Chapter 3 describes the dimensions and types of research and focuses on the type of question that is being asked, and the methods used to investigate that question. The author compares and contrasts two fundamentally different types of research.
Research can be either qualitative, such as case studies or ethnographies, where the evaluations and methods are mostly verbal, or quantitative using numerical values to measure data and to evaluate results.
Qualitative research “puts a face” on the study using interviews and observations which may or may not be interactive, whereas quantitative research is a more rigorous “number crunching” evaluation of the data and results using values and scores to perform statistical analysis. In either case, research can be either descriptive or experimental.
Descriptive research may be to observe some existing phenomenon and document it, or to better understand the reasoning behind it. This may be to discover how it happened, perhaps to prevent it from happening again, or improving the results thin the future.
There are three basic kinds of descriptive research, which can be categorized as simple, comparative and correlational, which vary in degrees of the sample population being observed and the purpose of the research. “Simple” research simply observes a static situation, perhaps for a report (that may be used with other such “simple” reports, to form the basis for the next category, the “comparative” study.
The “comparative” study observes two or more similar scenarios that differ in identifiable ways, and compare the results, to determine how the difference manifested itself in the outcome.
“Correlational” research is a broader application of the “comparative” method in that it uses statistical analysis to extract relationships between the measured, initial “input” and “output” observations (data) affect the values of the measured results.
The design or method that is used to determine a “cause and effect” relationship may be “experimental” or “quasi-experimental,” which differ only in whether or not the sample can be totally random.
For example, if a class can be divided into two groups, and the researcher can randomly select which students are used in the “treatment” group or the “control” group,” then the study is truly “experimental.”
However, in many cases, the population cannot be manipulated freely, such as comparing the progress in two or more existing classroom scenarios, where the groups are already in place, and the researcher cannot change them.
These methods are more discrete whereas the qualitative and quantitative designs are not mutually exclusive, in that studies may involve a mixture of both to effectively analyze the subject.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Assignment 1, Introduction
My name is Charles Lee, and I’m originally from Massapequa, Long Island, New York, where I finished High School, before going into the US Army to serve in Fort Hood, Texas, then on to Viet Nam for most of my two-year tour of duty in Saigon, Tai Ninh and Bien Hoa.
While in Viet Nam, I lived among the people, rather than simply remain a “military employee,” where I learned to speak and write Vietnamese, I ate their food, and I immersed myself in their culture. I figured that being halfway around the world, over 12,000 miles from home (for the first in my life), I was going to actually see this fascinating country that I was “visiting.” I was determined not stay encapsulated in that little “American bubble” where I was assigned. (That would be like visiting Europe, and eating at McDonalds !)
Officially, my “job” (MOS) was “Military Police” and our patrol “beat” was Highway 1A from Saigon to Tai Ninh (aka “Suicide Alley” from the movie, “Good Morning, Vietnam”) and “riding shotgun,” escorting convoys of supplies and troops to and from the “ports of entry,” such as Mekong Delta and Saigon Harbor.
While there, I took some “journeys” as far as I could hitch rides in my spare time, and found myself in far corners of the country, making sure I could get back in time for my official tours “on the job.”
Since then, I have worked for “Ma Bell” (NY Telephone / A T & T) before teaching myself to be a computer programmer and started designing custom software for businesses in 1985.
I have developed application systems for medical laboratories, professional associations, new car dealerships, manufacturing companies, wholesale order tracking and retail invoicing systems.
When my daughter (the ATC) was in fifth grade, I took my vacation from the Telephone Company, one day a week for ten weeks, to teach computer programmer to her fifth grade class. However, it was not for over a decade or so before I got the “bug” to teach when offered a teaching position at a local college.
The rest is, as they say, “history,” and I have been teaching since, in my effort to “download” what I have learned to the next generation, which I believe is what teaching is all about, right ?
All was well, as I strove to achieve the requisite degrees appropriate for my new career as a teacher, until about two years ago, when I was offered (or should I say “challenged “?) an opportunity to teach high school, after being far too removed from such an environment myself. I soon realized that there was much more to teaching at that level than I had had time to prepare for !
So, now I’m back to school myself, after knowing what to teach, now to learn how to teach !
As a computer programmer, I have always felt that technology should be embedded into education, and not just a tool to implement education, so that the students are facilitated in their learning.
I firmly believe that if we expect them to learn, we not only need to give them a reason, but also make it exciting so that they will want to learn.
While in Viet Nam, I lived among the people, rather than simply remain a “military employee,” where I learned to speak and write Vietnamese, I ate their food, and I immersed myself in their culture. I figured that being halfway around the world, over 12,000 miles from home (for the first in my life), I was going to actually see this fascinating country that I was “visiting.” I was determined not stay encapsulated in that little “American bubble” where I was assigned. (That would be like visiting Europe, and eating at McDonalds !)
Officially, my “job” (MOS) was “Military Police” and our patrol “beat” was Highway 1A from Saigon to Tai Ninh (aka “Suicide Alley” from the movie, “Good Morning, Vietnam”) and “riding shotgun,” escorting convoys of supplies and troops to and from the “ports of entry,” such as Mekong Delta and Saigon Harbor.
While there, I took some “journeys” as far as I could hitch rides in my spare time, and found myself in far corners of the country, making sure I could get back in time for my official tours “on the job.”
Since then, I have worked for “Ma Bell” (NY Telephone / A T & T) before teaching myself to be a computer programmer and started designing custom software for businesses in 1985.
I have developed application systems for medical laboratories, professional associations, new car dealerships, manufacturing companies, wholesale order tracking and retail invoicing systems.
When my daughter (the ATC) was in fifth grade, I took my vacation from the Telephone Company, one day a week for ten weeks, to teach computer programmer to her fifth grade class. However, it was not for over a decade or so before I got the “bug” to teach when offered a teaching position at a local college.
The rest is, as they say, “history,” and I have been teaching since, in my effort to “download” what I have learned to the next generation, which I believe is what teaching is all about, right ?
All was well, as I strove to achieve the requisite degrees appropriate for my new career as a teacher, until about two years ago, when I was offered (or should I say “challenged “?) an opportunity to teach high school, after being far too removed from such an environment myself. I soon realized that there was much more to teaching at that level than I had had time to prepare for !
So, now I’m back to school myself, after knowing what to teach, now to learn how to teach !
As a computer programmer, I have always felt that technology should be embedded into education, and not just a tool to implement education, so that the students are facilitated in their learning.
I firmly believe that if we expect them to learn, we not only need to give them a reason, but also make it exciting so that they will want to learn.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Assignment 2, Belmont Report
1. What were some of the events that caused the Belmont report to be written?
The Belmont Report was a product of many events in human history, but most notably those that have occurred in the last century, in my opinion, as a result of mass communication making the world more aware of such transgressions than was previously possible.
If anything good could ever be said about the likes of Adolph Hitler, it could only be that his regime made the world aware of the atrocities of which people are capable, and to set the world on a mission to prevent it from happening again.
Most of the Holocaust reports concern the mass killings of nearly an entire culture, but it is the inhumane treatment and even torture of these prisoners that lead to their deaths, often in the name of “research,” that pushed these people to the depths of human endurance, that is the true crime against humanity.
This realization of the complete and utter disregard for human life with which the Nazis treated so many people has enraged better-informed generations to come, who have to live with that disgrace as a part of our shared humanity. The Nuremberg War Crime Trials were an attempt to punish those responsible, and to understand what had happened so that we could come to grips with the social dynamics that allowed it to happen.
The nature of these abuses are not often, or often enough, depicted as being in the name of “research,” the Belmont Report sets forth a standard by which researchers should be made aware of the fallibility of the selection process, albeit in gruesome comparison to the Holocaust.
2. What are the “Basic Ethical Principles” cited in the Belmont Report?
The nature of the ethical principals evinced by the Belmont Report are simple and humanitarian in their foundation, primarily respecting people and their right to “Life, Liberty, and their Pursuit of Happiness.”
The report further defines this respect by promoting “beneficence” which strives for “the greater good,” considering society as a whole, but primarily toward the subject’s well-being. The distinction is made between “risk” as a probability that some outcome will occur, and the “benefit” which is the degree of improvement (or detriment) that can be expected as a result of the research process.
The report also strives to ensure that research subjects will be selected fairly, and that the potential subject will submit with a full understanding of all of the risks and rewards that may result from the study, without coercion that may otherwise result from a biased selection process, such as a bias toward, or against, a sample population.
3. How are the “Basic Ethical Principles” assured in research practice?
Basic Ethical Principals are ensured by requiring consent that is completely informed of all reasonably known consequences, and even of the nature of “unknown consequences” that are often the case in research situations. The subject must understand that the outcome may be unpredictable, or that such incomplete disclosure is truly necessary to accomplish the goals of the research. However, the burden is on the researcher to ensure that the subject, or in some case, as concerned third party (who is able to act in the subjects best interests), fully understands the nature of the research requirements as well as the nature of the undisclosed risks.
The Belmont report describes methods to be used as examples. However, while the Belmont Report does not codify their methods to be used, respect for the subjects ethically mandates that subjects demonstrate informed consent voluntarily, and are fully able to comprehend the nature of the research, the procedures required, the health-related, social and economic risks involved, and the availability of alternative treatments.
Subjects, or a third party, must also be able to withdraw the subject at any time during the process, should such withdrawal be warranted. Subjects of research must also have access to the results, as well as being made aware as to whom those results will be disseminated.
Researchers are required to assess the need for the proposed research based on risks and benefits to the subjects, and to society as a whole, including advantages over alternative tested procedures that may provide similar results.
The Belmont Report was a product of many events in human history, but most notably those that have occurred in the last century, in my opinion, as a result of mass communication making the world more aware of such transgressions than was previously possible.
If anything good could ever be said about the likes of Adolph Hitler, it could only be that his regime made the world aware of the atrocities of which people are capable, and to set the world on a mission to prevent it from happening again.
Most of the Holocaust reports concern the mass killings of nearly an entire culture, but it is the inhumane treatment and even torture of these prisoners that lead to their deaths, often in the name of “research,” that pushed these people to the depths of human endurance, that is the true crime against humanity.
This realization of the complete and utter disregard for human life with which the Nazis treated so many people has enraged better-informed generations to come, who have to live with that disgrace as a part of our shared humanity. The Nuremberg War Crime Trials were an attempt to punish those responsible, and to understand what had happened so that we could come to grips with the social dynamics that allowed it to happen.
The nature of these abuses are not often, or often enough, depicted as being in the name of “research,” the Belmont Report sets forth a standard by which researchers should be made aware of the fallibility of the selection process, albeit in gruesome comparison to the Holocaust.
2. What are the “Basic Ethical Principles” cited in the Belmont Report?
The nature of the ethical principals evinced by the Belmont Report are simple and humanitarian in their foundation, primarily respecting people and their right to “Life, Liberty, and their Pursuit of Happiness.”
The report further defines this respect by promoting “beneficence” which strives for “the greater good,” considering society as a whole, but primarily toward the subject’s well-being. The distinction is made between “risk” as a probability that some outcome will occur, and the “benefit” which is the degree of improvement (or detriment) that can be expected as a result of the research process.
The report also strives to ensure that research subjects will be selected fairly, and that the potential subject will submit with a full understanding of all of the risks and rewards that may result from the study, without coercion that may otherwise result from a biased selection process, such as a bias toward, or against, a sample population.
3. How are the “Basic Ethical Principles” assured in research practice?
Basic Ethical Principals are ensured by requiring consent that is completely informed of all reasonably known consequences, and even of the nature of “unknown consequences” that are often the case in research situations. The subject must understand that the outcome may be unpredictable, or that such incomplete disclosure is truly necessary to accomplish the goals of the research. However, the burden is on the researcher to ensure that the subject, or in some case, as concerned third party (who is able to act in the subjects best interests), fully understands the nature of the research requirements as well as the nature of the undisclosed risks.
The Belmont report describes methods to be used as examples. However, while the Belmont Report does not codify their methods to be used, respect for the subjects ethically mandates that subjects demonstrate informed consent voluntarily, and are fully able to comprehend the nature of the research, the procedures required, the health-related, social and economic risks involved, and the availability of alternative treatments.
Subjects, or a third party, must also be able to withdraw the subject at any time during the process, should such withdrawal be warranted. Subjects of research must also have access to the results, as well as being made aware as to whom those results will be disseminated.
Researchers are required to assess the need for the proposed research based on risks and benefits to the subjects, and to society as a whole, including advantages over alternative tested procedures that may provide similar results.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)