such as seminar, conference and individual counseling which are conducted within a certain discipline in educational, field-based, individual and institutional domains by higher education institutions to fulfill their duties (Kabakçı & Odabaşı 2004). Within the framework of this definition, professional development can be explained in four classes. These are field-based development, institutional development, pedagogical development and personal development (Kabakçı 2005). Field-based development contain activities for improving academics’ researcher identities, also it consists of the activities such as preparing and publishing research techniques and statisticalresearch methods, scientific publications, and benefitting from research funds and research scholarship. Furthermore, institutional development includes the activities for improving the instructors’ institution identities reflecting the culture of the institution they work. It can be exemplified as institutional operation, institutional harmony, teamwork, having consensus and problem-solving. On the other hand, pedagogical development are the activities for improving the academics’ teaching identities, also it contains applications for teaching and preparing for the lesson, teaching skills and content development activities, measurement and evaluation activities, and the activities for knowing and applying teaching method and techniques. Whereas personal development includes activities for personality development and it also covers the activities such as planning working time, time management, coping with stress, verbal and improving nonverbal communication.

1.1.1. Professional Needs of the Academics in Turkey

When the needs of professional development of the academics, in Turkey, are examined in terms of field-based, institutional, pedagogical and personal development, it may be stated that field-based development, which is related to scientific research and methods, is mostly required. For instance; in Kabakçı’s (2005) doctoral dissertation, which was conducted with 1095 research assistants to determine their perceptions regarding professional development in terms of necessity, significance and suggestion, it was ascertained that the research assistants atEducation Faculty required professional development in terms of necessity, then they need it respectively in terms of field-based, institutional, pedagogical and personal development. It was obtained that there was a significant relationship only between the dimensions of the Education Faculty research assistants’ professional development and their participations to scientific meetings; on the other hand, it was found out that there was no relationship between the required professional development dimensions and gender, working year, department, participation to scientific meetings abroad, and professional development programs. In the study, the order of the dimensions that the research assistants at Education Faculty found important for the dimension of the significance of the professional development was respectively determined as field-based, personal, pedagogical and institutional development. Additionally, it was found that there was partially significant relationship between the professional development dimensions they found important and their participation to scientific meetings abroad; on the contrary, there was no relationship between these dimensions and gender, working year, department, participation to national scientific meetings, and professional development programs. Consequently, in Kabakçı’s study, it was determined that research assistants require mostly professional development regarding scientific research in terms of the necessity and significance dimensions.

Considering this study and according to literature review conducted to analyze the academics,’ need for professional development regarding scientific research design and methods, it has been observed that the need for professional development of the academics and graduate students, who will be future academics, regarding scientific research methods and techniques is high. Furthermore, in Kurt et al’s (2007) study it was found out that “Research Methods in Social Sciences” course has no effect on data analysis and statistic dimensions, the duration of lesson is inadequate, and the intelligibility of the lesson is low due to being too much theoretical also lack of practice.

In another study, the opinions of the graduate students at Anadolu University,Institute of Educational Sciences in 2006-2007 on the problems they encounter at scientific research process were examined (Suna et al. 2007). As a result of the study, it was determined that the graduate students have problems at the phases of choosing the research problem, data collection, data analysis and reporting data in scientific research process. The academics and the ones planned to be academics in the future have problems within the field-based development although they have had scientific research courses during their graduate education, thus it is certain that this will reflect to the future scientific research projects and thesis.

In the studies evaluating M.A. and PhD thesis, it was determined that academics have problems in scientific research processes. In Şimşek et al.’s (2007a;2009b) study covering the doctoral dissertations on education technology conducted in the last decade, it was observed that there were serious mistakes in the methodology parts of the dissertations, for instance; in the experimental studies, it was observed that there was no pilot study on experimental instrument, besides, the study was claimed to be experiment although the class was not assigned to groups objectively, also groups were not equal before the experiment, data collection instruments were not presented to experts, reliability of the data collection instrument was not reported, for success tests, Cronbach Alpha coefficient was calculated instead of Kuder Richardson (KR-20), there was incoherence in the application times of permanency test, and the application time was not based on strong fundamentals so forth. These problems influence the internal and external reliability of the study.

In the study by Uğurlu et al. (2007), 94 thesis, 81 of which are MA thesis and 13 of which are PhD dissertations, conducted at Secondary Education Science and Mathematics Fields Education Department, Mathematic Science Department in the last decade were examined, it was then determined that the paradigms, which are fundamentals of research and necessary to be aware, are not mentioned in the studies, besides mostly quantitative techniques and experimental methods are used, the pilot studies on the used data collection instruments are not conducted appropriately, in thesis, experts’ opinions are taken as the validity criteria, additionally the required analysis for the reliability studies are not performed, also the conducted analyses are not explained exactly and the analysis methods that are not appropriate to the features of the instruments are not used, also the instruments inappropriate to research questions are used, sampling is not carried out thoroughly, moreover, the conditions required with the technique to be used in data analysis are not taken into account and inappropriate techniques are used.

Furthermore, in the studies evaluating the MA thesis in the field of Management and Marketing (Sağlam-Arı et al. 2007) and investigating the thesis in the field of Management of Human Sources (Benligiray 2007), it was also obtained that in the thesis which are the indicators of experting, the academics and graduate students had methodological problems; particularly they had reliability and validity problems in data analysis, development of data collection instrument.

Moreover, it was determined that the postgraduate thesis in the field of Educational Sciences are mostly designed with quantitative research method, yet the thesis adapting qualitative or other methods are not sufficient (Gültekin et al. 2007; Akçay et al. 2007; Şimşek et al.2007a; 2009b; Uğurlu et al. 2007). This case indicated that one certain method is focused in the thesis and the method is not usually changed. Thus, the researchers do not have sufficient knowledge on different research methods, they mostly prefer quantitative method. It was ascertained that in the scientific research courses given during graduate and postgraduate education, methodological variety is not emphasized; many academics do not have any knowledge on the methods in literature, so they need support regarding this issue.

In Sönmez’s (2005) study, the necessity to develop academics’ and graduate students’ performance regarding scientific research was emphasized. According to Sönmez, in scientific research,the mistakes in introduction, problem statement, premises, definition and limitations cause many problems in method, sampling, selection of subjects, and data collection, and hence this influences the data collection instruments and statisticaltechniques to be used, therefore it is defended that the studies conducted in this way is not appropriate to scientific principles. To sum up, these studies indicate that academics have deficiencies in the dimensions of field-based development and they require professional development.

Consequently, the studies conducted in related literature show that the academics in Turkey have problems in scientific research design and methods and they require professional development regarding the solutions of these problems. It is possible to say that the problems experienced within the context of scientific research are mostly intensified in research methods and data analysis.

When all these studies are analyzed, it has appeared that academics in Turkey need a technology which will improve their performance and provide their training in scientific research.Mobile Performance Support System may be designed to improve their performance by providing users with just-in-time support, information, guidance and support in certain contexts whenever and wherever they need it.

1.1.2. Why is Mobile Perfomance Support System (MPSS) as a Solution?

MPSS concentrate on improving task performance by leveraging mobile technologies at the right time and in the right place to provide information, to support learning experiences, and to guide decision making (Ahmad2009). MPSS allows the use of rich media such as video, photographs, images and audio in order to make instruction, training, and job aids more effective by supporting users. MPSS invokes learning to support people being able to do things: new things, doing things a better way, doing them with updated information, or doing them when something goes wrong. MPSS is demanded for moving beyond full courses for all learning needs, and beginning to take a richer look at the types of learning needs and ways we can add value to what people need to accomplish (Quinn 2007). For example, sometimes we may just need a reference, sometimes we may need a decision aid, sometimes we may need an example, and sometimes just some motivation. MPSSs could be designed to meet the needs each of all these situations.

Furthermore, mobile devices are portable, individual, available, persistent, and useful. Users can carry their mobile device everywhere and use it constantly through all of life. Thus, MPSS supports Lifelong Learning that describe as learning is a continuous, life long process resulting from acting in situations. It provides people with the knowledge and skills they need to ensure success in a rapidly-changing world (Sharples 2000). Because MPSS is a dynamic system, information can be constantly updated depending on the situation. Thus, users can use itevery day for their learning experiences. Moreover, they can use it in informal learning environments, such as consulting or collaboration with other users or by accessing different information resources in their free time.

MPSS may be designed for academics to provide information in research design, implementation of research methods, new approaches to research, and the efficient writing of research papers continuously while they are conducting research. This study is to examinethe needs of academics in Turkey in the scientific research context and to get their views about mobile performance support systems (MPSSs) offered as a corresponding solution to their needs.

1.2. Purpose of The Study

In this study, it is aimed to determine the academics’ professional development needs within the context of scientific research and their perceptions of mobile performance support system as a solution to their professional development needs. On this purpose, the sub-goals of the study are as in the following:

  • What is the professional development area that the academics require mostly within the context of scientific research, teaching method and technique, academic counseling and personal development?
  • What are the problems that the academics encounter while doing scientific research?
  • What are the researchers’ suggestions to solve the problems that they encounter while doing scientific research?
  • What are the opinions of the researchers related to Mobile Performance Support System as a solution to the professional development needs?
  • What are the opinions of the researchers related to the design of a Mobile Performance Support System for academics’ needs?

2. METHOD

Sample: The participants of the study contain 12 academics working at Anadolu University. Six of the participants are the postgraduate students at Institute of Social Sciences, three of them at Institute of Science and three of them at Institute of Educational Sciences. While selecting the participants, purposeful sampling was used.

Data Collection Instrument and Data Collection:In order to determine the participants’ opinions in the study, two different focus group interviews each of which contained six people were conducted. In focus group interviews, the answers to questions are given as a result of interactions among the individuals in the group. Since group dynamics influence the content and depth of the answers to questions, it is possible to obtain a rich data set from focus group interview (Yıldırım &Şimşek 2005). The interviews were conducted by meeting the participants in each group one by one and at the common time and place that six participants at each group agreed on.

As data collection instrument, an interview form containing eight questions developed by the researchers of the study. In order to determine whether the questions in the form could address the research questions or not, three field experts’ opinions were asked, and according to these opinions, necessary changes on the form were made and the final version was prepared. In this study, out of eight interview questions, three questions were taken into evaluation since in qualitative data analysis, direct quotations from the participants should be included and thus the result report becomes long and there is a page limit.

Data Analysis and Interpretation:For data analysis in this study, inductive analysis was used. In inductive data analysis, data is coded, themes are found, data is arranged and defined according to codes and themes, and as a result the obtained findings are interpreted (Yıldırm & Şimşek 2005). The aim of this analysis is to reveal the concepts underlying the data and the relations between these concepts through coding. In this method, the results obtained from the data, which are described, interpreted, and whose cause-effect relations are examined, are given through direct quotations from the participants.

In this study, the semi-structured interview data stored as video files were transcribed and then written in the interview forms. By reading all data, the themes on the basis of questions were determined. The obtained themes were transformed into “Interview Coding Key”. Then, the researchers and one field expert independently coded the themes containing the answers in the interview coding key by reading the forms. After completing the coding key for each interviewed individual, they compared the consistency of the coding key. For reliability, the formula of Reliability=Consensus (Reliability + Dissensus) was used (Miles & Huberman1994).

3.FINDINGS

As a result of two focus group interviews containing six people, it was observed that the academics’ professional development needs in the dimensions of scientific research, academic consultancy, pedagogical and personal development were mostly for scientific research design and methods. This data is supported with the literature mentioned above. The themes related to this question are given in Table 1.

Table 1: The Most Required Professional Development Areas