As the technology and economy developing, science and mathematics education has been considered to be important. However, small rural schools in British Columbia are confronted with barriers to accessing senior science courses. The current study aims to explore what barriers the students are facing and how the students, teachers, and schools can overcome the barriers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in this study. The results show that there are multiple reasons that contributed to the barriers and there should be changed in teachers’ preparation, schools’ organization and so on. Furthermore, this study puts forward the conception “border crossing” and emphasizes the significance of cultural education and connecting communities through technology. From my perspective, it is very necessary to take account of local historical, political, economic condition as well as school culture when providing science and mathematics courses for students. At the same time, students’ situation, beliefs about culture and prior knowledge is another factor that teachers should consider while attaching enough importance to the relationship between students and them.
My question is: as far as I know, the questionnaire is always used to obtain quantitative data. But in this article, it is used in qualitative phase. How can we identify if a questionnaire is used to collect quantitative or qualitative data?
My question is: as far as I know, the questionnaire is always used to obtain quantitative data. But in this article, it is used in qualitative phase. How can we identify if a questionnaire is used to collect quantitative or qualitative data?
Please open the picture in a new page so that the picture can be clear!
ReplyDeleteI am amazed by how technology and global economic shift have changed our lives, especially those from a rural community. As an educator, I agree with you and the author that teachers should incorporate environmental contexts in teaching. There's no such thing as one size fits all.
ReplyDeleteAs to your question, I came across research using questionnaires to collect demographic information from the interviewees, such as gender, age, education background, and so on. Questionnaires sometimes contain open questions, which can be categorised as qualitative data collection.
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ReplyDeleteDear Yuxi, the research is very relevant and you outlined the purpose and outcomes very well. It is interesting to see how important science and mathematics is to the development of a nation, and the research points out factors that facilitate the access combined with technology. In regards to your question, quantitate research focuses more on the ability to complete statistical analysis, whereas qualitative research methods provide the answers to how or why. So, I also believe qualitative questionnaires will focus on the answers to open-ended questions, with multiple and diverse responses.
ReplyDeleteHi Yuxi!
ReplyDeleteReally appreciated your post. I also found how you deconstructed the article using the vee chart to be very useful - it helped me to understand the article better. And even how to complete the chart.
I agree with Lilian and Jingyu about their comments on qualitative research. In practice, I have used surveys with a combination of quantitative (example, ratings or yes and no questions) and qualitative (open-ended questions). In fact, I think it's important to use both hand in hand to understand where the respondent is coming from (i.e. their lived experience) that led them to answer a question a certain way. Although albeit, adding such questions does make drawing conclusions from research more difficult as subjectivity increases. I find including both quantitative and qualitative elements to be super helpful though.
Reading your post, I couldn't help but think about the CBC podcast interviewing Dr. Yuval Harari, that I listened to for the first assignment. As you pointed out in your world view, there is a deep relationship between science/ math and technology. Dr. Harari points out in the interview that our system is failing to educate us on the upcoming significant changes in technology (what he refers to as the artificial intelligence revolution), and that much of humanity will be left behind if we don't change the system to help these people. He uses an example of Bangladeshi garment workers (see my post if you're interested), but I personally believe we can apply this logic to a local perspective as well. If the system doesn't change to help reduce barriers to understanding math/science and ultimately technology for people in rural BC, there is risk that they may be part of the population Dr. Harari is referring to.