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Methodology |
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Introduction
Digital Technologies Changing Literacies Teacher Training No Technology Methodology Courses &
Workshops Conclusion
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Surveys and Composition The present state of survey research has been shaped by three major sectors of American society: the U.S. Bureau of the Census; commercial polling firms, such as George Gallop, Elmo Roper, Louis Harris, and others; and American universities like the University of California-Berkeley, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, and the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (Babbie 39). Regardless of the surveying agency, institutional or individual, surveys consist "of asking questions of a single (supposedly) representative cross section of the population at a single point in time. The persons of whom the questions are asked are called survey respondents" (Bailey 92). Surveys are also usually conducted via samples because it is not always feasible to interview or question everyone in a population (92). For example, a population is the entire group of people or things to be studied. A sample, however, is a group of people or things derived from the population as a representative portion of the entire population. For a sample to be legitimate or valid, the target population must accurately be identified. Overall, as Arlene Fink explains,
Two features distinguish survey methods: "there is a fixed set of questions; and the responses are systematically classified, so that quantitative comparisons can be made" (Bailey 93). However, the characteristics and the comparisons evolve out of what the investigator wants to learn. For example, Fink explains that surveys are taken of:,
In a thrifty move, composition studies has foraged in the social sciences and co-opted surveys for its own ends (North 102). Although Stephen North chooses not to include survey methodology in his exploration of modes of inquiry in composition studies, he does point out that over 200 surveys have been conducted in composition since 1963, a number which has increased since the publication of The Making Knowledge in Composition: A Portrait of an Emerging Field. He asserts that surveys have been used to study,
Using surveys in composition research serves an important purpose.
Like research in the social sciences, composition researchers seek to
create a picture of a phenomenon, for instance, that of writing and
writing instruction. The data composition researchers gather through
surveys help to provide quantitative information that aid researchers in
determining what is happening with some aspect of writing or the
teaching and/or administrating of writing. Such data help
scholar-teachers make judgments about a large population using a sample
from that population (Lauer and Asher 55). A survey also provides a way
for teachers to learn what others are doing, thinking, or feeling about
a particular subject. |