As
I attempt to embark on coding the masses of data that I have already taken in
it is overwhelming. I feel as though I have my head wrapped around the
process involved in coding each piece of data that I have collected. The
depressing realization is that I won't be able to code everything. I am
not sure how exactly I am going to sift through all of my student journals for
example. I have been handing out a student journal to all 23 of my
students EACH WEEK. That is 115 student journals so far, and I have only
just completed week 5. I feel like I am at a cross roads, do I attempt to
do it, attempt to code all 115 student journals thus far or change my plan up
and work with the data from a smaller group of children? My original idea
was to work with a focus group. I changed that original idea when I
made small changes to my research question. At this point I'm not even
sure WHY I decided to change it from a small group of students to the entire
class. I realize now, that it won't be possible to sift through that many
student journals. I do think it is important to use all of the student
surveys though. There is only one set of those from the beginning of my
study and if I the coding completed on that set, then the next group of student
surveys at the conclusion of the study will not be so overwhelming. Not
to mention the parent surveys that I will also be collecting at the conclusion
of the study. I had all of these great ideas about what I was going to
investigate and what conclusion(s) I might find. Right now, I feel like I
haven't found anything at all. This is especially depressing as I am at
the near conclusion of my action research and I should have something to show
for it.
1 comment:
Hmmm.... I want to cry for you with that overwhelming amount of data. I only have 4 focus students in my study and have a huge amount of data to begin sifting through. If I were you, I would choose a small group of students to focus on or else I think you are going to have a great deal of difficulty figuring out how to make sense of the large amount of information (especially since our research has to be conducted over a smaller amount of time). Could you choose a group of students based on student ability levels to get a range? A group based on who normally brings it in and who does not to have the comparison? A group of students with various backgrounds/ upbringings? These are just some thoughts? If you decide to go with your whole class... you are WAY braver than me!
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