ETEC 500: Research Methodologies in Education (core course)
AssignmentsConsidering Pluralism in Education: An Article Critique of a Preservice Teacher Program
Research Topic and Research Questions
Research Proposal:
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What kind of article is this?Using the “Rubric for Evaluating Print and Internet Sources” (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012, p.94) from Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications, I evaluated “Making Learning Fun: Quest Atlantis, A Game Without Guns” (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun, 2005).
Relevancy: 1 Although this article did not address any research interests of mine at this time, I do feel this article is relevant to my teaching practice at the elementary level and may be one I could refer to at another time. In the abstract, the authors give a description of their qualitative research project; however, miss out on major conclusions. I did not feel the abstract provided contained all the essential information needed. Author: 2 Authors names and contact information are provided at the end of the article. I could not find full credentials so If I wanted to find out more about the authors, I would have to conduct further searches. Source: 5 Source is a scholarly or peer-reviewed journal with links to related literature by same author/s and ability to download fully online versions of articles. Methodology: 3 The source includes a full description of the research problem and the appropriateness of the methodology to investigate the problem. I found that this study was based largely on qualitative data collected over 30 months from various countries, including parts of the US. Researchers conducted interviews, collected student work, received suggestions from participants via email, and examined their field notes. In my opinion, all of the data collected does not fully support their notion that “QA has a number of characteristics that have helped it become a valuable intervention for schools” (Barab et al., 2005, p. 103). They talk about student engagement being heightened through entertainment and education, and the fact that they have more than “3000 buoys” in Florida, Australia, Singapore, Denmark, and Malaysia to support QA both nationally and in international contexts (Barab et al., 2005, p. 101-102), however, this is not enough evidence to determine its value for intervention in schools. Date: 5 Current date of publication with a list of references consulted by the author including links and fully online articles. Would use you this article in a review of research literature? Why? I would use this article in a review of research literature as I feel the article provides considerable detail around the description and rationale of the QA project. Would I base any decisions around this one article? No. I would want to know more about the results and evidence of this being a value for intervention in schools. References: Barab, S., Thomas, M., Dodge, T., Carteaux, R. & Tuzun, H. (2005). Making Learning Fun: Quest Atlantis, A Game Without Guns. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(1), 86-107. Gay, L.R., Mills, G.E., & Airasian, P.W. (2012). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Ethnographic Issues and ChallengesConsider what issues and challenges were associated with conducting an interview, observation, and ethnographic research? State why you find them to be issues and challenges with this methodology.
When conducting my interview, I began making assumptions about the use of technology at X Elementary. My first thought was that there is such a long ways to go before reaching a point where students can have quick access to new knowledge and engage in learning at a whole new level, a level most kids today know so well. Then I realized that the Interviewee is not fully representative of all possible experiences or even speaks to the rest of the Steele parent community. It would be easy to generalize that the rest of the school has the same minimal use of technology in classrooms. This leads to another challenge of ethnography being time consuming. In order for me to get a more accurate understanding of parents’ perspectives around the use of technology in the classroom, I would need to spend a significant amount of time in the field, conducting interviews, making observations and taking field notes. Another issue I foresee being a challenge is around the relationship one has with the interviewee. I knew the interviewee well and although she was honest with her responses, maybe others would not be. I would suspect that there are times when the interviewee tells the interviewer what he/she wants to hear. *For the purpose of this entry, "X" is an alias for the actual school name. Photography Analysis and MeaningMake note of the details provided in the written text that accompanies the photographs. Critically examine the students, their clothing, the teachers, the physical space and any other details that may assist with a historical interpretation.
Formulate a question through which to analyze or interrogate the two photographs with images of television in classrooms. Either frame a question that interests you or select from: What view of technology is evident from the photographs? What message/image of education is conveyed? What view of childhood (girls or boys) is evident in these photos? Write your response to the question you posed based on your analysis - or interrogation - of these photos. Next write a brief statement explaining or justifying your interpretation, explaining why you have chosen to interpret the photographs in this manner. As you write this explanation consider the following questions: What can we know from these documents? How do we know? Draw on the article by Sandwell and frame your response by asking "What do the photos mean?" rather than asking if they are a "true" representation of a historical event. My response will speak to:
What message/image of education is conveyed? and,What view of childhood (girls/boys) is evident in these photos? More than 30 students in this photograph are seated orderly, in rows, appearing well disciplined and facing the television while the teacher stands to the side. The teacher, Mrs. Ruth Hickle, has her eyes on her students, probably observing every reaction, emotion or sense of engagement. Reading the caption “Canada’s second classroom experiment with television” must have meant it was a pivotal time for Canada’s education system. The room looks bare, speaking to the traditional teaching and learning environment at that time. There is no student work displayed nor are students engaging in conversations about what they are viewing which makes me conclude that there was minimal collaborative learning done at that time. The teacher is standing passively, allowing for the full video to be shown; therefore, there was probably no pausing of the video to allow for conversations to occur. In the second photograph where the students are watching “How does your garden grow”, they look surprised or possibly nervous about what they are watching. The two students with their hands in their mouths makes me lean towards a more nervous feeling. There are two other women in the room, one standing by the door and one at the back of the room. The one standing by the door perhaps was walking by and peeked in to catch a glimpse of this “experiment” as it was probably a big phenomenon at that time. The other lady at the back may be attached to the experiment in some way, either by reporting back to a larger group, or making observations and taking mental notes as she is not holding any materials. Statement justifying my interpretation: Melville Scott Elementary School was part of the second classroom experiment with television in Canada. The teacher, Mrs. Ruth Hickle, was probably interested in the new technology as she either showed interest and requested to be part of this project, or was chosen to be part of it and then accepted. As it is a full class, the students were most likely expecting a regular day at school and were unaware of the scope of the project. I did a further search on these photographs and learned that these photos were published on April 26, 1956 in “The Albertan”. This leads me to think that it was a significant time for Canada’s education system. Also given the time, I am assuming there was no consent from parents to publish the photographs or disclose personal information related to this experiment. Like any new initiative, there must have been some uncertainty around incorporating televisions in the classroom. With the media alongside and the eyes of the parent community and staff on this project, I am sure Mrs. Hickle was nervous about a project she was passionate about. Will it be successful? Is this the way education is headed? How will this transform teaching and learning? These are similar questions that educators ask today with regards to new initiatives, projects or experiments in classrooms. We also ask ourselves, “how do students learn today?” Our teaching and learning practices are changing with time and these photos are evidence of that transformation. The more we learn about our learners, the more school becomes about how learners are learning, hence the latest movement around personalized learning. References: Sandwell, R. (2003). Reading beyond bias: Using historical documents in the secondary classroom. McGill Journal of Education, 38(1), 168-186. Accessed May 27, 2014. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/202720744?accountid=14656 Glenbow Museum. (2012). Image no: NA-5600-6977a. Retrieved from http://www.glenbow.org/50s/tv_eng3.htm Glenbow Museum. (2012). Image no: NA-5600-6977c. Retrieved from http://www.glenbow.org/50s/tv_eng4.htm Identify Issues and Challenges.Reflect on what you read in the Sandwell article and your experience doing document analysis with photographs. What issues and challenges do you find in conducting historical research and document analysis? Comment on advantages as well. Post the "Historical Research issues and Challenges" you identify in the Module 2 Discussion Forum (Module 2: Lesson 3 - Historical Research Issues and Challenges). State why you find these to be issues and challenges (or advantages) with this methodology. It was interesting to read Sandwell’s (2003) article about moving beyond the facts when delving into historical documentation. I was most interested in the fact that the high school students in her report had a difficult time moving beyond “absolute truth” to being able to process and interpret history. Is that a skill that develops over time? Does that relate to maturity? I had no difficulties interpreting DeLorme’s photographs in this assignment and feel content with my perception of what possibly occurred on April 26, 1956. With the little facts that were available, it was intriguing for me to piece the puzzle together and provide my perspective on this particular time in history. At the end of our discussion, our class will have a composite of diverse perspectives, and as Sandwell states “These records effectively allow us to see some things, from someone's perspective, through time. Unfortunately, they do not provide, and cannot provide, a true and complete view of what really happened” (Sandwell, 2003). This is a critical challenge in conducting historical research and document analysis as we will never have “absolute knowledge” of what really happened. |