Reflection Week 13

I don't even know what to say about this week. Working on the paper is so exhausting. I feel like I might never be done.

Twitter was very helpful in helping me to determine what my paper should look like. Before Twitter I was wondering if what I was doing was right. Twitter helped me to feel more confident and to make some necessary changes.

Critical friends has also been super helpful. It was helpful to me to read others research so I could have a clearer idea of what mine should look like. I know we read a couple of papers a few weeks ago but at that point I hadn't even started writing mine. I was still going through the data. This time when I read them I got new ideas of what I should try to do with mine.

It has also been helpful to get other peoples perspective on my paper. I did the research so sometimes it is easy to forget to include things. Sarah has provided me with some great feedback. Many things I knew I needed to change but just did not have the time to. One thing I definitely wanted to change was the data section. I had the tables but did not write about them. I was saving that for the end to see what tables I really wanted to post there. Then I forgot to go back and finish it.

Now it is time to go back and continue to edit away. I just have so many thoughts it is hard to get them all on paper.

Blog #13

Essential Question: What has your research shown?

Please Click here to access my paper. I did not want to fill up my blog with this long paper. It is a google doc. I did include lots of tables at the back. You don't have to read them unless you want to.

Week 12 Reflection

This week I was very good for me. I didn't really consider the fact that I would need to make my research engaging. I learned some tricks to help make my research more engaging.

Cherie pointed out that a story is a good way to engage readers. This made me think of our weekly elder talks at school. When the elder tells a story students are so engaged, but when the elder tells them how to act students frequently find other ways to keep themselves occupied.

Everyone pretty much noted that creating catchy titles is another way to attract attention. If you can hook a reader with a few short words you might entice them to continue reading. I didn't really write about this in my post, but I did notice it. Once I started reading other posts this really started to sink in, and I realized how important this could be to my report.

I also found that if you make your research relatable it is far more engaging. This involves describing your settings with just enough detail that others might be able to see themselves in your shoes.

Data update Week 12

As far as analysis goes I have not done much. I have been a little busy at school working with the senior class this year. So my data analysis has been put on the back-burner. I plan to do a lot this week. Having the holiday will help give me some time to focus.

I did get a chance to look at the post surveys. I noticed that on an initial inspection it looks like student perception did not change a whole lot. This is not what I would've thought, as it seemed like the students were becoming less interested in Twitter. I will need to look more closely at the data to determine if this is in fact the case.

Week #12

Essential Question: What are the characteristics of an engaging Action Research Report?

I picked the 2 articles that were about science because I am a science teacher. The first thing I did after that was look at the page lengths. I planned to just skim them, but ended up reading more than expected. From this I gained a few insights as to what might spark someone's interest. The first being that it is very important to have an engaging introduction. This is what readers get to first. You can either make it something that really hooks the reader into wanting to read more or it could be a total dud causing the reader to disregard your work. Tracy (2002) described his situation so well that I thought he must have been in my classroom. “As I struggled to explain mitosis to a group of very low English level English Language Learners I realized that they had no idea what I was saying. Desperately I floundered to try a different approach.” I feel like I am doing this constantly with my middle school students. He couldn’t have described it any more perfectly. Once I read that I wanted to keep going and know more. He also brings in the humor that sometimes comes into teaching by sharing a personal story. This personal story was easy to relate to as I think every teacher has probably had a similar experience of doing something and it comes out totally wrong.

The second article I read by Herman (2002) took a little longer to hook me. It didn’t really seem to relate to me but I read on anyway. It didn’t take long to get to something intriguing, on the second page she talked about challenges. One really stuck out to me, and I could relate. “Students would get up and walk around when they felt like it, even if the teacher or another student was speaking to the class. Or a student would sharpen a pencil during another student’s presentation.” I frequently have this problem and have to stop the class to talk with students.

With both articles I was engaged when I could relate. I think this seems to be a huge part of the engagement. Describing something with enough detail, but not too much, so that someone else could feel like they are in your shoes.

I also think it is very important at the end to discuss implications. According to Action Research Projects (2002), “The implications for your findings might consider a set of next steps you want to take, additional research that needs to be done, and/or how your findings relate to your school or teaching context.” I think this really engages a reader to think more critically and stirs their imagination. At least for me, I start to think about what I could do differently.

References

"Action Research Projects." Action Research Projects: Exemplar Projects - LMTIP. 2002. Web. 20 Nov. 2015. <https://gse.gmu.edu/research/lmtip/arp/ex>.

Hermann, K. (2002, June 1). Teaching Science to High School Students Who Have Limited Formal Schooling.

Tracy, C. (2002, June 1). Assessment: A New Science Teacher’s Attempt to Use Assessment as a Form of Conversation.

Week #11 Reflection

Sarah’s post reminded me that we wrote an introduction and literature review that were separate. Because of this, I think I will have 6 sections in my final write up: introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. I would not want to combine any of the last 3 sections to shorten my report. For me it is nice to see the raw data, and because the discussion can get long it is nice to have a shortened conclusion.

From Peter’s blog I also gained the idea of having an appendix. This would be great so that you could really shorten your results section by including only what you feel is necessary. Then if others wanted to see more you could have an appendix that shows all of the data you collected.

This week really made me think about who would read my research. I have told a couple of colleagues and they want to hear my results. But other than colleagues and this class I don’t know that I would share it unless someone asked. I don’t think Twitter was all that effective in my high school class. I think part of the problem is the lack of internet access at home. Also, we do not have data for cell phones either and I think that might make a major difference. As I am typing this we are getting hooked up to 3G, so I would be interested to try this again in the future to see if there is a difference.

Week 11 Data Collection

All of my data from Twitter seemed to be about the same this week. The newness has worn off and less and less students are participating. I think a huge problem is the lack of internet at home and that there is no cellular data. So really the only place to use Twitter is at school.

Observations keep getting harder. This week I totally forgot. But I have at least one day of data for each student I wanted to observe. So I think this will still work.

I am ready to sit down and try to sort through the pile of data I have collected. I am really excited to look at the post survey that I just collected on Friday. I am interested to see if student interest declined because from my perspective it did. I think a large factor is that I needed to spend a lot of time looking up new ideas on ways to include Twitter in the classroom. I just thought that using too many different activities might complicate my research. I think I would like to try some other methods in the future to see if I get different results, but it will be nice to have a baseline.

Week #11 Blog

Essential Question: How will you format and disseminate your research?

The first step in writing up qualitative research is to figure out who your research is for, your audience. Next you choose the focus. This is where you go back to the purpose of your study. “The focus “states a purpose and then fulfills the promise. Coming up with a focus means deciding what you want to tell your reader. You should be able to state it in a sentence or two” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 271). Before you can even start writing you must go through all of the data you have collected.

There are many barriers to writing. When you write you could be critiqued and this could be good or bad. People may scrutinize you or criticize your ideas. You could even have many flaws in your research and someone may point those out. These things can make you feel inadequate, and defeated (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 274). But if you don’t put your work out there no one will ever be able to benefit from the work you did. Öhman and Löfgren give the following advice when writing up your research:

      -    The report should be easy to understand and clearly contextualized

-    Keep short

-    Be clear in presenting methods

-    Avoid too much detailed descriptions of the results

-    Relate your findings with existing knowledge and theory

-    Provide a discussion of the applicability for theory development and practice of the research field

There is no format you have to follow when writing up your research. “In standard research reports, the problem that gave rise to the study is laid out early in the report” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 276). This may be in an introductory section where you talk about your framework and include references. Next you may write about the setting of your research. You may choose to include a section about yourself including: your training, experience, philosophical orientation, and biases (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 277). A methodology should be included, but where you include it depends on the audience. Every report will list the findings. This is where you write about what you found out from your research. You may choose to discuss your findings in the same section or start a new section to discuss your data. One of the hardest parts it to determine how much data and analysis you should include.  “A good rule when considering how much information to include is that readers should have been given enough information to be able to carry out similar research themselves” (Anderson, 2010). In this section if might be of benefit to include displays, charts, or figures. “Keep the number of displays to a minimum; using just a few figures to represent important ideas will draw attention to those ideas” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 284).

According to Pitchforth (1995), you could use the following structure for your paper: introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. I really like how this is laid out and it seems like how I wrote my science lab reports in undergrad. To me it seems the most natural and I plan to use this as my outline. To disseminate my results I really just plan to share with the class and others at my school or in the district who might be interested.

References

Anderson, C. (2010, October 11). Presenting and Evaluating Qualitative Research. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987281/

Merriam, Sharan B.; Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2015-07-06). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Öhman, A., & Löfgren, M. (n.d.). News and updates. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from http://www.medicaljournals.se/jrm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&Itemid=56

Pitchforth, E., Porter, M., Van Tijlingen, E., & Forrest Keenan, K. (1995, December 3). Writing up and presenting qualitative research in family planning and reproductive health care. Retrieved November 14, 2015, from https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/309/1/Qual research paper 4 final revised.pdf

Week 10 Data Collection Update

My students are getting tired of always posting to Twitter. At first they were excited but now the newness and excitement has worn off. I'm thinking that like anything in education you have to change things up. At this point in my study I don't want to change anything, but I think in the future it would be important to consider multiple uses of Twitter. Right now I am only really using it as an exit ticket. Some students still seem to enjoy it while others just see it as something they have to do. I have also noticed a decline in the number of posts, especially in the past week.

Week 10 Reflection

This week it seemed like everyone talked about the issue of confidentiality and I think that was really good. It gave me many ideas to consider when I go to write up my conclusions. I realized that I need to think about confidentiality for my students. I did not really consider that too much before, but as we are coming to a close in data collection I need to start thinking about how I will write this up. Tristan pointed out that she was planning to use student A, student B, etc. I really like this idea because as I was thinking of different ways I thought even pronouns would give away too much information. Really anyone in the village would be able to identify some of the students. Another suggestion I might consider using is just telling the number of students that did a certain thing. This is what Sarah listed she was doing.

Another big concept that I will need to focus on is rich, thick detail. I really did not think about this either, but it makes sense. If I don’t describe exactly how I did something then why would anyone believe me? They would have no idea what I had done and they would discredit me.

Blog #10-Credibility & Ethics

Essential Question: What primary concerns exist in ethics, validity and reliability in AR? How are you managing these concerns (or how will you) within your study?

Internal validity deals with the question of how research findings match reality. (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 242) To measure validity, Lincoln and Gruba (1985) list credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability as the main categories to assess the validity of a study. Credibility means that the study seems to be true. Transferability is that a study can be applied to another situation. Dependability refers to the ability of a study to be repeated with similar results. Confirmability means that the results are due to the respondents and they were not greatly influenced by the researcher.

In qualitative research “data do not speak for themselves; there is always an interpreter, or a translator” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 242). This means that no matter what we do as a researcher our opinion will always be present. “One cannot observe or measure a phenomenon/ event without changing it” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 242). Even when faced with similar situations people usually have different accounts.

According to Merriam and Tisdell (2015), some ways to increase the validity of a study include: triangulation, respondent validation, adequate time with data, peer review, audit trail, thick descriptions, and maximum variation. If you can get feedback from other sources either through reading the research or talking with others you can filter out some of your opinions. However, “the important feature of triangulation is not the simple combination of different kinds of data, but the attempt to relate them so as to counteract the threats to validity identified in each" (Brown, 2005).  This helps you to gain other perspectives that you may not have seen otherwise. Spending time collecting and analyzing data coupled with thick descriptions can help others to see where you are getting your conclusions. “If the findings of a study are consistent with the data presented, the study can be considered dependable” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 252). This also means that the researcher needs to explain their position so others will know where possibles biases may come into play.

When researching there will always be multiple opinions on what is allowed and what is not. The ethics behind the research is not black and white. There will always be gray areas. I think of biggest concern for my study will be confidentiality and anonymity. With using Twitter my students will be out in the online world. This means that I am not the only one who sees their tweets. I decided to look into the ethics of using Twitter to see if there was anything out there. There wasn’t much but I did come across the suggestion “that scientists never reveal screen names and make research objectives publicly available” (Moyer, 2014). My students are aware that others can see what they are doing and they know that they are posting to Twitter to see if it helps them out in class. They are aware of the basics but not the specifics. I think I will just have to be cautious in writing my conclusions to make sure that I think about their anonymity as I go.

This week I stumbled across another cartoon that made me chuckle. It went right along with my research and the ethical concerns that could come up.

https://epriego.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/twitter-as-public-evidence-and-the-ethics-of-twitter-research/

References

Brown, J. (2005). Questions and answers about language testing statistics: Characteristics of sound qualitative research. JALT Testing & Evaluation SIG Newsletter, 9(2), 31-33. Retrieved from http://jalt.org/test/bro_22.htm

Lincoln, YS. & Guba, EG. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Merriam, Sharan B.; Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2015-07-06). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES) Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Moyer, M. (2014). Twitter to Release All Tweets to Scientists. Scientific American, 310(6). Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/twitter-to-release-all-tweets-to-scientists-a-trove-of-billions-of-tweets-will-be-a-research-boon-and-an-ethical-dilemma/

Week #9 Reflection

This week Genevieve pointed out cross referencing your data with your questions. This gave me the idea of printing out my question and keeping it in front of me as I sort through data. I think this might help to keep me on task and will help me to work more efficiently. I also really like the idea of a number system to sort out what you think you will use (3), what you might use (2) and what you don’t plan on using (1). I would hate to leave out data and then later on realize that I need it. I also think that with leaving it out I might just forget about it, and it could’ve been really important without me even knowing it.

Another key point in the discussion on Sarah’s blog is that I need to not be so focused on what I expect to find. Some things may pop up in my data and I need to “roll with it.” This is so hard for me, as I want to stick with the method I outlined. This week after taking a step back from looking at my data, I realized I may need to look at it differently. There are just so many ways to organize data.

This week I definitely learned about the importance of going through your data as you collect it. This is something I would want to do regardless, but I probably wouldn’t have made the time. This week after our Twitter chat it motivated me to at least look at the data and try to start sorting the tweets into the main categories I had outlined in my methods. I think this is a good start, but I am thinking I will also need to sort my observations in a similar.

Week 9-Data Collection Update

Update us on your progress. How is your data collection going?

In total I probably have about 2 full weeks of data on Twitter. Some days I have not been able to have students post to Twitter. This has not been very often but I had 2 days this week where that happened. Yesterday we were reviewing for our test and the review game took longer than anticipated. Today with Halloween, we didn’t have class. Instead we had our school parade of the costumes. The same thing has happened with collecting the observations. I have been collecting observations for both physical science and biology. In physical science I forgot to collect one day and then our class was skipped due to a special presentation from a visitor. I guess things will always come up, so it was good to hear in our Twitter chat that we can work with the data we have. It is just a matter of spending some time with it. So that is what I have been working on. I have been working to sort the tweets. Here is a pic of what I have sorted so far.

These are all of the tweets from my biology class. I have noticed that as time has gone on some students have posted more. I have found that most tweets provide helpful information. It was good to see this. I was afraid that many comments were almost useless as I was catching some that were very generic or unrelated to class. The 2nd column and last column are the tweets that do not provide helpful information to the class. These are some of the smallest categories so that is very encouraging. It shows that my students are taking Twitter seriously. I was a little afraid that they were just posting whatever and not thinking about what they were posting.

Week #9 Blog

Essential Question: How will you go about making sense of your data?

“Collection and analysis should be a simultaneous process in qualitative research” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 195). I think this might be the main thing that stuck with me this week. It seems obvious, and was something I was already considering. The problem was all of my other duties have been interfering with the amount of time I can put into my research. I think this statement really made me build in some time to look at my data and try to start coding it. The first step of analysis will be to get familiar with my data. This means I need to read and re-read it (Taylor-Powell & Renner, 2003, pp.2). “Think of yourself as having a conversation with the data— asking questions of it, making comments to it, and so on” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 204). I found this statement to be very humorous and true. This will help me to code and interpret data as I go.

“Coding is nothing more than assigning some sort of shorthand designation to various aspects of your data so that you can easily retrieve specific pieces of the data” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 199). I have been trying to sort the tweets my students have been posting. This is a very tedious job, and I have come up with the plan of cutting and pasting for this. I have 4 main categories. I don’t think I could come up with any fewer. Merriam and Tisdell (2015) recommend using fewer categories because it makes it easier to share your results. (pp. 214)

Merriam and Tisdell (2015) also note that the categories should represent the purpose of your study (pp. 204).

I plan to use content analysis where I will code for certain words and then interpret their meaning, as opposed thematic analysis. ("Analyze Qualitative Data Pell Institute", 2015). “After data has been collected, you will need to undergo a data reduction process in order to identify and focus in on what is meaningful” ("Analyze Qualitative Data Pell Institute", 2015). I do not plan to do much data reduction because I have not recorded every little thing. But I will have to do some reduction to make my data a little more manageable.

 http://www.dedoose.com/blog/2013/02/text-analysis-and-the-cloud/

Near the end of chapter 9, the discussion turned to using computers to sort data. “The computer program only helps as an organizing or categorizing tool, and does not do the analysis for the researcher” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 221). Computers are also a great way to store your information and to create a backup copy. I have become a huge fan of using google for virtually everything and I don’t think I will change for this research project. Another great aspect of using computers is the ability to create visual representations. It is also much easier to change things around (Reademaker, Grace & Curda, 2012) .                                                                    

   

References

Analyze Qualitative Data Pell Institute. (2015). Retrieved October 30, 2015, from http://toolkit.pellinstitute.org/evaluation-guide/analyze/analyze-qualitative-data/

Merriam, Sharan B.; Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2015, July 6). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Rademaker, L., Grace, E., & Curda, S. (2012). Using Computer-assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) to Re-examine Traditionally Analyzed Data: Expanding our Understanding of the Data and of Ourselves as Scholars. The Qualitative Report, 17(43), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR17/rademaker.pdf

Taylor-Powell, E., & Renner, M. (2003). Analyzing Qualitative Data.University of Wisconsin-Extension. Retrieved from http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/G3658-12.pdf

The Cloud-Or...No, Your Text Analysis Does Not Get Wet When It Rains... (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2015, from http://www.dedoose.com/blog/2013/02/text-analysis-and-the-cloud/

Week #8 Reflection

This week I have learned how important data mining can be. After reading I really focused on the limitations and benefits of data mining in my initial blog post. One thing I didn’t focus on was that it helps to build your research up and it can also boost your own confidence as a researcher.

Another take away from this week is that I really need to make sure I take time to go through my data. I think I will try to do that at the end of this week. I already go through data as I collect it, but Sarah made it clear that we should collect and analyze at the same time. This was a point that I overlooked in our reading and was glad it was pointed out again. I would hate to collect all this data and then realize I did not have what I needed.

I really liked reading about how others research is going. It gives me ideas and I was able to share some of what I am doing or have done with others.

Week 8-Data Collection Update

Assignment: Update us on your progress. How is your data collection going?

Data collection is hard, but it is going. I am finding it very challenging to make observations, even for just one student. Some days it is easy, when students can get to work and answer their own questions. Other days it is really hard. Like when I am trying to teach or when everyone has a question or multiple questions at the same time. On these days I sometimes have to make mental notes of what I want to write down. Then I just hope I won’t forget it later. Sometimes I do, and I hope I am not losing important data. I do have a template I am using and this has helped a lot. It really helps me to focus on what I am looking for.

Twitter is going okay in my opinion. I can get students to post once a day, but after that it is harder. I have been offering bonus points, but I really think it is just going to take time for the students to feel comfortable using it. I think once they feel comfortable things will be a lot easier. I think I may try posting more during class to get students using it more. My students really like using it, but they do get off topic and search other things sometimes. I think if I can get them to go to tweetdeck instead I might have more on task.

I gave the pre survey about 2 weeks ago. I had 16 of 19 students take it. The other 3 were gone and I never had them make it up. I found that most students were new to Twitter. I had expected this after helping them to sign in. Most needed to create an account. Also, my suspicions of students liking Twitter were confirmed. Most students said they were either interested in using it or did not care if we used it. Only 3 said they hated using it. When I looked into this more, I found it interesting that one was a 20 year old (oldest age of student), and one was a 15 year old (youngest age of student). I can’t wait to see how they respond in the post survey after using Twitter for a while.

Week 8-Data Mining

Essential Question: How can data mining assist you in triangulating your research findings?

Data mining can help support what you hope to find. This can be especially useful if you don’t have the data you need to support your research. Data mining involves gathering data from any artifacts or documents that are available for review. These documents and artifacts can be online or in print. There is so much data available to people. It can be hard to figure out where to look with all of this data. Data mining helps a person to make meaning out of all the data that they find (Alexander). “Data mining is a means of automating part of this process to detect interpretable patterns; it helps us see the forest without getting lost in the trees” (Furnas, 2012). You can have tons of info with all of the data that is out there. This means you could be “information rich, but data poor” (Alexander).

“A qualitative study of classroom instruction would lead to documents in the form of instructors' lesson plans, student assignments, objects in the classroom, official grade reports and school records, teacher evaluations, and so on” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 175). There are many limitations and benefits to using documents or artifacts. The main limitations include authenticity and bias. (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 181-182). Authenticity refers to some documents or artifacts being anonymous and because of this you cannot verify if they are credible or not. Bias is usually unintentional because the writer may not even realize they are including bias. Bias may come from the writer not remembering accurately as well. The main benefit is that many of these documents or artifacts are free and easy to get (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 183). They provide much information without having to collect the information yourself. This benefit alone can override the above mentioned limitations. If you are in need of data, knowing where to find more can be very important. It is also important to figure out how to make meaning out of what you find. This becomes the most important task a researcher is faced with.

References

Alexander, D. (n.d.). Data Mining. Retrieved October 24, 2015, from http://www.laits.utexas.edu/~anorman/BUS.FOR/course.mat/Alex/

Furnas, A. (2012, April 3). Everything You Wanted to Know About Data Mining but Were Afraid to Ask. Retrieved October 24, 2015, from http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-data-mining-but-were-afraid-to-ask/255388/

Merriam, Sharan B.; Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2015, July 6). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Week #7 Reflection

This week, from looking at Tristan’s infographic I was reminded of how important it is to stick to what you actually observe. I need to be sure that I am not including my own thoughts in my observations. This is so hard because I always want to make sense of what is going on. I think this really made me see the importance of a template for recording observations. Without this I would be writing anything I thought might be important, and this might include my own inferences.

I really found it interesting that some people are telling their students they are observing them. I guess I never thought of telling my students. I figured that would make my students act differently. I wonder how much of an impact telling your students really has on the data you get?

I think this week was very good for helping me with the process of my observations. I think I may have to start over on my observations. With what I learned this week, it would be helpful if I write down what we are doing it class. I also think it will help me if I make little notes about times I may be unable to observe. I can relate to all the comments others had about not being able to observe and teach effectively. It is very time consuming and distracting. I liked reading in one of the article that I found that you can really only observe if you teach a great lesson, give very clear directions, and check student understanding first before having students work.

Week #7-Observations

Rationale:

First one chooses the type of observation they wish to do. The 4 types of observations are: complete participant, participant as observer, observer as participant, and complete observer (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 140).  Next you consider the setting. The setting should be as natural as possible (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 137). While observing you should keep your focus on one category to observe. To do this you should have a systematic way to organize notes. Using a template can help you keep data organized and easy to record. With having this template it will also help in being selective. (Classroom Interactions). There is no possible way to write down everything you observe, so you must choose what you perceive to be the most valuable at the time. If you are an active participant in your observation you must also find a line between being totally absorbed and just participating (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 146). If you are not video or audio recording and cannot write your notes while observing you must be sure to avoid talking to others before you record your notes. Merriam & Tisdell (2015) note that talking before recording can “diffuse importance.”

Why should observation be done in a classroom? Observation is most commonly used to improve classroom management and instructional techniques (Hidden Curriculum). It has been noted to cut down on misbehavior, make students more independent, allowing students to accomplish more, and for teachers to learn more about students . To be able to observe effectively it “requires sharp, vibrant lesson, spot on directions, and prove it to me checking for understanding before releasing students to work” (Linsin, 2015). If you don’t do this, you will be so absorbed in teaching and helping students that you would never be able to observe what is happening in the classroom.

References

Classroom Interactions. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://fcit.usf.edu/assessment/classroom/interactb.html

Hidden curriculum (2014, August 26). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum

Linsin, M. (2012, December 15). Why You Should Observe Your Students More. Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/12/15/why-you-should-observe-your-students-more/

Merriam, Sharan B.; Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2015, July 6). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES). Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Reflection #6

I learned a lot about how to conduct an interview. Before this week my impression of an interview was that the interviewer has a list of questions that they will ask the interviewee. The interviewer will record the answers using a video camera or an audio recorder. There is so much more to interviewing than what I had previously pictured in my mind.

One thing I found to really stick out was with yes or no questions. I did not think about these as being a bad choice for an interview, but it makes perfect sense. If you are going to take the time to sit down and ask questions to someone else, you should ask questions that can provide useful data. I think almost everyone mentioned that either in their graphic or their rationale so to me that says it is super important.

Interviewing can lead to such different results depending on the type you choose: structured, unstructured, or semi-structured. After looking at Cherie's graphic, I was reminded of the vast difference. She did hers for a structured interview and this reminded me of my idea of an interview before we started class this week. After class I realized how different an interview might be if it was unstructured. The interview would hardly resemble an interview if you thought an interview had to be structured. This reminds me that if I plan to interview I need to choose the type accordingly.

Week 6-Interviews

Essential Question: What are the most important things to remember in conducting interviews?

Interviews are a “conversation that has structure and purpose” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 108). To conduct an interview one needs to be prepared. According to McNamara (1998), you need to first choose a setting that will provide little distraction. Next you will need to plan how you will explain what you are doing and what the process will be like. Then you will need to decide how you will remember what the interviewee tell you. You could either choose to record the person, take notes during the interview or record as much as possible once the interview is over (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 130-131).

Next you will need to choose the type of interview you wish to use. Holm-Hansen and Merriam & Tisdell both outline the 3 types. There is the highly structured interview in which “all respondents are asked exactly the same question and provided with a consistent set of response options” (Holm-Hansen, 2007). The second option falls in the middle, the semi-structured interview. In this type the same type of information is collected but they way the questions are asked may differ. In the 3rd type, informal, there are no predetermined questions. This is mostly used to explore a topic.

There are 6 kinds of questions an interviewer is recommended to ask. The first is behavior questions, to think about what  a person does. The 2nd type of question is opinion type questions where you ask about how a person thinks about something. The 3rd type is feeling where you ask how someone feels about the topic. The 4th type is knowledge where you are trying to figure out what they know. The 5th type is sensory where you want to know about what was seen, heard, felt, or touched. The final type of question is background or demographics (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015, pp. 118).

Next you want to consider how you ask your questions. According to McNamara (2015) questions should be open-ended, neutral, asked one at a time, worded clearly, and one should be careful in asking “why” questions. The “why” questions can lead to a dead end if there is no relationship or it could cause the interviewee to get defensive.

After going through all of this you should be able to have a complete interview schedule. One reason to do an interview is that “interviews, are believed to provide a 'deeper' understanding of social phenomena than would be obtained from purely quantitative methods, such as questionnaires” (Gill, Stewart, Treasure & Chadwick, 2008). Interview allow the interviewer to probe for more information from the interviewee to provide a more complete picture. Basically you can be sure you get the information you need for your study. A couple of downfalls include the interviewer influencing the interviewee and that recording and transcribing can be very time consuming and expensive (Holm-Hansen, 2007).

References

Gill, P., K. Stewart, E. Treasure, and B. Chadwick. "Methods of Data Collection in Qualitative Research: Interviews and Focus Groups." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 22 Mar. 2008. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. <http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v204/n6/full/bdj.2008.192.html>.

Holm-Hansen, C. (2007). Tips for Conducting Program Evaluation.Conducting Interviews, (11). Retrieved October 9, 2015, from https://www.wilder.org/Wilder-Research/Publications/Studies/Program Evaluation and Research Tips/Conducting Interviews - Tips for Conducting Program Evaluation Issue 11, Fact Sheet.pdf

McNamara, C. (1998). General Guidelines for Conducting Research Interviews. Retrieved October 9, 2015, from http://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/interviews.htm

Merriam, Sharan B.; Tisdell, Elizabeth J. (2015, July 6). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES). Wiley. Kindle Edition.