Assignment 2 - Pathfinder

Well I have completed my pathfinder (I think) for Assignment 2.  I only have part B to do now.  The critical reflection.   There is so much more to this assignment than I previously considered.  In 1000 words (+/- 10%) we need to reflect on what we have learnt through the creation of the pathfinder, and also bring into it what we have learnt through this unit of study.  Mmmmm...and only in 1000 words.  I have created a mind map on the various parts we have to include, as well as my thoughts, and I think it is going to be difficult.  Particularly as I can't get 5 minutes to myself (being school holidays).  Tomorrow hubby says he will take the kids out for the day so I can get a good run of it.  We'll see.

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

I was discussing uni assignments with my school principal the other day when I happened to mention that a fellow student had commented on the possibility that the information in our assignments may be used in some way by supervisors/markers in the writing of professional papers/publications.  My school principal, who is also studying, said he always puts the little copyright symbol, year date and his name at the bottom of each assignment page for that purpose.  With or without the copyright symbol your assignment is your intellectual property but it cannot hurt to remind all readers of the fact. 

Reflection on Assignment 2 - EER500

I have just submitted my second and final assignment for EER500 - Introduction to Educational Research. It is a little before the due date but as I have an assignment for ETL503 due on the same day, I need to get cracking with it.

The second assignment for EER500 involved taking our research question from the first assignment and selecting a research design and research methods as a sort of mini-research-proposal. I am still blown away by the amount of information I needed to read and understand. Research planning is a very complex task and I can understand now why it may take years, even decades for a research plan to be completed.

In choosing the research design and methods we were asked to look at the strengths and limitations of various designs and justify why we chose what we did. In the first assignment I got the idea that a good research question sets the context for the research so firstly I looked back at my research problem and question. I don't feel that I had much choice in selecting a research design - it was my question that chose the design. In summary I looked at the features of quantitative and qualitative research strategies and what my question was telling me. After selecting quantitative I looked at the different types of quantitative research design and again, looked at what my question was telling me. Was it asking for descriptive or experimental research?

Next I looked at the different types of experimental research - a choice between the laboratory experiment or the quasi-experiment, choosing quasi-experiment for reasons set out in my assignment. Further on, I had to consider what data-collection strategies I would involve and why? I went with a pre-intervention questionnaire, intervention through professional development and then a post-intervention questionnaire. By no means was that all there was to it.

We had to look at ethical issues as well and note what ethical considerations we might need for our research. We also had to work out what research paradigm our particular methods and design followed. It was heavy stuff!

What have I learned?

Where do I start? I think the work about research paradigms has had the most impact on me. At first I was thinking why on earth do we need to consider this stuff? But through my readings I discovered how relevant it is to research, indeed, how relevant it is to how you approach so many things. More details on this in my next post: What's my paradigm?

Also I have become very aware that research is not conducted in a vacuum. The results of educational research influence how people think and consider education topics and issues. It can produce change in procedures and methods. For these reasons it is imperative that researchers do their utmost to produce quality, ethical research, that is free from the bias of their own and others assumptions about social reality.

Assignment Two - Portfolio

I bet you all thought this post would be something profound about the assignment. Sorry about that. Just letting you know to expect lots of random posts until the assignment is due. I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. Good luck everyone with yours!

Finished!

What a relief! I have finally finished my first assignment in 20 years and feel like I've just given birth! Now all I've got to do is catch up on all the readings (plus the housework) that I've ignored while focusing on the assignment. No rest for the wicked!

Referencing

Aaaarrrhhh!!! I am so over referencing for this first assignment! I have been going at it for several hours and am still not done, even with the help of the Harvard Reference Generator
http://www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/reference-journal.htm#

Please, someone remind me to reference as I read/print off articles next time. It would certainly be a lot easier as I have wasted so much time trying to find articles again.

Assignment One

I am still unsure as to what two aspects of the role of the TL I shall use in my first assignment. I have read a range a articles and still cannot decide. Do I choose aspects of the role that I personally feel are important, or do I choose aspects for which there is a lot a literature available? I was considering that TLs need to be both a qualified "teacher" and a "librarian" and what these roles may involve. The teaching aspect is essential and the role of teacher also overlaps with the role of "instructional partner". Perhaps I have been considering this because I have been teaching for some time and I feel that this has a lot to do with defining who I am. I found myself reading a lot about the role of leader and what that may entail, but I also feel the role of information specialist is important. I'm not sure where I will go to from here. I think I will re-read the Herring and Purcell articles (again!) and hope something jumps out at me. I really want to be able to start writing something concrete down.

The Role of the TL Continued...

Our first assignment for this subject asks us to critically compare two aspects of the views of (a) Herring and (b) Purcell on the role of the teacher librarian. Purcell's article is devoted almost entirely to the various roles the TL takes on, whereas this is only a small part of the Herring article. Purcell gives us snippets of what the different roles entail but doesn't really say why these roles are more important than others. I kind of feel we don't really find out what she thinks - we just get a brief overview. It's like, here - these are the roles and this is a little bit what they're about. Whereas I want to know a bit more why. I also don't feel she has cited enough references. Herring's chapter is presented differently. He's shown us what a few different organisations/people have said and then it's a case of you make up your own mind. Which is good in a way. Everyone's ideas about what the role of a TL is, is of course, very different. Now it's up to us to work out what aspects of the role we feel are important enough to address in our assignment. Personally, I think most aspects could be melded (is this the right word?) together under just a few titles. For example, a TL in the role of teacher, could also be described as a leader. Or, if you are a TL acting in the role of information specialist, then don't you also need to act as a leader and a teacher to fulfil your role? I'm still considering how to work around this in my assignment. Maybe this is where Purcell and Herring fall down - they don't consider how intricately woven the ties are between the different aspects of the roles.

The Herring Article

It sounds quite austere, doesn't it - "The Herring Article". For anyone not doing ETL 401, this chapter by James Herring (2007) "Teacher Librarians & The School Library" is from "Libraries In The 21st Century" edited by S. Ferguson. The information provided falls under the headings of:

• The learning and teaching context of school libraries;



• The school library mission;
  


• Standards for school libraries;



• The role of the teacher librarian;



• Information literacy in schools;



• The school library website and school intranet.
  

It's like a set of guidelines for the school teacher librarian. An extremely useful document. Every section I found interesting and packed with valuable information. I particularly liked the section on the school library website and school intranet. With the growing amount of resources available online this is one way the TL can select and group together suitable resources for students who could access them during school or outside school. As a parent and a teacher and a TL-to-be, I love the idea of teachers/faculties have their own webpages. Students would no longer to say they lost their homework/assignment sheet or didn't know when something was due, or couldn't find the info for it. Easy access - I love it!

Getting Started

As I am about to start reading about the information profession and the history of school libraries, I feel I need to reminisce on what the library was like when I was at school.

I remember my primary school library fondly. It was the early 80s and the library was newly built. There were lots of odd shaped windows and many nooks to settle into for a quiet read. It was new and exciting and our librarian "Mrs Barnhill" was an enthusiastic motherly figure with a soothing voice. I don't remember much about library classes, however.

In my junior highschool library "Mrs Lewin" taught us about using the catalogue to find books and we did some basic research assignments. I remember feeling a bit disappointed that there were not many fiction books but at the time I didn't realise that most students used the library only for research.

I went to boarding school for years 11 and 12 and the library there was more like a classroom with a few books in it. We had to go there during our "frees" and our names were checked off to make sure we were there. Then there was silence - absolutely no talking! I don't recall the librarian helping us find information, and the collection of books was not really adequate. More often than not we would visit the town library to hurriedly scrawl down extra information.

There were no computers then. Even when I was doing my teacher training at uni there were only a few computers. They were used as word processors - for typing up assignments - there was no internet. Things have certainly changed in the twenty or so years since then.