EDF 5481 READINGS 
AND ASSIGNMENTS
ASSIGNMENT 4
LESS STRUCTURED METHODS
DUE NOVEMBER 26 BY NOON
MY MAILBOX 307 STONE

OVERVIEW

EDF 5481 METHODS OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
INSTRUCTOR: DR. SUSAN CAROL LOSH
FALL 2002

TURN-IN LOGISTICS
APPLYING A LESS STRUCTURED DESIGN
A SAMPLE ETHNOGRAPHY
DESIGN CRITIQUE QUESTIONS

 
GUIDE 1: INTRODUCTION
GUIDE 2: VARIABLES AND HYPOTHESES
GUIDE 3: RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, CAUSALITY, AND EXPERIMENTS
GUIDE 4: EXPERIMENTS & QUASI-EXPERIMENTS
GUIDE 5: A SURVEY RESEARCH PRIMER
GUIDE 6: FOCUS GROUP BASICS
GUIDE 7: LESS STRUCTURED METHODS
GUIDE 8: ARCHIVES AND DATABASES

 
EXAM 2 FEEDBACK!

 A NOTE ON GRADING AND WEIGHTS

 
ASSIGNMENT FOUR: 
(A) APPLYING YOUR RESEARCH PROBLEM TO A LESS STRUCTURED DESIGN
(B) EXPERIENCE EVALUATING LESS STRUCTURED DESIGNS

 
SAMPLE RESEARCH PROBLEMS FOR ASSIGNMENT 4

Assignment Four is due right BEFORE the Thanksgiving break on November 26, 2002 by NOON. Please turn in to my mailbox at 307 Stone Building. Late assignments are not accepted. Thank you!

BE SURE THAT YOU TURN IN BOTH PARTS ONE AND TWO.

You may send your assignment as text only (no HTML, please! no attachments, please!) to:

    slosh@garnet.acns.fsu.edu

I do not open any attachments at the garnet email address, so please do not send any there.

If you are in dire circumstances and MUST send an email attachment (absolutely NO rough drafts; these may be sent in text format  to the garnet email), please send paper to the email address below. Please address any other communications in text only to the garnet address. Thank you.

    naomilosh@yahoo.com

PART ONE: APPLYING YOUR RESEARCH PROBLEM

For this part of Assignment 4, you will consider using a less structured research design for your research problem.

Paragraph One: Succinctly state your research problem and why it is important (ONE PARAGRAPH ONLY PLEASE).
By now you have had a lot of experience with this research problem so you should be able to be brief and to the point. Don't worry about citations or references for this paragraph.

Paragraph Two: Select the less structured design that you believe is the most appropriate for your particular research problem. Briefly describe the kind of data collection that you will use (ethnography, content analysis, unobtrusive measurement, etc.) and why this type of study design is the most appropriate choice for your research problem.

Paragraph Three: BRIEFLY describe your design. Give enough detail so that I can see whether your description, in fact, corresponds to the type of design that you chose in paragraph two. For example, if you are doing an ethnography, you could describe your site and method of sampling in one sentence. Another sentence or two can list your proposed sequence of study and the activities, records, and behaviors you are most interested in. A third sentence could (briefly!) describe a coding grid you might use for interaction or some other way that you will collect data. If you are doing an oral history, you can describe your population, the general topic of your study and give one or two unstructured questions that you would ask.

BRIEF, PLEASE! REPEAT: I only need enough detail to see whether your design description, in fact, matches the type of design that you selected in paragraph two.


PART TWO: LESS STRUCTURED DESIGN CRITIQUE

Problem solver

Below is an ethnography which is in the planning stages. Following it are a series of questions about this study design. You will need to type or write out your answers to each question.

Turn your answers in together with the rewritten and augmented research problem statement on November 26, 2002 BY NOON to my box, 307 Stone Building.

BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE TURNED IN BOTH PARTS ONE AND TWO.
 
 

A PROPOSED ETHNOGRAPHY
Juanita wants to study processes of decision-making at a local health clinic. 

Juanita obtains a list of all health clinics in Northwest Florida. Because of her graduate school schedule, she must remain in the immediate vicinity. She examines several aspects of the clinics, including the demographics of the clinic administrators, staff, and clientele, and whatever information is available about each one. She discusses using a clinic locale with four different Northwest Florida clinics. Two immediately tell her "we are sorry but we don't want our clinic to be studied right now." She finally selects The Whole Health Clinic from the remaining two clinics because its demographic mix of clients resembles the average for the district and its size is right at the median size ftor the district. She presents a proposal to the clinic and it is accepted! Juanita is allowed (with possible student assistants) to study Whole Health for the next several months.

HERE ARE SOME OF JUANITA'S PROPOSED ACTIVITIES

Juanita examines some of the following variables:

Time spent talking between clients and staff.
Time spent talking among staff.
Time spent talking between staff and administrators.
Time spent in the staff lounge.
Who speaks first to whom.

Juanita also plans to spend some time participating in the less technical activies that staff engage in, such as taking client histories and profiles, answering the telephone, and attending staff meetings. She also will spend time waiting in the waiting room, talking with clients about their clinic experiences, and going with them to pick up medications. She will take extensive field notes. She also plans to examine a sample of client records, do in-depth interviews with clients, staff, and administrators, and ascertain how well both clients and staff follow-up on medical care.

The following are valid sources to use to answer the critique questions:

EVERYONE MUST ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BASED ON JUANITA'S LESS STRUCTURED DESIGN

1. Juanita's prospectus states: I am interested in how aspects of staff-client interaction may relate to how well clients follow staff directions pertaining to their health care.

2.  Is Juanita's sample a probability sample? Please answer YES or NO, then explain in a sentence or two: 3. Briefly describe ONE activity a researcher such as Juanita could use to measure how much the clinic staff interact with the clinic clients.

4. Here are some techniques that Juanita COULD use in her study:

Content analysis
Gleaning
Oral histories
Participant observation
Of these four methodological techniques, which ONE appears to be the MAJOR technique that Juanita proposes to use most extensively in her study? Briefly give the rationale behind your choice.

5. Briefly describe ONE way in which an assistant can be helpful to Juanita while she is studying in the field.
 

6. Juanita shows her drafts to a colleague as she is writing a report on Whole Health. Much of Juanita's report uses anecdotes, some simple percentages, and a lot of description. Her colleague states the report doesn't seem scientific at all.


 
EDF 5481 READINGS  AND ASSIGNMENTS
OVERVIEW

This page was built with Netscape Composer.
It is best displayed in Netscape Navigator,
600 X 800 display resolution.
Susan Carol Losh November 13 2002

Happy Thanksgiving