Research in motion
I have begun my adventures into research with the beginning of ETEC 500. The introductions are complete and first module is well under way. I have read the opening chapters of the text Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Applications by L.R. Gay, Geoffrey E. Mills and Peter Airasian. Despite the content and subject matter, the text has been interesting, informative and well organized to further my knowledge and thinking about research.
The focus on selecting and defining a research topic is the next step. This one is particularly challenging, but working through the activity connected to the article “A chart of four contemporary research paradigms: Metaphors for the modes of inquiry” by L. Sipe & S. Constable (1996) certainly helped extend my thinking. Research can fall within a positivistic, interpretivist, critical theory, or deconstructivist paradigm. The metaphors included in the article tried to answer the question “If this research were a ……, it would be ….. The categories included colour, public event, personality disorder, game, sport, celebrated figure, or drink. I ended up coming up with some additional metaphors when I should have been trying to frame research questions into these paradigms.
Now my investigations are moving into the area of researching and using library resources. I have ordered my first book from the UBC library for delivery to my house. I have updated my refworks account and have imported references from Eric/EBSCO. I have created a literature review matrix to help organize the articles into some system of organization. I have downloaded the plugin for Zotero but have not yet investigated how to use this reference organizational tool. Lots more to learn and many weeks (months and years) in which to learn.