Research method

After toying with an idea of conducting a questionnaire (quantitative) and analysing the data in a qualitative way, I have now decided to use yet another tool to gather the data: 

It's going to be a diary.

I have been trying to find a research method which would be suitable for a qualitative approach to a study but would not be too time consuming for my participants and for myself but still produce sufficient results.

In literature, I have come across the following methods for qualitative study:

- interviews 

- observations

- diaries / reflective journals

I reckoned the first two are not manageable for this small-scale project for two reasons: I couldn't possibly interview 16 students (this is how many there are in class) in the time available after class. Observations, on the other hand, are practically not possible - I would have to act as both teacher and observer at the same time, which I believe wouldn't bring the desired effects.

While reading about methods to conduct qualitative studies, I came across diaries as a common tool used to gather data. 

Advantages of diaries:

- It is a flexible tool in terms of time - students can decided when during the day they want to write down their thoughts

- it is private - students are encouraged to write down what they liked and didn't like on a particular day and there is nobody who puts pressure on them to answer the questions. Interviews, for instance, can be stressful in that respect.

One important aspect of a diary is giving students clear and precise instructions of how to use the diary and what to write down. In other words, the design of the tool will be critical.

I created the following framework for this research method:

My students will have one week to write about their experiences in the course. 

Each will receive a notepad with daily entries and questions to answer.

Instructions will be inserted on the first page.

 

Sample questions I want to ask them will be the following:

Day 1:

 

1.    What is your general impression about the classes today?

Did you enjoy the class?

Why? Why not?

2.    Was there an exercise which you really liked? What was it and why did you like it?

One exercise I liked was the one where we (describe what you did during this exercise)

I liked it because...

It helped me with...

Thanks to this exercise I learned...

3.    Was there an exercise which you didn’t like? Why not?

One exercise I didn’t enjoy was the one where we (describe what you did during this exercise):

I didn’t like it because:

What would you change about this exercise next time?

I feel this will be a great way for me to see what my students like and why in the lessons. It sounds really good!

After a break, back to the research proposal

After a break, I'm coming back to my blog to review what has happened so far and what I'm heading for in the next couple of weeks.

I'm trying to organise my thoughts around my project and it is being rather challenging.

1. How far am I?

I have done a good deal of reading on the basic concepts like worldview, strategies, literature, use of theory.

I feel there is a lot of the reading I don't quite grasp such as the quantitative research methods and all the statistics around it - can anyone understand it just by reading about it?

My worldview:

The worldview I want to adopt will be the humanist one as this will allow me to describe students' perceptions, beliefs and reflect on them.

My research topic:

I have also chosen and formulated my research topic:

EFL students' perceptions and expectations of an intensive English course.

I have reviewed the literature on my topic and found some great articles.

 Interestingly, most of the literature on the topic focuses around quantitative methods studying students' perceptions, employing statistical analysis of questionnaires, surveys, inventories.

2. What is there ahead of me?

 In contrast to what I've read, I intend to carry out a qualitative study in order to explore students' perceptions.

The main dificulty for  me at the moment is deciding on the research method and methods of data collection.

Considering time constraints and the size of this study (a small-scale study) I have identified the following to be within the range of my possibilities:

1.    action research – because suitable for small scale research (Newby, P., p. 623)

-       it is a mechanism for engaging people with their work and has  the benefit of increasing commitment and motivation ;

-       makes use of reflective practice, which suits my research problem well

or

2. research question –  because: we can try and understand how our learners prefer to learn and adapt/change out teaching methods accordingly.

The research question could be: 

How do German learners of English prefer to learn this language in an intensive,

10-week long course?

 

Blog Reflection 4

Ethics, Validity and Reliability

Ethical considerations

Ethical practices involve not only guidelines provided by professional associations but require the researchers to anticipate and address any ethical dilemmas that they may be confronted with in their study. (Creswell, 2009).

These dilemmas, when identified, should become an integral part of the proposal.

What dilemmas should be considered and anticipated?

Issues in the research problem

The problem to be addressed in the study should not only benefit the researcher but also the participants. By no means should they be disempowered or marginalised through the study. Trust should be established between the researcher and the particiants

Issues in the purpose and questions

Participants must be informed about the purpose of the study 

Data collection

•  have the research plan reviewed by a Review Board of the home university
• assess the potential risk: physical, psychological, social, economic or legal harm
• consider special needs of vulnerable populations 
• develop an informed consent form for participants to sign before conducting the research.   This form ensures that the participants’ rights will be protected during data collection
• make sure the issue of data confidentiality is addressed to the participants
• gain permission of individuals in authority to provide access to study participants. This may take a form of a letter identifying: time frame of the study, the potential impact, outcomes of the study
• Another important aspect of data collection is a consideration of how likely it is that the study will disclose sensitive information. The rule here is normally that the ethical code for researchers protects the privacy of the participants.

Data analysis and interpretation 

As a researcher, I should consider a couple of important issues while analysing the data.

First of all, I should think of how to protect the anynonymity of individuals, of the incidents that happen during the project implementation. I can choose to use pseudonyms or codes instead of names.

I should discard the data after 5-10 years (recommended time) to prevent it from falling into undesired hands.

I should consider the issues of data ownership – here a personal agreement with the participants seems to be a good solution.

Writing and disseminating the research

Include a statement of your approach to ethical issues such as fraudulent practices in the proposal.

Tasks:

Consider the following ethical dilemmas that may face a researcher. Describe ways you might anticipate the problem and actively address it in your research proposal.

1. A prisoner you’re interviewing tells you about a potential breakout at the prison that night. What do you do? 
   
   I develop an informed consent form for the participants to sign to ensure their identity is protected. I do not disclose any information gained from the interviews with the participants following the rule that ethical code for researchers protects the privacy of the participants.

2. A researcher on your team copies sentences from another study and incorporates them into the final written report for your project. What do you do?
   
   I do not accept this contribution and refer the researcher to my research proposal where a statement of my approach to ethical issues such as fraudulent practices is described. I consider such a practice a misconduct.

3. A student collects data for a project from several individuals interviewed in families in your city. After the fourth interview, the student tells you that approval has not been received for the project from the IRB. What do you do?
   
   I stop the process of data collection and file the proposal immediately with the IRB. In this way I can evaluate to wha extent my research puts the individuals involved at risk. I can also make sure that the rights of the participants are not violated.

 

Blog reflection 3

1.    The Literature Review - Role and Strategies

What is a literature review?

It is a network of articles and major works written on a topic.

Understanding how the articles are related and connected and turning the network into a cohesive review is the main task of a review writer.

a. Why do we need a literature review in the first place?

To me, the main goal of the review is making sure that the topic of my research can and should actually be researched. In other words, whether it is worth studying. It also helps determine ways in which the scope of research can be limited to the area of interest.

b.  How to start working on Literature Review?

Creswell suggests starting with a draft title to the study – he calls it ‚the road sign’ in research. It can be a short title such as :

My study is about learning strategies for vocabulary development in young adult learners.

Or it can try and pose a question: What is the best way for adults to learn vocabulary?

Once we’ve got the topic specified, we can start to review literature around it.

Newby (2010) proposes the following steps in undertaking the literature review:

1. Define the review in terms of the research issue: choose, explore and focus a topic (as I learn more about the topic, I can tweak it a bit)
1. Present an argument why this issue:  ie because there is a gap in our knowledge or understanding;  or there’s an unfinished business
2. We should have an idea of the themes we want to explore
3. Answer these:

Why is this an issue?

Is there a political dimension?

When did this issue first arise?

Who has an interest in the topic? – Stakeholders: teachers, parents

2. Conduct the review: Read article, critique what I read:
1. Where does the literature review contribute to understanding of the issue
2. Has the LR identified an interesting or a novel data source?
3. How does it relate to my questions?
4. examine the quality of conclusions

3. organise, summarise and synthesise:
1. record the references and summarise what they say and how they contribute to the themes.
2. Look for conflicts, controversies
4. Write the paper: support the case, do not simply summarise the literature you’ve read but synthesise, identify the gap and convince the reader why the research is worthwhile, comment on credibility and results of other studies.An argument can also be: my area of research is underresearched.

c.  What format?

- in a proposal – could be a brief summary of major literature of the research problem

- in a research article based on a quantitative or qualitative study it usually is either a separate section or it is threaded throughout the paper

2. The Role of Theory

I started reading about the role of theory and wasn’t sure at first what the link between theory and literature review would be.

A question posed by Newby helped understand this a bit better:

How can theory influence research?

1. Either by being the objective of this research
2. or by attempting to develop theory through our research

I can take a theory or an aspect of it and test it in my research – see if it works.

In my case, it could be vocabulary acquisition with adults – a theory which says ...... I could perhaps find a weakness in it and try to prove the opposite?

In quantitative studies, the researcher uses theory deductively, and by placing it towards the beginning of the proposal, tests it or verifies it rather than develops it.  He collects data to test it and reflects on the results. This theory becomes a framework for the study, an organising model for the research questions and hypotheses and for the data collection procedure.

Writing a quantitative theoretical perspective

1. Find a theory in literature related to the discipline
2. Explore prior studies and theories
3. Choose one overarching theory that explains the central hypothesis or major research question
4. Ask the rainbow question that bridges the independent and dependent variables
5. Script out the theory section:

The theory that I will use is ________ (name of theory). It was developed  by _ and used to study ___(topics where one finds theory being applied).

This theory indicates that _____(hypothesis). As applied to my study, this theory holds that I would expect my independent variables ____ to influence or explain the dependent variables ________ because _____(rationale based on the logic of theory).

Writing a qualitative theoretical perspective: inductive approach

1. Collect information and data (from interviews, observations)
2. ask open-ended questions of participants, record fieldnotes
3. analyse data to form  themes or categories
4. look for broad patterns, generalisations from themes or categories
5. pose generalisations or theories from past experiences and literature

Blog reflection 2

Qualitative and Quantitative Research and Research Worldview.

I’ve finally got Peter Newby’s book this week and kicked off with the reading.

A few thoughts before I answer the questions posed by our tutors.

Newby writes in a very approachable manner, trying to present a complex and not exactly entertaining field of study in an enjoyable way.

First thoughts that occurred to me when I started reading:

1. The guidelines that Newby gives us seem quite interesting:
   - don’t try to find the only one proper way to undertake research – you’re running the risk of selecting  a methodology that might work in one context but not necessarily in another 
2. We have to be ready to accept compromises, in other words we cannot expect to conduct a perfect research – but to what extent can I make compromises? How do I know how much and what I can compromise? Tricky...

Conclusion for me here is: I should constantly ask myself questions about the research approach and let the research guide me – as Newby suggests. Will I be able to manage this? Perhaps through discussions online with my fellow students I can verify things, questions things, look for answers....How will I know I’ve taken the right path?

Another challenge that I feel we’re facing is time - I feel we’ve got so little time. There’s only a couple of weeks to design the research plan and collect data – I guess it will be crucial to choose something achievable.... but will it not be too simple?

Philosophies, worldviews:

Positivism: investigates the ‚truth’ out there by collecting objective data

Humanism: investigated emotions, viewpoints, perceptions and understandings and they are all dependent on the surroundings, culture, context in which they’re being tested.

Within humanism, there are the following schools of thought:

1. phenomenology: description, observation, reporting and reflection
2. existentialism tries to understand the nature of human existence
3. modernism : search for order
4. postmodernism: all explanation involves assumptions, the world is multi-layered and full of contradictions;  action research and case study are postmodern in their character

Part a) What distinguishes a qualitative study from a quantitative study? - make notes of 3 key characteristics and add these to your Blog.

Aspect compared	Qualitative study	quantitative study
Truth	there is no single truth	there is the one truth and it can be determined by means of objective analysis including numbers and hard data
Approach	inductive: researcher gathers evidence and identifies patterns to find the causes for phenomena observed	deductive: researcher collects data and draws conclusions
Researcher	Is often committed to a cause and therefore not free from bias	is a  neutral technocrat, not influenced by external factors
Methods	insights as well as formal analyses	formal procedures
Data	anything can be evidence: numbers, relationships, character, emotions	only scientific numbers and evidence can be valuable date

Part b) Check your understanding of the issues underpinning the choice of research methodology and method by working through the consolidation activities found here.  Record key learning within your Blog.

My score was 70%.

The questions I answered  wrongly:

5. What is ‘action research’?

My Answer:

            Action research is any research that leads to improvements in professional action.   

Correct Answer:

            Action research is normally conducted by the professional practitioners as they systematically research their own actions in the hope of improving them. Feedback:

            There are those who might argue that the concept of action research applies to any investigation of professional action or that evaluates professional action in the hope of offering advice for improvement. If we are to use the term in this way it tends to lose its distinctive quality of practitioner engagement. The correct answer given above says that this kind of research is normally conducted by the practitioner. There may be instances in which a team of practitioners reports back to a lead researcher who is not himself or herself a practitioner. In this instance, the research is still a process centring on particular initiatives and evaluating the process of their implementation.

6. What is ‘evaluation research’?

My answer:

            Evaluation is the study of individual organisations, situations, events or processes with the purpose of feeding back its analysis to practitioners.            

Correct Answer:

            Evaluation research is concerned with value of outcomes and consequences of action.

Feedback:

              Evaluation may well be the study of individual organisations, situations, etc. but the evaluation researchers may be conducting their research for a variety of purposes, some of which may or may not be relevant to the activity of those being researched. It is difficult to imagine any educational research that was not focused on the short- or long-term improvement of the service. The essential quality of evaluation research is identified in the correct answer given, concerned with values in relation to educational activity.

7. How might educational theory influence the goals of educational research?

My Answer:

            Educational theory constitutes the sets of values and beliefs that underlie educational practice and therefore also underlie educational research.     

Correct Answer:

            Educational theory contains assumptions about how things should be organised or what goals should be achieved. Research must take cognisance of these.

Feedback:

            The conclusions of educational research are centred on the nature of our questions and the evidence that we gather in order to answer them. Certain educational theories may be assumed within the research and they may set the boundaries within which conclusions are delivered but they do not determine them. Research must take cognisance of theoretical considerations insofar as these will be a part of the understanding of those being researched.

I think I should review the difference between educational theory and educational reearch.
Also, I'm still not quite clear on the definition of Evaluation research -  what is the difference between feeding back analyses and the value of outcomes?

 

Blog reflection 1

 What I feel I need to know about research

Hmmm...everything? I have not had much chance to conduct any formal research so I am curious about:

• How should I choose the research method?
• Is the quantitative one preferable for language learning (my professional context) or is the qualitative one the better one? Why?
• What is the choice of a method influenced by?
• How can I decide? 
• How do I decide what to do research on?
• How do I know it is achieveable?
• How do I conduct a research? What tools do I need?
• How do I find the focus group? (Now that I''ve started reading, I think this is the right word)
• How do I convince them to take part in my research?
• What issues do I have to consider before conducting the research?
• Will my organisation have to be involved?

I'm only starting to think about it... Lots and lots to learn!

Notes on some research that has influenced your own professional work or your learning

 I have conducted some formal research for my work - this was mainly for my teaching qualification and it was a course requirement. On every day basis however I feel I conduct lots of informal research, for example while trying out new activities or teaching ideas, by observing my students' reactions and gauging from these whether something worked well or not. I also talk a lot to my participants to see what they enjoy doing and what they find less effective in learning English.

Activities within your workplace which you consider to be research and what and who they infuence

I'm currently looking into effective ways of using smartphones to learn English. I have encouraged my students to use certain apps and am myself exploring some! I do hope to be able to expand this into the project which is part of this course - it all looks pretty daunting to me but I want to give it a go!