Mind Map of Literacy Research Methodologies
Formative and Design Experiment
Correlational and Longitudinal Research
✅Understand. Formative and Design based research seeks to solve an authentic problems. They generate a theory about learning and instruction. Researchers work closely with teachers and teachers mimics the process of effective teaching. These methods do not usually include a control group.
✅Evaluate. Ivey (2020) stated that a key standard to design-based research is "the importance of developing and demonstrating a chain of logic that both produces and explains the process and the instrumental and theoretical outcomes." This may be a standard, however Jamie pointed out that one of the limitations of the method is that teachers are allowed to modify and tweak the intervention there may be "no clearly defined methodological identity." Those seem to contradict each other.
✅Apply. As I hope to become a literacy leader, this may be a method that I can use to research in the school or schools that I will be working in. I am sure that I will be noticing similar problems arising in each school. This would be a good opportunity to conduct a formative/design based study. I would take on the role as the researcher and work closely with teachers willing to implement the interventions designed.
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✅Understand. Correlational studies are observational in nature seeking to find the relationship between two variables. Longitudinal research comes into play with multiple variables are present. Longitudinal research collects data on variables at multiple moments over an extended period of time.
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✅Analyze. Ivey (2020) pointed out that even longitudinal studies can suffer from multiple variables so it cannot strongly support inferences of causation. I agree with that statement. The Ouelette & Beers (2010) study looked at 7 total variables related to reading comprehension, yet there are more variables that could have been analyzed. I wonder how many variables are too many to the point of muddying the water of directionality.
✅Apply. I could use this method, as a reading specialist, with the groups of students I would be working with to analyze the correlation between interventions we are using and their affect on improvement in the literacy skills for which we are remediating. The results of the correlation might then identify an area for me to create a formative/design experiment.
Single Study Design
✅Apply. I had a few students that stumped me as a teacher in how to provide an intervention that they would respond positively to. I would use this type of design for that specific reason. When interventions work for other students but not for one, I would research strategies and conduct a single Study Design to discover an intervention that would be the most effective for that student.
✅Understand. In the powerpoint from Dr. Guo we learn that quantitative data is used to determine growth over time. This makes sense for this type of study as there is only one participant and one variable being tested. As a teacher, looking for the best intervention for my students I want to see exactly what the data is showing to be effective.
Case Study
✅ Remember. Types of case studies
Instrumental: Examines a particular issue or situation; focuses on a phenomenon.
Collective: Intrinsic collective looks at chosen cases that descriptive and interpret the experiences of people, classrooms or schools to contribute to findings that involve contrasts between these unique individual experiences.
Instrumental Collective studies a particular issue while it plays out and affects people in various contexts.
Intrinsic: focused on a particular case (person, classroom, school). Researcher believes that the focus will lead to important insights and understandings.
✅Apply. I could use this as a teacher or a reading specialist to observe the effects of a cross-age buddy reading program on the reading affects of students. As a teacher I might just observe the reading affect of my students. As a reading specialist I might observe the reading affect of both classes.
✅Analyze. "Another methodology that can be confused with case study is single-subject experimental design." (Compton-Lily, 2020) I agree with this statement as I noticed many similarities between the two methodologies in my reading. However there are also many differences.
Similarity: Both single study design and case studies can be performed in a longitudinal from that attend to changes over time.
Similarity: Like a single study design, case studies often focus on individuals.
Difference:Single studies designs intentionally manipulate variables of the study while case studies simply observe.
Difference:Single studies seek to identify causal relationships while case studies describe the the phenomena.
Survey Research
✅ Remember. A mixed mode survey uses multiples modes to collect data. For example, a survey may first be conducted using a telephone survey mode and followed up with an email survey. Mixed modes are used to lower costs, improve timeliness, reduce coverage error, and increase response rates. (Ash et al., 2020)
✅ Apply. In connection to my research question from the beginning of the semester, I would create a survey for students to take regarding how they approach and interact with online texts (videos, hyperlinks, interactive visuals, etc.) I would also send home a survey for parents to complete about how they view their child's use of technology and online texts at home. This might include the length of time they typically spend on a device, what their parents notice about their interaction, what kinds of apps they typically use, and how easily their child can navigate and comprehend the information they are interacting with.
Verbal Protocol of Reading
✅ Evaluate. “And verbal reporting and protocol analysis also can be embedded in an intervention study, as a process-oriented measure of student learning, to evaluate whether, and how effectively, a reading intervention supports knowledge transfer.” (Cho, B., 2022, p. 401) Verbal protocols remind me of the portion of the QRI assessment that asks students what they know about a topic before reading, and then to retell and answer comprehension questions after the reading. There is a scoring sheet that determines what kind of answer is acceptable. However, in the QRI, the evaluator is allowed to encourage the student to keep talking by asking “what else?” Is this still considered a verbal protocol analysis?
✅ Create. I performed a verbal protocol (kind of) with my preschool age son. I used the QRI asking him the preview questions, asked him to retell, and asked him the end of the story comprehension questions. I did not prompt or encourage him to continue talking so it would more closely resemble a verbal protocol. https://voca.ro/1mLhbhIxZcTL
✅Apply. I would like to use a verbal protocol analysis to determine the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary strategies to identify the meaning of unknown words. I would spend time explicitly teaching the strategy to my entire class. After we have learned and practiced the strategy I would perform the verbal protocol on a few of my students. I would choose high performing, average, and low performing students so I could get a clear picture of how the strategy is working for all levels of my class. I would give each chosen student a text on their reading level with a few vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with. Then I would have them read and think aloud to determine if and how they are using the strategy I had previously taught, if they used a different strategy to determine the meaning, or if they skipped over it totally. I might have questions at the end of the reading asking about the meaning of the vocabulary words.
Systematic Reviews
Content Analysis
✅ Understand. I think that coding will really help me as I pull research together to support my topic. Shanahan (2000) points to Stock's 7 categories to classify study features. These are; report identification, setting, subjects, methodology, treatment, process, & effect size.
✅ Analyze. In the video clip from module 2, it points out that there are many reasons to conduct a literature review; to gather ideas & information related to the topic, keep up with current findings & trends, and develop new research questions. This is different from a systematic review because systematic reviews have a clearly stated purpose and a set of criteria for the types of research articles included in the review.
What is a literature review? - youtubeSt. Steely Library NKU. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2022, from
✅ Apply. A systematic review will help me with my research for my capstone project. I am looking for the ways in which using models of reading assessments can help classroom teachers focus their instruction & interventions to best support their struggling students. So far I haven't found studies of classroom teachers applying a model of reading assessment in their classroom. I may need to cast a wider net, however, using inclusion & exclusion criteria will help make sure that I have quality studies that point to the benefit of reading assessment models.
✅ Apply. After reading the discussion board and how each of my classmates might use a content analysis in their classroom, I would like to take HsingJung's suggestion and analyze the multicultural literature in my classroom. I am specifically looking to determine the cultural authenticity of my classroom literature.
✅ Remember. Content analysis is a research method to analyze the content of texts and the inspection of patterns found in texts. Data can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively. This is a valuable type of researchers for teachers especially because our instruction highly revolves around texts. We need to be critical when looking at texts we are using to instruct our students as well as the ones we place in our classrooms.
✅ Create. I made a graphic to help me remember each of Krashen's 6 questions and the what they aimed to discover. https://www.canva.com/design/DAE-u5sfYgM/GhUCCybWDhJMO3ErgEV1FA/edit?utm_content=DAE-u5sfYgM&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
Mixed Methods
✅ Apply. The mixed methods study from (Jesson et al., 2018) looked at the pedagogy of high performing teachers of digital writing. Thought this is done in a very different setting than my teaching situation, I can use the findings to inform my own digital pedagogy. The study found that more engagement in writing and critical thinking was significant in affecting writing performance. I think those findings apply to digital pedagogy in any situation. In my classroom I will provide opportunities for my students to think critically and engage in discussions with me and their peers. I will also provide time for my students to engage in writing, both traditional and digital, so they can practice and develop the skills they are taught.
✅ Create. I can see myself using this typed of research in the future with my classroom practices. Because there are many steps and a lot that goes into performing mixed methods, I made a reference sheet that I can quickly refer to as I perform research in my classroom. https://www.canva.com/design/DAE_hdGmfXI/y-M99-rAj8jQtXlSSRYS4Q/edit?utm_content=DAE_hdGmfXI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
✅ Evaluate. Reading through the mixed methodology this week I was overwhelmed with how complicated it is to implement. Each step, out of the 13 total, has several frameworks or typologies for implementation. This seems to be an extensive and difficult method. Therefore, I think the biggest limitation for mixed method research is the complicated and complex process.