Draft Purpose Statement

The purpose of this three-phase, sequential mixed method study is to clarify the role of reflection within the Freshman Composition curriculum at Texas Tech University. The first phase of the study will be a qualitative exploration of the design intentions behind reflection's place in the curriculum by interviewing present and past Composition Program Administrators. In the second phase, ideas and themes from these interviews will then be developed into a survey so that the intentions and expectations about reflection articulated by the designers of the curriculum can be tested against the attitudes and experiences of those who deliver the curriculum (Classroom and Document Instructors) and those who experience the curriculum (students). In the third phase, qualitative interviews will be used to probe significant results from the survey in more depth.

Commentary: This purpose statement was created based upon some templates that Creswell offers in chapter 5. I don't particularly like "three-phase, sequential mixed method study," but the more I learn about my design the more I see it fits. I'm also getting a better idea of the sequence. 1) explore to find, 2) test these findings, 3) triangulate results of survey with interviews. I see now that if I wanted to make my study simple, I would have left out step three. 1 and 2 might have been enough, but no, I had to make it hard on myself. I'm still not sure about the survey as a "test," but in a way that is what it is. I am going to test how representative certain beliefs, attitudes, and experiences about reflection are across the general population of instructors and students. Getting response from instructors may be hard!

One thing that I may see happen is that this purpose statement will gain definition after I do the study. What I write up in my report may be much more defined as far as results tested.