Research: What will make a difference, in the midst of injustice, and data collection

What new insights have you gained? / What have you learned that will make a difference to you as a researcher?
 I had really never thought about the difference that a word can make in research.  I thought it was interesting what Dr. Anderson had to say about her use of "explore" versus "examine" in her dissertation.  It is amazing how much of a difference there is between two words.  I am learning the value of carefully choosing my words and making sure that I am saying exactly what I mean.  

What is bothering or disturbing you about research?   
 It is hard for me to look at a research study where there is obviously a problem with one of the teachers (as with the case of Mr. Brown in Offering or limiting opportunities...) and imagine being the researcher just observing and not doing anything about the injustice being served to those ELLs.  I think it would be hard in a situation like that to be objective and not want to do something about it or at least mention it to the teacher.  Do the subjects of a research study like that usually read the finished article or is it anonymous? I would be really embarrassed if I were Mr. Brown.

What else do you want to learn about designing and conducting research?
 I do not know very much about the different methods of collecting data.  I know that there are many useful methods available, but I am not sure that I would really know where to start if I had to pick one!  I think I would be overwhelmed with making sure that I picked the right one. Hopefully, when the time comes for me to pick one, I will have my research questions in stone so they may function as a guide  to which type of data collection to use.


I am looking forward to conducting my Masters Project in the fall after taking this class!  I feel like I will be ready!

Collaboration is Key

As I have read the articles for this course, I have been thinking about how the researchers see the topics.  I assume that they are passionate about their chosen topics and it is interesting to see their findings as I wonder how they feel about them.  With the topic of ELLs in these particular articles, I get the feeling that these researchers are finding a lot of dead ends when it comes to ensuring the success of ELLs.  I started thinking about how this must affect them as they pursue methods and ideas to help these students.  It opened my eyes to the fact that, in research, there is not always a cut and dry answer.  This is a hard thing to realize that after you have potentially put in long hours and lots of work into a research study, the results can be inconclusive.  Someone very close to me was a researcher in a lab and he kept on and on with a research project and it kept coming up with inconclusive results.  He became frustrated and I saw how it wore on him.  Research is not always a glamorous as the published article can seem, it is hard and often frustrating work.  I guess the best way to look at it is (as we discussed a lot in our responses to Why Mei still cannot read) that we can work together with other researchers and slowly piece together the answers to problems in the realm of education.