I have been giving a lot more thought to how I can conduct different studies with my generic topic of incorporating writing in the math curriculum. Although we are supposed to write on qualitative ideas this week, I would first like to share one more quantitative idea. Since we spent a lot of time talking about surveys, I’ve been trying to envision my topic from this approach. For my quantitative research article, I found a study that used a questionnaire as the venue for collecting data about a population, specifically teachers at the elementary, middle, and secondary level. The teachers were asked to fill out a questionnaire and return it to the researcher, anonymously. The questionnaires asked the respondents to rank their attitudes toward the use of writing in math, their beliefs on the importance of using writing in mathematics, and their frequency for using a variety of writing practices. In the article, it included the actually document that was used as the questionnaire. Most of the questions were structured on a 5-anchor Likert scale, but it also allowed teachers to give additional comments. In completing my article review, it was very helpful to see the wording and format of the survey. I realized that a survey does not always simply poll on the concrete things, but it can also be used to collect information about intangible things, like attitudes and beliefs. As I had written in my last blog, I wasn’t sure what question to pose if I were to choose a survey approach for data collection. I feel like now, after reviewing this research article, I could possibly do a replication of the study, asking: What are mathematics teachers’ opinions and abilities for incorporating writing with their curriculum?

I could also see the value of approaching this topic qualitatively by interviews, either with students or teachers, or with observations. I am a little hesitant in going this route, especially with the time constraints and my natural tendency towards the numerical nature of quantitative research. In one article that I found, an interesting qualitative study explored the relationship between writing and low-achieving students’ mathematical understandings. The researchers followed the progress of four students who were identified as low-achieving. Their study revealed an important similarity between the students: they all contributed irregularly to class and small-group interactions, yet in written assignments and journal entries, the students demonstrated adequate mastery of the math goals. The basis of the research was observations. Perhaps in my own research I could observe students of a different population, for example: ELL students. If the teacher uses writing in the classroom, I could observe those students as they develop their mathematical understandings. Any other suggestions for a qualitative approach?