After reflecting on, and reading the responses to my first blog, I have come to the realization I might have to conduct some sort of qualitative research. Quite frankly, that idea scares me. I am a very logical and practical person, and the thought of having to interpret personal, and non-numerical data, makes me nervous.
So, I was more than pleased to hear Dr. McCoy ask us to write blog #2 on a quantitative aspect of our topic. I still haven’t completely nailed down the specific topic, but I have decided to study Hispanics and Math.
I think using a Survey would be a very effective measurement tool, but since I do not yet know the direction of my study, I cannot come up with a clear example of how I would use a survey. On the other hand, I can think of how I could use a Causal-Comparative method. On a very basic level, I would like to see how Hispanics perform on the Math EOG test compared to everyone else in the grade level or class. I think this would give me a good basis for my research, and from there, I could interview/survey a select number of Hispanics about whatever my topic may be.
As I sit and I write this, I am wondering if the ethical line is being crossed, regarding Hispanics vs. non-Hispanics test scores. Any thoughts??
3 comments:
Katie, I understand your reluctance to use "word" data. You are a numbers person!! But I promise you can do both!
However, I think this topic will almost certainly have to be interview-based, because of possible language issues in reading a survey. I think you might want to refine your question to ask something like, what is the attitude of Hispanic students toward school and/or mathematics? Or something like that. You wouldn't be in ethical danger if you were simply describing this subgroup. I would stay away from comparing test results to other ethnic groups....that does feel unethical or at least uncomfortable.
This is a good topic. Keep pursuing it.
Katie
I agree with Dr. McCoy, you can easily steer clear of ethical concerns in your topic. I also feel like the Hispanic population warrants more research "treatment" as a rapidly growing part of our population. With regard to your concerns over qualitative v quantitative, I made some progress on how a mixed method approach can work. My thought was that any of us might find value in approaching this in stages (albeit short ones given the length of the reserach period). If you start out by taking survey data or other observational data or using Causal-Comparative type statical tools to start with, you might be able to use that data to construct very focused interviews (informed questions) that can help you expand on the quantitative findings. You'd just need to be sure you were specific in your focus so you didnt spread yourself to thin.
Hi Katie,
I definitely agree with Ted, that the Hispanic population does warrant more research. I think this research could be beneficial to them as a group, and to you as a teacher.
That being said, if you stick with interviews like Dr. McCoy said, maybe somehow you could figure out what parts of math they struggle with the most. Somehow, you could figure out if there is a systematic difference among Hispanics that makes them struggle in one area more than others. Maybe it's word problems? Maybe it's 3D measurements? (ha..i have no clue about different aspects of math) Maybe this might help?!!?
Post a Comment