[Institution Affiliation]
PART 1
- At least one problem or guiding question related to your personal or professional setting that could be used in a program evaluation. (Note: Anything related to education, elementary schools, etc).
Each year, federals, government and foundations fund educational projects and initiatives with the main goal of transforming lives of students, adults and families. Such a program needs to be evaluated in order to determine whether its goals and objectives are being met.
- A statement defending the choice of problem or guiding question for program evaluation with support from the Spaulding text, Program Evaluation in Practice. In defending your question, you should explain why your question is appropriate to doing program evaluation and the associated advantages and disadvantages
The problem stated above is appropriate for conducting a program evaluation because at the end of each year, the sponsors will need answers to questions such as How are things going? Are we making a difference? Are the players benefiting? Should this program be re-funded? These questions can only be answered by conducting an evaluation of the program.
- At least one research or guiding question related to your personal or professional setting that could be used in an action research study
Educators often adopt new teaching techniques. Action research study can be used to investigate the effectiveness of the new teaching techniques.
- A statement defending the research or guiding question for action research with support from the online resources. In defending your question, you should explain why your research or guiding question is appropriate to doing action research and the associated advantages and disadvantages
This qualifies for action research because the process of working out your solution makes you learn more about your new technique better. Not only do you understand about your new technique, but also the factors that affect how you use them. One of the benefits of action research is that it exposes teachers to experience problem solving and apply it to their students. However, the relationship between the researcher and participants may affect the outcome.
PART 2
- What was the overall evaluation/research strategy or design?
The overall research study was action research approach.
- Why was this type of strategy or design selected for this study?
Action research approach was used in this study because there was need to not only understand the problem but also provide information required to make a decision.
- What was the problem statement or reason for inquiry? How do you think this led to the author(s) choosing the particular design?
Educators were required to lecture a large group of up to 170 students. However, the problem came in as educators used traditional lecturing which prevented them from teaching in a way that was student-centered, relational and socially and politically transformative. Action research approach was best suited to handle this problem as it is designed to help in understanding the problem and giving the solution.
- What was the purpose of the study, and what were the guiding questions (if stated)?
The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of non-traditional lecturing techniques.
- What was the sample and sampling technique used, if identified? If not identified, what do you think was used? Explain.
The sample was first year students of the university. Even though the sampling technique is not clearly defined, I think the technique used is stratified sampling since the researcher divided the entire target population (university) into sub groups and randomly selected first year students as the sample.
- What data collection techniques were employed?
The data collection techniques used was questionnaires, observation, interviews, and surveys.
- Were these techniques quantitative in nature? Qualitative? Both?
The techniques used in this research were both qualitative and quantitative because the research provided detailed analysis with additional numerical data.
- Was the selected design of the study appropriate? Why or why not?
The selected design of study (active research) was appropriate. This is because the study enabled students and educators to understand the importance of non-traditional lecturing techniques. In addition, the design of study provided alternative solutions to non-traditional techniques.
- Why were the data collection techniques appropriate to the design of the study?
The data collection techniques were appropriate to the design of the study because they enabled the researcher to collect both qualitative and quantitative data on the perceptions of new techniques of lecturing.
- What data analysis techniques were employed? Explain.
The data analysis techniques used were both qualitative and quantitative. This is because the researcher used mathematical calculations inform of percentage and detailed description to make the inferences.
- Were these analysis techniques appropriate to the type of data collected? How do you know this?
These analysis techniques were appropriate for analyzing the data collected. Even though qualitative data analysis was not of importance, quantitative data analysis played a major role in removing researcher’s bias from gathered data.
- What ethical issues might exist with this study? Why?
The researcher seems to be biased on the outcome of the research. It is unethical in a research to make inferences without analyzing gathered data.
References
Roland, T., & Deirdre, H. (2008). Teaching in higher education. Re-imagining the Traditional Lecture: An Action Research Approach to Teaching Student Teachers to ‘do’ Philosophy, 13(3), 303-314. doi:10.1080/13562510802045337
