RESPROJ (3RD QTR)

• QUALITATIVE RESEARCH APPROACH

  • approach for exploring and understanding the meaning individuals or groups
  • ascribe to a social or human problem
  • Primarily uses constructivist (multiple meanings socially constructed) or advocacy/ participatory claims
  • Uses narratives, phenomenologies, ethnographies, grounded theory, case studies
  • Collects open- ended, emerging
• QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH APPROACH

  • approach for testing objective theories by examining relationships among variables.
  • Primarily uses postpositivist claims (cause-effect, variables, hypotheses, measurement, test of theories)
  • Uses strategies such as experiments and surveys
  • Collects predetermined data from instruments that yield statistical data
• MIXED APPROACH

  • inquiry involving collecting both quantitative and qualitative data and integrating the two forms of data.
  • Primarily uses pragmatic claims (problem-centered)
  • Uses strategies simultaneously or sequentially
  • Collects both statistical and textual data
• RESEARCH ALWAYS START WITH SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
• The research story begins with a problem
• The Need for Scientific Methodology

  • Nonscientific Sources of Data
  • Nonscientific Inferences
  • Pseudoscience
• Nonscientific Sources of Data

  • Conclusions drawn have limited accuracy and usefulness due to biases
• Nonscientific Sources of Data

  • Sources are not always good for obtaining valid information about behavior even though it comes from trusted sources like friends, family, etc. because it is offered by people we like. We accept it without question
• Nonscientific Sources of Data

  • More likely to accept information from someone who is attractive, popular,wealthy, influential etc.
• Nonscientific Inferences

  • Accurate predictions are increased with length of acquaintanceship, Traits are more useful when predicting how someone will behave over the long term;
• Nonscientific Inferences

  • Can lead to overestimating behaviors
• Nonscientific Inferences

  • Overconfidence bias: compounding inferential shortcomings; predictions feel more correct than they actually are
• Overconfidence Bias - This bias is our brain’s way of coping with mass amounts of information or limited context.
• Pseudosciences - is a fake science that makes claims based on faulty

  or nonexistent scientific evidence
• In most cases, these pseudosciences present claims in a way that makes them seem possible, but with little or no empirical support for these claims
• pseudoscience - is any field of study that gives the appearance of being scientific, but has no true scientific basis and has not been confirmed using the scientific method
• Modern pseudosciences include past life regression,

  reparenting, and rebirthing
• CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN SCIENCE

  • Scientific Mentality
  • Gathering Empirical Data
  • Seeking General Principles
  • Good Thinking
  • Self-Correction
  • Publicizing Results
  • Replication
• Scientific Mentality - Behavior must follow a natural order so that it can be predicted
• Determinism: the belief that there are specifiable causes for the way people behave that can be discovered through research
• Gathering Empirical Data - empirical data collected in a systematic way is ideal; still not guaranteed to be correct
• Empirical data: data that are observable or experienced
• Laws: principles that have the generality to apply to all situations
• Theories: advanced understanding but not enough information to be declared a law
• Good Thinking - Collecting and interpreting data systematically and

  objectively with no personal biases or beliefs; includes being open to new ideas even when they contradict prior beliefs
• Self-Correction - The more evidence that accumulates to support a particular explanation or theory, the more confidence we have that the

  theory is correct
• Publicizing Results - The process of exchanging information vital to the

  scientific process.
• Replication - Repeat procedures multiple times to verify results; multiple researchers should verify the experiment
• ACTION RESEARCH - is an approach commonly used for improving conditions and practices in a range healthcare environments (Lingard et al., 2008; Whitehead et al., 2003)
• The purpose of undertaking action research is to bring

  about change in specific contexts, Parkin (2009)
• Meyer (2000) maintains that action research ’s strength lies in its focus on generating solutions to practical problems and its ability to empower practitioners, by getting them to engage with research and the subsequent development or implementation activities.
• Action research - is participative and collaborative; it is

  undertaken by individuals with a common purpose
• ACTION RESEARCH - is situation-based and context specific
• Action research - can involve problem solving, if the solution to the problem leads to the improvement of practice where knowledge is created through action and at the point of application
• In action research findings will emerge as action

  develops, but these are not conclusive or absolute.
• The capstone is a research project completed as part of a graduate degree program
• Capstone projects are also called culminating projects, senior

  capstone project, senior exhibition, or other similar names.

  The project is usually self-directed
• The capstone functions to engage the students in

  conducting research, formulating research-based

  solutions, and implementing research-based strategies
• The capstone incorporates a practical output, known as

  a product, as part of the research project
• The STEM Capstone Project is designed to

  prepare STEM students for lifelong learning and

  effective and productive citizenship through the

  opportunity to plan, complete, and present

  a self-directed culminating project reflecting their

  personal interest