Learning Log for the week of 9/15/2008
WHAT: this week we learned about different kinds of research:
DESCRIPTIVE –
Describing how they are or how they were
help to generate hypothesis
getting the data not changing the data
basis for the rest of the research types,
teachers are doing this informally all the time
Types of conclusions – safe research, you don’t have to worry about changing the subject, you don’t have to worry about conclusions, changing anything, getting information and ideas
Forms it can take –case studies / methods, / observational / survey/ archival / tests / from one person to a million
Pros - quick and easy – easies to do / uses existing data / non intrusive
cons – no cause and effect, halo effect (no being observe they kids act differently)
CORRELATIONAL – strength of relationships between variables
types of conclusions - don’t change anything / Allows us to make predictions / graphs
forms it can take – all methods from descriptive but look at data in a different way
pros – does allow to make predictions, relatively easy, not changing anything
cons – no cause and effect/ haven’t sifted out other causes
example – sleep GPA
EXPERIMENTAL – Change – usually one thing only to keep variables small - use of a "treatment" (usually the independent variable) which is introduced into the research context or manipulated by the researcher. Has different groups
the manipulation of one variable on another variable, allowing conclusions about case and effect relationships. – Allows for conclusions about why behavior occurs.
Pros , allows the researcher to isolate a particular variable and focus on it in order to determine its effect on other variables. Effect
Cons - often makes the research situation unnatural / subjects may not behave normally in an experiment / virtually impossible to control all the variables / often raise serious questions about research ethics / hard to do
Randomization – groups need to be random
Dependable variables – those that are observed to change in response to independent variables ie test scores
Independent variable – those that are deliberately manipulated to invoke change-ie teac hing strategy
Quasi-experiment (‘sorta’ experiment)
types of conclusions – Why behavior occurs
forms it can take – all methods from descriptive but look at data in a different way
example – have one person drink a glass of milk, the other a gallon – who has to go to the bathroom first
ACTION – teacher based research in an individual classroom – to solve a specific problem, no outside people involved
Conclusions – reflective, specific problem solving – for this teacher this worked better
Forms – assessing teaching techniques , opinions, same as descriptive
Pros – hands on, specific Cause and effect – no transfer (next year might be different), personal to you
Cons – same as pros – takes a lot of time
No control group
SO WHAT: Why is this important to me as a teacher? Through continuing and varied research a teacher can tract student’s progress, assess the needs of students and see if the teacher’s methods are teaching the students effectively. I want to be an effective teacher.
NOW WHAT: What are you going to do about it? I want to be an effective teacher. To accomplish this goal I plan to use the different kinds of research we have learned about to continually assess my teacher skills and examine the strategies I am using to improve the way I teach.
