Data Collection Day One
Probe Questions were administered to Blair. Blair is a 17 year old male identified as Traumatic Brain Injured. He is in the 10th grade and has a one-on-one aid. This is a student specific assistant to aid him and stays with him for the entire school day. For the duration of this stud, he participated in on-campus work through Vocational Rehabilitation, which is offered through our county. He has attended IEP meetings but never expressed interests or desires. Using the scale established with my study, I used a 0-3 rating scale to score Blair’s answers. He scored an 18 out of 30.
Reflection
After the first interview, I began to re-evaluate my questions. I picked 10 probe questions which were supported by research to be valid interview questions in relation to my topic. But I found that the student became bored with answering the questions. The questions are wordy and require a lot of thought to be considered by the student with disabilities. I believe that each question is valid for my end result, so I need to make some type of change. I am going to split the sessions into 2 instead of gathering data all in one session. My peer review of my research stated that I needed to revise my questions, and a very valid point considering the attention span of students with disabilities. To receive insightful and valid data from the students, which will ultimately help the students, I feel I should interview them in 2 sessions. The data collection process is actually a lot harder than I had anticipated, I am not a patient researcher. I will need to focus more on the student’s actual answers, instead of what I expect them to say.
Shannon Mosteller
Comments (5)
Good observation. Students with disabilities probably need more sessions with fewer questions. The questions probably need to be short, too. This is what I have come across in my years of teaching. I know I haven't taught students of that nature, but they are mostly the same.
Posted by Heather Greene | March 21, 2009 9:41 PM
Posted on March 21, 2009 21:41
Shannon, I had to modify my interview questions too. After we conducted our mock interviews I found that my questions were too difficult for 7th graders. Hopefully making adjustments to your questions will help your data collection go a little more smoothly. Good luck.
Posted by Kristen Clark | March 22, 2009 12:50 PM
Posted on March 22, 2009 12:50
Shannon,
I think that splitting the interview into two sessions is a good idea, both for the students and for you (because by now, we all know how tedious it is to transcribe long interviews). You might also consider omitting some of the questions altogether--are there any that are similar enough that you could combine them/get rid of one? That might also save you some time.
Posted by Tara Smith | March 22, 2009 8:58 PM
Posted on March 22, 2009 20:58
This is a nice reflection, Shannon. I find it hard to be patient as well, and I have to work to let the data "surprise" me. :) I think you have a good plan for dividing up the interviews.
Posted by Alecia Jackson | March 25, 2009 12:41 PM
Posted on March 25, 2009 12:41
Good day! I simply want to give an enormous thumbs up for the great data you've gotten right here on this post. I can be coming back to your blog for more soon.
Posted by Charles Althauser | October 11, 2011 9:33 AM
Posted on October 11, 2011 09:33