Reflections

Reflections

Much of my reflection has been included with my posts as I have completed each activity. Here are a few final thoughts, module by module. I approached this unit full of enthusiasm as I had recently become interested in reading research. I have had very little exposure to research over the past 20+ years of teaching. It was not until a new principal introduced me to interesting articles that touched on research, involvement in the ALEA Reading Comprehension Project related directly to research and the first unit of my Grad Cert with Prof Hay talked about research based pedagogy, that I really got hooked. This enthusiasm was quickly deflated when I read the first few postings on our discussion board. I could not understand what they were saying! A major panic session set in! After a calming discussion with Wendy I settled down to just do the best I could - no big fancy words but just plain classroom based English. I am first and foremost a classroom practitioner (and I am proud of this fact) and any learning I do is done with the aim of improving my skills in the classroom. Throughout this unit I have attempted to choose articles that are meaningful to me and relevant to the classroom. At times I found the content so interesting that I found it difficult to concentrate on the methods rather than the content. I am looking forward to going back and reading some of the articles again, for the content this time.  As I pondered the first task, I thought about my own gut feelings and my own priorities. To me, educational inquiry was about research that helped identify the areas where children still need more help. It is research that examines and compares common pedagogy that is used in the classroom and determines how successful and valuable it is. It is research that makes me a better classroom teacher. It helps give me insights and ideas that will allow me to meet the diverse needs of my class. I recently attended a 2 day workshop with Debbie Miller, an American teacher/teacher trainer. She showed us her book of classroom beliefs and guiding principles. In this book she not only identified these principles, but acknowledged the research that had helped her refine and define them and then went on to show how this translated into classroom practice. To me, this is valid use of Educational research and I can't wait to finish my assignment so that I too can have a go at doing this. The ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ task was another that was daunting at first, so approached it like I would if I was dealing with it in my classroom. This allowed me to focus on the possibilities it offered in the classroom and from this, I could see the ways it could lead to research. I can see that in the future, a similar approach would allow me to design and carry out meaningful research on other topics. Sometimes when asked to complete a totally new type of activity, it helps to return to what we know best. The concept map was a joint effort from all in our group at the Summer School. This task really helped me clarify my understanding of many of the terms associated with Educational Inquiry. This discussion, as with all over the 3 day period, helped me to feel much better about the task and in fact the whole unit.                 I now feel a lot more confident when approaching or discussing research. I feel more equipped to determine which pieces of research I read are valuable and which leave me questioning the methods and findings. I feel motivated, especially after listening to Debbie Miller, to explore more research that has been done in the area of Literacy and Numeracy, to help justify the pedagogy and procedures I currently use. As I said in my first post, // For most of my career I taught things a particular way because someone convinced me that that was the best way. As Babbie, (2011) states, ‘each of us inherits a culture made up, in part, of firmly accepted knowledge about the workings of the world and the values that guide our participation in it.’ I wasn’t encouraged at that stage, to question the methods and ideals I had been introduced to as part of current teaching culture. Over the years I changed my ideas and methods as I was exposed to the theories and ideas of other ‘experts’. I realise now, that I was reaching agreement without questioning the criteria by which these experts had determined their conclusions. I was accepting ‘agreement reality’; (Babbie 2011),– without questioning the science behind the finding out //. I don’t want to just accept what I’m told anymore, I want see the research behind what I’m told!  ** Module 2 – Practicalities of Educational Research ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I have never really been involved in formally set out research. We have experimented with some examples of ‘action research’ at school, but they have never really been properly proposed and properly followed up. I was interested to explore some of the activities in this module. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I was surprised how hard it was to carry out the observations in the first activity. I realise I was probably underprepared, although it might have turned out well if I had followed up the initial set of observations with another visit to the food hall, this time with carefully set out goals and appropriate recording sheets. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">During the Summer School activity where we had to observe each other during an interview situation, I still found there were distinct challenges for an observer. It is difficult to focus on more than one aspect at a time, so you miss things. It is hard to keep up with what is being said as well as done when making notes. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">This made me conclude, that if I was conducting actual research that needed accurate observations, I would need to consider, video recording or more than one observer. Multiple visits may also be valuable. I really think observation could not be all that reliable if it was the only method of data collection used. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">It was interesting to critically examine the survey questions and to have a go at writing our own. It also, is not as easy as it seems. Next time I am reading research that involves a questionnaire, I will be taking the time to look carefully at the questions they asked and critically analysing them before I put too much faith in their findings. I will also be more aware of ‘ambiguous’ questions that are written in a negative form, especially when doing the school review survey each year! <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I think this module really helped me become more aware of the issues surrounding selection of research methods. It clarified differences between qualitative and quantitative methods also. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Module 3 – Quality in Educational Research ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Now that I have learnt how interesting it can be to read the wealth of research that is out there, I find it frustrating that this research is not translated into Government policy. I fail to see how the majority of these findings can just be ignored or underplayed in the name of politics. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">To read the reports on research that has been conducted in other countries, especially USA and England, reinforces what I have heard from other people about the systematic failures and then leads me to question the directions we seem to be taking here in Australia. How can it be allowed to happen? Why isn’t there more of an outcry from those who are conducting this research, when the Government ignores it or misquotes it? Is there anything that can be done to stop this trend? <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The reading I have done, seems to question whether or not all the research is credible. Burkhardt & Schoenfeld (2008) as well as Pollard (2006). What needs to be done to make the research more credible? <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Module 4 – Ethical Issues in Educational Research ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">I guess I had never really thought much about the ethics behind educational research and the processes that researchers have to go through to get their research proposals approved. It is somewhat reassuring to see that research undergoes a rigorous approval process. I would have thought that this would have given educational research more credibility within political circles. I guess it all depends on the political agenda of those concerned. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The National Statement is a very comprehensive guide that sets out considerations that ensure everyone’s rights are respected. It seems to deal with all possible groups within society and under a variety of circumstances. I was pleased to note that there is still room for discussion and compromise around these guidelines. I believe that this is important as when you are dealing with human beings, things aren’t always black and white. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The process for making ethical decisions, developed by Dr David Moltow, made the Goldilocks task quite easy. It was interesting to think about the possible actions that could be used to solve a problem and then to follow through the possible consequences of each of those. I can see possibilities for using a process similar to this, for solving problems in the classroom, particularly around ethical and relationship issues. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">My purpose in enrolling in this unit was to become more aware of the issues surrounding Educational Research. I wanted to know how to read the research effectively and how to understand its findings better. I wanted to know how to judge the validity of the presented findings so I could choose which aspects to put into place in my classroom. I believe I have achieved all of these goals and more. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 115%;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt;">Module 1 - What is Educational Research? **