Qualitative Research

Some researchers believe Qualitative Research and descriptive research are sometimes used interchangeably (Nassaji, 2015, p.129). Interchangeably meaning using one term, means the other, rather than just a synonym or replacement of the term in question. Both terms use different wording to separate one from another. Descriptive research is more concerned with what rather than how or why something has happened (Nassaji, 2015, p.129). Qualitative research is more holistic and often involves a rich collection of data from various sources (Nassaji, 2015, p.129), gaining in depth knowledge of the test subjects, or participants, reactions, viewpoints, etc. 

Some researchers believe Qualitative Research and descriptive research are sometimes used interchangeably (Nassaji, 2015, p.129). Interchangeably meaning using one term, means the other, rather than just a synonym or replacement of the term in question. Both terms use different wording to separate one from another. Descriptive research is more concerned with what rather than how or why something has happened (Nassaji, 2015, p.129). Qualitative research is more holistic and often involves a rich collection of data from various sources (Nassaji, 2015, p.129), gaining in depth knowledge of the test subjects, or participants, reactions, viewpoints, etc. 

The Role of the Researcher:

General steps to conduct a qualitative research include focus & boundary, inclusion/exclusion criteria for new information, fit of the research paradigm to the focus, determine where and from to collect data, determining phases of collection, instrumentation beyond human instrumentation, analysis procedures, logistics and determination of trustworthiness (Sanders, 1997, para. 19). Prevailing forms of qualitative inquiry are interviews (informal, conversational, open-ended) and observation (monitoring verbal and non-verbal cues) (Sanders, 1997, para. 25). Both types required recording data, maintain the naturalistic scene. Because naturalistic researchers are asking participants to "grant access to their lives, their minds, [and] their emotions," it is also important to provide respondents with a straightforward description of the goals of the research (Sanders, 1997, para. 29).

Adapted image from LJ reasearch, 2016

One approach to qualitative research is the Grounded Theory developed by Glaser and Strauss. Basically, to be applied in a multitude of diverse situations  (Sanders, 1997, para. 35) and a developing process as Coronach may say “working hypothesis” (Sanders, 1997, para. 36). Features of a qualitative researcher to be considered by readers Sanders (1997) concluded from Eisner (1991) are coherence, consensus (occur with findings) and it’s usefulness. (instrumental utility) (para 38).

Terms associated with judging qualitative research are credibility, finding commonalty among analyst in data, transferability of findings to apply in new situations, dependability (consistency), and confirmability, trail of raw data, notes, etc. Some argue conventional terms such as validity and reliability can be found in qualitative research, but as described by Sanders (1997) are quantitive terms compared to credibility and dependability.  

Author’s thoughts:

Some people, including myself, like to believe qualitative research is based on descriptive statistics such as median, mode or range determination. Noting patterns, themes, categories or concepts (Nassaji, 2015, p.130) are the results of qualitative data. Qualitative studies typically employ multiple forms of evidence....[and] there is no statistical test of significance to determine if results ‘count’(Sanders, 1997, para. 15). Methods on collecting qualitative data includes interviews, surveys and observations on reactions, beliefs and learned skills.

My experience with qualitative data is participation in surveys online assessing whether I like a particular song, food brand, ads, etc. Customer experience surveys through TripAdvisor, I consider qualitative data to describe the atmosphere, for others to review and decide. My aspirations for supporting qualitative data collection is to give credible and reasonable validation to knowledge passed down as a general consensus. 

At my job, its common for someone to provide information based on past actions and assumptions without considering if they are as effective today as they were then. For example, usually told if an incident (software) happens only once or twice its an isolated event. I beg to differ if I unable to source for characteristics to find a root cause, similar to a role of the researcher in qualitative inquiry.  Sometimes asking co-workers to assist because the software is managed by their department. They quickly sent generic responses unwilling to investigate further, which I interpret as more investigation for me to find out way using personal contacts. There have been a few matters I personally requested that have resulted in meetings with individuals to improve their communication, and properly represent their department requested. In addition to being a training coordinator, I initiated surveys with a few open ended questions and likert scale like rating questions on the knowledge of information absorbed training topics using some of the options as shown below: 

Companies have departments, such as market development, dedicated to measuring the pulse of their customers, making necessary changes to processes and products. For example, a popular kids show Dora the Explorer, saw the need to age the character to appeal to audience they once had to the audience in this generation. Although young children are not faced with the same kinds of decisions as adults, it is arguable that they, too, must make choices that require them to acknowledge that what they prefer right now may differ from what they will prefer in the future (Bélanger, Atance, Varghese, Nguyen, & Vendetti, 2014, p. 2421). 

Leaders often have to reassess their goals to re-engage followers, or risk losing them. This election year in the US has generalized followers of candidates within the same political party, starting a civil war of sorts. Purposeful sampling can be used to prove or disprove these generalization. Journalist use qualitative data to describe the voters in different county districts through out the election, even the make up of the district itself. Qualitative data not only useful for journalist, but useful in our daily lives. All of us can likely lead in a positive way incorporating qualitative data to reason actions.

Bélanger, M. J., Atance, C. M., Varghese, A. L., Nguyen, V. and Vendetti, C. (2014), What Will I Like Best When I'm All Grown Up? Preschoolers' Understanding of Future Preferences. Child Development, 85: 2419–2431. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12282

LJ Research | Qualitative research, focus groups and more. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2016, from http://www.ljresearch.co.uk/market-research/market-research-services/qualitative-research-and-focus-groups/

Nassaji, H. (2015). Qualitative and descriptive research: Data type versus data analysis. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 129-132. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.1177/1362168815572747

Sanders, M. (1997). Choosing Qualitative Research: A Primer for Technology Education Researchers. Journal of Technology Education, 9(1) Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v9n1/hoepfl.html

Thinking through is learning...

I believe critical thinking is a learned skill. Every teenager has probably asked a parent, why do we go to school? It’s after the teen graduates, when they are presented with several choices, one is to continue to attend school or not, maturely reviews why to continue. 

School teaches us skills that are guided by our thoughts and actions. Nicholls et al.(1985), surveyed US 9th and 12th grade students to examine their views on the purposes of schooling, perceived causes of school success, and their orientations to learning. (Widdowson, D. A., Dixon, R. S., Peterson, E. R., Rubie-Davies, C. M. & Irving, S. E., 2015, p. 474) As predicted, they found that belief in the edification purpose of schooling was associated with greater commitment to learning and task engagement, and also belief in the importance of effort, interest and striving to understand for school success, whereas, belief in the socio-economic purpose of schooling was associated with a preference for work avoidance and belief that success involves a commitment to surpassing others’ achievement, luck and impressing the teacher (Widdowson, et al., 2015, p. 474). Nicholls’ et al.’s (1985) study suggests that students hold different beliefs on the purposes of school that relate to differences in beliefs about the nature of learning and academic motivation (Widdowson, et al., 2015, p. 474). 

Coming from a family of educators, I would see the behind the scenes effort from educators and the amount of time involved to prepare for a weeks or months of planning material to teach. I believe any educator desires at the end of every lesson, for the student to apply what they learned day by day with the support of a parent,  completing their assignments and expanding their knowledge.

I have similar beliefs when it comes to expanding my thinking skills. At first, my desire was to improve my technical and leadership skills since college, but taking this course MSLD 500, I find that a lot of my personal growth stems from thinking. I have settled with the fact that I’m a person that doesn't like to express my thoughts, out of concern that, I would be misunderstood and unable to get my point across. Settling doesn’t mean I will not change, but more of a realization much so that it happens a lot at work since I’m a forward thinker. Forward thinking in the sense of thinking of the next steps while still pondering initial steps or objective, jumping from topic to topic in my mind. For example, it’s like explaining a concept or steps in doing an activity without defining the relationship as to why the activity is important for one to learn and perform as shown. Some people are fine with working through the motions, after instructed on how to perform a task, and I’m more interested in understanding why and also sharing why this are the selected motions. I generally find myself breaking the system to make it more efficient in terms of bring attention to details, including accepting various methods for measuring performance.  

Increased attention to formal documentation of processes in my current role has me engaged in documenting process I’m not entirely responsible for but I see a need to help bridge the gaps between groups converge information. I tend to have some of the most problematic work circumstances within my team the encourages me to think through my issues by analyzing root cause, then engaging with teams through personal contacts to ask questions and assistance to escalate issues to resolution. Most of my communication is verbal and I would find my self providing history of the issue multiple times, especially when involving team members not involved but should be aware of in the times I’m unavailable. 

At the start of this class, I had a strong belief that my thinking skills were above average, even to a point when I was debating with a co-worker about the lack of quality workers being hired. To conceptualize this more, a quality worker could be someone whose able to think on their own without much supervision, reason through issues, make sound judgement calls based on factual knowledge, allocate time to work priorities, not lend on excuses and be accountable. The concept of employee integrity has significant and direct impact on the quality of job performance (Osibanjo, Akinbode,  Falola,& Oludayo, 2015, p. 110). Views of related job performance to ethics is below adapted from (Osibanjo, Akinbode,  Falola,& Oludayo, 2015, p. 109). Pinpointing ethical behavior relates to developing thinking skills beyond skills required to perform a specific job role.  

I say all of the above to say this, factors that influence my thinking is my attitude, ethic behavior, and beliefs, that I realize continues to mature as I continue to take this course. I find my thinking to be more clear when noting my opinions that I continue to work on framing my thinking to incorporate the 8 elements of reasoning and 7 standards of critical thinking. In regards to the figure above, I tend to have a little bit of utilitarian, moral-rights, and justice view when it comes to performing job duties, able to set aside my individual interest. My self interest aligns more with personally developing skills as oppose to being an opportunist. 

One change in my thinking has been to incorporate various points of views when writing my thoughts to make them more credible in reference to existing works of literature when sourcing for information. At times my attitude encourages me to think one way, something that may continue to be a lasting impact as I continue this course. To make changes last, would be to continue to practice expressing my opinions incorporating the elements of reasons and standards, explaining the stages of thinking. 

Widdowson, D. A., Dixon, R. S., Peterson, E. R., Rubie-Davies, C. M. & Irving, S. E. (2015) Why go to school? Student, parent and teacher beliefs about the purposes of schooling. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 35(4), 471-484, DOI:10.1080/02188791.2013.876973

Osibanjo, A. O., Akinbode, J. O., Falola, H. O., & Oludayo, A. O. (2015). Work ethics and employees' job performance. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 12(1), 107-117. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1726797758?accountid=27203 

Choose One

As kids, we are told to follow our dreams. Our guardians tell us the sky is the limit and to shoot for the stars, even as we grow into young adults. Life is about choices but we are often faced with factors that are not of our choosing. For example, Nordstrom just laid out some new shirts for the season. Before you enter, you know you need a red shirt, and only see 3 that you like as shown in the figure. At this point, reflect on that you had no choices on shirts displayed. Nordstrom selects to show customers and the color of red that you will find, but you still have a choice between one of the 3 or none. Also, its not like you are going to make one from scratch, unless it’s a unique skill you possess.

Red Shirt

Meyer (2014) introduced his research on choices, and stated many of the choices made in my life seem to relate to dialogue and relationships (p.174). I agree with Dr. Lyengar’s first assumption is that when it comes to making your own choices (TEDTalks: Sheena Iyenga, 2010), that only holds when oneself is divided from others. Most of our choices are shaped by pre-existing factors that we must stay within for some its because of how our guardian taught us and we don’t want to disappointment them and others pick up a few things in life and change courses. Meyer (2014) discussed his association with Southern States Communication Association (SSA) and stated peer pressure brought him there, and he went to be become the president, again referring to peer pressure (p. 173). Meyer’s could’ve stated instead of peer pressure, use the word support, and in this context means, in agreement with other’s actions or ideas enough to provide assistance in various ways. Meyer’s recognized the extent of how much someone could influence choice, you didn’t think to make like climbing a ladder and your not sure why. 

I recall enrolling into college mentoring program straight out of high school and asked during the middle of it, a major to pick so I can be enrolled my first semester. I had no clue on what to pick, and after the counselor described a few to me, still didn’t know, she made a suggestion and I remember convincing myself it was a good pick, without questioning why the others were not good picks. 

Where to go from here?

The second assumption, more choices yields better choices, I must agree that with more choices can become overwhelming. Dr. Lyengar study on people choosing between 10 or more options showed they make poorer decisions. I recall shopping at Walmart trying to find a recommended fruit drink from my parent. I didn't find it at all among the many choices, similar to the colorful drinks below, I thought I needed to pick one. I decided to make a purchase and drinking my first glass I was very unpleased with the taste. I literately chose something that wasn’t looking for in the first place and was disappointed. I would have been more satisfied purchasing the recommended drink. At work, you could ask for approvals to publish new standards that impact everyone but instead you only ask a few people. The agreement of a few representing everyone is easier than getting the agreement of everyone. I agree that unlimited choice is more attractive in theory than in practice as stated by Dr. Lyengar (TEDTalks: Sheena Iyenga, 2010).

Pick one

The third assumption, never say no to choice, similar to maze, you at least want the option to chose. I agree that it is likely the most problematic limitless choice. We reflect on choices when the outcomes catch up with us, to think that we would rather do it all ourselves again, is an ideal rooted in American culture. Maybe this is why American have abundance of things, the more you have the better you feel. Most people believe in the philosophy that everything happens for a reason and in my opinion, it’s a popular belief because it lessens regretful thoughts and actions that may consume someone, if not said at all. A comforting phrase, “If I could do it all over again” is a typical saying when realizing a different path or perspective different from the one already chosen. One must realize past actions do not have to be repeated in the future, so that history will not repeat itself. 

When turning, you make a choice.

Dr. Lyengar quoted “no single narrative serves the needs of everyone from everywhere and Americans can benefit from incorporating new perspective in their narrative, which has been driving choices for so long” (TEDTalks: Sheena Iyenga, 2010).The implications from her comments portrays Americans as self-righteous values of choice belonging to the individual and strengthening cultural influence to mold other countries to accept American view. Years of war is an indication that the American view is become less attractive to other countries to shift towards (governing structures) but embrace how the are different; some taking a more radical approach to resist the American culture.

It took several decades for manufacturing companies in America to see the true value in W. Edwards Deming’s philosophy of quality that lead Japan to dominate the world market in quality. American’s didn’t notice the significance until CBS broadcasted Deming’s documentary in the 80’s. It may take much longer before Americans can realize the limitations of assumptions, and that choice are mostly interdependent.

Meyer, J. C. (2014). Communication, Relationships, and the Choices We Make. Southern Communication Journal, 79(3), 172-179. doi:10.1080/1041794X.2014.914420

TEDTalks: Sheena Iyengar--The Art of Choosing [Motion picture on Online Video]. (2010). TED.

The Library

           Library is the repository of sources, resources and services for its users (Kumar, 2015, p. 259). Earlier, library was known as the store house of the dead tree media documents viz. books, manuscripts and manuals and their retrieval system was manual (Kumar, 2015, p. 259). Today, libraries are used for more than just book rental, but as tutoring locations for mentors and students, public meeting locations for local organization, and sponsoring interactive educational events inviting local and national contributors to literature. Figure to the left shows a section of a library dedicated to manuscripts and compared figure to the right shows students studying and books available to read. Some libraries are large enough to store old and new information.

              

            Local residents would commute to libraries when open as scheduled. Some had extended night hours, when others would close at specific time. Where I live, there is one big central library, such as the NY Public library, and several smaller ones in different districts. The smaller ones are open less during the week and closed more readily due to emerging technologies such as automation, and less staffing.

            Emerging technologies have changed the concept of the library and the accessibility of the material become easier (Kumar, 2015, p. 259) such as the internet. When patrons enter a library they are usually greeted by computer to search through the library catalog to find articles. The same catalog is accessible from their homes by way of the internet.

            One of the first library portals on the internet was designed in 1995, known as the, Internet Public Library (IPL) by students attend the University of Michigan’s School of Information, after a faculty member thought it would be interesting and education for them to create a public library (Davidsen, 2008, p. 6). The difference between a portal and a website is that as explained by Davidson (2008), portals offered a subject directory to quality Internet sites and services parts of the library mission (p. 6). A library portal can take a very narrow point of view or an expansive world view and can be produced by educational institutions, commercial firms or governments (Davidsen, 2008, p. 6).

            Google, shown below, and Yahoo are considered portals for all with internet access vs. portals tailored for specific audiences such as the Hunt Library available for ernie account users. 

           Hunt Library is one of two libraries that can be accessed by student, employee, and faculty members at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. A picture of the search bar is below similar to the google search bar above. Two objectives of IPL, as described by Davidson, 2008, it provides a teaching and research environment for faculty (p. 80), Hunt Library objectives are similar. Hunt Library, named after it’s first president Jack R. Hunt, highlights in part of it’s mission statement, acting as an academic support unit, and maintains flexibility and is proactive in meeting the changing information needs of its clientele (Embry, 2016). 

           I use Hunt Library as a resource to find information relevant to a body of work for educational development of cognitive skills and insight into tested hypotheses. An opinion remains one, until there is physicality behind it, which could be based on experience, tested hypothesis or scientific findings conducted by scholars. A scholar could be a teacher or expert in a field. Shown below is are a few scholars or newly certified experts dressed for a graduation posting in front of their alma mater.

         

           

           A resource is scholarly in nature because experts spends years testing hypotheses, either to introduce a new viewpoint or interpretation or expand on an existing one. Once complete, they publish their findings on portals such as Hunt Library for professional development and educational purposes. Shared knowledge is powerful enough to change how we see things, literately, such as studies on GMO foods, gluten free labels. Many food brands have transitioned clearly labeling products that are gluten free because of FDA regulations.

          Google and Yahoo, are popular portals that returns results with the use of a single word or more. For example, when googling leadership concepts, you receive multiple results ( 277 million) from social media profiles, blogs, databases and presentations that discuss concepts. Many results include just one search word instead of both. You can also see questions others queried in google about in relation to the topic, as shown below. 

                                            

          Some of the results are published by scholars, or people who are not scholars, but have an interest or in discussing the topic online. If you were to search for the same topic using Hunt Library, the results (877K) show literally works that include both words, mostly books and journal articles. You can limit your results by filtering to see full text only, scholars & peer reviewed only, etc as shown below.

             Typical information on public portals are mostly opinions, trending news that can include opinions and evidence based information for quick review investigative research. Some portals have a section similar to Hunt Library, where you can search through scholarly books and articles. Hunt Library continues to be a great resource for further learning outside of course materials and I often use results found to create my own body of work.

  

Sources:

Davidsen, S. L. (2008). The Internet Public Library and the History of Library Portals. Journal of Library Administration, 43(1-2), 5-18. doi:10.1300/J111v43n01_02

Kumar, N. (2015). E-resources: Milestone in the history of library. Indian Journal of Library and Information Science, 9(3), 259-264. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/1767579692?accountid=27203

Pellegrini, N. and Agostoni, C. (2015), Nutritional aspects of gluten-free products. J. Sci. Food Agric., 95: 2380–2385. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.7101

          

       

Personal Standards

                   Important aspects of my life involve daily routines such as going grocery shopping, contacting family members, and checking off items on my to do list. I believe standards are necessary to evaluate the quality of my routines and embracing ideals through daily activity. Some are self taught and others a innate beliefs. Some important standards are critical thinking ones such as reliable, consistent and testable. 

Time could be on your side
(adapted from internet images)

               Being reliable was the first compliment I received while performing a job. The word reliable has a two-fold meaning in my opinion. One meaning is to be available as stated and the second meaning is to fully engage resources to completion, in other words, work until completion with desired outcome. I hold the standard of consistency the same way. 

                  Sometimes I find myself avoiding being consistent all the time to incorporate standards such as spontaneity or rewarding my accomplishments by going out to have fun.

         But when I’m consistent, it means my attempt to execute task on my to do list is done with the same passion and desire for favorable outcomes as previously completed tasks. 

                I’m uniquely discipline by my weakness of not giving myself enough credit. Recognition and awarding, something that is your responsibility or due diligence to perform, is not why I do it in the first place. My reaction is internal celebration, unseen by most, that contributes to positive energy. I adapted to something when I’m happy with the results. This could mean trying different hairstyles if it takes me all day, valuing the end result not the hours spent. 

               My testable standard is exemplified when challenging myself  to assuming roles that I’m a little hesitant to perform for an organization, like coordinate the largest event of year or become a board members. Sourcing for information that already exist, by not imitating it, but initiating a starting point. I consider myself a late adopter in product consumption but an innovator with futuristic thoughts of how to improve existing situations. 

                                                                    Good eats:

When in a hurry, this is dinner.

             My upbringing is a testament of these standards. My parents balanced each other, seeing one involved in community activities and the other not so much but attentive to things that that benefit them. For example, leave one job to go to another or meeting, execute task, sign up for another task, then come home and start working a personal list. I usually prepare in advance, so I don’t compromise my physical, mental and emotion health, although, my goal is to continuously improve. 

Shrimp and Grits 

              If I was to rate my daily activities one a scale of unselfish to selfish acts, the scale would fall more to the unselfish side. This is not to say everything you do as selfish, but just for visual, as stated by a few of my peers, enjoy life. I have been told recently by several peers, I do too much for others and not enough for myself.

          My standards have evolved over the years such as not thinking twice about being a generous friend (for example, not asking for money back if I paid for them). I sorta picked it up from another friend, and explaining it to my younger sister in terms of giving up something for the return of something doesn’t always have to be the same. By popular opinion, some would associate as indian giving, or expecting something in return. I find myself giving more advice to others, rather than really living it, therefore, I try to incorporate more of my own advice. 

Lounging at the Movies. Hard to see but the seats are recliners

             I have learned to incorporate more free time in my schedule, scaling back on some of my direct involvement in activities, such as captain of health walks, and supporting indirectly through financial means or attending as an observer. I value integrity and always try to correct something when finding it was not don’t right. I don’t want to call myself a perfectionist but when I sign up for something, I will apply these standards more so than any others.