Purpose of the course
- For developing + understanding research
- Learning uniform way of conducting + presenting research
- Helping students figure out what “paradigm” they are going to use = what your belief system is with respect to doing research
- Who you are as a researcher
- Learning to learn how to find information => distinguishing between academic and not OK sources
- Researching different methods of research
- To personalize what works best for you
- Research information about composition=> learn some more about composition as a discipline
- Understand how to do “appropriate research”
- Lay the groundwork for the thesis
We then had a perhaps more important discussion, which was about what you want/need out of this course to move successfully through your graduate studies. That list looked like this:
What you want
Figure out what you want to do your
thesis on
Generate ideas for thesisF
Explore the range of possible projects
Do some more exploration of composition studies/writing studies as a discipline
Try out some ideas for a thesis
Learn how to read and write research essays
This list indicates that we, as a class, are going to want to spend some time exploring the field and looking for a place that feels interesting enough to write a thesis about in that field, and that we will want to work together to make sure you are "getting" the readings.
The reaction papers should help with that. I also suggested that you form reading groups (to go over reading assignments in Mertens and Villanueva - together). This is probably the most painless way to get comfortable in the discipline. We will do group work and have whole class discussions in class - but reading groups will give you a low stakes place to develop your voice and discover your authority as a compositionist.
The reaction papers should help with that. I also suggested that you form reading groups (to go over reading assignments in Mertens and Villanueva - together). This is probably the most painless way to get comfortable in the discipline. We will do group work and have whole class discussions in class - but reading groups will give you a low stakes place to develop your voice and discover your authority as a compositionist.
1. Make sure you understand the axiological, epistemological, ontological and methodological assumptions for the research paradigms outlined by Mertens.
Think about how & which parts of the theory/practices we have read about you find most relevant to a future as a writing teacher. Be prepared to outline how you would apply them in your teaching and research - and why.
We spent the rest of class looking at three hypothetical (made up) studies that correspond(roughly) the the assumptions from 3 of Mertens' research models. We talked about them in terms of what they assumed about what counted as knowledge, what they assumed was "ethical" in terms of relationships to participants and to they ways they produced knowledge, and we discussed what the methods implied about what the researchers assumed about "the way the world is/works". This discussion was meant to give you some experience connecting your assumptions/beliefs/values to the paradigms described by Mertens - before all the big language was introduced. The discussion on this raised all the right questions - and indicated how many different perspectives there are on the "right" way to do research. I though this worked pretty well - though we needed about another 30 minutes (as usual).
Write: NIH training
After we do some talking about what you might want to do for your research project, we will talk a little more about research paradigms in light of Chapter 1, and we will go over what she has to say about literature revues.
I will then present a sample reaction paper for the Berlin essay (which is a kind of literature review essay). We will then go over the assignment for reaction paper (posted to the right) and you will sign up for a paper to react to.
We will close class with some focused discussion on literature reviews for your thesis.
