Category: 11. Useful references

chanced upon this resource list via the edubloggers links feed, just to list but a few here:
1. The Qualitative Report – An online journal dedicated to qualitative research and critical inquiry since 1990
2. Qualitative Research
3. Definitions of numerous philosophical terms used in the context of qualitative research

This page hosted by Thailand Asian Institute of Technology highlights on the purpose of doing literature review in research, and how to go about doing a good one. It’s surely come in useful for the task at hand 🙂

Got this link off Elmine Wijnia‘s blog, with useful tips for anyone who’s conducting (group) interviews. would surely come in handy in the near future 🙂

very bad at remembering names, and it has always been that old time friends are able to call out our name, and we cannot call his/her name in return *jialat* anyway, this post on professional-lurker shared some tips on remembering students name, which might come in handy in the near future with my fast failing meomory ? 😮

How To Learn Student Names:
1. Make it a priority. Focusing on any goal is the first step towards making it happen.
2. Read the registrar’s list before the first class.Pay attention to the names that may be difficult to pronounce.
3. Take roll call on the first day of class. Take your time, pay close attention and repeat each student’s name. Make sure that you have the proper pronunciation. If a student’s name is unfamiliar be sure to ask explicitly if you’ve got it right. Students who are shy, or from cultures where greater deference to authority is the norm, may hesitate to correct you unless prompted and yet will still find it grating to be referred to incorrectly the entire semester.
4. Ask the students what they prefer to be called and be sure to write down nicknames on the class roster. You may want to preface your roll call with a request for nicknames: while you are likely to wonder whether Elizabeth whether goes by “Liz” or “Beth”, you’ll have no idea that Amy Jones goes by “A.J.”
5. If you have access to students’ photos, use them to familiarize yourself with names as part of your preparation in the first weeks of class. My client Jim had been unaware that he had access to student I.D. photos until he checked with the registrar.
6. If there are no photos available, consider taking your own photographs. In Tools for Teaching, Barbara Gross Davis suggests taking Polaroid shots of students and pasting them on index cards with the students’ names and other personal information. Creating class “I.D. cards” is even easier with access to digital cameras.
7. Often it is most difficult to remember foreign students’ names, which may be unfamiliar to Western ears. Be sure to write a phonetic version of the name if needed. For example, in one of my classes the name of a Chinese student was transliterated as Xiou — but pronounced something like “Shaw.”
8. A common memory trick is to link the name with something or someone else – thus my student Xiou became the unforgettable George Bernard “Shaw” in my mind.
9. Think of another person you know who has the same first name as the student. Then make a link using a visual image. For example, I imagine my short-haired brunette student Susan with the wild grey mane of my cousin Susan, who hadn’t changed the style of her coiffure since the late 1960’s. The incongruous image cements the student’s name in my cortex.
10. Use humor in your associative links to make a lasting impression. I kept getting confused about whether a student was Egla or Elga until I imagined her with a hard-boiled Egg of a head.
11. Find a rhyme to create mental associations: Is Jim slim? Or an adjective that tips you off about the name’s first letter: Is Thomas tall? Can you visualize Sarah in a sarong? Again, humor helps. Thus Slim Jim becomes a life-size stick of dried beef sausage. And Sarah, well, sarongs fall off easily, right? (Need I admonish you that the mnemonic devises should be kept to yourself?)
12. Use your students’ names frequently both to call on them to participate and to refer to previous points made in the discussion. Davis points out that this technique can be used in even very large classes: Ask students their name when they make a comment and later refer to it as “Jeff’s point” or “Audrey’s contribution.”
13. When you take roll, consider creating a map of the seating arrangement labeled with student’s names. I’m always surprised at how consistently students sit in the same seats, or at least the same quadrant of the room. In my small classes, we sit around a large table and for the first few classes I write down who chooses to sit where as students arrive. Writing the names down also helps commit them to memory. Some professors ask students to sit in the same seats for a few classes, a request that communicates their earnest efforts to learn names. I prefer to keep my mnemonic methods mysterious. Either way works.
14. Using name tags for the first few class sessions can help students learn one another’s names at the same time it helps you. I ask my students to write their first names in very large letters so that I can read them from the front of the classroom.
15. When teaching very large classes it is tempting to give up. Resist the temptation. Try learning five names per class and try to use those names.
16. One professor I know uses name cards for her large classes. Students pick up the cards as they file into class and place them at the front of their desks. This United Nations style name card strategy is also useful because the tags that aren’t retrieved indicate absent students.
17. With any sized class, look at registrar’s list during week and see how many faces you can recall.
18. Make sure you know the names of students who visit you during office hours. Take a few minutes to ask the students about themselves, their major, where they are from, etc. Personal contact is one of the ways you can increase the effectiveness of your teaching.
Becoming an expert at memorizing names is a small but respectful step toward demonstrating personal investment in your students’ well-being. Building a mutually respectful relationship with students is as important as having an organized lesson plan, giving a dynamic lecture, or encouraging enthusiastic class participation. Positive student-teacher relationships foster engagement and achievement.

the original source of the above tips goes here.

1. Ask: �Why are we doing this?�
* What do we need to know?
* Why do we need to know it?
* What do we hope to do when we find out?
* What are the objectives of the survey?
2. Ask: �What are we measuring?�
In training evaluation, what you measure can be influenced by the learning objectives of the course or curriculum you are measuring:
* Knowledge
* Skills
* Attitudes
* Intentions
* Behaviours
* Performance
* Perceptions of any of the above
Your questions, and possibly your survey methods, will differ accordingly.
3. Be aware of respondent limitations.
* Where possible, pilot your questionnaire with a sub-group of your target audience.
* The complexity of your questionnaire and its language should take into account the age, education, competence, culture, and language abilities of respondents.
4. Guarantee anonymity or confidentiality.
* Confidentiality lets you follow up with non-responders, and match pre- and post studies.
* Confidentiality must be guaranteed within a stated policy.
* Anonymity prevents you from doing follow-ups or pre-post studies.
5. Select a data collection method that is appropriate.
Consider the speed and timing of your study, the complexity and nature of what you are measuring, and the willingness of respondents to make time for you. Options:
* E-mail � fast, inexpensive, not anonymous, requires all respondents have e-mail.
* Telephone � time consuming, not anonymous, may require skill, has to be short.
* Face-to-face interview � slow, expensive, requires skill, best for small samples, qualitative studies.
* Web-based � fast, inexpensive (if you use services like Zoomerang), can be anonymous, best for large surveys.
6. Write a compelling cover note.
Where appropriate introduce your questionnaire with a brief but compelling cover note that clarifies:
* The purpose of study and why it is worth giving time to.
* The sponsor or authority behind it.
* Why you value the respondent�s input.
* The confidentiality or anonymity of the study.
* The deadline for completion.
* How to get clarification if necessary.
* A personal �thank you� for participating.
* The signature or e-mail signature of the survey manager (or, ideally, of the sponsor).
* If sending an e-mail, have it come from someone in authority who will be recognised, use a strong subject line that cannot easily be ignored, and time it to arrive early in the week.
7. Explain how to return responses.
If not obvious, make it clear how and by when responses must be returned.
8. Put a heading on the questionnaire.
State simply what the purpose is, what the study is about, and who is running it.
9. Keep it short.
* State how long completion should take and make sure that it does.
* Make questionnaires as brief as possible within the time and attention constraints of your respondents (personal interviews can go longer than self-completion studies).
* Avoid asking questions that deviate from your survey purpose.
* Avoid nice-to-know questions that will not lead to actionable data.
10. Use logical structure.
* Group questions by topic.
* Grouping questions by type can get boring and cause respondents to skim through.
* Number every question.
* Where possible, in web-based surveys put all questions on one screen, or allow respondents to skip ahead and back track.
11. Start with engaging questions.
Many questionnaires are abandoned after the respondent answers the first few questions.
* Try to make the first questions non-intimidating, easy, and engaging, to pull the respondent into the body of the piece.
* Try to start with an open question that calls for a very short answer, and ties in to the purpose of the questionnaire.
12. Explain what to do.
Provide simple instructions, if not obvious, on how to complete a section or how to answer questions (circle the number, put a check mark in the box, click the button etc.)
13. Use simple language.
* Avoid buzz words and acronyms.
* Use simple sentences to avoid ambiguity or confusion.
* If necessary, provide definitions and context for a question.
14. Place important questions at the beginning.
* If a question requires thought or should not be hurried, put it at the beginning. Respondents often rush through later questions.
* Leave non-critical or off-topic questions, such as demographics, to the end.
15. Select scales for responses.
* Keep response options simple.
* Use scales that provide useable granularity.
* Make response options meaningful to respondents.
* Make it obvious if open-ended responses should be brief or substantial by using an appropriate answer-box size.
16. Fine-tune questions and answer options.
* Keep response options consistent where possible – don�t use a 5-point scale in one question and a 7-point in the next unless absolutely necessary; don�t put negative options on the left in one question and on the right in another.
* Be precise and specific � avoid words that have fuzzy meanings (�rarely� or �often� or �recently�).
* Do not overlap response options (use 11-20 and 21-30, not 10-20 and 20-30).
* If you use a continuum scale with numbers for answer options, use a clear concept at the top and bottom of the scale (instead of �on a scale of 1 to 5, how good is it? : 1-2-3-4-5, use 1=very bad -2-3-4-5=very good).
* Use scales that are centred� don�t have one �bad� answer option and four shades of �good�.
* Don�t force respondents into either/or answers if a neutral position is possible
* Allow for �not applicable� or �don�t know� responses.
* Edit and proofread to make sure that answer choices flow naturally from the question.
17. Avoid leading or ambiguous questions.
* Don�t sequence your questions to lead respondents to answer in a certain way.
* Avoid questions that contain too much detail or may force respondents to answer �yes� to one part while wanting to answer �no� to another (e.g. �How confident do you feel singing and dancing?�).
* Minimise bias by piloting your questionnaire before it goes live.
18. Use open-ended questions with care.
* Open responses are difficult to consolidate, so use them sparingly.
* They often provide really useful data, so don�t avoid them completely.
* Doing a pilot or running a focus group before rolling out a survey can provide useful insight for creating more structured closed questions.
* Provide at least one open question so respondents can express what is important to them.
19. Thank the respondent.
* Thank the respondent once again. Reiterate why you value the input.
* If you intend to feed back results, emphasize when and how they can expect to get them.
* If you have offered an incentive, specify what the respondent has to do to claim or be eligible for it.
[Source: Parkin’s Lot]