transitions in the wild

how many studies should be in a paragraph? + how to generate paragraphs with multiple studies in them

compare this to the student paragraphs in these examples. 

flush numbers; don't bullet numbers

these are the student literature reviews we looked at in class on Wednesday

Here is the literature review we actually looked at in class on 3/8

And here is the one I intended to look at on 3/8, which resulted from  categorization error on my part. Always helpfully label your stuff, and put it in the same place consistently.   This latter one is significantly more helpful. If you look at the colors, you'll notice how I break paragraphs into ideas, checking to see not only if a paragraph could be broken into two, but also whether a section could be rearranged according to a self-conscious application of the topoi. Remember, all organizational decisions ought to have taken place consciously. On the rubric, I say you must at least be able to discern an implicit strategy in your results section's prose, and the job of the "baby intro," as I'll call it, is to make what implicit strategy you do in fact write explicit and available for critique.

Example of a good, realistic distribution of transition words in published public health prose

notes from 3/6

Here's the notes from class 3/6.

cont.

division = divides a concept into areas

In the research literature on EPB, there are at least two different ways to think about the term "complexity." There is the sense in which the decision-making process of the practitioner is considered too complex to reduce to the EPB's stringent, deductive criteria  (Kemm, 2006). But it is also used in the pejorative sense to show how the strategies to discredit sound scientific judgement are becoming ever more sophisticated (Rosenstock & Lee, 2002). 

more and less = presenting information in terms of size

Overwhelmingly, the rejoinder from the qualitative camp is that EBP research is too reductive, that is, because its criteria are too narrow to include many individuals that the research de facto  applies to (Lenne & Waldby, 2011). On of the things that more qualitative, or at least mixed methods research does is increase a research program's scope: in other words, these researchers argue for a broad and generousness sense of complexity that refers to the richness of life, plus the attitude of being unwilling or unable to reduce it to deductive terms (Martin & Sturmberg, 2009).

space = sets for the parameters of work; tries to see things "next to" or 'beside" other things (in any way it can)

Interestingly, as soon as one extends the reach of EBP into the realm of public health, we immediately begin to see the limits of its usefulness. In other words, it can be argued that EBP is better at home in the context of medical research, that is, used by and for other medical researchers. But, as soon as practitioners in public health try to re-purpose this knowledge for lay consumption, it begins to break down. Surely, there is a scientific way to determine what the best method for breast feeding is, but, as what happens when we try to apply that knowledge at an inner city women's center (in Aveyard 2014)? It's not that it does't apply. But additional research is needed to determine what epistemic supplements EBP needs to be effective in context. 

Hierarchy of value in publishing

The importance/relevance axis vs. The theme/logic of comparison axis

Narrowing a research question

in class work 2-13 -> 2-15

Here's an example of another student from a different semester doing a synthesis matrix.

Our's is close to this, but not quite, because, to obviate redundancy, I'm collapsing two assignments into one: that's why this assignment is called the "critical appraisal/synthesis matrix."

These questions might help you critically evaluate.

By "critical appraisal," part of what I mean is in Aveyard (p. 144):



Pay particular attention to the strengths and limitations on the far right. A full critical appraisal would also seek to answer questions such as these (p. 109):



These questions are similar to these, which I also linked above. Use these above questions not only to trigger critical thinking but also to input the strengths and limitations you need for the critical appraisal/synthesis matrix. You'll also have to consider the context:



Notice how the setting in which the research was conducted directly bear on how strong the evidence is for this research question (i.e., your research question).

Ok. I just made a rudimentary critical appraisal/synthesis matrix grid. Don't feel obligated to use this exact grid. In fact I really dislike it. But it'll work. But you have to make one with all of these categories. And you have to do it for all ten of your required sources. That is, you will need to find and tentatively work with ten sources via both research journals, but you will have to re-work with the same ten sources through the synthesis matrix/critical appraisal grid. The first five are due not this Friday but next (2/24). All ten are due by 3/3.

What you have to do isn't simple, but you simply have to fill in the boxes. Here is the example of me filling it out.

2/6: whiteboard

the types of literature google doc

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N4rW27eHs879eFdlT8dUjSB0TKtHEbat9bPQxRs15WQ/edit?usp=sharing

here

in class work for 2/6 + 2/8

The task for today is, first of all, to work either by yourself, or in a team (in a team, if you don't have a laptop; make a friend). You will work to see what else is "out there" for your topic in terms of methodology, that is, besides your most important method, which will be reflected in your hierarchy of evidence and eventually in your literature review. On your chosen topic, you will need to locate five different studies, each employing a different method. For each one (i.e., for each of the five), you will need to answer all of the following questions:

1. How do you reference this journal in an APA work cited?
2. What method is being used?
3. How do the authors use the method? What do they use it for? What specifically does the method enable them to do? Why did they choose this method rather than another? What was it about this research agenda/topic that led them to choose this particular method? Answer a handful of these. They all get at similar thing. But I want blocks of texts. 
4. What is the conclusion of the study? And how did the method enable them to reach that particular conclusion?
5. What was one interesting thing you discovered by leafing through this article? 

You ought to have twenty five bullet-pointed items at the end, then. You can either answer them directly on your blog, or answer them on paper. If you answer them on paper, be sure to take a picture with your phone of each page of writing, and each page should have each team member's name on it. You will then need to upload the pictures to each of your blogs. Each answer will be worth a point. If you look to the syllabus, you will see that it allows for in class work to be factored into your final grade. Regardless, it is your responsibility to make it painfully obvious on your blog that you did this, and that you did this in accordance with the instructions. Also label this "in class exercise 2/6 + 2/8" in your labels section. (Be sure you're labeling every entry to your blog.) Whatever you don't finish this week is homework. It took me about fifteen minutes to do the example below. The most important bits are in bold, which you should bold too.

Example of what working with one method in one article would look like:

1. Westberrya, N. & Franken, M. (2015). Pedagogical distance: explaining misalignment in student-driven online learning activities using Activity Theory. Teaching in Higher Education 20(3), 300–312. Print. 
2. Activity Theory
3. The authors used to method to measure the student's change in knowledge through time (302). They show students usually begin online discussions with energy, but only engage for as long as they have to: "It seemed that the students’ main goal was to show their own understanding by completing their discussion posting as expediently as possible in order to gain marks for themselves" (305). To continue: "The data suggest that students placed little value on the task and their commitment to other students. They limited their exposure to others’ texts by reading as few as possible and quickly completed the feedback task; they expressed little interest in enhancing their peers’ understandings or having their own understandings advanced by their peers; and they felt a two-way lack of commitment" (306). Or to go back: "they avoided deeper and prolonged interaction such as an exchange of postings with other students and rarely returned to the forum after they had posted" (305). The method enables them to study not how learning takes place theoretically or ideally but in practice, that is, as enabled by social relations. Likewise, the same social relations that enable a student to be encouraged by others online also enable that discussion to turn into a "repressive monologue" (303).
4. The conclude that, in online discussions, students are can't "effectively learn in the absence of the teacher" (311). That is, because "[o]ne overriding implication arising from this research is a need for teachers of online courses using repeating interactive activities to retain a pedagogical presence and as part of this role, to guide students’ interpretation and construction of learning objects so that alignment occurs between student and teacher understandings and between the planned and enacted curriculum" (310). It appears that these methods enabled the researchers to reach this particular conclusion because activity theory is attuned to showing how people can have different perspectives on the same thing, and how these differing perspectives can generate contradictions that make peoples' interaction with one another less satisfying or inefficient: "The lecturer’s description of the activity remained fairly constant. She believed that peer feedback could help students improve their writing. However, one student and the two tutors did not appear to share her perspective from the outset, instead, questioning the efficacy of the activity at the beginning. It seemed that these three participants occupied a parallel existence, either engaging with the activity in a half-hearted manner or actually subverting and changing the activity" (309).
5. One interesting thing I encountered was the idea that different perspectives on the same thing can create a distance only activity theory can measure. 

from class 2/1