Reflections on Entire Course

This course certainly has been an eye opening experience. During the first couple of weeks, I was still of the opinion that action research was little more than basic trial and error that most teachers have done since the beginning of time. However, as we progressed through the rather lengthy process of developing a specific research project, it became clear that it is significantly more complicated than that simple formulation.

As we worked through all the various phases of developing the topic, it was enlightening to see just how much planning and forethought was required to account for all the possible factors that could influence the results of the study.  The level of detail required was sometimes overwhelming and generated a whole new level of respect for those who engage in this work on an ongoing basis.  In particular, the massive amounts of reading required to do justice to the Review of Literature section were much more than I had realized going into the process.

It was a very productive exercise to engage in the Research Scavenger Hunt.  This provided a fun means of learning how to search the various databases as well as providing a needed tutorial in the basics of APA citation protocols.  While this process was made more complicated at first by the difficulty of installing the Virtual Private Network program, once that was finally put in place it became much easier to access the wide range of journals online.

Mertler's text was quite readable and understandable.  It really helped to make some of the complex concepts of research understandable to those of us who are new to this field.  Phillips seemed to cover the subjects in more technical depth, but was also a little more difficult to understand at times.  However, the two of them together seemed to balance each other out quite well and provided a well rounded background on these sometimes challenging issues.  The final chapter of Phillips, which was the assigned reading for this week, provided a good summary of the issues involved in bridging the traditional gap between the classroom teacher and the professional researcher. 

The videos did help to emphasize the main points of Mertler's book.  As I stated in an earlier post, they particularly were helpful in the sections dealing with statistical analysis.  Those of us who are not well trained in statistics can use all the help we can get in comprehending some of those concepts.

The additional videos were a mixed bag - mostly positive but one or two caused more puzzlement than anything about what the person was trying to convey.  In particular, the one rambling dissertation about what one would say to the President was rather strange.  Others, however, were quite good.  The "presentation Zen" particularly stood out as a very useful explanation of the basics of putting together a good visual package to enhance, rather than detract from, the message being communicated.  The NAMM videos towards the end were also quite good.

Overall I see the value in having this particular course as a part of the program.  With a capstone project being a required culmination of the degree program, at least now we will have some idea of where to start as we begin to develop our possible topics and questions.  It also has helped open my eyes to the value of what researchers can discover.  I don't know that I will necessarily continue as a researcher in the long term, but it certainly has given me a new respect for those who choose to do so.

Reflections on Week 7

This has been a rather stressful week in many regards. My wife and I had our 10 and 9 year old grandchildren with us for the week. (I realize once again why you have children when you are young!) As the end of the term nears, the size and scope of the assignments seems to grow accordingly. In particular, I had a number of technical challenges trying to get the Present Me program to work. I ended up spending two hours trying unsuccessfully to get the sound to record. I adjusted settings numerous times without appreciable improvement. Also, although I had my Powerpoint slides set to reveal one bullet point at a time for a couple of bulleted lists, in the transfer to the Present Me software, it changed those to bring up all the entire slide at once. I ended up having to switch to a different computer with an attached external camera/microphone unit to be able to complete the project.

The video by the presentation Zen master was extremely informative and quite helpful. I have sat through far too many of the type of presentations he describes where the speaker places their entire outline on the screen and then proceeds to read every word to you, as if you are unable to read it for yourself. In preparing my presentation I attempted to strike the balance of having important quotes and or information listed without having every slide loaded up with unnecessary text. I also think I was able to obtain picture illustrations that enhanced the points being made without being overbearing.

Dr. Mertler's videos were a good wrap up to his overall series. They helped drive home the point about what we are trying to accomplish with educational research as well as emphasizing the importance of communicating our results to other interested parties who may benefit from the work done in our studies. I am particularly intrigued by the online community he has set up and am interested to see how that might aid in educational endeavors going forward.

The video of Dr. Hodges was absolutely fascinating to me! His description of how music permeates virtually every part of the universe is amazing and really captured my attention. He refers to evolution several times and I have no idea if he is a man of faith. However, as a man of faith myself, this reminds me of the Psalms which state that "the heavens proclaim the glory of God. Day after day they pour forth his praise." I know it is risky injecting religious beliefs into a forum such as this, but that was my honest initial reaction at hearing Dr. Hodges' description. I thoroughly enjoyed that clip.

Now we turn to to the final home stretch... the end is in sight! It has been quite an eye opening experience!

Reflections on Week 6

This was a much calmer week than the previous two, although it began with a 20 hour travel day on Monday. I finally was able to make it home late Monday night. It has taken me most of the week to get over jetlag and back on my normal sleep schedule, but I think I am finally there.

The readings this week were helpful to clarify the details of quantitative research. Not being a trained statistician, the terminology and procedures of detailed analysis of data present a significant challenge. Both Phillips and Mertler provided good detailed explanations of the main measures of central tendency that we were to use. It also helped that Dr. Brophy also covered some of these same concepts in the Summer A class which I had previously completed. Being a non-statistician, it is extremely helpful to have this explained multiple times from different perspectives. The video clips also provided another helpful repetition. I think I may finally be starting to understand it.

All of this background made the data analysis assignment much easier to complete. Dr. Brophy had also given us a similar assignment dealing with mean, median, mode and standard deviation. However, we did not cover correlation in his assignments, so that was another learning experience. I have often heard the phrase "correlation does not equal causation" and now I feel I have a much better handle on that distinction.

In working on the procedures segment, I did learn a few important things that will better inform my final project proposal. For one, I realized that limiting the participants to just my local school district would probably be too narrow a focus to obtain enough responses, since there are only 11 middle schools in the district. I also learned several important things about using Survey Monkey. I initially used it due to time constraints, but then came to realize that the convenience factor for potential participants would probably increase the overall response rate. However, in using the free version I was limited to only using 10 questions. That allowed me my multiple choice options, but did not allow me to include the open ended Question 11 or to add the questions for demographic information. This really limits the possibilities of determining any possible correlations. In going forward I will need to upgrade to the first paid level which will allow me an unlimited number of questions.

This is all helpful information as we turn toward the home stretch of the last two weeks!