Week 1
In the first class of the 1st semester 2011, we are introduced to the idea of “research”. What is research? We hear the word everyday but many are obscure of its general purposes. The quote from Einstein: “If we knew what it was we are doing, it would not be called research, would it be?” struck a chord with me. I believe that researches would have been of naught if we do not recognize that there is a problem to solve.
Fundamentally, information would not be as convincing to its acquirers without the backing up of researches. The lesson from this class also suggests to me that research is a ‘trial and error’ method of information gathering, in a sense that “knowledge can be observed and tested again”. In the context of education, educational research is conceptualized to address the issue of credibility of educational material presented in the classrooms.
Above all, I am convinced from what I have learned in this class that educational researches are most effective whence applied in a scientific manner. Reason being, when researches are done in a sequential pattern, we are educated of a more structured and organized way of the piecing together of information that effectively manifests itself into a more focused and comprehensive instrument of information communication to its audiences, in this case, the students.
Week 3
This week, we delved deeper into one of the substantial components in research that was the problem – on how we could classify it as such and subsequently, define it. It is imperative to find the problem definition before we could commence the research as it assists us in determining the research problem, thereafter, narrowing down the scope of research. The entire process guided us to produce more focused, critical and insightful a research piece.
Basically, the whole process is analogous to the distillation system; when a problem is identified, we start with a broad problem area, from there; we ‘boil it down’ to the problem definition and the research problem. I have discovered that the process can help us avoid instances where our research would turn out vague, ambiguous or lack of direction, so to speak.
In this class as well, I have learnt that at every juncture of the whole process of defining the research problem, there are a certain criteria to fulfill before it can proceed to the next stage up until we reach the destination (i.e. research problem). I believe this is an important step to ensure that we can come up with a ‘foolproof’ research problem. It is at this juncture that it turns mechanical, as research problem entails the possibility of empirical investigation, that is, of data collection and analysis. But before we move on, it is a good idea to ask ourselves, why we chose the problem that we did.
Once we have decided with the research problem, we then have to apply it to the problem tree. The tree is an effective method based on the principle of cause and effect. From the tree, we would be able to build up a problem statement. The flow of ideas in the problem statement was where we determined the subject area, towards the end, that is, specifying the target audience.
Then we went on to Qualitative versus Quantitative research. What I can extract from this part of the lesson is that Qualitative research is a much more exploratory type of research and the result can be open-ended; whereas the latter delivers a very objective, precise and accurate result or implication.
WEEK 4
The introduction of Literature Review helped me understand the difference between a research and an educational research.
In my opinion, just about anyone can come up with ideas, questions and solutions to any issues that they think related to their field of interest. Ideas are prospects to start a foundation in order to solve issues. But how valid are the ideas if we ourselves don’t do any research on the ideas we have our selves?
That is the purpose of having Literature Review. The words themselves convey the meaning of ‘reviewing literatures’. What is Literature Review?
As it was mentioned before, in order to do a research we have to know of other researches first. To give out our ideas to solve an issue, we have to look whether the ideas have been explored previously and what are the results that they have found. Apart from that, it is to avoid calling other people work, ideology and findings as our own. By citing other people’s work, it shows that we have done our readings and we know of the current progress of the issue that we want to look into.
Yes, everybody wants to be a pioneer of something. But wouldn’t it be better to continue and explore other people’s idea in order to achieve the same goals? For example, to start something means we have to look into a thousand possibilities and thousand flaws. But if we start based on other people’s ideology and research, we have decreases our scopes to a smaller limit which will help us focus even more.
Furthermore, we have to remember that many researchers have explored almost every spectrum of education so for us (the students) to come up with a whole new ideology without any back up previous research seems quite unlikely.
Literature Review helps us identify the key concept of our research and validate it as a proper research instead of just “an idea”.
WEEK 5
We did a recap on the previous weeks lectures. After getting the general idea of writing a research proposal and learning about literature review and how to define a research proposal, it was inevitable that we were brought to the topic of variables.
Variables, one of the essential parts of writing a research proposal. Without variables, there wouldn't be research. Variables are needed so that comparison can be made, so that theories can be proved either right or wrong. However, it is important to keep in mind that despite having variables so that research can be done, they are not always accurate.
In my opinion, especially in quantitative research, there will always be room for improvement, especially when measuring things like student motivation, level of anxiety. This is because despite trying your very best to calculate these features, they can never be measured accurately. However, from what I gathered from this lecture, quantitative research seems easier to calculate compared to qualitative research. The reason is because it is generally easier to work with numbers rather than words.
The advantage of qualitative research though, is that it seems to be more interesting compared to qualitative research that seems more straightforward.
I look forward to further classes to learn more about research proposals.
Week 6
Reviewing the first ouline of Research Proposal. My topic was unclear and needed a lot of improvement as it is too vague and unfocused [ Please look under the Research Proposal Outline tab in this page to view]
WEEK 7
Now that I have understood the term of variables, the next thing I need to do is to locate the variables into the type of research that will suit my purposes.
Correlational Research. The notes for this topic helped me out a lot while figuring out the type of research I wanted to for my dissertation paper. After weeks of figuring of what type of research I wanted to explore, I found that the field that I want to explore is more suited with this type of research.
Correlational research is to find the relation between variables and to see the effect of them to each other. This research is suitable to find relations of aspect in the education field. At first I almost confused this type of research with causal comparative research as both of them look into relation of variables. The difference between them is causal comparative research is to look into the source of problem of the issues that we have.
At the beginning stage, I thought this causal comparative is perfect for my research title but after sending in my first proposal outline, I was told that to start an educational research, I should never have a bias perspective. This will blur my visions and interrupt my focus of the aspect I want to look into.
Now that I have understand the difference clearly, I know I can’t assume something happens because of another thing and start with that for the research. Previously I assumed that certain teaching methods are the reason why students are unable to perform critical thinking. Now I am clear that I have to look into the type of teaching methods available first before I make any assumptions. This information has helped me clear up the uncertainties of my research paper.
WEEK 8
At this stage of the semester, I have already know what type of research I want to do, the aspects that I want to look into and the problems that I want to explore. The next step is to find the sample and the measurements.
Sample is the target group that is needed in my research. In other words, they are the subjects that I needed. In my case, my sample will have to be secondary schools English teachers that teach English Literature component. One of the questions that lingered in my mind is how am I going to approach the teachers for me to do the research?
At the class I was informed that there are many procedures that I need to go through in order to collect the data from my sample. Since I want to explore the teaching method used by secondary teachers, I need to get the permissions from the MOE and then the consent of the teachers who are willing to participate in my research. I know this will be a task for me and can’t wait to discuss with my soon to be appointed supervisor to help me out with this issue.
Even with that, I need to search for the right sample in the target population of my research. Perhaps in my study the right sampling for me to do purposeful qualitative sampling, this is because I want to look into the teaching methods used by secondary school English teachers. Another aspect that I can look into is the cluster sampling but I am not quite sure whether or not it is suitable for my research
WEEK 9
By this level I have already know mostly how to do my research proposal. But as it comes to the introduction on how to measure the sample, I was starting to lose focus again. The topic was quite wide and there were too many ways to measure the sample and data. I felt as if I have just lost my main source of light and now I am back to crawling in the dark again.
The term ‘mean’, standard deviation’, ‘Pearson movement’ and others started to jumble up for me. Try as hard as I may, this is the one topic that threw me off the track. Before this I thought I was confused at times; now I know I am completely lost.
I had to struggle a lot in order to understand how to measure the data when I find it. Dr Izaham mentioned and showed us briefly about the Raosoft Sample size calculator that is available on the web but by this time, I was lost in my own thoughts on how am I going to do the measurement and the calculation of my data.
This is one of the “student” moments where the individual starting to doubt his/her ability to complete a task. ‘Phi’, ‘correlation’, ‘nominal’, ‘ordinal’? I felt like I was back in my A Level doing my pre-med studies (Advanced Math) all over again. I thought I have left all of these terms behind when I decided to pursuit my passion for English language. As the class ended, I held back my tears and worries and hope that next week will be a better improvement of my knowledge on these matters.
WEEK 10
The week of SPSS. It was a lucky break that week as one of our classmate did an extra class to help us understand the usage of SPSS. There are many aspects of SPSS but class was briefly introduced to SPSS concept.
At this moment I only know how to measure quantitative data through the programmer. Now given that the terms that I was confused with in the previous week, I had a clearer view on how and what the term represent. At this point of time, I know I have to do a lot of research and reading on how or what type of measurement I need for my research data analysis.
Perhaps during the semester break.
WEEK 11
This week we are to present our research proposal outline to the class. After my last outline was reviewed, I knew I have to do a lot of improvement from my last one. In my opinion I thought I had done the job sufficient enough so people won’t get confused about the purpose of my research anymore.
As I stood in front of the class I presented my research proposal. The look of confusion were spread across my classmates faces. Even worst, on Dr Izaham’s face as well.
“ Your research proposal is everywhere but not quite there yet,’ he commented.
I felt like my confidence level just dropped below the negative line. I was upset not because of his comment but because I haven’t had the grip of this whole research methodology yet. I know what I want to look into, I know the problem statements of why I want to look into the issues. But here I am again, not quite there yet.
After my presentation, a classmate helped me clear my research proposal and helped me look into a whole new perspective of my research idea. I was thankful that he was there to help me (Thank you Ateff).
At the end of the class as I managed to fix it, I went to see Dr Izaham to ask if I have improved it a bit and if I can towards the direction. He helped me clear some of my research questions and my aim. I went back with a bit more guidance and hope that I have enough guidance for me to write my final Research Proposal to be submit soon.
Week 12.
TEST!
If people came unprepared for the test, they would have no clue on how to answer the questions. I was quite lost with some questions but I think I managed to answer most of it. I have done my readings and my research and all I can do now is hope that my effort was sufficient enough to pass the test.
Looking back on all of the weeks that I had gone through, there were many ups and downs. I had my fair bit of tears, laughter, smiles and frowns – this semester haven’t been easy. But one thing for sure, I need to pass in order to go to the next semester as I do want to do my research. I have put my heart into the research proposal that I’ve written and to lose it will be such a shame.
Next semester, here I come (hopefully!) with more preparation.
