Change of Instrument

Work in Progress 6

After a few more readings on my research instrument, I have decided that I need to change the instrument from Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) Version 1.0 to Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) (2002).

This change is done because I have just discovered that MARSI is for native speakers of English while my samples are not. They are ESL learners which means that English is their second language, therefore, SORS should be used instead of MARSI.

Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) 2002

Latest Update on Title, ROs and RQs

Work in Progress 5

The latest update regarding my research title, research objectives and research questions are as follows:

Title: Effectiveness of Metacognitive Strategies in Enhancing Reading Comprehension

Research Objectives

The study will specifically be conducted to fulfill the following objectives: 

1. To study the metacognitive strategies for reading that are used most by the learners.
2. To investigate the effectiveness of metacognitive strategies in enhancing learners’ reading comprehension. 

Research Questions 

Based on the research objectives stated, the research will attempt to answer these three questions: 

1. What are the metacognitive strategies that are used most by the learners in reading? 
2. Is there any different in terms of performance on reading comprehension between the two groups?

Data Analysis

Reflection 5

Data analysis is never an easy topic for me, ever since I first learned it when doing my degree. However, despite saying that, I am not bad with SPSS. I know how to use SPSS quite well. My problem would be in analyzing the result. I am not so sure on how to interpret the result, like whether a relationship is significant or not, or whether something actually affects the other.  

Also, I do have issues in deciding whether I am choosing the right test for the right purpose. Of course, after listening to your lecture as well as preparing the summary, I have refreshed my memory on that (from my degree years). Definitely I will still to read more before I can decide on my data analysis procedure.

As for now, I am following quite well. I understand the difference between ordinal, nominal, interval and ratio as how I would need to know if I were to key-in the data into SPSS and I understand the use of standard deviation and mean (which is quite familiar to me since I am teaching Language Tests in School to Diploma in TESL students). Standard deviation basically describes the variability of the scores or the spread of the data. The bigger the SD, the more the variability and the further they might be from the mean.

The practice definitely helps, though I was a bit confused on how to decide which class did better. From my readings, it would have probably been easier to decide if we were told whether the distribution was normal or not, I think. Because if the SD is bigger, it means that the scores could be further from the mean, however, it could also mean that the scores are further towards the lower scores, right? At least that is what I understand. Not sure if that will help either, though. However, the practice does help.

All in all, the summary helps a lot even though at times, when my workload from work is too much to handle, the summary is too tedious to complete. But I have to admit and I understand that the idea behind it is to get us to read. At one point, it does work.

Instrument for Research

Work in Progress 4

As stated in the previous post, I am planning to do a research on the Effectiveness of Metacognitive Strategies in Enhancing Reading Comprehension. For this particular research, I have found an existing instrument to be adapted or probably adopted for my research.

I believe that this instrument is suitable to check the participants' practice of metacognitive strategies in reading, while the participants' improvement will be measured by looking at their performance after the intervention has taken place.

The instrument chosen was created by Kouider Mokhtari and Carla Reichard (2002). 

They named the inventory as Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) Version 1.0. Link is as stated below.

Link: Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) Version 1.0

Reliability and Validity

Reflection 4(ii)

Reliability and validity is a very interesting concept to me as I am teaching Language Test to my Diploma in TESL students. From my understanding and of course, from the lesson in class, this is what I understand about reliability and validity.

Reliability is more on the consistency of the result. Say, if I were to give out the questionnaire today, would the result be the same if I were to give the questionnaire tomorrow.

Validity on the other hand, is on whether I am testing the right thing; or the extend to which the test measures what it intends to measure. Say, if I were to measure someone's reading ability, the test given must be specific on reading. If a test on writing were given for this particular purpose, the this is not valid.

That is why, for my research, I would prefer to use an existing instrument. This is because, existing instruments would usually have a higher level of reliability and validity, thus making the result more accurate and significant. 

Research Designs

Reflection 4(i)

The previous lesson was on research methodologies. On the very basis, I do understand how each research methodologies function and the different purpose of the methodologies, thanks to the Introduction to Research course during our degree years.

If I were asked whether I am more comfortable doing a quantitative research or qualitative research, I would say that I am definitely more comfortable doing a quantitative research. I am saying this for two reasons:

1. I am a more technical person in the sense that I want facts and figures more than my own observation.
2. My research for my degree was quantitative in nature and I am quite familiar on how to discuss my findings when it is quantitative rather than qualitative. Even though I am a TESL student, I tend to like numbers better, for some reason.

As for the methodology, definitely my attention was more on my planned research which will be using the experimental research. I am a bit worried on how I am going to carry out the research due to several factors:

1. I am afraid that I might not teach the subject that I am researching on, and thus I will have issues in executing the intervention (strategy training).
2. I have never done a research using experimental methodology, therefore, I am still figuring out on how to avoid having other factors influencing my results - extraneous variable. I have yet to figure out on how to control that.

Change of Topic

Work in Progress 3

A few days ago, I have decided to change my research topic to...

Title: Effectiveness of Metacognitive Strategies in Enhancing Reading Comprehension

1. What are the learners’ perception on the use of metacognitive strategies in enhancing their reading comprehension?
2. Are metacognitive strategies effective in enhancing learners’ reading comprehension?
3. Are there any apparent pattern in the group of metacognitive strategies that successful learners use the most in completing reading comprehension tasks?

I'm diverging my attention to this one is because despite being interested in the cognitive styles (field-independent and field-dependent learners), I feel that I don't have enough understanding in the psychology part to look at the relationship between cognitive style and students' choices of learning strategy. Even if I am able to come out with the findings, I humbly believe that I would not be able to elaborate much on it, and thus why I changed my topic to this one. It is still in the psychology part, which is definitely of my interest and I believe that it is significant in many ways.

Research Topic (Some Ideas...)

Work in Progress 2

After thinking of some topics that might be feasible for me, and is interesting for me to write on, I'm considering to do something on the trainee teachers readiness to teach. However, maybe that is not a good idea.

Looking at what I am interested in, as well as what would be a significant research, I have decided to do something on cognitive styles.

As for now, this is what I have in mind (something like this):

Title: 

        Cognitive Styles and the Language Learning Strategies Used by Successful and Less Successful Learners in ESL Classrooms.

Research Questions

1. Which students are more successful in terms of language learning; field dependent or field independent?
2. Which strategies are used by successful and less successful field dependent learners?
3. Which strategies are used by successful and less successful field independent learners?
4. Are there any apparent patterns in terms of the strategies used by the successful and less successful learners for each cognitive style?

      I have other things in mind, but for now, this is what I have, the draft of it.

     

Literature Review

Reflection 3

The class is again conducted in the forum and discussions. Mostly, it was on how to write a literature review and its sources. Literature review is honestly, to me, the most difficult and tedious part in a research paper. It involves too much reading, which I am not really a fan of, unless I have to, which in this case, I do. But yes, it is the most challenging part for me. The other parts, to me, are interesting because I do like doing research, if it is of my interest, but literature review is never my favourite.

Sitting in the class, listening to the forum, of course I learned new things. I learned that in writing a literature review, you must identify your sources, which include primary and secondary sources. General reference tools is also an important source as it leads us to the other related sources and this could come from indexes or abstracts.

The reasons for having to write a literature review includes:

• It helps researchers glean the ideas of others interested in a particular research question (through important research findings and theories). 
• It also lets them read about the results of similar or related studies. 
• It gives researchers ideas about the areas where more research needs to be done.

As discussed in class, the first step in writing a literature review is to define the problem as precisely as possible. A researcher needs to really understand their research problem so that they would know what to look for. After that, they should look at relevant secondary sources. From this secondary sources, a researcher could select and peruse one or two appropriate general reference works and formulate search terms pertinent to the problem or question of interest. This will assist the researcher to search for relevant primary sources. The primary sources are where the citations are taken from.

So yeah, for now, I agree with all the steps. And yes, LIRAS. That is something interesting. I have been using the same method as how LIRAS function, just that I do it using pen and papers, which to me feels more authentic. But I have to agree, using such software would be very helpful especially when you have read on so many articles and you have done many other related research, then yes, LIRAS is useful and helpful in many ways.

Rating My Understanding (From i-Learn)

Reflection

How do you find your learning output before and after the classroom discussion (forum and discussion) for the following content?

Generally, I believe that I did get the understanding right from my degree years, just that after a while, everything is simplified in my long term memory in layman's terms, as they are a lot easier to be retrieved that way. However, yes, definitely going to classes help to improve and get me back on track. I believe that going to classes and having discussions give us the platform to check back on our understanding (some kind of metacognition kind of thing as we monitor our understanding). Therefore, it that sense, objectives are achieved, I suppose. Here are the improvement (I hope) in detail.

Content	Describe your understanding (before the lesson)	Describe your understanding (after the lesson)
Research problems	A statement that include what we want to research on.	A problem that someone would like to research on.
Research objectives	Statements that we make regarding the objectives that we would need to achieve in order to accomplish research purpose.	The statement version of the research questions
Research questions	The question version of the objectives.	Questions that would dictate the research type and paradigm, and serve as the focus of investigation.
Research hypothesis	Our assumption before we start conducting the research.	Prediction of results usually made before a study commences.
Limitations of research	Something that we know our research would not be able to accomplish. Limitations are mostly very technical and methodology based.	Limitations are different from constrains and that limitations are the decisions that we make to avoid or solve those constrains.
Significance of research	A statement that include the reason why do we need to conduct a research.	Significance of the research, justifying why we need to conduct the research.
Operational definitions	It explains what you mean by a certain terms. Meanings specific for that particular research only.	Specification of actions or operations necessary to measure or identify the term.

As to how do I rate myself? Understanding wise, I think I'm doing okay. However, the issue is, as always, in applying the knowledge. Sometimes, I know what I know, but I will have problems in voicing out my idea. That has always been a problem to me, but I'm still following. Looking forward to your next class, Dr Teoh :)

Deciding on Research Topic

Work in Progress

Research. This one very simple word can bring thousands of complications in one's life. 

Do I love research? Oh yes, provided that I can find myself something that is of my interest. 

That one statement on itself is a dangerous one. People say that you should write on something that you love, then only you'd be willing to go to the end of the world to complete it and find the answer. However, it is always important to remember the danger of writing something that is too personal to you, as a researcher. Personal interest can result in the pursuit of trivial or insignificant questions (Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun, 2011). We always see things that are personal to us as something big, when in fact, those things might just be a question of value, which cannot be researched. The idea of doing a research of my interest has always been a motivating factor to me, and now apparently a worrying one, too. When I write, I want to be interested in it, I want to love what I write, but at the same time, that very stand might destroy the significance of my research in contributing to the body of knowledge.

For this very reason, I have yet to decide on what I want to research on. Deciding on the topic is the most difficult one for me. It was not easy during my degree years, and it is still not, probably, never will be. As of this moment, I'm still doing my research, surveying on articles, looking at what would be something new and interesting to research on. For now, things which I find interesting and can be considered to be my research topic is somehow either (weirdly) out of my area of study (which is Teaching English as a Second Language) or not feasible in terms of time and some other factors affecting the feasibility of the particular research. Hopefully, I'll find one, soon.

Reference:

Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. (2011). How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education 8th Revised Edition. San Francisco: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Types of Educational Research

Reflection 2(ii)

There are basically two types of educational research which are quantitative and also qualitative research. The differences between the two types of research as discussed are shown below:

	QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH	QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Data	Primarily involve numbers	Primarily involve words
Basis	Facts and feelings can be separated – the world is a single reality made up of facts that can be discovered.	Assume that the world is made up of multiple realities, socially constructed by different individual views of the same situation.
Concern	Establish relationships between variables and look for and sometimes explain the causes of such relationships.	Concerned with understanding situations and events from the viewpoint of the participants.
Research design	Pre-established general formulations of steps.	More flexible in both strategies and techniques. The design emerge during the course of the research.
Role of Researcher	Detached observer	Researchers are immersed in the situations.
Generalizations	Most researchers want to establish generalizations that transcend the immediate situation or particular setting.	Researchers do not even try to generalize beyond the particular situation, but leave it to the reader to assess applicability.

Research Problem

Reflection 2(i)

The second meeting involved a forum and discussion on research problem and the two types of educational research; quantitative and qualitative research.

From the forum and discussion, some of the things that were discussed include the importance of stating a problem statement that is clear and researchable. This brings us back to the very important point in which every research conducted must be significant and at some point contribute to the body of knowledge.

Other than that, the discussion also revolved around how to construct research questions. Some of the important characteristics of a good research question is that it must be feasible, clear, significant and ethical. Definitely, a research must be feasible, in the sense that it is doable and does not require unbearable amount of money, time and energy. Also, a very important point here is that every research question must be clear.

Clarifying your research questions will require you to eventually define your terms. The three ways on how to define the terms are:

1. constitutive definition
2. clarification by example
3. operational definition

Of all the three ways, operational definition is the best way to clarify your terms because it requires the researchers to specify the actions or operations necessary to measure or identity the term. This will help to clarify the terms better.

Introduction to Educational Research

Reflection 1

The first lecture was on ways of knowing. Basically there are five ways of knowing, however, the most reliable knowledge that we can obtain is from the scientific method. 

Scientific knowledge is the knowledge that matters the most to researchers. This is because even though we have other ways of knowing, such as sensory experiences, agreement with others, expert opinion and also logic, these ways of knowing come with their own flaws that make their knowledge less reliable as compared to the ones obtain through scientific method.

This is basically why we conduct research, to obtain the most reliable result or knowledge that we can get about a certain topic.

When we talk about scientific method, definitely it refers to the correct method of conducting the research in order to ensure the reliability of the results obtained. This is why, when we talk about scientific research, we need to consider its two most important features. The first one is that it must be conducted with freedom of thought throughout the whole process, open to all possibilities. the second feature is that it must be as public as possible without anything being hidden from the public, to the extent that anyone who is interested in the topic can replicate the research to their own chosen population.

This should be able to explain the difference between doing your own research and just gathering information from other less reliable sources of knowledge.