The End of Spring 2009

My first article was coming along. Even though it was not completed as Eugeniu and I thought it would, we were able to have a decent draft that we are able to finish and refine the writing. My plan is to continue editing and writing in the summer. If possible, I will be working on the article with Eugeniu.

In the April, I had an opportunity to participate in the L&PS poster session. I presented two posters; “Unobtrusive Measures” with Eugeniu and “Randomized Response Techniques” by myself. Through this opportunity, I experienced the collaborative knowledge sharing. I have learned from other colleagues’ works and presentations. I really believe that this learning experience will help me develop my study in the future. Another thing that I have learned from participating L&PS posters session is that I will be able to use this opportunity to get feedbacks, ideas, as well as suggestions from other colleagues and experts.

Another great opportunity I have attended is Yu-Chang’s brown bag. I have learned how he developed and came up with his research design and topic. I have also learned about what I need to be considered when it comes to my own research design. All discussions and conversations in the presentation help me to think about various aspects in the educational research.

With all opportunities and learning experiences I had throughout the semester, I feel more confident in start thinking about my future research. In addition to that, working collaboratively with other colleagues in the class made me realize that I will be able to develop a good study through feedbacks and comments from other colleagues. This class has sharpened me in becoming a good citizen of educational research.

My Teaching and Training Experiences

I have finally had a chance to contribute my research knowledge with the team through the teaching experience. I have to admit that I have learned a lot from preparing the training instruction. My topic was “Randomized Response Techniques.” I first learned about this topic during EDPSY 475 class in the Fall 2008. The randomized response techniques are designed to help researchers deal with the studies that may involve sensitive or private information. The techniques allow investigators to statistically estimate the findings of sensitive information through the use of probabilistic principle. In educational research, this probabilistic technique may not be commonly known. I, however, found it useful that I, as a future researcher, need to know various research techniques in order to collect valid research data.

In addition to teaching experience, I have also been involved as a presenter in the Technology Workshop organized by L&PS Student Technology Advisory Community. I have volunteered to demonstrate how to use NVivo software in Qualitative research. Participating in the attitude team has given me an opportunity to explore research-based application. In addition to learning the new software, the knowledge that I learned from an introduction to qualitative research class in the Fall 2008 has provided me good understanding about qualitative research methodology. With these two knowledge combined, I was able to design and develop the basic training session for NVivo. Once again, I have learned a lot more when I was preparing for the presentation. I was able to make a clear connection of how NVivo software would beneficially empower me to conduct qualitative study.

Finally, as for the article-writing task, we were able to finalize the article outline. We have started writing some sections and are hoping to have the complete draft, if not the some complete sections, by the end of this semester. In the following month, my plan is to focus on writing and researching for my first article. I hope that by sharing the article with the group, I would be able to turn this opportunity into learning experience.

Reading and Analyzing Articles

Reviewing each chapter of Sowell’s book has given me more insight of how to evaluate journal articles and what to look for when reading each section of the articles. In return, I found these guidelines to be even more useful when it comes to writing my own article. I am able to write organize and develop my writing based on what the good article should be written. I will apply what I have learned from this book into my article writing for this class and for the future.

During the past month, we have discussed and analyzed methods, results, and discussion sections. In the first part of methods section, I found this section to be the most important section in terms of explaining the causation of your research design. It is very important for authors to clearly inform audiences who participants in the study are, how the study is designed, and what appropriate instruments are used to study constructs.

Regarding the subjects section, Sowell suggests that authors should describe population & subjects, sampling procedures, and sample sizes. I still need to keep it in mind that when I describe the subjects, I need not to mention institution’s name. This is considered irrelevant information because the study is designed to investigate the generally specific issue, not particular institution. I have learned that before describing the subjects, I should think about whether or not the information regarding subjects is important for the study and such information may have an effect on the study. For instance, indentifying whether subjects are undergraduate or graduate students may need to be clearly described in the article.

I found that determining what instruments should be appropriately used in my study is very challenging. The key of writing this section is to clearly inform readers whether or not instruments are appropriate for particular research problem. Therefore, it is important for to make sure to clearly describe validity and reliability of instruments being used.

Writing the results section gives authors chances to explain the possibly competing explanation. I have learned the take-home point from Dr. Grabowski that writing results section should be considered under TDT basis. TDT stands for “Teach-Don’t-Tell”. It is not necessary to teach readers how to calculate or what the formula is. So, the results section should be concise, but yet clearly answer the research problems.

I have learned that the discussion section is considered as a part of the idea of chain of reasoning. As a part of chain of reasoning, the discussion section should be written in the way that elaborates the findings. The main goals for writing discussion section are to state what authors found (answering questions / problems stated) and suggest what authors were to do in the future (recommendation for future studies).

My First Experience in Writing an Article

The beginning of the spring 2009 semester started with a challenging task, writing an article for publication. I’m very excited and looking forward to working on my first publication. My expectation for this project is to develop senses of how, as a researcher and education, to turn your ideas and findings to be a research or educational article. In return, this publication, if accepted and published, will strengthen my profession and career in the research and educational fields.

Throughout the class discussion and reading materials, I have learned about the process and what to know before writing an article. Admittedly, I have never thought that the knowledge of the journals or publications is such an important aspect of being a successful writer. Obviously, getting to know the journals and their submission procedures will help me shape and write my articles and increase a chance that my articles would be accepted.

My article for this semester project is based on the E-Learn presentation that Eugeniu and I submitted. The topic involves the use of unobtrusive measure to find clues of students’ attitude from the discussion board. I have to admit that this is not an easy topic to write my first article. However, as I mentioned, my goal or personal expectation for this project is to obtain the article writing / publishing experiences. I believe in my heart that this experience will soon come in handy during and after my graduate program.

At this point, we are in the process of selecting a journal / publication, finalizing the direction of what an article would be, writing an introductory section, and selecting articles for literature review. In the next coming month, I am expecting to have a draft of an article that Eugeniu and I are working on. In addition to an article, I am planning to participate in student teaching experience and to discuss my research interest with others. I am looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish within this month.