Discussion – Week 4
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1 day ago
Laura Tucker
RE: Discussion – Week 4
COLLAPSE
The Method(s) Used by Coffman et al. (2016)
Qualitative studies are often used to aid researchers in understanding the nature of a problem or a pattern of development that cannot be easily quantified by standardized data measurements such as range, frequency, or percentage. Qualitative studies use more flexible, alternative methods such as surveys or interviews to help researchers explain the development of a behavior or the reason behind a pattern of development.
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The fourteen-month study conducted by Coffman et al. (2016) examined how the researcherâ€
s/participantâ€s experiences, development of scholarly and other identities, and self-efficacy were affected by their involvement within the Communities of Practice. Qualitative data in this study consisted of a reflection paper written by the researchers/ participants after the studyâ€s conclusion to address how participation in Communities of Practice affected students’ identity formation during their doctoral journey. The analysis, also performed by the researchers/participants, used categorical aggregation to assign meaning to the large, complex qualitative data obtained from the study in relation to the research question.
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I first identified the research methods from the abstract, then read through the research section to find the specific way the methods were conducted. I found the process of concisely defining and summarizing the research methods in a qualitative study, based on assigned meanings and categories, is more difficult than summarizing the findings from a quantitative study that involves only numerical data. As I am from a science background, I am accustomed to working with charts, numbers, graphs, and exact measurements but not with descriptive words and meanings used to make inferences.
Laura
References
Coffman, K., Putman, P., Adkisson, A., Kriner, B., & Monaghan, C. (2016). Waiting for the expert to arrive: Using a community of practice to develop the scholarly identity of doctoral students. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 28(1), 30-37. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1106332.pdf