Week 10: Research on Research

And we are in the final run of my senior project. As the weeks pass and my project winds down, I would like to reflect on an integral part of my project...well, an integral failure of my project. While I mention failure, I don’t like to call anything a failure. If you learn from it, then it’s not a failure. And I definitely learned from my unsuccessful attempt at collecting quantitative data. For quite some time before my project had begun, I was struggling to find a quantitative way to collect data and mark progress. With the help of my advisor, Mr. Vermouth, I figured out a method. At both centers, I would hand out weekly surveys to the teachers/therapists that work with the children. These surveys ask them to rank the child’s level and progress in both verbal language and peer interaction from 1 to 10. Through these, I believed I would be able to quantitatively track and compare the children’s growth. However, like most goals in life, it didn’t exactly work out the way I imagined it to. Many of the surveys came back from the beginning weeks with responses in the 8 to 10 range. With rankings so high, there wasn’t much room for visible progress in the coming weeks. Additionally, there may have been a tendency for the teachers/therapists to not rank on objective ground; like all teachers, they love their students, and this may have influenced them to rank higher. After I had realized this issue, I began to try filling out the surveys myself. However, this didn’t work out as well; I only met with the children once a week for a few hours. I couldn’t possibly give an educated, quantitative number simply due to the fact that I wasn’t seeing the kids everyday. I have also realized how little time 3 months is in the spectrum of education and language learning. Beginning my project, I was optimistic that 3 months was a long time and that I would definitely be able to observe great progress among the children. However, now nearing the end, I have learned that language learning happens over the span of years, not months. Children go through ups and downs with their learning, and it’s not always an upward, straight line of progress. While I am extremely happy with the growth and changes I have observed in these past 3 months, it’s important to put it in perspective. Looking back, I now wish I had done more research on how to do research in the humanities. There are many different types of research methods in the humanities, and with some exploration those, I could have found a way, quantitative or not, to track progress. Of course, I never realized I’d have to research on research.