I've not gone missing, real life's just been So Full, there hasn't been any space left to fit in any non-essential internet activity.
And today is to be the day I finally finalise my final Instrument (of DOOM! of DESPAIR!)... of measuring students' perceptions of effective teachers based on characteristics compiled from an extensive literature search?
With Any Luck, say I.
Doing research in education is a mystery to me. It was not immediately obvious, considering that I have been decently educated in the mores and principles of psychological research... and you'd think, well, social science, education, psychology, its all more or less the same, no?
No!
Educational research is HARD. And messy. And HARD.
And not straightforward, and goes nowhere or moves along its stated path only a little bit, and is based on so much talk, theory, language and the interference of politics and the practice of real teaching that what you are trying to find out is inevitably blanketed in the tangled mass of needs to be met and weeds to be tiptoed around.
This is contrary to my personal belief that the best research is straightforward, uncomplicated, clear and well-defined. If the particular topic to be studied doesn't lend itself easily to that, then maybe certain kinds of research styles are not suited to it!
There's nothing wrong with case studies, carefully carried out and reported.
There's nothing wrong with simply collecting and compiling information, nothing wrong with a descriptive study, if that's the best way of doing it.
There's no need to have factor analysis in everything!
*angry*
*sick of my research thing*
Perhaps i'm too proud and supposed that I knew how to go about doing things. Now, for the first time in a long time, or ever i can remember, i am stuck in a rut, genuinely trying to accomplish something i don't really understand, or necessarily agree with, and hardly believe in anymore, all under pressure.
How to do this?
Stop complaining on my bloggything and actually start working on it?
Prrobably.
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4 comments:
Perhaps i'm too proud and supposed that I knew how to go about doing things. Now, for the first time in a long time, or ever i can remember, i am stuck in a rut, genuinely trying to accomplish something i don't really understand, or necessarily agree with, and hardly believe in anymore, all under pressure.
We're not doing the same thing, but that is exactly how I feel right now.
The difference is, I have faith that you'll make something meaningful out of it.
Grace: ok maybe i should stick to coursework and not thik about doing a dissertation anymore
GOOD LUCK!
update more
Cheow
"Educational research is HARD. And messy. And HARD.
And not straightforward, and goes nowhere or moves along its stated path only a little bit, and is based on so much talk, theory, language and the interference of politics and the practice of real teaching that what you are trying to find out is inevitably blanketed in the tangled mass of needs to be met and weeds to be tiptoed around."
Heh, sounds just like Architecture! I faced the same problems in conducting research in my final year. It was made worse by the Dissertation coordinator's (not my supervisor) belief the 'undergraduates should not and CANNOT do research'. I had 25,000 words to say they damn well could and submitted it anyway. I got good marks, but kissed any chance of EVER working for an Architecture faculty in Australia good-bye. It seems that 'real' research is deemed 'dirty' or unecessary or non-politically-correct or insulting to cultural minorities or something, and since I didn't reference any minor belgian philosophers, or didn't once use words like 'zeitgeist', 'epistemeleology', 'palimpsest', 'deconstructivism' or 'post-historic emergent-media bi-rational ecocultural-analysis paradigms'.
In fact I referenced mainly the building codes, engineering books, and my own observations and interview transcripts. Quite frankly they were shocked that I had actually interviewed people - apparently there is no need to 'research' Architecture beyond the confines of cafes or pretentious talk-fests.
Needless to say I now cultivate a very low estimation of Architectural education at most Australian universities.
I can only imagine Eductation education to be as bad, if not worse, as most of this gumph seemed to come from the scary world of the Social Studies departments. Slippers and nubile acolytes; it was way too much like Egyptian Priest-kings to me...
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