Campus Session 3 09-11-11

I wanted to reassume with this post the points we discussed in this last campus session.

Paula and Rosemary introduced us to the topic of the third and last Reader 6:

The Tools of Practice

• Observation
• Interview
• Survey
• Focus Groups

We talked about we of them with a useful slideshow that Paula prepared for us and that will soon be up on the Libguides.

Together with our final exam we need to include 3 pieces of literature that concern our general topic of inquiry. In my case it's training within different cultures and its benefit / disadvantages / consequences.

~ It can be a point of view of the author that can agree/disagree from what we originally think of, or that simply gives us a different framework we hadn't considered before, nonetheless the task should aim to catch and understand what the author wants to say.

~We should consider few different points of a literature piece:

1. The author may have a political/moral point of view and therefore could be lead by it.
2. The author can be commissioned when writing an article (journalist) and therefore have to follow certains dictated rules and codes of practice.
3. The piece could be a documents of regulations, code of practice of an organization therefore very strict to that particular work environment  and not necessarily pertaining to our topic, but it can still be further knowledge for the overall chosen interest.  
4. It can be published or un-published therefore have to be handed with the appropriate ethical behavior and understanding.

~Paula showed us come examples of literatures:

• journals (online or newspaper)
• articles
• books
• documents of interviews
• videos
• tapes
• blog
• Government regulations
• TV programes 
• magazines

and how to find them:

• Google documents
• Google search ( Trying to keep the search easy cutting it down to the key words necessary, more appropriate articles will show up.)
• E-books
• Online libraries ( e.g. MDX University )
• Reading Newspaper
• Searching code of practices and regulation at work.

~ We then discussed wich tools we may choose to research our topic:

Observation task:
We did an exercise in 2 groups of 3 where one person would be the interviewee, one the interviewer and the 3rd the observer, then we rotated the task and discussed what was noticed.
One of the things that was mostly noticeable and important for an interview was the body language.
When Rosemary "acted" pretending to be a student, her body language was: crossed arms, leaning back on the chair, wandering eyes, thinking a lot before speaking...her attitude showed and made me understand her lack of interest. This is to show the importance of reading body language of who we interview, in order to put the right importance and relevance for our research.

Interview:
It was also pointed out how important is how we approach the interviewee, we need to be aware of the ethical issues that may apply. We have to inform about the purpose of the interview and the privacy needs to be safeguarded when personal information are given.

Another very interesting point was how we formulate questions. We need to make sure we avoid YES or NO questions, as that doesn't give us any material for reflection.
Also leading questions should be avoided as that obviously puts our opinion at front and puts the person interviewed in a restriced situation of expression.

e.g. Why the latest Government's actions are the cause of our financial crisis?


This question clearly puts our particular opinion that the Government's actions ARE the cause of our crisis, it should have been formulated somewhere around this:

       What do you believe are the causes of our financial crisis?


This question keeps the answer as open as possible, letting the person interviewed the complete freedom of expression without feeling judged or under pressured by us.


~ The final information that has been given us at this campus session was a reminder about the submission we should all (students) send in by the 5th of December:

1. Ethical Release form
2. Employer Professional Support Form ( or Mentor, Former Teacher for un-employed students)
3. A Rationale of our Proposed Award Title.

After this session I have definitely a clearer idea on my mind of Part 6 of this Module!
Hope this blog post can give an overall idea of what it's been discussed for those who couldn't make it...I always found it very useful when someone in the past blogged about campus sessions I'd missed so I hope I can pass the favor to others!

:)