My goals for this semester

As I begin this semester, I want to think about what I'd like to accomplish. Ideally, I would like to do a research study that will serve as a pilot study for my eventual dissertation study. I'm still undecided (and need help in this decision) whether I should do a replication of my Spring 2005 Case Study. I see already that this class will provide me with a more sophisticated understanding of my methodology and my choice of exact methods. The question I have now is whether a Case Study will reveal anything meaningful about reflection and its role in the writing act.

Reading Patricia Goubil-Gambrell's article on research methods provided a good overview of the different methods. I see from my previous work that I have been far too fast to draw generalizable conclusions from the data I have so far analyzed. Heck, from my last class in Contemporary Rhetoric and my exposure to post-modern thinking, can we ever reach any generalizable conclusions. She says, "The purpose of qualitative research is to identify salient features or variables in the situation" (588). It is descriptive in nature. It makes me think a bit (just a comparison here) about the role teaching demonstrations have within the National Writing Project model of faculty development. They demonstrate some teaching strategy or assignment in action for that teacher's students. We watch how they accommodate their own situation and reach the students in that situation. IF we generalize from that teacher's demonstration it is in how we might adapt it to fit within our own teaching context. What is the first question to start discussion after an NWP demo? "How might you use this assignment in your classroom?" It is never a one-for-one match.

Thinking about the role my research might have in terms of the function of an NWP teaching demo is actually very helpful for me. The problem, however, is if I set up too rigid of perameters for when and how this reflection happens. The problem is if I believe that reflection done only in this way in this situation within the writing process will get these results. I'm still caught to a degree in desiring a cause-effect relationship which means that I would need to use a different methodology (experimental): "As Lauer and Asher have noted, co-occurrences are often misinterpreted as cause-and-effect relationships in qualitative research" (589. That is what I have tended to do with my observations of repeated results in my previous results. I have to ponder this weakness and see how I might avoid it this time (if I do another case study).