首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Quantitative Research in Education Many education researchers used to work on the assumption that children experience differ
Quantitative Research in Education Many education researchers used to work on the assumption that children experience differ
admin
2022-01-29
53
问题
Quantitative Research in Education
Many education researchers used to work on the assumption that children experience different phases of development, and that they cannot execute the most advanced level of cognitive operation until they have reached the most advanced forms of cognitive process. For example, one researcher Piaget had a well-known experiment in which he asked the children to compare the amount of liquid in containers with different shapes. Those containers had the same capacity, but even when the young children were demonstrated that the same amount of fluid could be poured between the containers, many of them still believed one was larger than the other. Piaget concluded that the children were incapable of performing the logical task in figuring out that the two containers were the same size even though they had different shapes, because their cognitive development had not reached the necessary phase. Critics on his work, such as Donaldson, have questioned this interpretation. They point out the possibility that the children were just unwilling to play the experimenter’s game, or that they did not quite understand the question asked by the experimenter. These criticisms surely do state the facts, but more importantly, it suggests that experiments are social situations where interpersonal interactions take place. The implication here is that Piaget’s investigation and his attempts to replicate it are not solely about measuring the children’s capabilities of logical thinking, but also the degree to which they could understand the directions for them, their willingness to comply with these requirements, how well the experimenters did in communicating the requirements and in motivating those children, etc.
The same kinds of criticisms have been targeted to psychological and educational tests. For instance, Mehan argues that the subjects might interpret the test questions in a way different from that meant by the experimenter. In a language development test, researchers show children a picture of a medieval fortress, complete with moat, drawbridge, parapets and three initial consonants in it: D, C, and G. The children are required to circle the correct initial consonant for ’castle’. The answer is C, but many kids choose D. When asked what the name of the building was, the children responded ’Disneyland’. They adopted the reasoning line expected by the experimenter but got to the wrong substantive answer. The score sheet with the wrong answers does not include in it a child’s lack of reasoning capacity; it only records that the children gave a different answer rather than the one the tester expected.
Here we are constantly getting questions about how valid the measures are where the findings of the quantitative research are usually based. Some scholars such as Donaldson consider these as technical issues, which can be resolved through more rigorous experimentation. In contrast, others like Mehan reckon that the problems are not merely with particular experiments or tests, but they might legitimately jeopardise the validity of all researches of this type.
Meanwhile, there are also questions regarding the assumption in the logic of quantitative educational research that causes can be identified through physical and/or statistical manipulation of the variables. Critics argue that this does not take into consideration the nature of human social life by assuming it to be made up of static, mechanical causal relationships, while in reality, it includes complicated procedures of interpretation and negotiation, which do not come with determinate results. From this perspective, it is not clear that we can understand the pattern and mechanism behind people’s behaviours simply in terms of the casual relationships, which are the focuses of quantitative research. It is implied that social life is much more contextually variable and complex.
Such criticisms of quantitative educational research have also inspired more and more educational researchers to adopt qualitative methodologies during the last three or four decades. These researchers have steered away from measuring and manipulating variables experimentally or statistically. There are many forms of qualitative research, which is loosely illustrated by terms like ’ethnography’, ’case study’, ’participant observation’, ’life history’, ’unstructured interviewing’, ’discourse analysis’ and so on. Generally speaking, though, it has characteristics as follows:
Qualitative researches have an intensive focus on exploring the nature of certain phenomena in the field of education, instead of setting out to test hypotheses about them. It also inclines to deal with ’unstructured data’, which refers to the kind of data that have not been coded during the collection process regarding a closed set of analytical categories. As a result, when engaging in observation, qualitative researchers use audio or video devices to record what happens or write in detail open-ended field-notes, instead of coding behaviour concerning a pre-determined set of categories, which is what quantitative researchers typically would do when conducting ’systematic observation’. Similarly, in an interview, interviewers will ask open-ended questions instead of ones that require specific predefined answers of the kind typical, like in a postal questionnaire. Actually, qualitative interviews are often designed to resemble casual conversations.
The primary forms of data analysis include verbal description and explanations and involve explicit interpretations of both the meanings and functions of human behaviours. At most, quantification and statistical analysis only play a subordinate role. The sociology of education and evaluation studies were the two areas of educational research where criticism of quantitative research and the development of qualitative methodologies initially emerged in the most intense way. A series of studies conducted by Lacey, Hargreaves and Lambert in a boys’ grammar school, a boys’ secondary modern school, and a girls’ grammar school in Britain in the 1960s marked the beginning of the trend towards qualitative research in the sociology of education. Researchers employed an ethnographic or participant observation approach, although they did also collect some quantitative data, for instance on friendship patterns among the students. These researchers observed lessons, interviewed both the teachers and the students, and made the most of school records. They studied the schools for a considerable amount of time and spent plenty of months gathering data and tracking changes over all these years.
Look at the following statements or descriptions (Questions 28-32) and the list of people below.
Match each statement or description with the correct person or people, A, B, C or D
Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
List of People
A. Piaget
B. Mehan
C. Donaldson
D. Lacey, Hargreaves and Lambert
Logical reasoning involving in the experiment is beyond children’s cognitive development.
选项
答案
A
解析
实验所包含的逻辑推理超出了孩子认知能力的发展。关键词logical reasoning、 beyond children’s cognitive development。A项Piaget出现于原文第1段。首先提到他做了一个非常著名的实验,要求孩子去比较不同形状容器中液体的体积,在下面的实验结论中提到:Piaget concluded that the children were incapable of performing the logical task in figuring out that the two containers were the same size even though they had different shapes;this was since their cognitive development had not reached the necessary phase.孩子们无法明白两个容器容量相同,是因为他们认知能力的发展没有达到实验需要的水平。其中cognitive development had not reached the necessary phase对应beyond children’s cognitive development。因此,本题的正确答案为A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/R6AO777K
本试题收录于:
雅思阅读题库雅思(IELTS)分类
0
雅思阅读
雅思(IELTS)
相关试题推荐
Areresponsestoodorsacquiredasafunctionoftheemotionalcontextinwhichtheyareinitiallyperceived?Researchers
Crosby’srecentstudyofAmericanhistoricaldemographyisblithelybasedonthereconstitutionoftherecordsofsingle
Researchhasproventhatunliketheirsober______whosloweddownaftermakingamistaketotrytocorrecttheiractions,menwho
Theevolutionofcultureisdependentuponthedevelopmentofthetoolsofcivilization.Civilizedculturesexhibitahighdegre
NinetimesasmanyAmericansdiedinthefarmlandsnearAntietamCreekinthefallof1862thandiedonthebeachesofNormandy
UntilAndrewlearnedto______astrictschedule,heseldommanagedtocompletehishomeworkinatimelymanner.
WhetherthelanguagesoftheancientAmericanpeopleswereusedforexpressingabstractuniversalconceptscanbeclearlyanswer
Thatpeople______themusicalfeaturesofbirdsongssuggeststhatdespitethevastevolutionarygulfbetweenbirdsandmammals,s
AlfredSchnittke’smusicalcompositionsare______:phrasesareclipped,brokenintosections,andsplitapartbylongrests.
GiventheevidenceofEgyptianandBabylonian____laterGreekcivilization,itwouldbeincorrecttoviewtheworkofGreeksci
随机试题
腰椎椎管狭窄症常表现为腰椎间盘突出症常表现为
关于扫描方式描述正确的是
患者男,28岁。1小时前被车撞腰部入院。查:血压100/65mmHg,尿常规:红细胞30~40/高倍视野,最可能的诊断是
甲房地产公司与乙国有工业公司签订《合作协议》,在乙公司原有的仓库用地上开发商品房。双方约定,共同成立“玫园置业有限公司”(以下简称“玫园公司”)。甲公司投入开发资金,乙公司负责将该土地上原有的划拨土地使用权转变为出让土地使用权,然后将出让土地使用权作为出资
有抗震设防要求的框架梁的截面宽度不宜小于()mm。
电路如题87图所示,输出电压uo与输入电压ui的运算关系为()。
发包人收到承包人递交的竣工结算报告结算资料后( )天内进行核实,给予确定或者提出修改意见。发包人确认竣工结算报告后通知经办银行向承包人支付竣工结算价款。
科目汇总表账务处理程序的步骤有()。
袋中有10个大小相等的球,其中6个红球4个白球,随机抽取2个,每次取1个,定义两个随机变量如下:就下列两种情况,求(X,Y)的联合分布律:第一次抽取后不放回.
GoogleClosesInonDoubleClickDealScoreoneforGoogle.TheFederalTradeCommissionruledDee.20thatitwouldnotbloc
最新回复
(
0
)