Activity 16.1: Investigating research proposals

Skimming through various guidelines, the structure of research proposals all have similar layouts where variations typically are found across disciplines. In educational research the following is an initial attempt of highlighting main sections such proposals contain; Introduction – specifying main objectives of the research and the research questions which will be investigated. Literature review – […]

12.1: Reading 13: Davies and Graff (2005) read and critique this paper

a) Introduction Quoting other studies, should include mentioning what context that particular study has been done. What level of students is being discussed? primary, secondary, post-secondary, teritiary students? Should Introduction focus so much on literature? Should discussion of literature be done in the following section (research design)? Such discussion could help authors construct and justify […]

11.8 Validity

In course material, Woodley and Aczel (2011) urge readers to distinguish between validity and reliability. Reliability is about whether the research can consistently obtain the same results using different methods. Validity is about whether the methods being used are actually giving the researchers what they claim such methods do. Campbell & Stanley (1963) stress that […]

Block 3

TMA 02 TMA02 was somewhat of a rough ride. Looking back at the process I passed through, I think that the assignment question was somewhat open to interpretation. This contrasted with the other OU assignments I have done so far which normally give a clear indication of what the course team are looking for. I […]

7.6 – 7.7 – Reading 7 Jones and Preece (2006)

This paper presents a framework that supports the analysis, development and maintenance of online and blended communities. This framework is used on two types of communities to ‘help reveal differences and similarities between them’. Online communities are defined as ‘ a group of people who come together for a particular purpose or to satisfy particular […]

3.6 Reading 4: Oliver et al (2007)

epistomology – the theory of knowledge, especially the critical study of its validity, methods, and scope. Study of the origin, nature, and limits of human knowledge. Q1 Action Research – ‘…Practitioners researching their own educational situations and practices, as a means of improving these.’ Technical action research – ‘instrumentalist view of educational provision and professional […]

3.5 Laurillard paper

1. Laurillard argues that the way evaulation is done is somewhat predictable and thus the way that such findings are extracted from research needs to become more meaningful. This paper outlines how technologies may improve learning. This is done by looking at existing evidence from literature, which indicate how good learning programs may be developed […]

Using academic search engines and examining impact of readings

Activity 3.1 Although I had previously used Google scholar, I had no idea of the ISI Web of Knowledge. Such searching seems quiet interesting as the search conducted will focus on ‘reliable’ sources such as journal entries, research papers etc. Still the main problem that I am finding is that certain results will not be […]

Activity 2.5: Reflecting on the research methods

This is my take on activity 2.5; 1. In the discussion of task A11 (pp. 279–81) the account of the students’ utterances is plausible, but why is transcript data to be preferred to the video data for such a visual task? Probably at time of writing this paper, transcript data could be analysed much easily […]

Activity 2.4 Reflecting on the paper

Questions: What research questions are being addressed? A study of primary school children’s talk and collaborative activity while working at the computer. This research investigates whether the quality of talk is related to their ability in problem solving. Another issue which seems to be studied here is whether the use of computer based methods […]