I. Assignment: Factual Questions from Kostelnik, Black, and Taylor, Article #1
1. In which lines do the researchers first explicitly state their research purpose? Lines 47-55.
2. Two teachers were selected from schools where there were three or more teachers. How were they selected? Randomly selected from each school.
3. What was the basis for assigning teachers to FGA and FGB? FGA included 5 randomly assigned teachers and the teacher from the single kindergarten class school. FGB included the remaining teachers.
4. The letters FGB stand for what words? Focus Group B
5. To collect data, what was done with FGA teachers that was not done with FGB teachers? FGA teachers were observed teaching; the Whole Language Checklist Observation Form was used and teachers were observed for one three-hour period.
6. What overwhelmingly concerned the teachers most about using whole language concepts in their teaching? They needed more whole language training.
7. The researchers characterized what finding as particularly surprising? ôHolistic and child-centered instruction were among the least practiced by the teachers. The child-centered findings was particularly surprising since it is considered to be one of the central and most common components of whole language instruction and the teachers identified it in their definition of whole languageö (p. 3).
8. According to the researchers, what two things prohibit any broad generalizations based on this study? The restricted sample and qualitative nature of the study.
9. Do the researcher recommend that future studies be quantitative or qualitative? Qualitative.
II. Assignment from Creswell Text, Page 24:
1. Identify a research question in a journal article and discuss what approach would be best to study the question and why. The research question was: Do students demonstrate significant increases in test performance and decreases in ratings of test anxiety following i...