Analysis of college professors' perceptions of core research competences and differences based on professors' individual characteristics

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the types of core concepts concerning the research competence of college professors, and to determine the core factors thereof. Thus, a survey on perceptions of research competence was administered to 116 professors working at 4-year colleges in Korea. The results showed that the professors considered scholarly competence and duty fulfillment as important. They had a low level of perception of the importance of research productivity, and the deviation was high. The majority of professors perceived the research competences developing research topics, genuine perspective, and holistic thinking as the most important factors. In the analysis of perceptional differences according to professors' characteristics, the items that showed a significant difference were sex, age, teaching experience, major, and college location. College type, college scale, and status of administrative position did not show any significant difference. © 2017 International Information Institute.