|
|
This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.
Research Methods and Analysis
The study design employed an experimental within-subjects repeated-measures design using a mixed-methods approach with qualitative and quantitative measures (Minimum, King, & Bear, 1993). Quantitatively, the Repeated Measure Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was utilized to determine statistical significance in the ratings in the observation rubric called the Inquiry Assessment Rubric (IAR) developed by the researcher. The IAR was tested for inter-rater reliability (.8 or better on all items). Validity was beginning to be established by sharing the rubric with methods instructors and volunteers who provided feedback, clarification, and revision, as well as piloting the rubric for assessing student documents. This rubric was applied to written documents from each course that was applied on four different occasions during the four-sequenced science teaching methods courses, as well as interview transcripts and videos of preservice science teachers’ inquiry lessons during their student teaching internship for a longitudinal study. The IAR was used to measure students’ understandings of inquiry in terms of how clearly they could express their ideas about inquiry and the ways the preservice teachers envisioned students learning through inquiry investigations. The first science teaching methods course created a “Vision Statement” of their science classroom by measuring two points in time—once as a pre-test at the beginning of the first methods course and again as a post-test at the end of the course. The second science teaching methods course created a document very similar to the Vision Statement, called the RBF for their teaching, and attended an interview to defend their statements. The different aspect was that the students needed to locate several research articles to support their teaching philosophies and descriptions. The third course refined their RBFs and, again,