September 8
From Purdue International Biology Education Research Group
Discussion Summary:
- Differences between phenomenography and phenomenology: phenomenography describes the range of experiences that participants have, while phenomenology looks for commonalities "the essence of an experience" across many participants
- Who did constructivism originate with? Piaget, Vygotsky (social constructivism), Driver, Ausubel, others
- Who/what you cite in a research paper depends on the field and the journal, but should include both original theory and current publications in the field
- Qualitative methods books are a good resource for understanding the assumptions, limitations, and possible research questions for different theories
- A theoretical framework (sometimes called a conceptual framework) includes all of the theory, research literature, and constructs you are basing your work on, all connected and layered on each other. This can often be represented by a web of related concepts and constructs
- In a paper, illustrate how the theoretical framework/conceptual framework is used in the study
- Don't have to stick to one established theoretical framework, can use pieces from multiple other theories/frameworks
- Provide operational definitions for terms and indicate how you are using them
- Important to consider what questions are answered by a theoretical framework and how it informs all the aspects of research
- There is not much consensus in the community (biology/chemistry/science education research) about theoretical frameworks in research
