Angelos Konstantinidis : Weblog items tagged with thoughts

A more refined topic and some thoughts about strategy selection

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:51:50 GMT

Topic:

Which are the beliefs for assessment among ICT teachers of secondary-high schools, what assessment methods they employ (i.e. traditional paper-based/online) and how their assessment beliefs and methods are affected by their implicit beliefs about knowledge and learning.

As Robson notes, the research questions help in determining the strategy. Therefore, taking into account that I am seeking to:

Answer “which” questions (i.e. “which are the assessment beliefs of ICT teachers?”, “which are their epistemological beliefs?”), I should consider to deploy a non-epxerimental fixed strategy such as a survey
Answer “how” and “what” questions (i.e. “what assessment methods ICT teachers prefer?”, “how their assessment beliefs and methods correlate with their implicit beliefs about knowledge and learning?”), I should also consider to deploy a flexible strategy.

However, there seem to be some problems in my topic concerning the implicit beliefs and their relation to assessment beliefs. How can I be so sure that there is indeed a mechanism, which is in operation? May be implicit beliefs does not affect assessment beliefs or methods, or that their relation is trivial while other mechanisms are more dominant. Therefore, it is clear the need to search the literature more thoroughly before proceeding to that question.

References:

Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers, 2nd Edition. Colin Robson. (p.80, 91)

two more prescribed topics

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:24:20 GMT

1. what seem to be the main motivators (drivers/stimuli) or hindrances for teachers to use ICT in their assessment practice; epistemological beliefs implication in selecting their assessment method.

2. how epistemological beliefs (beliefs about knowledge and learning) affect ICT teachers' assessment beliefs and methods and what are their perceptions about students' benefits from their assessment methods.

First thoughts

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:37:15 GMT

I guess it would be beneficial to jot down some initial thoughts about my research question, so:

epistemological beliefs, beliefs about intelligence among teachers (who use ICT in their teaching) of secondary-high school education (in Greece) and how these beliefs affect their assessment beliefs and methods (note: they may employ different assessment methods incoherent with their beliefs?)
how various assessment methods can motivate or demotivate students; assessment affect students' sense of autonomy?
how students' beliefs affect their preference for assessment methods?
Should I expand to teachers-students of primary or tertiary education?
Should I focus only to secondary education or only to high schools?
Should I focus only to ICT teachers or should I include other disciplines also (provided that they use ICT in their teaching practice)?