ENGLISH 202MARCH 15TH, 2010

AGENDA

Welcome back Tipping Point Chapter 8 and Afterwards Our next book chapters: Covering ch 1 and 2 Next step in your research: Methodology Book Reviews and lit reviews are due this

Wednesday. Make sure you proofread your letters. Perhaps we can send your reviews to Gladwell at the end of this semester

ANNOUNCEMENT

“Please come and join the Food and Nutrition Department and the Student Dietetic Association in celebrating National Nutrition month with the Theme of "FROM THE GROUND UP" on Wed. March 17th in the HUB Atrium, Susquehanna and Monongahela Rooms from 10 to 3 pm.” For more information contact Dr. Nicole Clark at nclark@iup.edu.

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM THE TIPPING POINT?

Social Change is possible if ….One is a good observerOne values research and attempts to understand

human behavior through the act of researchOne looks carefully to the small details of lifeOne can reach few special people to shape the

course of social epidemics (e.g. Law of the Few) We are always influenced by our environments

and the individuals around us. Examples of Salesman, connectors, Blue’s clues,

New York subway cleanup, Fundamental Attribution error tell us a lot about what it means to be human

IN-CLASS BLOGGING

1. Gladwell says “What underlies successful epidemics, in the end, is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can radically transform their behavior or beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus” What type of social change you, a contributing member of your society, would like to bring in your community? How do you think you can help tip this social epidemics? (Think about your own social action research project)

2. The act of reading is shaped by the reader. In your view, which chapter was most influential? Why did you find that chapter more interesting than others?

3. Discuss one idea that you will take with you after reading The Tipping Point. How do you think you can apply that idea in your academic and personal life?

FROM MEDIA: GLADWELL INTERVIEWS

CNN INTERVIEWS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCt1Wc8Kx4U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf3NalDYIT8&feature=related

STUDENT PROJECTS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq89Hlcn-9

8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5BzhNqSSpU&feature=related

MOVING AHEAD WITH YOUR RESEARCH PROJECTS In your groups, please discuss the following

questions:

1. What you have gained so far from doing library search and the literature review?

2. How did you organize your literature review?

3. How did you begin your literature review?4. What are some of the “action verbs” you

used in your review? What transitional devices did you use to connect the different sources?

5. How did you end your literature review?

WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP IN YOUR RESEARCH?

Now that you have your ‘evolving’ introductions, have developed a ‘working’ knowledge for your topic, read widely on your topics, wrote a literature review (background) of your social action research projects. The next step will include:

Deciding your methods of inquiry (e.g. case study, surveys, ethnography)

looking for a research site for your field work.

Looking for participants.

NEXT STEP IN YOUR RESEARCH: METHODS OF INQUIRY Methodology: The way researchers collect data1. How do a researcher collect his/her data?—

Interviews, surveys, taking pictures, reading library archives etc.

2. How can a researcher construct effective interview or survey questions that will help answer the researchers’ questions?

3. Who are your participants? (e.g. college students, high school teachers, women of color in workplace, minority students in a Freshman course)

4. How would you describe them?(e.g. ethnicity, age, nationality, gender etc.)

5. Why did you focus on this group of people? What is your rationale in your “purposeful sampling”?

THE PURPOSE OF SOCIAL ACTION RESEARCH IS TO…

Understand a social phenomenon To understand how people view world

differently To construct and reconstruct reality through

your participants’ eyes…

AGENDA (MARCH 17TH)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! PEER-REVIEWS ON LITERATURE REVIEWS CONTINUE WITH OUR DISCUSSION ON

METHODOLOGY DON’T FORGET TO SUBMIT YOUR LIT.

REVIEWS AND BOOK REVIEWS AT THE END OF THE CLASS.

ASSIGNMENTS

RESEARCH METHODS

Qualitative Methods

(e.g., Ethnography, Auto-ethnography, Life History, Narratives, case studies)

The goal is to understand individual’s cultural worlds.

Relying on observations, interviews, field notes.

Researcher spends a long time in the research contexts

Quantitative Methods

(e.g., Statistical Analysis

Surveys)

Relying on counting the themes, survey results etc. (frequency counts) Quantifying the data

Allows you to see patterns of language use.

“ The more a theme appears the more warranted is your claim”

Without some qualitative analysis, the numbers are meaningless!

QUALITATIVE METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

People’s words and actions represent the data of qualitative method of inquiry and this requires methods that allow the researcher to capture language and behavior. The data come from various sources:

Observation – both participant and direct In-depth interviews Group Interviews The collection of relevant documents Photographs and Video Tapes

QUALITATIVE VERSUS QUANTITATIVE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDo7jwikqqI&feature=related

INTERVIEWS: SOME INITIAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

As your participants’ permission for her or him to participate in this study. Remember this is a volunteer participation.

Set the interview time and location with your participants (the people you will be investigating)

Prepare your interview questions (what do you need to know?)

Keep your questions open ended. Decide how to record your interviews

SOLICITING PARTICIPANTS

Begin looking for participants Ask their permission to be a part of your

study. a) Describe your studyb) Describe the purposec) Give your participants some information

about the background.d) Schedule your Interviewse) Begin your interviews (USE A DIGITAL

RECORDER TO RECORD YOUR INTERVIEWS)

QUESTION CATEGORIES

Opening questionsCould you please describe…?Can you tell me about…?Please discuss…I am interested in….What can you tell me

about this subject? Follow-up QuestionsReally? How so? Can you elaborate on X point? Probing QuestionsCan you tell me more about…? Could you

please give me an example…?

CLASS ACTIVITY ON INTERVIEW

Find out what your classmate did in her spring break. Research Question: How do U.S. college students spend their spring breaks?

Come up with at least 5 questions that can best answer this large research question

Conduct a 5 minutes long interview. After your interview, write one

paragraph about your participant’s views/experiences on spring break.

ASSIGNMENTS

Literature reviews DUE on Wednesday, March 17th . Be prepared for a peer-review activity.

Book Reviews are DUE on Wednesday, March 17th (Feel free to submit it earlier)

Read Writing at the University Chapter 8 and 9.

Methodology section of your paper is DUE on Monday, March 22nd –Send it electronically to lisyaseloni@gmail.com

NEXT WEEK: INDIVIDUAL DATA COLLECTION WEEK. NO CLASS MEETINGS.

WHAT HAVE YOU ACHIEVED SO FAR? Talked about social diversity issues Discussed your own definitions of social diversity. Read, discussed, blogged , and wrote book reviews on

The book Tipping Point. Conducted library search. Analyzed several research articles. Found a good topic that is relevant to social and

cultural issues. Narrowed down out topics. Wrote an “evolving” introduction. Came up with good research questions Learnt how to write an annotated bibliography. Learnt how to write a literature review. Did various peer-review activities.