Revisit your research/project design within the context of the assigned readings. Using the language of the assigned readings to explain your research/project design.
My Plan B research is focused on determining the effectiveness and benefits of a collaboration between young scientists (my students) and community partners who are professionals in their field (UH professor and graduate students). I have had to narrow my focus a bit based on the feedback from last week's Spotlight. I'm actually really glad that I went so early in the semester because I got lots of good feedback and ideas last week :)
One of the most helpful was regarding my research questions. I have five which is definitely too many and while I stated that I was going to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, making my research a mixed methods project according to Creswell (2013) because it "incorporates elements of both qualitative and quantitative approaches (p. 3)" I think that most of my research questions were attempting to generate measurable data, such as numbers in order to gauge student interest and progress.
My original research questions with my categorization and possible ways of collecting data and observations based on reading Creswell, Chapter 1 and new ideas from STEMS^2!
Research Questions
- How many species of organisms in local ecosystems can students recognize and name before and after conducting biological sampling? (quantitative - concept inventories or concept mapping, Wordle)
- In what ways do students describe their place? (qualitative - interviews, small group discussions, journaling including drawings)
- How do students’ attitudes about food change as they learn where their food comes from? (quantitative - survey, and qualitative
- Can collaboration with students at schools in other states or countries be enhanced by the use of technology such as Google Classroom applications? (qualitative - interviews, small group discussions, journaling) Focus more on the collaboration with other schools effect on students' learning/motivation
- What ecological issues are students most interested in? (qualitative - interviews, small group discussions, journaling, project proposal)
Creswell states that mixed methods combines the two forms together which strengthens the study overall compared to a purely qualitative or quantitative study (2013, p. 4). After reading through the first Chapter of Creswell's book, I can see why I as well as many of my STEMS^2 classmates have chosen this research design, especially for the types of Plan B's that we are tackling. Due to the strong culture-based, place-based, and technology-supported foci of our STEMS^2 units, we will need to collect both qualitative data (interpretation of meaning from observations) and quantitative data (objective measures of numbers and statistics).
In his chapter, Research Questions, Maxwell (2012) states that the statement of your final research questions does not always occur at the beginning of the design of a research study, but rather the questions are developed along the way in an "interactive design process, rather than being the starting point for developing a design (p. 73)." He further states that "the function of your research questions is to explain specifically what your study is intended to learn or understand (p. 75)" which I feel I have sort of missed the mark on in my original questions in my Plan B Proposal. Some of my questions are too general such as "Can collaboration... be enhanced?" and some may be too limiting and stated more like learning goals for my students, "How many species... can students name?"
As a scientist, I am used to thinking in terms of quantitative research while at the same time I record qualitative data to ensure that I am able to account for possible errors that may have occurred in my experiments. Maxwell states that research questions will often need to evolve throughout the study, which is also true of scientific research. As observations are made and anomalies found, researchers will think of other controls that need to put into place, other questions they want to explore, other data and observations to make, and modifications to protocols that need to be made. Although I have not begun my study, I followed Maxwell's Exercise 4.1 (pp. 84) to attempt to improve my research questions and came up with these... In order to incorporate more STEMS^2, I exchanged some of my research questions for one that addresses the effectiveness of incorporating sense of place. I also lessened my focus on my specific learning goals for my students and increased focus on the overall examination of STEMS^2
Modified Research Questions
- How does collaboration with professional scientists improve students motivation and skills in ecological sampling techniques as compared to the science teacher alone?
- How does the knowledge of mo'olelo, history, and culture of a place (such as an ahupua'a) enhance student learning in science?
- How does the use of Google applications facilitate rapid exchange of data and ideas with students in other states and countries?
Comments are greatly appreciated!
