EDUC 580 "Interpretive Inquiry" Winter 2010 (January 7-April 8)

Detailed Lesson Plans and Resources

(Interpretive Inquiry I)

The outline is a "living" one, continuous growing and changing to meet of students and instructor, though the overall framework [reading, assignments] will stay.

The course description can be found at this link, including assignment: [Description]

Textbook

Wolff-Michael Roth, Doing Teacher-Research: A Handbook for Perplexed Practitioners (Rotterdam, Sense Publishers, 2007).

 

Navigation Bar

[JAN 07] [JAN 14] [JAN 21] [JAN 28] [FEB 04][FEB 11] [FEB 18] [FEB 25] [MAR 04] [MAR 11] [MAR 18] [MAR 25] [APR01] [APR 08]

Some Useful Resources

UVic library to go to journals and download readings [here]. Thompson ISI Web of Science [click here]

FQS: Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum Qualitative Social Research is a tri-lingual (English, German, Spanish) online journal for issues related to qualitative research.

The Qualitative Report is an online journal dedicated to qualitative research and critical inquiry since 1990. It has lots of links to resources for qualitative research on the Internet.

PRAAT is a program that allows you to prepare very detailed transcripts and do a variety of analyses, including that of prosody.

A sample assignment that received an A+ can be found [here].

JAN 07

Assignment

Lesson topics

  1. Introduction
    1. instructor & participants
    2. "Why are you here?" (goals, objectives)
  2. Outline of the course--(including presentation and analysis of student research)
  3. Presentation and discussion of course objectives:
    1. Students will gain better understanding of qualitative research process,
    2. Students will gain better understanding of how to design qualitative studies,
    3. Students will gain better understanding of how to read qualitative studies in a critical way,
    4. Students will gain better understanding of how to interpret data.
  4. Presentation and discussion of the assignment;
  5. Textbook, structure,
  6. Which method? Research questions (quantitative, qualitative, integrated)
    1. Method vs methodology
    2. Which method?
    3. Role of research questions
    4. Quantitative versus qualitative research: (1) 5-10 min writing (2) minilecture (statistics; mixed methods [example, Roth, 1996] )
  7. Analyzing some data (AST), demo of clips, mov, aif, transcript (A relevant paper can be found here) ((This has not been dealt with))
  8. Human research ethics--some basics and consent form [for sample form, click here] (For sample completed ethics application (click here)   ((This has not been dealt with))

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JAN 14

Assignment

  1. Reading: Introduction and Chapter 1 of textbook.
  2. List of written questions concerning difficult concepts

Lesson topics

  1. Questions about Course and Course Format
    1. Questions about process, special needs, possible changes to be made;
      1. Feedback on the text would be appreciated; where would you like to see change?
      2. Please send me an email so that I know how to contact you.
    2. Course Assignment
      1. Anyone working together? Individuals, groups? for working on course assignment
      2. Questions about assignment? (e.g., record something related to your interests so that the assignment gives you a new angle on your field. If you are interested in policy, use some documents/documentary relating to educational policy; if it is )
  2. Discussion: Introduction and Chapter 1
    1. Questions?
    2. Key Concepts
      1. Getting Started: Topic (research question), ethics (see next point), curriculum/teaching vs research, anonymity/confidentiality, theory vs praxis,
      2. Doing a pilot
      3. Recording: audio, video
      4. Unit of analysis
      5. Tracer
      6. t-test
      7. Transcribing
      8. Analytic notes
      9. Questions
      10. Quality and audit: confirmability, prolonged engagement, persistent observation, progressive subjectivity, peer debriefing (disinterested peer)
      11. Ideology, common sense, radical doubt,
  3. Human research ethics--some basics and consent form [for sample form, click here] (For sample completed ethics application [click here] (((Not completed)))) )
  4. Analyzing some data (AST), demo of clips, mov, aif, transcript (A relevant paper can be found here) (((Not completed))))
  5. From the concept mapping project. [video] [photo] [transcript to go with video] [Reanalysis]

 

After this lesson, students should begin their assignment by making some recording to be used as the data source; alternative arrangements for those with ethics approval and their own data should be made with instructor.

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JAN 21

Assignment

  1. Reading: Chapter 2 of textbook, "Investigating Student Views on Collaborative Concept Mapping"
  2. List of written questions concerning difficult concepts

Lesson topics

  1. Classroom context:
    1. Questions about process, special needs, possible changes to be made;
    2. Assignment-related questions
  2. Analyzing some data (AST), demo of clips, mov, aif, [transcript1] [transcript2] [transcript3] (A relevant paper can be found here)
  3. Interviewing & Transcripts
    1. Preparing for the interview, generating questions, testing questions, doing an interview, transcribing, reflecting, reworking the questions
    2. Transcription, comparison [comparison of texts here]
    3. Themes, concepts, . . . [transcript, first markings]
  4. BREAK--------------
  5. Teacher-Researcher Project "Student Views on Collaborative Concept Mapping" [photo]
    1. Introduction to the teacher-researcher project
    2. Discussion of student questions pertaining to Chapter 2
  6. Mini-lecture
    1. Understanding research as process
      1. Activity systems [model here]
      2. Research/Inteview as activity system [model here]
      3. Reflexivity, ethnomethods (lay and professional analysts), fly on the wall
      4. Modes of participation, observer-participant vs. participant-observer, apprenticeship, coteaching
    2. Writing for specific audiences ( AUTHOR <--> TEXT <--> READER) or in dialectic form (AUTHOR | TEXT | READER)
  7. DISCUSSION & QUESTIONS: Ethics [for sample form, click here] (For sample completed ethics application (click here)

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JAN 28

Assignment

  1. Reading: Chapter 3 of textbook, "Investigating how Students Learn in and through Open Inquiry"
  2. List of written questions concerning difficult concepts

Lesson topics

  1. Questions about process, special needs, possible changes to be made;
  2. MIni-Lecture Teacher-Researcher Project "Student Views on Collaborative Concept Mapping" [photo]
    1. Introduction to the teacher-researcher project
    2. Discussion of student questions pertaining to Chapter 2
  3. How to Produce and Transcribe video/audio
    1. Video, videofiles (.mov); working with QuickTime, QuickTime Pro
    2. Producing audio from video (.aif); working with PRAAT (PRAAT)
  4. BREAK
  5. Analyzing texts
    1. Analyzing interviews1: [Most common format]
    2. Analyzing interviews2: [horizontal pull-out format]
  6. Discussion of student questions pertaining to Chapter 3
  7. IF TIME LEFT
    1. Minilecture
      1. Where to look, how to look for patterns; (ANALOGY: navigating a dark room, darkness|light)
      2. Figure|ground
      3. Zooming and scale
      4. Time scales, developmental patterns (culture, setting [class], group, individual). How do we get analytically at these different time scales?
      5. Going native, being native
      6. Making gesture diagrams ([Fig1a], [Fig1b], [Fig1c])

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FEB 04

Assignment

  1. Reading: Chapter 3 of textbook, "Investigating how Students Learn in and through Open Inquiry"
  2. List of written questions concerning difficult concepts

Announcement

On February 25, we are reading the ending of the book and a text on the quality of qualitative research available by clicking on the link.

Lesson topics

  1. Questions about process, special needs, possible changes to be made;
    1. A sample assignment that received an A+ can be found [here].
  2. ANALYZING Student Transcripts
    --- Instructor does thinking aloud analysis of each, students will join in eventually.
    1. Brian
    2. Laura
    3. Sally
  3. Minilecture
    1. Where to look, how to look for patterns; (ANALOGY: navigating a dark room, darkness|light)
    2. Figure|ground
    3. Zooming and scale
    4. Time scales, developmental patterns (culture, setting [class], group, individual). How do we get analytically at these different time scales?
    5. Going native, being native
    6. Making gesture diagrams ([Fig1a], [Fig1b], [Fig1c])
  4. Discussion of student questions pertaining to Chapter 3

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FEB 11

Assignment

  1. Reading: Chapter 4 of textbook, "Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Information"
  2. List of written questions concerning difficult concepts

Lesson topics

  1. Questions about process, special needs, possible changes to be made;
  2. THINK ALOUD ANALYSIS : I will analyze a piece of transcript in real time to show how ideas for analyses can be generated in the very process of analyzing. It is hoped that this will help students decrease their fears of approaching unfamiliar text and analyze it.
    1. Sally
    2. Sofia
  3. Discussion of Chapter 3
    1. Introduction of study design, purpose
      1. Video ethnography
      2. Making transcription
      3. Making gesture diagrams ([Fig1a], [Fig1b], [Fig1c]), pixel density, layering
      4. Keeping notes (memos, file names, name, date), audit trail, progressive subjectivity [Project Organization]
      5. Getting help
      6. Writing assertions
      7. Case studies
    2. Student questions
    3. Commentary
  4. Analysis of a CA-type [transcript]
    1. View the video
    2. Analyze, writing codes
    3. How to establish progressive subjectivity, audit trail
  5. Discussion of Chapter 4
    1. Introduction of study design, purpose
    2. Student questions
    3. Mini-lecture, commentary

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FEB 18

!!! READING BREAK. NO CLASSES !!!

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FEB 25

Assignment

 

Lesson topics

  1. PART 2: OBJECTIVES: 580 students have the opportunity to listen to their research projects, which are presented in much more detail than any research article could present the background of a project. The question and discussion period following each presentation will allow students to develop an understanding of the criteria for the quality of qualitative research, by attempting to apply the criteria as described to the concrete research studies presented.
    1. There will be three presentations by graduate students [Pei-Ling Hsu, Gholamreza Emad, Jean-François Maheux], who already have considerable research experience under my supervision. For each of the three presentations, the following structure is proposed:
    2. PRESENTATION of the research (25-30 min)
      1. Motivation for the research (introduction)
      2. Methods, how was the research being conducted (rich description of how research was conducted, evidence from the data, how was analysis being conducted to assure quality of research)
      3. Some key findings: Assertion/data/discussion for each
      4. Conclusions & Implications: What did we learn with respect to the initial questions? and Where do we go from here?
    3. QUESTIONS/DISCUSSIONS: 580 students ask questions about (a) method and quality of research and (b) experience of doing this research as a newcomer, and how the presenter came to know (learning process) and have class discussion about the extent to which some/all criteria are being used or not used (20-25 min)
  2. Discussion of design:

 

 

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MAR 04

Assignment

  1. Reading: Chapter 5 of textbook, "Doing Teacher-Research"

Lesson topics

  1. Organization: planning development of research ideas.
  2. Reading
    1. Distinguishing discourse analysis from conversation analysis
      1. the insider perspective; nature of the text; the different forms of discourse analysis
    2. Discussion of student questions pertaining to chapter 5
    3. Social structure, as reified, as produced/reproduced
    4. Ethnomethodology -- Analyzing a videotape: What social situation is produced here? How do we recognize it? How do the people do it?
    5. Transcribing
    6. Voice analysis
    7. Minilecture TOPICS:Talk; situated action; preparing the transcription; recipient design; accountability; formulating; cultural membership; going native; taking turns; sequencing interactions; dispreferred action; repair; adjacency pair; gestures; body orientation; time; rhythm; tempo; prosody; analysis of emotion; solidarity; entrainment; pitch analysis; relation between macro-, meso-, microlevels of society; ethnomethodology; social order; transcription; transcription conventions; open, continuing, and closing a session
    8. ACTIVITY: Doing a discourse analysis from a scanned essay of a tenth-grade high school student [scanned essay]
    9. ACTIVITY: Doing a conversation analysis on a transcript from an elementary science classroom [transcript]
  3. Discussion of Student Work
    1. Matt [corrections, comments]
    2. Laura [comments]
    3. Brian [comments]

 

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MAR 11

Assignment

Lesson topics

  1. Organization
    1. April 1 (informal sharing & feedback on assignments, 1/2 hour each)
    2. Working out research problems: who goes when
    3. Structuring the assignment (look at sample assignment)
  2. Discussion of Chapter 6
    1. Context--reason for study; video
    2. Discourse Analysis vs Conversation Analysis; telephone conversations vs. face-to-face conversations
    3. Looking at a piece of transcript
    4. Unit of analysis ((p.239,247)) STUDENTS (mind <-> talk, actions) <--> COMPUTER (input, math) (slide)
    5. Layering ((p.240): background <-- talk . . . . --> society (slide) (Activity theory, interdependence of levels, ethnomethodology, structural analysis)
    6. Time scales (slide)
    7. The role of trouble in turning out the methods of the people (ethno) --> ethnomethods, ethnomethodology (method vs. methodology)
    8. The inside perspective--the dynamic of the situation rather than scientific rationality
    9. Being and Time (Heidegger), normal everday rationality, Heideggerian AI and cognitive science
  3. Working out Bonnie's research question & Research Design
    1. THEME: Cultural narratives and using Paley's story telling story acting teaching methods to see if these methods create an opportunity in the classroom for many varieties of cultural narratives to be expressed.

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MAR 18

Assignment

Lesson topics

  1. WRITING THE ANALYSIS: [Example]
  2. PRESENTATION: Research questions and method (Reflexive sociology[Bourdieu], Institutional ethnography [D. E. Smith], Critique of ideology [K. Holzkamp])
    1. Role of the question (origin of the question?)
    2. Research object
    3. Method, methodology, rigor, rigidity, monomaniacs: "science of the jackasses" (Bourdieu, 1992)
    4. The pre-constructed, common sense, lifeworld analysis, institutional ethnography: radical doubt, suspicion/critique of ideology (scientific practice failing to question itself); politics (Research on motivation, teachers "motivating" students); breaking with the instruments of rupture
    5. General & particular, generalization, comparative method: Systematic interrogation of the case, particular instance of the possible
  3. Development of Student Research Question and Design (up tp 1-h sessions)
    1. Sally: "The practice of Art as an informal life-long learning and healing process.Art as a means of doing research."
    2. Matthew: "What are the experiences of high achieving island high school
      students that are actively involved in extracurricular activities? What are the experiences of low achieving island high school students that are not involved in extracurricular activities? What are the features of island high school extracurricular activities? How and in what capacity is the community involved in extracurricular activities?"

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MAR 25

  1. PRESENTATION: Research questions and method (Reflexive sociology[Bourdieu], Institutional ethnography [D. E. Smith], Critique of ideology [K. Holzkamp])
    1. Role of the question (origin of the question?)
    2. Research object
    3. Method, methodology, rigor, rigidity, monomaniacs: "science of the jackasses" (Bourdieu, 1992)
    4. The pre-constructed, common sense, lifeworld analysis, institutional ethnography: radical doubt, suspicion/critique of ideology (scientific practice failing to question itself); politics (Research on motivation, teachers "motivating" students); breaking with the instruments of rupture
    5. General & particular, generalization, comparative method: Systematic interrogation of the case, particular instance of the possible
    6. Quality of the research and analysis done.
  2. Development of Student Research Question and Design (up tp 1-h sessions)
    1. Laura. Interests (Building relationships/community in the classroom; The language/discourse that builds agency among learners; Reading and comprehension through conversation and collaboration; Striving (struggling) readers). Some questions (What is the discourse of a collaborative learning environment? How do we build relationships that engage and support student learning? What is the language that builds identity and agency for striving learners? What language is used when students construct understanding (in their reading) collaboratively? What does it mean to understand (in reading)?
      How do students learn when constructing meaning together? How does collaborative discussion mediate/facilitate understanding/comprehension among striving learners? How can teachers facilitate a language of agency among striving learners)
    2. Brian: Inquiry learning

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APR 01

Assignment

Lesson topics

  1. Reflexive account: Learning to do method
    1. The Facets of Discipline (Foucault), fashioning of body and mind
    2. Activity, Subjectification, Personality
  2. Presentation of each project and feedback from instructor and fellow students

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APR 08

Assignment

Lesson topics

  1. Organizational matters
  2. Analysis of a segment of classroom lesson in 2nd grade mathematics

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