After spending a few days with Dr. S, I am energized, excited and "raring to go". I realize that talking about data and discussing ideas with a colleague is a very important part of research. But how to make that happen in a virtual lab? In a lab, students tend to write posts for the instructors and to fulfill the weekly assignment. And the instructors, without intent,encourage this. We need to know that the student understands the difference between and IV and a DV, how to write a hypothesis, etc. So how do we, as instructors, ensure that students are getting the knowledge base they need and still have excitement about sharing their new found ideas and thoughts?
I asked students this week to post a title for their part of the research project. Not many did, and I am wondering if it is because there is confusion and fear about what they are doing? At the end of this project, each student will have become an expert on one area of the study (think of "study" as the mass of data that is collected). They have the freedom to choose the part of the data that most attracts them and write a journal article about it. I am not sure that the research assistants really understand this. This is a big difference between this project and typical research assistant roles: they are not just collecting the data and analyzing it under the direction of the PI, but rather they get to take ownership regarding what the data means in terms of previous research in the field.
I wonder if they looked at the analysis and lit review as preparing to evaluate archival data, it would become more clear in terms of what they have to opportunity to do?
As usual, my post is more questions than answers.... and that is a clue into why I like qualitative research... each step leads to more questions and each answer leads to another thought to explore.
MG
Dr. Giles,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote, "I asked students this week to post a title for their part of the research project. Not many did, and I am wondering if it is because there is confusion and fear about what they are doing?"
In Discussion 2, Week 2, the question was posed this way: "MG to ALL
Great posts. Let's say that you all become experts in one portion of the background of the data we collect... and you are now thinking about a journal article regarding your knowledge and the data set that goes with that..... What would your title be?"
From my perspective, "Let's say," indicates a choice, as in what might a potential title be?
So, I don't think that fear would be the most relevant problem, though I suspect we (we students) all have a healthy dose of that. I think there is confusion.
I understood your question because I understood from the beginning that we would be writing articles, although I had no clue what those articles might be about. I responded to your question immediately, in fact, too immediately.
A continuing problem for me in communicating a clear title is that I have not been able to develop a clear hypothesis linking annual income to health efficacy. I know what I think is the case and what I am finding, though the demographic profile does not have sufficient detail to address the questions I have to link finances to health efficacy. Then again, the data may, in fact, be more than sufficient and I have not the experience to understand that. The phrase, health efficacy is relatively new which indicates gaps in the literature. I commented some time back about a mini dissertation, and increasingly, that has become more apparent this quarter.
Do I, as a student researcher, just look at the data collected and make hypotheses for which I cannot provide evidence to support my questions? Or do I make a hypothesis for which I know I cannot support with evidence, but do that to show the existing segment of a series of gaps, to add to the literature? And how does our population's generation relate to future generations of eldest life spanners, particularly with regard to economic status?
Maybe that is where I will land the plane. I can take the collected data and hypothesize about the differences in generational characteristics between the 85+ age group from this study and what we might find to be the case in the next two decades.
Looking back, I find great surprise at the quantity of time I have devoted to research and more specifically to the IV/DV I have chosen, and without a clear idea of where to land this plane.
Thanks for asking the questions and reading my response. A definite work in progress.
Hi Cherri,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful blog.
I am going to throw in my two cents on some of the issues you raise in your post.
You note Dr. Gile's week two request regarding a title which was 'Let's say that you all become experts in one portion of the background of the data we collect... and you are now thinking about a journal article regarding your knowledge and the data set that goes with that..... What would your title be?'
Dr. Giles did not mean for the 'Let's say' to = 'optional'. I believe what Dr. Giles meant was to anchor the work we are doing this quarter via a title to your chosen area. Doing so/creating a title helps to ground the scope and direction of one's work and can therefore in fact serve as an anchor going forward. This does not mean, however, that one's title is a fixed entity - in fact most are working titles until the data are collected. So your title at this point might be 'The relationship between income and health self-efficacy'.
You don't *have* to indicate your hypotheses in the title - that is not typically done. Rather, the title should include the key variables of interest and perhaps - the nature of the relationship you plan to test. For example, if you knew you were studying income as it impacts/predicts health efficacy, your title might be 'The impact of income on health efficacy'. If however you thought your study might be correlational, your title might be: 'The correlation between income and health efficacy'. The title I suggested is quite general - and can be tweaked as you proceed, if needed/desired.
Your question regarding the making of a hypothesis...is a good one, as it is the question we all face in conducting research. I may know right now that I am interested in studying the income-health efficacy relationship and I may have a sense of that literature - but perhaps I have not reviewed the literature enough to appreciate all of the gaps inherent in that literature. While in our lab here we do not expect you to have the level of literature knowledge one is required to have for the dissertation, we would like you to take your variables to the literature to get a sense of potential gaps. Choose one such gap re- income-health efficacy and focus on it. If in that process, you need to alter your focus a bit, that is fine as this is the nature of research. It is a bit like a winding path for which we are not certain but have an idea as to where that path will ultimately take us.
Our asking you to choose an IV and a DV is to anchor you and represents starting off on that path.
You may find that it winds such that your initial thoughts about direction are re-directed (e.g. you initially thought income would be measured by self-report but having gotten into the literature somewhat, you see that it is typically measured by a specific scale you did not know of at first).
We need you to be anchored to some variables (IV/DV) so that we can walk you through the other steps in research to include analysis and write-up.
Please let me know if my comments make sense and be sure to bring any of your questions to our lab meeting tomorrow night, September 27th.
AES
Dr. Sickel,
ReplyDeleteI am printing this lab blog out, because you have really cleared up a cloud of, what I can only describe as, filtered dust between my ears filling that cranial vault there under my skull. ~ I am laffin ~
I read words quite literally, and that always presents some hurdles for me. Your response above, though, truly grounds my thinking. Thank you for that. Your words are also motivating because they explain that much of my thinking is all part of a normal process. I can also see a clear timeline and can plot out larger blocks of time to put the puzzle I took apart back together again.
Again, thank you for taking time to help me. ;)
Cherri B
Hi Cherri,
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure - I am certainly glad my explanation helped!
AES