Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Methodological Gravitism, Muhammad Zaman

The Qualitative Report

In this paper the author presents the case of the exchange marriage system to delineate a model of methodological gravitism. Such a model is not a deviation from or alteration to the existing qualitative research approaches. I have adopted culturally specific methodology to investigate spouse selection in line with the Grounded Theory Method. This approach, indeed, suggests the unification of methodological individualism, collectivism, and the social positioning of the actor to study the complex and intricately intertwined networks of relatedness.

Who Wants To Be A Physical Education Teacher? A Case Study Of A Non-Traditional Undergraduate Student In A Physical Education Teacher Education Program, Scott Ronspies

The Qualitative Report

Forty percent of undergraduate students are non-traditional students. The purpose of this study was to identify what attracted the participant to physical education, identify what situational/social factors facilitated the career choice, and the beliefs of the participant about what it meant to be a physical educator. The study consisted of one male non-traditional student. Artifacts, observation, and interview methods were employed to gain an understanding of why the participant wanted to become a physical educator and what were the beliefs of the participant about physical education teaching or teachers. Findings indicated the participant was attracted to physical education by his …

Working Together More Than Alone: Students' Evolving Perceptions Of Self And Community Within A Four-Year Educational Administration Doctoral Cohort, Lance Ford, Courtney Vaughn

The Qualitative Report

School administrators rarely have the opportunity to confer and share their challenges with colleagues. To address this problem in 2005 the Educational Administration Department (EAD) at Central University (a Midwestern PhD granting institution located in a thriving city of about 100,00 people) created a virtual/local doctoral cohort for 14 school leaders living and working in two states. Three years into the course of study we conducted a year long inquiry that asked, "How did students' self-perceptions evolve within a cohort context, and how did these changes advance or retard professional learning community (PLC) growth?" Our interviews had a phenomenological focus …

Ten Steps For Conceptualizing And Conducting Qualitative Research Studies In A Pragmatically Curious Manner, Ronald J. Chenail

The Qualitative Report

In a world of methodological pluralism and mixed-methods, qualitative researchers can take a pathway of pragmatic curiosity by exploring their research interests and the possible design and methodology choices to create studies that not only allow them to pursue their investigative curiosities, but also result in coherent and effective systems of procedural choices. Ten steps are offered for researchers to conceive and conduct qualitative research projects that are both responsive to research goals and objectives and defendable to criteria of quality and critics of utility.

Appraising Qualitative Research Reports: A Developmental Approach, Robin Cooper

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, the author discusses the development of an appraisal instrument designed for evaluating submissions to The Qualitative Report-the TQR Rubric. Following a description of the context of TQR, she explains what led to the development of the TQR Rubric and describes its components. She concludes by presenting the plan of implementation of the rubric and a discussion of how the TQR Rubric's elements relate to notions of quality presented in the literature.

Voicing The Less Heard: A Review Of Focus Group Methodology: Principles And Practice, Derya Kulavuz-Onal

The Qualitative Report

Focus Group Methodology: Principles and Practice is a powerful text in not only equipping novice researchers with all the stages of designing a focus group, but also facilitating their understanding of the philosophies and in-depth principles of focus group methodology. Although the text seems to have specifically aimed at researchers in health and social sciences, beginning qualitative researchers in other fields, such as educational sciences, can also gain valuable insights. The text also provides detailed accounts of previous research where focus groups have been used as well as an intensive discussion of more specific topics such as focus groups with …

A Review Of Qualitative Research In Counseling And Psychotherapy, Nozomu Ozaki

The Qualitative Report

In reviewing Qualitative Research in Counseling and Psychotherapy (McLeod, 2011), I encountered with this text a backdrop of a grand tour question, "How well has the author contextualized qualitative inquiry in the realm of counseling and psychotherapy theory and practice?" I found McLeod (2011) constantly embedding qualitative methodology and plethora of methods into counseling and psychotherapy field by pointing out the relationship between research and practice of counseling and psychotherapy and giving detailed account on philosophical foundations and actual practice of qualitative methods while zigzagging among multiple levels of contexts. At the same time, McLeod maintained his pluralistic position on …

Ophthalmology For The Myopic Methodologist: A Review Of Five Ways Of Doing Qualitative Analysis, Carl Root

The Qualitative Report

In Five Ways of Doing Qualitative Analysis, Frederick J. Wertz, Kathy Charmaz, Linda M. McMullen, Ruthellen Josselson, and Rosemarie Anderson provide students and researchers with both a broad knowledge base and specific examples of each of their preferred methods of analysis. The authors apply their respective expertise of phenomenological psychology, grounded theory, discourse analysis, narrative research, and intuitive inquiry to sixth author Emalinda McSpadden's narrative of responding to an unfortunate situation. The result is a comprehensive comparison of each method emphasizing unique strengths and weaknesses in each approach as well as the reflexivity required of researchers utilizing such analyses.

Reframing Student Accommodation In Education Abroad: Reporting On A Cross-National Study Of Learning Outcomes, Anthony C. Ogden, Dan Dewey, Tomomi Kumai

Faculty Publications

All too often student accommodation is understood as a minor component of an education abroad program with only trivial impact on the overall educational experience. As such, students are frequently permitted to choose housing based on location, cost, convenience and more frequently, on the availability of amenities, such as wireless Internet, cable, and telephone. Unfortunately, the prioritization given to such logistical and practical arrangements tends to overshadow the fundamental learning potential of student accommodation. Through active reflection and experimentation, the learning that takes place in student accommodation can lead to meaningful and transformative learning.

This “theory to practice” pilot study …

Recollection Is Impaired By The Modification Of Interpretation Bias, Paula T. Hertel, Elaina Vasquez, Amanda Benbow, Megan Hughes

Psychology Faculty Research

The interpretation paradigm of cognitive-bias modification (CBM-I) was modified with instructions used in process-dissociation procedures for the purpose of investigating processes contributing to performance on the transfer task. In Experiment 1 nonanxious students were trained to interpret ambiguous situations in either a negative or benign way (or they read nonambiguous scenarios). They were then asked to respond to new ambiguous situations in the same way as contextually similar analogues during training, or to respond differently. Benign training proactively impaired memory for negative outcomes. This effect was replicated by anxious students in Experiment 2 and discussed with respect to the assumptions …

Cognitive Bias Modification: Past Perspectives, Current Findings, And Future Applications, Paula T. Hertel, A. Mathews

Psychology Faculty Research

Research conducted within the general paradigm of Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) reveals that emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory are not merely associated with emotional disorders but contribute to them. After briefly describing research on both emotional biases and their modification, we examine similarities between CBM paradigms and older experimental paradigms used in research on learning and memory. We also compare the techniques and goals of CBM research to other approaches to understanding cognition/emotion interactions. From a functional perspective, the CBM tradition reminds us to use experimental tools to evaluate assumptions about clinical phenomena and more generally, about causal …

Tracking Development Of The Corpus Callosum In Fetal And Early Postnatal Baboons Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Kimberley A. Phillips, P. Kochunov

Psychology Faculty Research

Although the maturation of the corpus callosum (CC) can serve as a sensitive marker for normative antenatal and postnatal brain development, little is known about its development across this critical period. While high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging can provide an opportunity to examine normative brain development in humans, concerns remain over the exposure of developing fetuses to non-essential imaging. Nonhuman primates can provide a valuable model for normative brain maturation. Baboons share several important developmental characteristics with humans, including a highly orchestrated pattern of cerebral development. Developmental changes in total CC area and its subdivisions were examined across the antenatal (weeks …

Interactive Gaming Reduces Experimental Pain With Or Without A Head Mounted Display, Nakia S. Gordon, Juniad Merchant, Catherine Zanbaka, Larry F. Hodges, Paula Goolkasian

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

While virtual reality environments have been shown to reduce pain, the precise mechanism that produces the pain attenuating effect has not been established. It has been suggested that it may be the ability to command attentional resources with the use of head mounted displays (HMDs) or the interactivity of the environment. Two experiments compared participants’ pain ratings to high and low levels of electrical stimulation while engaging in interactive gaming with an HMD. In the first, gaming with the HMD was compared to a positive emotion induction condition; and in the second experiment the HMD was compared to a condition …

More About "Research In Ambiguous, Conflictual, And Changing Contexts": Studying Ethnic Populations In China, Xi'an To Urumqi, Linda Dorsten, Yuhui Li

The Qualitative Report

A recent article in this journal discusses ways to manage uncertainty when the research field abruptly and significantly changes on researchers working inside their own society (Kacen & Chaitin, 2006). Our essay extends this discussion by asking: How do researchers manage ambiguous, conflictual, and rapidly changing events when they engage in study outside their own society? We describe three aspects of our data collection experience that coincidentally began one week before the Urumqi city, Xinjiang, China, riots of 2009 in which over 200 people were reported as killed and several thousand injured: (a). our original research agenda and the uncertain …

Aids Related Stigma In Social Relations: A Qualitative Study In Turkey, Aytul Kasapoglu, Elif Kus Saillard, Nilay Kaya, Feryal Turan

The Qualitative Report

The actual number of HIV/AIDS cases in Turkey is higher than the number of cases reported, and People Living with HIV (PLWHIV) may refrain from acknowledging their sickness or seeking help because of the stigma associated with HIV and fear of discrimination from their close friends, workmates, and even their families. In this paper we aim to explore HIV-positive people's relationships with significant others such as family members, friends, sexual partners, employers and health professionals in order to present the patients' perceptions about stigma and attitudes that lead to pro-social or anti-social behavior towards them. We carried out a qualitative …

From Tactics To Praxis: Learning Feminist Pedagogy Through Methodology, Laura L. Janik-Marusov, Lauren M. Sardi, Dina Giovanelli, Rita Offiaeli, Deric Shannon

The Qualitative Report

Through a self-reflexive and ongoing process, in this paper we chronicle how we as graduate students learned about feminist pedagogy through methodology. Primarily, we noted dilemmas in feminist methodology that became central dilemmas for us in our roles as feminist research guides within a combined graduate and undergraduate feminist methodologies course. As we became aware of these specific dilemmas, not only did we attempt to apply them to the research we were conducting for an institutional ethnographic research project on campus safety, but we also found them to be central pedagogical concerns in ways that were both unique and similar …

Does Recreational Reading In Native Language Influence Foreign Language Learning Process?, Selami Aydin

The Qualitative Report

Limited studies have been conducted on the effects on recreational reading in native language on foreign language learning, whereas no findings exist on the effects of recreational reading in Turkish as a native language (L1) on English as a foreign language (EFL) learning. Thus, this study aims to investigate the effects of recreational reading in L1 on the process of learning EFL. The sample group consists of 70 learners and a background questionnaire, interviews, oral presentations, classroom discussions, essay papers, and responses to examination questions were used for data collection. The results indicated that recreational reading in L1 has some …

Understanding The Evolving Roles Of Improvement-Oriented High School Teachers In Gilgit-Baltistan, Takbir Ali

The Qualitative Report

In this paper the author presents a framework for understanding how improvement-oriented high school teachers' accounts of change experiences portray their evolving roles as change agents in school reform. The data on which this paper is based come from a one-year long in-depth study (doctoral thesis research project) in which the author set out to investigate how improvement-oriented teachers pursue important changes in the realm of classroom, school and community; how the teachers-initiated changes can be characterized; and how the teachers' roles evolve with their change practices. The researcher employed qualitative case study methodology, using in-depth interviews, classroom observations, post-observation …

Competing Cultural Worldviews In The United States: A Phenomenological Examination Of The Essential Core Elements Of Transnationalism And Transculturalism, Mark P. Orbe, Darlene K. Drummond

The Qualitative Report

The objective of this study was to explore inductively the complex ways in which everyday discourse reflects larger - and often competing - cultural worldviews. A phenomenological framework was used to analyze transcripts generated through 13 focus group discussions involving 100 individuals. This particular analysis highlights how individuals who adopted a transnational worldview worked to transform cultural divisions through criticism of existing labels that failed to capture the multicultural nature of their identifies. Alternatively, individuals who adopted a transcultural worldview worked to transcend traditional cultural divisions through a rejection of traditional labels that worked against one unified social identity. The …

Understanding Autism, Naomi Brower, Clarissa Barnhill

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

Doctoral Research In Library And Information Science By Pakistani Professionals: An Analysis, Rais Ahmed Samdani, Rubina Bhatti

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Research is a process of enquiry that draws data from the context in which events occur, in an attempt to describe these occurrences, as a means of determining the process in which events are embedded and the perspectives of those participating in the events, using induction to derive possible explanation based on observed phenomena", Gorman & Clayton (2005).

The creation and dissemination of research is central to the growth of any profession. Library and Information Science is no exemption. A considerable amount of emphasis has been placed by many library experts and professionals towards the creation of research culture among …

Bibliographic Control Of Publications: The Impact On African Countries, Anthony Agena Igbashal, Jacob F. Tsegba

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The African continent is full of oral and written culture being published and preserved by her people, not only for posterity but also for academics, students, and the larger bibliographic communities. That information is generated on the face of African continent on daily bases is not in doubt as printing and publishing have flourished the continent, thus becoming the order of the day. Libraries and information centers are expected to acquire and ensure bibliographic recording and make available on request all that is written, printed and published. Bibliographic control has become a major determinant of book accessibility and utilization and …

Trends In The Use Of E-Journals: A Case Study Of Pec University Of Technology, Chandigarh, Seema Vasishta, Panjab University Chandigarh, India

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Journals constitute an important part of a library collection being the most important vehicle for global scholarly communication. Tremendous developments in ICT in the recent years have given amazing boost to electronic publishing. As a result the information which is being generated at intense pace from all the directions world wide for all the themes is now being published in form of electronic journals (e-journals). Anyone with access to a computer equipped with a modem and suitable software can produce and distribute an e-journal through a computer network, thus journal publishing is being democratized. Usually, e-journals are published as electronic …

Information Communication Techonology (Ict) Use As A Predictor Of Lawyers’ Productivity, J.E. Owoeye

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of information. The work of legal practitioners involves a high level of documentation and information processing, storage, and retrieval. The information intensiveness of a lawyer’s responsibility is such that tools and technologies that would speed up the documentation, management and information handling are not only important but professionally necessary. The value of accuracy, correctness, completeness, relevance and timeliness are characteristics of information which ICT systems do generate to meet lawyer’s information needs.

The role of lawyers in any society is essential. In the …

Staffing Patterns Of State Colleges Of Education Libraries In Nigeria, Gabriel Olatunde Onifade, F.N. Onifade

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The College of Education system is one of the tripods of tertiary education in Nigeria and it has the primary role of training teachers who will be awarded the minimum teaching qualification of Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE). This certificate qualifies one to teach in junior secondary schools and technical colleges in Nigeria and it takes three years to complete. These teachers’ institutions were formally known as Advanced Teachers’ Colleges and were affiliated to different universities in Nigeria. They were later transformed into Colleges of Education under the supervision of one umbrella body known as the National Commission for Colleges …

Lecturers’ Perception Of The Adequacy Of Resources And Services Of University Of Ado-Ekiti Library, O. Olajide, F.A. Fabunmi

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

University libraries exist to enhance the acquisition of knowledge by their clientele through the provision of reading materials (book and non-book) for the purposes of teaching, learning and research. A university library, according to Mallaiah, Kumbar and Mudhol (2008) occupies the central and primary place in teaching and research, therefore, it has to meet the diverse and growing needs of educational programme at the undergraduate, post–graduate and research levels.

Every tertiary library, including university library, is expected to meet the objectives of the institution that established and funds it. In a similar vein, library, according to Aina (2004) is concerned …

Continual Evolution: The Experience Over Three Semesters Of A Librarian Embedded In An Online Evidence-Based Medicine Course For Physician Assistant Students, Shannon Kealey

Staff publications, research, and presentations

This column examines the experience, over three years, of a librarian embedded in an online Epidemiology and Evidence-based Medicine course, which is a requirement for students pursing a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies at Pace University. Student learning outcomes were determined, a video lecture was created, and student learning was assessed via a five-point test during year one. For years two and three, the course instructor asked the librarian to be responsible for two weeks of the course instruction and a total of 15 out of 100 possible points for the course. This gave the librarian flexibility to …

Nor'easter News Volume 5 Issue 4, Nor'easter News Staff

Nor'easter News

The forty-third issue of the University of New England's student-run newspaper, Nor'easter News.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 036, Number 10, October 31, 2011, Grand Valley State University

2011-2012, Volume 36

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 46, No. 20, October 31, 2011, Grand Valley State University

Volume 46, July 14, 2011 - June 18, 2012

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.