E-Learn Las Vegas and Semester End 594

At the beginning of November, Robert shared his summer research project with the class. This inspired me to think about conducting my own research interest when possible. As a future educator and researcher, it’s very important for me to continue and strengthen my profession through the research study. Through Robert’s research project presentation, I have come to realize that even though you are conducting your own research, it is important to share ideas with others. This will allow you to receive the suggestion from the different angles which will help you make a better research. Evidence can also be found during Yu-Chang’s pilot study presentation. Some of the items may still be questionable and overseen by the author.

I had a great opportunity to attend an “E-Learn” international conference at Las Vegas. The topic that I was one of the presenters is titled “Unobtrusive Measure of Attitude in Online Discussions: Implications for Crafting Discussion Triggers”. Throughout the process of preparing for the presentation, I learned various ways of data analysis. First, I learned about our questionnaire to measure Students’ Attitude Toward Astronomy (SATA) which was developed by Zeilik and Morris (2003). I believe that I can adapt this five-point Likert scale questionnaire into my research that calls for the attitude analysis.

Secondly, Newman, Webb, and Cochrane (1997) have provided useful protocol in analyzing / assessing critical thinking development. It is very interesting to learn how critical thinking can be measured through what is called “Critical Thinking Ratio”. The ratio is based on numbers of positive and negative coding. I also learned to adapt this model into our presentation. By using the positive and negative coding of ASTRO discussions and applying to ratio model; the difference between positive and negative attitudes divided by sum of positive and negative attitudes. As a result, we were able to compare the finding of qualitative data (attitude ration) and quantitative data (SATA). Interestingly, the result from qualitative analysis is comparable to the result from quantitative analysis.

Looking back at my personal goals at the beginning of this semester, I have partially accomplished most of my goals. One thing that I have not done this semester is to participate in the teaching opportunity as a presenter. I hope there will be the teaching opportunity available next semester. I will definitely take advantage of this opportunity in the next semester.

Throughout the class, I have had an opportunity to apply my knowledge that I learned from qualitative and quantitative research courses in the discussion. Having discussion regarding educational research in this class allows me to map the knowledge from other research classes to the actual educational research practice. In return, this allows me to have a better understanding about the educational research and its practice. My understanding about the research becomes clearer to me that it once was a semester ago.

Working with Eugeniu and others in the E-Learn presentation gave me an opportunity to learn an important tool in qualitative research. Having initial experience with NVivo will surely empower me in becoming a good researcher. In addition to using NVivo to analyze the data qualitatively, having such a great opportunity to present and learn from other educators during the E-Learn international conference will broaden my vision and strengthen my knowledge in becoming an effective educator and creative researcher.

With the winter break to come and reviewing my reflections for this semester, I have come to realize that I should take advantage of the break by learning more about educational research. Throughout the teaching opportunity, I got a very good sense of each topic. However, I also realize that I still need to learn more. So, my plan is to through some of the topics presented this semester and find out more about them over the break.

I hope I am being reflective. Have a very happy holiday.