Current Research problem: Are teacher preperation programs preparing students to teach in the classroom with the skills of the 21st century?
1) The first way that I would measure this would be through a survey. I would measure the degree to which 1st and 2nd year teachers felt confident in their ability to teach this way. I think that this is a valid and reliable way because it bring lots of number data in that can be reproduced again and again.
2) The second way I would measure would be through interviews from a particular school district of all the first and second year teachers. I think that this is valid because it still is on topic and gathers the right kind of data but I do not think it is reliable because it would be hard to repeat, in order to get the same responses over and over again.
3) The third way, I think I would use is a combination of both. I would still do the survey, but include open ended questions on it, and I would still give it to first and second year teachers but I would have to broaden my study size in order for it to be reliable and I think it is still valid because the data gathered would still be about my research question.
Couple thoughts.
ReplyDelete- I think you need to focus your question a little more. Maybe situating it within the literature would help. You might want to think about limiting your target population (for example: specify the content focus of teacher, grade level, etc.) Or you could specify the idea of 21st century skills. What particular ones would make an interesting focus?
- I think survey and interviews (or some combination of the two) are a a good method of measurement, but it is important to explain these instruments in more detail. What particular constructs are they getting at? This might require a more focused question.
Overall this is very interesting topic but you need to continue to refine it.