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!