Final Reflective Assessment: Data Collection Journey

Final Reflective Assessment: Data Collection Journey

1. Effectiveness of the Instruments

   • Strengths
     • Instrument #1
       • Authentic Reflection: Recording immediately after class allows us to capture real time emotions, thoughts, and perceptions, leading to authentic insights that might fade with time.
       • In Depth Insight: record audios of the interactions and attitudes of students helps reveal details that might be ignored in the classroom
     • Instrument #2
       • Personal Insights: Diaries often capture genuine emotions, reflections, and evolving thoughts.
       • Improvement over time: Analyzing diaries from different practice contexts helps us identify our progress and improvement as pre-service teachers
   • Limitations
     • Instrument #1
       • Limited Perspective: Since we are observing only our perspective, it may overlook students' intentions, or misunderstand their behaviors.
       • Time Constraints: A 3-5 minute recording might not capture all relevant interactions and may force us to simplify classroom events.
     • Instrument #2
       • Subjectivity and Bias: Personal diaries are subjective, which may lead to biases in how experiences are writing.
       • Limited Scope: Only four diaries are being analyzed, which maybe don’t capture a full necessary information
   • Focus Points
     • Aspects that worked effectively
       • The charts and guidelines questions because these aspects help us to analyze, collect the necessary data and organize the specific information that we need for achieve each one of the specifics objectives
     • Limitations or Areas for Improvement
       • Limitations: Analyzing only four diaries may limit data collection and 3 to 5 minute audios may leave a lot of information aside.
       • We need to find a way to improve these limitations without needing to expand data collection.

2. Insights Gained and Self-Assessment of Growth

   • Overall Learning and Growth
     • Qualitative research is a large and complex challenge in which each of the steps is very methodical and must be connected.
       • Since Master Investigator 2 I have had a slow but effective process in research, although it is something complex that not everyone can do, I have been able to obtain knowledge and learning that years ago I never thought I would have.
         • Nowadays I still make mistakes in my research but little by little I am solving them and that makes me develop thoughts in a more critical and analytical way in the research. I have made great progress in this process, today I have done things that years ago I never thought I could do.
   • Focus Points
     • key insights
       • Establish the specific objectives, recognized and select the techniques, create the instrument taking into account the objective and data that we want to collect
     • Evolved
       • My understanding of research has evolved significantly. Initially, I viewed research primarily as a simple process of collecting and analyzing data to answer specific questions. However, I have realized that research is much more dynamic and requires flexibility, critical thinking, and openness to unexpected insights.
     • Skills or Qualities
       • Detailed: take more into account the details so that everything is aligned - Critical perspective: learning to have a more critical and analytical perspective for instrument development and instrument collection.

3. Personal Growth

   • Research has helped me connect seemingly disparate ideas and see how they fit into my practicum context, I got understandings about how to construct a problem, objectives (general and specifics), choose the most appropriate methodoly and the creation of the instruments
   • I often doubted my ability to overcome the challenges of research. However, through perseverance and reflection, I have become more confident in my ability to conduct qualitative research.
   • Research does not always go as planned and I have encountered many setbacks. However, I have learned to be patient, accept mistakes and learn from them to continue with the process and my learning.