The Task Was About A Summary Of Work Covered For Six Weeks (Essay Sample)

Approach to Education Research
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Approach to Education Research
This task covers the second part of the research folio. This section of the assignment will reflect on the work covered from week seven to thirteen. The work of every week is reflected as discussed below.
Week 7: Approaches to Qualitative Research
The section is highly informative giving relevant information about qualitative research. This chapter starts by reviewing the term research design in general. It explains clearly how literature uses the term research design to hold within all the decisions involved in project execution and planning. According to this chapter, research design keeps the researchers in the empirical world and join the research question to data.(figure 8.1). Research design forms the core strategy of a research and consists of four main ideas i.e. the plan, conceptual framework, the study, and lastly the tools and procedures involved (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015) In comparison with quantitative research, qualitative research is usually said to be pluralistic including traditions, finer details, and more detailed subdivisions. Developments of methodologies continue within qualitative research, and the effects of these events are to highlight the political nature of social research and education political environment (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015).
Feminism and postmodernism are discussed as the perspectives from which the aspects of politics have received great attention in. Although qualitative research is more diverse than quantitative research, there are recurrent in many strategies that are in quantitative studies. One of these major features is that qualitative research is naturalistic and sometimes can be the same case with quantitative research while studying people in their natural setting. The chapter also discussed the case study. A case study is defined, and its objectives are given to come up with a good understanding of the case in research. A case study helps to have an in-depth understanding of the research. In the case study, a combination of methods can be used to explore the case. Box 8.1 (pg148-149) shows examples of case studies and reflections of researchers on them. The chapter also gives examples of misunderstandings (Table 8.1) about the case study, and this will help the learner to understand case studies clearly.(Punch &Oancea, 2014). Another thing discussed in this chapter is how to prepare a case study. The chapter also discussed ethnography its three parts are discussed. The three sections are; the approach of ethnography diversity, research features of ethnographic approach and comments about ethnography in education. The fourth key is the grounded theory procedures where theory generation versus theory testing is discussed. The chapter discusses the relationship between data collection and data analysis.
The chapter gives detailed work of various sampling techniques applied in qualitative research which is of great help to teachers aiming to explain sampling in qualitative research. This chapter of the book discusses the main plans of action for use in qualitative research .this chapter describes feminism and modernism. This volume gives the directions of thinking about the entire research process. The chapter introduced to me how to formulate questions hypothesis during research, which is perfect and are explorable as well as explainable. It comprehensively explains how to collect and analyze qualitative data and deal with the research results.
Week 8: Qualitative Data Collection Method
In the chapter, Punch starts by emphasizing on the consistency of data collection methods and sampling strategy with the research purposes and questions. The main methods of qualitative data collection discussed in the chapter are; the interview, documentary research, participant observation and visual methods. The most prominent tool in qualitative data collection is the interview. (Punch & Oacean, 2014)
According to punch, interview helps to explore persons’ perception meanings, situation definitions and construction of facts. It also explains why interview differs regarding practicalities and situations of the interview. Structured and semi-structured interviews are explained in depth and how feminist research makes their use.
The Interview aspects looked at are; interview respondents, planning and managing the interview and data recording. The chapter highlighted analytic status. Under observation, the first thing discussed here is structured and unstructured approaches to observation. Box 9.3 shows examples of structured observation (Punch, 2014). The second point considered is the participant observation. The chapter clearly discusses how the observation of participant is involved in collecting data during research. Documentary data is another sub topic in the chapter. The writer explains how historical and contemporary rich sources of information are. It is explained how data collection procedures affect the quality of data in the research and finally sampling.
Week 9: Qualitative Data Analysis Methods
The chapter starts by discussing the diversity of qualitative research analysis. It is clear that there are different ways of analyzing human social life and therefore needs many perspectives in the data analysis. The chapter enhances the understanding of various analytic techniques by giving examples. The second thing discussed in the section is analytic induction. Punch goes ahead to discuss miles of Huberman framework application in qualitative research. The work has a reflective capacity to obtain a deep intuitive understanding of the research. Abstracting and comparing are discussed as the two fundamental intellectual tools in qualitative research. These tools are despite many intellectual tools used during educational research. The book also shows diagrams that show various levels of abstraction in data analysis to help the learner grasp the content clearly. The book explains how to get the conclusion that is not vague and ill-formed after following the right procedures. There is need to verify conclusion after drawing propositions (Maxwel, 2012). Coding is used to enhance drawing proposals before validating conclusion (Casterle, Gastmans, Bryon & Denier, 2012) Punch refers coding as the central activity in carrying out research. Application of computers in drawing and concluding in research is also not ignored. The writer also talks about the weaknesses and strengths of computer applications during educational research.
Week 10: Mixed Methods
In this chapter, punch takes us through the definition of the term as the methodology for carrying out research. Mixed methods incorporate both qualitative and quantitative methods (Hesse-Biber, 2010). Punch familiarizes the reader with positivism and interpretivism while introducing the two methods of research. Punch takes the effort to inform the reader about the five dichotomies and argues that it is not a simple contrast but multiple positions. This form of research helps the researcher to combine the two methods give a better comprehension of the research problem. The aspects of methods are given as a collection of qualitative and quantitative data, interconnecting the data and single versus multiple-phase project the various reasons for mixing the both approaches is well explained. Punch and Oancea well explain the types of data collected and analyzed by the mixture methodology. The scopes of the methodology approach to research are well discussed with the writer pointing down some examples. In mixture methods, there are various types of questions that researcher tries to answer in the course of the research work. These questions are well addressed by punch and Oancea. After combining the two methods of research, one needs to follow guidelines that will help him /her draw valid conclusions that are not vague. Punch has outlined the procedure that needs to be followed to draw those conclusions. This topic was trying to help the researcher know how to combine the two methodologies and come up with information collected professionally obeying all the rules or research.
Week 11: Ethics in Educational Research
The chapter starts by defining the term ethics, and it refers to it as a study of the virtuous course of action. Research ethics as a branch of applied ethics in focused into in the chapter. The writer reflects on how the ethics set up principles that help the researcher explore a particular context and make an ethical decision when carrying out research. Punch takes the reader through ethical principles and research designs. The chapter discusses a hypothetical example of an ethical research where a student wanted to study effective teaching practices. The aspect of biasness and power relation is analyzed reflecting on previous research. This hypothesis invites the reader to think of normative reasoning that bought to be done in some situations. Box 4.1 shows the right questions a researcher should ask himself during research to identify the proper course of action. The purpose of ethical codes during research in well discussed. The writer helps the learners who are aspiring to practice research how to avoid being biased and avoid self-deception. Punch guides researchers on how to embrace integrity to come up with credible data through the research process. Being sincere and consistent is a key in collecting a reliable data. The researchers are also warned of being careful whenever they are carrying out a research. The writer emphasizes on intellectual property respect and confidentiality. Some methods pose ethical dilemmas that prompt researchers and institutional committee to put in considerations research ethics and principles. Finally, punch takes the aspiring researchers through students’ rese...