Monday, August 2 Chapters Three & Four Educational Research
Vocabulary
1. Meta-analysis: (text pg. 67) a quantitative review of previous studies.
Utilizing meta-analysis, Fred Folvary completed his study on genetics and obesity through examining a number of previous studies and analyzing the data himself.
2. Refereed: (text pg. 69) sent to reviewers for an evaluation.
The Journal of Internal Awesomeness is refereed because they utilize the most awesome people in reviewing studies sent to them.
3. Retrieval algorithms: (text pg. 92) determine both how many pages each search retrieves as well as how the results of each search are ordered.
When searing “Karate Kid” on Google, the retrieval algorithm produced the IMDB website first after going through all possible websites.
Reflection
The first day of the second week in Educational Inquiry felt jam-packed full of information and resources. While we spent the first full week discussing different aspects to research and research studies, Monday became a “hands-on” day. After meeting in the computer lab in the SPU library, we began searching ERIC and PsychINFO for articles pertaining to our hypotheses and research problem. While I felt confident in beginning my search, I appreciated the tips provided by Librarian Cindy Strong in finding full text articles. So often I run into abstracts of what I deem to be “perfect” articles. With Mrs. Strong’s help, I found a variety of ways to access full-text. Sounds simple and somewhat trivial, but in research it is essential.
I also found the chapter entitled “Introduction to the Internet” to be really useful in a different manner. As a high school history teacher, I teach my students how to research, especially for their National History Day paper in junior year. This massive, five month process in many ways typifies and identifies their junior year for them. Thus learning what is “good” research and what is “poor” research is very important. I liked the way the text explained the pros and cons of internet research and provided some valuable links to websites that can help. I plan on using this text as a guide for my teaching this year when it comes to research.
