Inductive Process during Qualitative Data Collection - Essay Example

Assignment 7 Chapter 6 Question Qualitative data is a collection of information without including numerical figure. An example of a qualitative data is finding the reasons college students are aggressive. Researchers use the Inductive process during qualitative data collection. There are three main steps used during the inductive process. The steps include organization, description, and interpretation. In normal cases, qualitative data come in a large amount especially if a teacher researcher is conducting research for a district school. The process requires high concentration in order to achieve an accurate result. Therefore, it is imperative to use the three main steps. Organizing involves, grouping the data collected according to the patterns formed by the data collected. Organizing the data will help the researcher to store easily and retrieve without confusing with other stored data. Description involves delineating the data collected. The large amounts of data collected have different features and characteristics. Describing them will be imperative, as it will help the researcher to identify data with the similar characteristics. In addition, description helps in data organization. The final step in the inductive process is interpreting, interpreting involves analyzing, assessing and elucidating the data collected in order to fathom. Interpreting, further, is important as it helps in finding solution to the research problem; it also helps in finding the most accurate conclusion. Question 2 Every data collected has to include statistics. Statistics helps in understanding patterns presented in data collected. Nevertheless, in order to realize a pattern formed by data collected, researchers should collect data more than three times (Calhoun, 2008). Statistics involves collecting, organizing and interpreting numerical figures (Calhoun, 2008). Quantitative data is interpreted with statistics. Researchers can use expressive and inferential when analyzing data statistically. Both descriptive and inferential statistics have similar ways of quantifying data but differ in different strategies. Both statistics involves more than one group. In addition, if researchers are analyzing one group of people they can use both statistics more than once. Researchers can use both statistics to find the hypothesized results depending on the type and method of collecting data. Despite the similarities in descriptive and inferential statistics, they differ in the methods of analyzing data. Descriptive statistics uses mathematical procedures that help in organizing and summarizing a large amount of data collected. There are three types of descriptive statistics (Calhoun, 2008). They include measures of central tendency, measure of dispersion and measures of relationships (Calhoun, 2008). Measures of central tendency are the procedures that depict the commonality that exist in the group of data collected. Examples of measures of central tendency include, mean, mode and median (Calhoun, 2008). Mode is the average of the data collected. Median is the middle figure in the data collected, and mode is the figure or a figure class with the majority frequency. Measures of dispersion display the difference between data or scores. Measure of dispersion also shows how data collected has spread. Measures of dispersion include range and the standard deviation (Calhoun, 2008). Standard deviation processes the mean in a set of collected data. Inferential statistics, on the other hand, involves measuring the certainty, and likelihood statistical findings will suit the entire population basing arguments on the results found in a tested sample. There are three are three main types of inferential statistics, they include independent measure t test, repeated measure t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Independent measure of t test mainly takes place when comparing two groups. One group is subjected to a new condition (experimental group) while the other (control group) helps in confirming results and difference between them and the experimental group results. Repeated measure t test involves comparing results of the test done more than once in the same group. Analysis of variance involves varying the independent t test. However, it includes more than two groups. Question 3 Educational topic I chose is researching Reason College students behave aggressively and involve themselves in crime Almost all students especially those in their second years in college have involved themselves in crime. In fact, most of them have pending cases in the police department. Few students in the first year are less involved in crime scenes; however, they are aggressive towards each other, second years, and some lectures. An interview conducted by two students, one first-year student and the other a second year, explained the reason for such behaviors. Another interview was done on the same students analyzing the prevalence of the behavior in the school. The results were positive as the students admitted many college students are aggressive. From the two interviews, many reasons were found to have caused the aggressive behavior among the students. However, as a teacher I summarized and coded the many reasons founded. I also coded the reasons in three groups. The groups were influenced by peers, influence from watching movies and influence from playing video games. With the three reasons, solving the solution was easy. The teacher researchers, participating in action research, categorized the students according to what caused them to act aggressively. From the categorized group teacher could interpret the data and find the best solution Article 6 Action research is research conducted with the purpose of solving a problem or improving a current state. From article 6, the staff wants to improve activities and academic performance in the school (Calhoun, 2008). For this reason, they apply the strategic step used when conducting an action research. The article vividly explains all the strategies are starting from scratch and finalizing on improving the school performance and activities. The article explains when conducting an action research the people involved in the research should list the purpose of conducting the research (Calhoun, 2008). Listing the reason is imperative as it gives all members a clear image of the results of the action research and the action taken in order to achieve the results. The article explains that the school staff listed the major reason for improving the school performance. After listing the action research objective, the school established a power organization, wide support that would support them is executing the activities listed in order to achieve the result they projected. Together with the organizational support, the school staff structured an action research model. The action research model could apply to the school, district, or region. Through the action research model, the educators would understand the external environment of the students that influence them in terms of their educational performance. However, the action research model required support and participation from the head teacher, district office staff members and superintended. The next step, according to the article, is conducting an action research matrix. The action research matrix involves listing the common goals of students. The action research matrix includes six sections that educators must adhere to in order to build their school or action plan and staff development plan. The article’s author explains that, the action research matrix provides an overview of the solution or the school improvement performance. Apparently, the six section of the matrix cannot solve the action research plan permanently. For this reason, the school, and the staff has to analyze each student or take a sample of students in the school. Interviewing the students will enable the educators to understand clearly the challenge facing them. After the interview, the educators can group the interview findings into various categories that will help them during description and interpretation. Moreover, the article author of explains that categorizing the findings will enable them, to store and retrieve data during assessment. After analyzing students, the article author explains that assessing the external environment information should follow. External information includes all external factors that have an influence on the performance of the student. The external factors, according to the author’s speculation may be the literacy skill and the academic management of the students (Calhoun, 2008). The educators should take keen notes on the external factors since they help in analyzing the main phenomenon that affect the school performance. Internal information about the learning environment is also important as it portrays the school materials that educators and staff members provide for the students. Through the internal learning environment, the author explains that the staff members and educators will collect data on the internal school factors that need improvement for the improvement of both the school and the school performance. Reference Calhoun, E. F. (2008). Action research for school improvement. Practical Action Research: A Collection of Articles. 99 Read More