class 3: 09/16/13building research skills

research• objectivity cannot be equated with mental

blankness; rather, objectivity resides in recognizing your preferences and then subjecting them to especially harsh scrutiny—and also in a willingness to revise or abandon your theories when the tests fail (as they usually do).

(Stephen Jay Gould, 1998, p. 18)

developing good eyes Harry Wolcott tells the story of Nathaniel Shaler who,

in the late 1800's at age18, began a tutorial in the lab of Louis Agassiz, the eminent biologist-naturalist of his time.

[Shaler] was directed to sit at a small table

with a rusty tin pan on it. Agassiz placed before him a small fish, directing him only to "study it" without damaging the specimen and to confine his attention to the specimen itself, rather than consulting printed sources or conversing with other individuals in the laboratory.

After about an hour, Shaler . . . had completed his examination and was ready to proceed to a more challenging task. . . . To his mounting distress, however, Shaler realized that Agassiz . . . had no immediate intention of returning to question him. Not that day, not the next, not for a week. And so Shaler committed himself anew to the task of observation—and in due course felt he had learned a hundred times more than in his cursory initial inspection. . . .

[O]n the seventh day...Agassiz approached and inquired, "Well?" His question unleashed an hour-long explication, while Agassiz sat on the edge of the table and puffed a cigar. Suddenly, he interrupted with the statement, "That is not right," and walked abruptly away.

Fortunately, Shaler interpreted Agassiz's behavior as a test of whether he could do hard, continuous work without constant direction. He returned to his observation task afresh, discarding his original set of notes and working up detailed new ones

for some ten hours a day for another week. And at the end of that time . . . he had results that astonished himself and apparently satisfied Agassiz, for although there were no words of praise, Agassiz subsequently placed before him a new and more complicated task and told him to see what he could make of it. That task took two months. (1981, pp. 248-249)

So. . . what did you observe on your 5-minute-a-day exercise?

the 3 levels of seeing

• All there is to thinking [doing research],” he said, “is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren’t noticing which makes you see something that isn’t even visible.”

(Norman Maclean, 1976, p. 92)

3 levels cont.

1. the immediately visible2. that which is visible but noticeable

only to the careful observer3. the invisible or the unobservable

• white: college-student leaders. • red: Chinese: little or no English. • blue: Korean: little or no English. • dark green: Indonesian: little or no English• red with yellow faces: Hong Kong: Cantonese,

English • purple singleton: Chinese-American: English • bright green, to the left: Congolese: Lingala,

English• to their right, orange: Sri Lankan: Sinhalese,

English • brown: Philippino: Filipino, English• purple: Kenyan: Swahili, English• light blue: European-American: English• tan: African-American: English• gray: Peruvian: Spanish, English.

• exceptions: purple (Congo) at either end brown (Philippines) toward either end.

all researchers must attend to• precision and accuracy

– precision: exactness of description– accuracy: extent to which we are describing

what we say we are describing

• bias and efficiency– bias: systematic error in description– efficiency: maximizing the information

gathered

• the observation “n” problem– how many observations do I need

• risk– will my research put someone at-risk

• resources and constraints– how much time, money etc. do I have– what is possible, or not

• including relevant factors and excluding irrelevant factors– am I observing (and not observing) the right

things

• framing research questions– no such thing as a logical method of

having new ideas . . . . Discovery contains “an irrational element,” or a “creative intuition.” (Karl Popper)

Krathwohl: ch 6 the literature review

functions: (p. 107)• define and refine question (problem)• what is known, who knows it, and how well it’s

known• relates question (problem) to network of

theory and explanations• finds methods and designs, problems,

refinements

• getting started:– existing reviews (RER, RRE)– handbooks– organization (AERA, DEC, OEH, ASA, APHA,

AAA, etc.) programs– key articles’ references– researchers familiar with the area– ERIC– Google Scholar– JSTOR

• See Krathwohl figure 6.1

• terms• controlled vocabulary• keyword indexing• citation indexing• original and secondary sources

• copy Table 6.1 and keep handy• copy Tips for Writing Lit Review (pp. 127-

128) and keep handy

from Krathwohl• Many researchers, especially those who use

qualitative or inductive methods, expect their problem focus to emerge as they do their study. Therefore, to consult the literature too early will burden them with other people’s perceptions rather than allowing them to form their own. (p. 109)

• inductive: proceeding from particular facts to a general conclusion

Vogt & Johnson• aggregate data• applied research• case study• control for• dummy variable (first paragraph)• ecological fallacy• emic, etic• endogenous, exogenous• experiment (first & third paragraph)• gambler’s fallacy

ethics: Sieber & Tolich: Ch 4

• studying the dark side of human nature– deception research

• stimulus control or random assignment• responses to low-frequency events• valid data without serious risk to subjects• unobtainable data

• Asch (1956): conformity• Milgram (1963): obedience to authority• Zimbardo (1971): Stanford Prison Simulation• Humphreys (1975): tearoom trade

• “in sum, in the matter of Z, H, & M, and after considerable reflection, we approve their studies subject to the changes recommended above” P. 75)

Tavernise: Study of babies did not disclose risks• A federal agency has found that a number of

prestigious universities failed to tell more than a thousand families in a government-financed study of oxygen levels for extremely premature babies that the risks could include increased chances of blindness or death.

• The letter stated that the study did have an effect on which infants died and which developed blindness, and that those risks were not properly communicated to the parents, depriving them of information needed to decide whether to participate.

academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to: a. fabrication or falsification of data, including intentionally

misleading, selective, or deliberately false reporting of credentials or other academically related information. Unacknowledged appropriation of the work of others, including plagiarism, the abuse of confidentiality with respect to unpublished materials, or misappropriation of physical materials.

b. evasion of or intentional failure after notice by the University or federal, state, or another appropriate agency to comply with research regulations or requirements, including but not limited to those applying to human subjects, laboratory animals, new drugs, radioactive materials, genetically altered organisms, and to safety; and

c. other conduct which seriously deviates from accepted ethical standards in scholarship.

d.http://www.vpaa.uillinois.edu/Policies/integrityresearch/index.cfm

Chicago Tribune, August 31, 1999|By Jeremy Manier UIC Research Ban Prompts New Questions• More than 600 faculty, students and staff at the UIC Chicago

packed a town meeting at the school Monday, posing pointed questions to top officials about why federal regulators have halted research on humans at the school, and how to remedy the situation. They voiced worries that fallout from the suspension could damage everything from ongoing clinical cancer research at UIC, to applications for federal grants, to funding for graduate student training.

• "OPRR [Office for Protection from Research Risks] finds that UIC officials senior to the former vice chancellor for research knew, or should have known, about these deficiencies for a considerable period of time. In failing to remedy these deficiencies in a timely manner, UIC officials at the highest levels undermined the mission of the IRB and failed to ensure respect for the primacy of human subject protections within the UIC community."

writingdirect & indirect quotations

<40 words• Price (1982) wrote, “Interventionists make efforts to

teach and typically do expect mastery, whereas anti-interventionists avoid teaching what they perceive as difficult, because they fear that children will be harmed by unreasonable expectations for mastery” (p. 282).

• Price (1982) wrote that “interventionists make efforts to teach and typically do expect mastery, whereas anti-interventionists avoid teaching what they perceive as difficult, because they fear that children will be harmed by unreasonable expectations for mastery” (p. 282).

>40 words Ayers (1993) observed,

We experience our own culture from the deepest levels toward the surface, and so our own culture can be largely invisible to us. . . . When we look at another culture, however, we tend to see the surface first, and we may fail to probe toward the deeper well-springs of meaning. This, too, can cut us off, and make culture and other people invisible. (p. 79)

Culture, then, is most challenging to see, whether our own or another’s. . . .

grad lifeWildavsky: the organization of time

• honor the sabbath: have an inviolable day off• do not do for yourself what others can do for

you• spend money to buy time• play when you play but work when you work• learn to fill up the small fragments of time• organize flow of your work: avoid waiting to

work• avoid downtime: plan ahead

• keep yourself supplied with work• control schedule: finish small things ahead of

time• have a rule to have rules• if you can’t think of what to do with something,

throw it away• defend your work time, but don’t be a

workaholic• keep conversations with students businesslike• keep things short• be careful about taking on new obligations• efficient use of time makes it easier to let go

rules• keep list short• keep doable• once made, let people know about them• be specific

– exercise every day not a good rule– CRCE mon, wed, fri 6:30-7:30 a good rule– I will read ahead not a good rule– I will finish all readings a day ahead a good

rule

more top tips• get to know the grad programs secretary in

your department and treat her well• work out regularly—get exercise• maintain a life and passion outside of grad

school, e.g., read novels, listen to music, dance, skate, play music, join a club

• do graduate school—don’t let graduate school do you

good resources• Chronicle of Higher Education

– academe’s job ads– available on line:

• www.chronicle.com

• Tomorrow’s Professor– https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/ listin

fo/tomorrows-professor/

best quick (& semi-quick) getaways

• Carle Park (Urbana: Iowa St. 3 blks east of Lincoln—15 minute walk)

• Meadowbrook Park (Urbana: Windsor east of Race—short bike ride)

• quads: main, engineering, Beckman• Urbana Free Library, Champaign Public Library

free (or cheap) stuff this week• under construction