Competencies Requiring Additional Preparation
Erin E. Peters
February 7, 2007
My experiences this year have given me more fluency with the stages of qualitative and quantitative research and I continue to add to this knowledge by reading books about research such as Rausch methods. I would like to learn more about field experiences and plan on taking the professional classes offered prior to conferences such as AERA and NARST to add to my background. I need to learn more about writing and publishing research articles and will collaborate with senior faculty to gain more experience in these areas. I would also like to collaborate with faculty on writing grant proposals to add to my knowledge gained during my internship at the National Science Foundation.
March 3, 2006
Now that I have a foundation in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, I plan to deepen my understanding of the limitations and benefits of each type of method. I also would like to learn more about how using elements of both methods will bring more to my research than one type alone. Another aspect that I need to think more about is my onotology and epistemology and how it impacts how I understand research problems. I plan to continue reading research literature in metacognition, self-regulation, the nature of science and research methods. My dissertation planning is focusing on student achievement, and I would like to see my future projects evolve into the realm of teacher training.
My experiences in the doctoral program so far have been entirely qualitative, so I am looking forward to working on some quantitative projects. I am still slightly unclear about how mixed methods research is done. From speaking with my peers and reading some articles in publications such as Educational Researcher and Scientific Research in Education, I understand that qualitative research is often viewed as a preliminary study to a quantitative study. I feel that there are strengths in both types of study and want to capitalize on that perception. I would like to have my dissertation be a study which has the most appropriate methodology for the types of questions I ask. I want to have a quality component of quantitative research and a quality component of qualitative research where each component strengthens the argument, instead of having both types of research for the sake of coverage. I will strive in future experiences to prepare myself to attain this goal.