As a doctoral student myself, who is a few years away from the dissertation,
I am finding this thread quite interesting.
In Greta's defense, she is using robust stats. Yes, she may have a small
sample and that may limit the transferability of her conclusions to the
entire population od cpers out there, but her conclusions can be valid
nonetheless.
So far, it seems many students (and even the profs) are gungho on
qualitative research and case studies at Towson. But yet we have read and
debated/discussed several articles about the dire need for more scientific,
quantitative studies in the field of education, as they are deemed more
"robust". I, for one, tend to lean that way myself. I like numbers and
hard facts that can be gleaned from quantitative measures. But
realistically, I bet when I actually do my study, I will probably use mixed
methods so that I can have a smaller sample with qualitative data and then
run some aspect of my problem through quantitative measures as well to check
for validity.
I think that as long as Greta identifies and explains her sample population
thoroughly, she can draw conclusions from her data. Yes, she may be
excluding the "gifted" cp folks in her study, but she is allowed to make
that decision.
Linda
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: now greta's stats
>I remember being interviewed by someone at school. I had to answer
> questions at the time I thought were unusual but now after all these
> years it makes
> sense. I went to Sunbeam School in Cleveland, OH. When I started there
> it
> was only for the disabled. Alexander Graham Bell was the school for the
> deaf
> and Anthony Wayne was the school for the blind. All three were right
> next to
> each other. Now that mainstreaming has been in effect, it's harder to
> track
> down those you want to do a survey like this.
>
> "Nobody tells you how to live your life, you've got to do it on your
> own!"
> Alice Cooper "Freedom"
>
> Michael Jeffries ICQ #53522767
> AOL MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger ID MJeff25916
>
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