What is the importance of research and research ethics?

What is the importance of research and research ethics? Why is academic freedom important? This freedom comes with responsibility as it includes that the research meets high scientific and ethical standards. “Academic freedom includes freedom of inquiry, the right to disseminate the results of the inquiry, freedom to challenge conventional thought, freedom to express one’s opinion about the institution, its administration or the system I with one works, freedom from institutional censorship.”

Before reading this article I had a bias that ethical behaviour is pretty self-explanatory and common seneschal. However, this article covers ethics at such a granular level, I had no idea it was such a detailed subject. Some of the core principles are; respect for persons, concern for welfare, justice.

References:

Ethics – for Students

Panel on Research Ethics - The TCPS 2 Tutorial Course on Research Ethics (CORE)

Unit 2 - Introduction to Education Research continued…

Introduction to Education Research continued…

Research within research… wow there are so many different types of research methodologies out there – I admit it’s a little overwhelming. The one research method that I resonate with in this phase of the project at work is the Action Research method. This is where the researcher is focused on solving specific problems.

Some of my specific problems at work are as follows:

1. Hardware not meeting the capability of some of the platforms that we are using I.e. no audio to listen to the videos we are producing.

2. Firewalls and access to training material: We have external Ministries that are receiving training however they do not have access to the Network, therefore, we have to send them the videos which are very large (email attachment limitations), and zips are stripped.

I am currently using the Action research method where I have diagnosed several problems, and conduct a review to see if a answer already exists. Usually that results in an answer of ‘no’ an answer doesn’t already exist then I plan and carry out my own research study to create a proposal prior to implementing the changes or solutions. As the article states – this seems to be a never ending process, “because most problems are never fully solved.” (p.10)

References:

Johnson, R.B., Christensen, L. (2014). Chapter 1: Introduction to Educational Research. In Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches.(pp. 1-28) Sage Publishing.

Unit 1 - Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research

Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research

This article was very well written and laid out the difference between the types of research and also gave examples of when to use each of the research methods.

Quantitative Research depends on numeric data whereas Qualitative Research relies on non-numeric data I.e. images and text, Mixed Research is the amalgamation of the two.

The appropriate use of the type of research used or combination of research used depends on the question, situation, and environment. Quantitative Research uses hypothesis and theory testing primarily whereas Qualitative Research is used to describe what is seen usually resulting generating another hypothesis and/or theory. This method is successfully used when little is known about the subject matter. With all research methods the researcher uses either deductive or inductive reasoning when deciphering results. Inductive is when the researcher searches for patterns, on the other side of the spectrum deductive reasoning is when the researcher can see noticeable consequences.

Let me give you an example from my work as we provide evaluation surveys to calculate Quantitative results and we use inductive reasoning to decipher patterns within the responses to highlight areas that need improvement. We lay out the survey with an agreement scale as follows:

We ask a question and the participants reply within these categories. We then create a report that amalgamates all the responses and we calculate an average.

References:

Johnson, R.B., Christensen, L. (2014). Chapter 2: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Research. In Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches (pp. 29-55). Sage Publishing.

Unit 1 - Introduction to Education Research

Unit 1 - Introduction to Education Research

I was shocked to read in the journal written by R.B. Johnson, that in the New York public education system only half of the students in public school finish high school in 4 years! I guess it’s time for a reform plan; some ideas coming from the New York mayor were:

-          Establish a corporate board

Really? I giggled a bit when that was his reform idea, to implement a corporate board to provide management decisions, oversight and expertise. How about appealing to the audience to which the curriculum should be tailored to, the article does go on to say, “A uniform core curriculum should be established that focuses on basic skills.” (p.2)

“We contend that policymakers will benefit if they examine the findings of educational research studies comparing the outcomes resulting from implementing different ideas and approaches.” (p.2) When I read this line did it ever resonate with me working with my target audience in the industry that I am in. For any change there is so much red tape and policies/legislation to go through prior to any implementation. I am a true believer in any revamping of curriculum should be more concerned with what works best for the target audience without including any personal biases or vested interests in particular approaches.

I had to learn how to write effective proposals and I learned quickly how to design and conduct a defensible study as this journal states how important these skills are when conducting educational research. In addition, an evaluation or questionnaire, if done correctly enable you to “not have to accept something as true just because someone said it was true.” (p.5)

Evaluation Research:

This includes Needs assessments, Theory Assessment s, Implementation Assessments, Impact Assessments, and Efficiency Assessments. All of these assessments provide the client and researcher with important information like; is there a need for a change in the program, is this program conceptualized in a way that it should work, was the program implemented properly, what is the impact on the target audience, and is the program cost-effective.

References:

Johnson, R.B., Christensen, L. (2014). Chapter 1: Introduction to Educational Research. In Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches.(pp. 1-28) Sage Publishing.

Thoughts to help write my essay

In the article that I chose to write my critical essay on, it outlines how the use of video games can be beneficial to teaching Math and Algebra in classrooms from K – 12. I cannot get it out of my mind and has left me with a lot of questions out of curiosity. I believe that this outline would be beneficial with adults as well.

Assumptions:

·         When dealing with adults; would they be willing participants and not let their own inhibitions to prevent them from utilizing the new tool.

·         This tool could be used as an examination of how well they receive the information if used in conjunction with traditional in class training.

Obstacles and constraints:

·         How receptive would the adult participants be with the change in the curriculum?

·         How to ‘prove’ that the new methodology has great potential so management accepts a trial run of the new methodology.

·         A lot of maintenance required, which would require a lot of skill sets from Trainers, how practical is that new requirement?

Trust, Motivation, and Insecurities

All of these emotions have presented themselves for me this course. I think the initiator is Trust; trust in yourself, trust that you can get it all done, trust in the work that you are producing, trust in learning and where you want to go with it. I went through a phase of lack of trust in myself about half way through this course and as a result it directly impacted my motivation for the learning, which then led to insecurities around the capability of the learning. Interesting and curious I dove into why I was feeling this way and it lead to the above realization after several hours and days of reflection. I am so thankful that I am conscience enough to understand where the emotions are coming from so when they present themselves in the future I’ll know exactly where to place them.

Research Paper vs a Thesis?

That is the question, whether to do a Research Paper or a Thesis? I have a couple of Research questions that would result in very interesting subject matter and have started to put a structure together on paper - my mantra for this work is to get it down somewhere on paper and out of my head! On the other hand, I am implementing a training program at work which in itself would make for a great thesis. After reading several of my cohorts blogs it looks as though I am not the only one having trouble deciding. I'll be back soon to post some of my info graphs that will make up the framework for a Research Paper if I go that route. I will also post some of the training strategies that I have put together for work along with the plan of how we are going to implement what we say we are going to do. Might give you some ideas as well.