Neuman, Chapter 1 http://mdde.wikispaces.

com/MDDE+602+Module+1

1. What sources of knowledge are alternatives to social research? (p. 2-7)

Authority: females are taught to make, select, mend, and clean clothing as part of a female focus on physical appearance and on caring for children or others in a family. Women do the laundry based on their childhood preparation. Tradition: Women have done the laundry for centuries , so it is a continuation of what has happened for a long time. Common Sense: Men just are not as concerned about clothing as much as women are, so it only makes sense that women do the laundry more often. Media Myth: Television commercials show women often doing laundry and enjoying it, so they do laundry because they think it's fun. Personal Experience: My mother and the mothers of all my friends did the laundry. My female friends did it for their boyfriends, but never the other way around. It just feels natural for the woman to do it. o Overgeneralization Statements that go far beyond what can be justified based on the data or empirical observations that one has. o Selective observation Making observations in a way that it reinforces preexisting thinking, rather than observing in a neutral and balanced manner. o Premature closure Making a judgment, or reaching a decision and ending an investigation, before one has the amount or depth of evidence required by scientific standards. o Halo effect Allowing the prior reputation of persons, places, or things to color one's evaluations , rattler than evaluating all in a neutral, equal manner.

2. Why is social research usually better than the alternatives'?

Scientists gather data using specialized techniques and use the data to support or reject theories. (p. 8)

3. Is social research always right? Can it answer any question? Explain.

Knowledge from the alternatives is often correct. But knowledge based on research is more likely to be true and has fewer errors. It is important to recognise that

research does not always produce perfect knowledge. Nonetheless, compared to the alternatives, it is less likely to be flawed. Let us review the alternatives before examining social research. (p. 2/3) 4. How did science and oracles serve similar purposes in different eras'?

Before science became fully entrenched, people used prescientific or nonscientific methods. These methods that are less widely accepted in modern society (e.g., oracles. mysticism, magic, astrology. or spirits). Such prescientific systems were an

unquestioned way to produce knowledge that people took to he true. Such prescientific methods still exist but are secondary to science. Some people use nonscientific methods to study topics beyond the scope of science (e.g.. religion, art, or philosophy). Today few people seriously question science as a legitimate way to produce know (edge about modern society. (p. 8)

5. What is the scientific community? What is its role?

Scientific community: A collection of people who share a system of attitudes, beliefs, and rules that sustains the production and advance of scientific knowledge.

6. What are the norms of the scientific community? What are their effects? (p. 11) 1. Universalism. Irrespective of who conducts research (e.g., old or young, male or female) and regardless of where it was conducted (e.g., United States or France, Harvard or Unknown University ), the research is to be judged only on the basis of scientific merit. 2. Organized skepticism. Scientists should not accept new ideas or evidence in a carefree, uncritical manner. They should challenge and question all evidence and subject each study to intense scrutiny. The purpose of their criticism is not to attack the individual, but to ensure that the methods used in research can stand up to close, careful examination. 3. Disinterestedness. Scientists must be neutral, impartial, receptive, and open to unexpected observations or new ideas. They should not be rigidly wedded to a particular idea or point of view. They should accept, even look for, evidence that runs against their positions and should honestly accept all findings based on high-quality research. 4. Communalism. Scientific knowledge must be shared with others; it belongs to everyone. Creating scientific knowledge is a public act, and the findings are public property, available for all to use. The way in which the research is conducted must be described in detail. New knowledge is not formally accepted until other researchers have reviewed it and it has been made publicly available in a special form and style. 5. Honesty. This is a general cultural norm, but it is especially strong in scientific research. Scientists demand honesty in all research; dishonesty or cheating in scientific research is a major taboo.

7. How does a study get published in a scholarly social science journal? 8. What steps are involved in conducting a research project? (p. 15)

page 15 from Neuman

9. What does it mean to say that research steps are not rigidly fixed? (p. 15)

Research is an interactive process in which steps blend into each other. A later step may stimulate reconsideration of a previous one. The process is not strictly linear; it may flow in several directions before reaching an end. Research does not abruptly end at step 7. It is an ongoing process, and the end of one study often stimulates new thinking and fresh research questions. (Iterative Design Process)

10. What types of people do social research? For what reasons? (p. 20)

Students, professors, professional researchers, and scientists in universities, research centers, and the government, with an army of assistants and technicians,

conduct much social research. Comments,

Most quantitative data techniques are data condensers. They condense data in order to we the big picture.... Qualitative methods are best understood as data enhancers. Data are enhanced to see key aspects of cases more clearly. Qualitative researchers begin with a self-assessment and reflections about themselves as situated in a sociohistorical context. It is a highly self-aware acknowledgment of social self or of a researcher's position in society. (p. 14/15) We need to be aware of our hidden assumptions and biases.

Neuman, Chapter 2 1. When is exploratory research used, and what can it accomplish?

Research in which the primary purpose is to examine a little understood issue or phenomenon to develop preliminary ideas and move toward refined research questions by focusing on the "what" question. Purpose: To gain background information and better understand and clarify a problem (from this ppt) Can be used to develop hypotheses and to develop questions to be answered Can be used to help a researcher understand how to measure something. Exploratory research is less formal, sometimes even unstructured. (Techniques for exploratory research: Pilot study a sample experiment with fewer subjects, Can be very basic. Focus groups like a group interview, Surveys) Exploratory research is generally a precursor to a more formal study. Help saves time, resources, and lives. If a researcher is starting a new project, they probably should start with exploration. Case studiesResults from exploratory research are generally limited.

2. What types of results are produced by a descriptive research study? (from the same ppt)

Used to answer questions of who, what, where, when, and how but not why. What is the current status of a phenomenon Descriptive research is generally quantitative. Techniques of descriptive research: Surveys, Correlation studies, Observation studies, Interviews Cannot answer questions of causality Descriptive research can help understand a topic and lead to causal analysis.

3. What is explanatory research? What is its primary purpose? (from the same ppt)

Explanatory research seeks to explain a phenomenon. Generally involves revealing cause, but also structural and interpretive. Builds on exploratory and descriptive research. Techniques for explanatory research: Experiments, Quasi-experimental designs experiment that lack random assignment. Ultimately, we always want to explain what we are studying. Exploration and description are a vital part of this. Some researchers may want the description and could care less about the explanation.

4. What are the major differences between basic and applied research? (from the same ppt)

Basic aka pure, academic. Used to advance general knowledge. Understanding something for the sake of knowledge. Sometimes basic researchers do miss the big picture. Basic research is really the source of all knowledge. Applied research needs it. Basic research is not presented to the public in an intelligible fashion. Applied Research applying knowledge gained from research for a particular application. Applied Research addresses more practical concerns (Examples: Which toy will be more popular? How effective are online classes? How can you reduce anticipatory nausea in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy?)

5. Who is likely to conduct basic research, and where are results likely to appear?

Hard core scientists at the center of the scientific community conduct and consume most of the basic research. (p. 25) Basic research are more likely to enter the public domain in publications. (p.25)

6. Explain the differences among the three types of applied research. Evaluation research

Does it work? What is the merit of a particular project. Focuses on outcomes Measures the effectiveness of a strategy or program. Industry and business are likely to use this. Example: Effectiveness of psychotherapy

Evaluation research can include: o Formative evaluation built-in monitoring, continuous feedback, E.g., classroom effectiveness, o Summative evaluation looks at program outcomes Techniques: Experiments, Surveys, Many other types Potential problems in evaluation research: Unrealistic expectations, Potential pressure of vested interests, Want to maintain objectivity during the research.

7. How do time-series, panel, and cohort studies differ'? 8. What are some potential problems with cost-benefit analysis? 9. What is a needs assessment? What complications can occur when conducting one? 10. Explain the differences between qualitative and quantitative research. Comments,

Exploration: If little is known or understood, exploration is the purpose. For example, we know a great deal about distance education instructional design, but not as much about individual responses to various distance education instructional design modes. (From course notes) Descriptive: If the phenomenon is well established, but little is know about the internal mechanisms and causal relationships embedded in the phenomenon, your purpose may be descriptive. This approach will identify critical aspects and the boundaries of an issue or event. A case study of a successful agency delivering distance education in rural areas will tell us what makes up that agency, what roles people play, the characteristics of students, the delivery modes used, etc. From this descriptive work, ideas about relationships among the characteristics emerge, and the research design process begins again. (From course notes)

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Shulman Article

Dimensions of Analysis (p. 4-6) Problems

General: nature of learning (How does learning occur?) Focused: educational practice and policy (How do students' prior conceptions of conservation affect their learning of physics?)

Settings

Control: psychological laboratories, controlled classrooms, carefully designed questionnaires, inventories, or interviews (Argument: safer generalizations could be proposed.) No Controls: real classrooms with real teachers. (Argument: impossible to generalize)

Investigators

Traditionally: exclusively disciplinary specialists: psychologists, historians, philosophers, or sociologists. Currently: wider range of social scientist (anthropologists, linguists, economists), humanists, subject-matter specialists, and classroom teacher.

Methods

Traditionally: used psychology's experimental and correlational methods. Currently: augmented by qualitative or field research methods. (ethnographic methods of anthropology, discourse analysis procedures from linguistics and sociolinguistics, "think-aloud" and other forms of protocol analysis from cognitive science, ...) Also, new quantitative techniques for analyzing data.

Purpose

discover/invent new theoretical understandings of particular educational processes or phenomena develop new methods, techniques, or strategies for solving specific problems acquire a more complete description or accounting of the conditions associated with particular schools, students, or content areas apply previously acquired understandings in the amelioration or improvement of current educational conditions, whether of practice or policy connect or integrate previously distinct areas of theory, practice, or policy improve particular forms of practice or to inform specific policies test or extend a theoretical formulation in a related discipline such as psychology or sociolinguistics evaluate or understand the impact of practice in a particular school or classroom formulation of broad generalizations and principles ...

Disciplined Inquiry Research definition for Disciplined Inquiry The systematic, controlled, empirical, and critical investigations of phenomena of interest to the decisionmaker.

Disciplined Inquiry has moved away from the dichotomy of Qualitative versus Quantitative model

1 to a revised model of Disciplined Inquiry.

Interesting: Education is not a discipline, but a field of study.

"...education is a field of study, a locus containing phenomena, events, institutions, problems, persons, and processes that themselves constitute the raw material for inquiries of many kinds. The perspectives and procedures of many disciplines can be brought to bear on the questions arising from and inherent in education as a field of study. As each of these disciplinary perspectives is brought to bear on the field of education, it brings with it its own set of concepts, methods, and procedures, often modifying them to fit the phenomena or problems of education. Such modifications, however, can rarely violate the principles defining those disciplines from which the methods were drawn." (p. 9 Shulman)

Methods "different procedures are used to ask different questions and to solve different problems for different purposes." (p. 11) Generalizability

Generalizability across people--generalization from the particular sample of individuals who are tested, taught, or observed in a given study to some larger population of individuals or groups of which they are said to be representative (p. 13) Generalizability across situations--generalization is from the particular tasks or settings in which a piece of work is conducted to that population of tasks or settings that the research situation is claimed to represent (p. 14)

Correlationists: study the natural covariations occurring in nature. (Goal: to understand and exploit the natural and, presumably, enduring variations among individuals) (p. 17)

Experimentalists are interested in the variation they themselves create. The experimental method is one in which scientists change conditions in order to observe the consequences of those changes. They are interested in understanding how nature is put together, not by inspecting nature as it is but by introducing modifications or changes in nature in order to better understand the consequences of those changes for subsequent states. They argue that only through the systematic study of planned modifications can we distinguish causal relationships between events or characteristics from mere chance co-occurrences. (p. 15) (Goal: to create conditions to reduce those variations.) (p. 17)

One of the enduring problems in research methodology has been the tendency to treat selection of method as primarily a technical question not associated with the underlying theoretical or substantive rationale of the research to be conducted. Selecting the method most appropriate for a particular disciplined inquiry is one of the most important, and difficult, responsibilities of a researcher. The choice requires an

act of judgment grounded in knowledge both of methodology and of the substantive area of the investigation. (p. 17)

Reflections 1. Consider the methodological positions outlined by Neuman and Garrison & Shale. Is there one position that attracts you the most? If, yes, what about it is most appealing and why? If no, why not? In this case, which position would you take doing research? 2. Find an article that reports the findings from research on a topic of interest. Evaluate the link between: a) the authors/researchers apparent position regarding the production of knowledge and b) the research methods. Are they consistent? 3. What is the possible outcome in research if data collection methods do not match a researcher's conceptions of knowledge