Look for the live dissertation feed on my twitter account (busynessgirl).
(hr 353): Have just sent the draft Chapter 3 to my advisor for a look over. I may actually get this thing to my committee soon!
(hr 352): Home stretch! Cleaning up a few sections, getting appropriate research citations to support choice of survey, analysis, etc.
(hr 351): Some revisions to questions #3-8 on the survey instrument (169 questions total on the survey). Mother of all surveys.
(hr 350): Still plugging away on Ch.3. Just need to write an introduction, get a few key citations in place and make it “flow” now.
(hr 349): Working on Ch.3 sections on attitude (done) and contextual characteristics (still working on it). Correlated ETQ with CoT.
(hr 348): More revisions to research questions and proposed data analysis (which grows more complicated by the minute).
(hr 347): Revised Q.8 to include more texture about highest education achieved. Of course that means more data analysis. Sigh.
(hr 346): Reading Introduction to Analysis of Variance (Turner & Thayer) … really easy to understand, seriously!
(hr 345): I am tying my brain in knots with this analysis. The data from this research should be good for about 50 academic papers.
(hr 344): Now starting a table for all the research questions I’m NOT asking, but can be answered from the data I’m collecting.
(hr 343): Jumped ahead to data analysis section. Making another table. I like tables & diagrams. Can I put cartoons in dissertation?
(hr 342): Crap! Realized I needed to rephrase four questions of the professional development section if I want better data.
(hr 341): Working on Ch.3. Describing the various questions to measure the influence of instructor experiences.
(hr 340): Built a table to explain the different possible samples and the benefits / drawbacks of each one.
(hr 339): Have made revisions to Ch.1 & 2 as required. Sending to committee … yay! Now to crank on Chapter 3.
(hr 338): Meeting with my advisor, a couple more minor changes and I am allowed to send Ch.1 & 2 to the rest of my committee.
(hr 337): Good news. I have just printed the revised versions of chapters 1 & 2 + the survey instrument. All APA compliant (I hope).
(hr 336): Spent the last hour tracking down which tables of which literature I have been using for tables & figures. Yucky.
(hr 335): KAP gap for math hinted at by Ernest (1988) talking about espoused model ad enacted model (attitude vs. practice).
(hr 334): Revisions of Lit Review (Ch.2) to account for changes resulting from Procedural pilots. And more nit-picky APA.
(hr 333): Have finally figured out where to use “and” and where to use “&” in APA citations. Ugh.
(hr 332): I am beginning to hate my dissertation again. Sigh. I have a bipolar relationship with it.
(hr 331): Revised the CC Math diagram to be more general (finally found the original version). Also removing colored parts.
(hr 330): Revising the KAP diagram to make sure that I’m covering only what the dissertation covers.
(hr 329): I have finally conquered the “dot leader” in a table of contents. Yay me! Shall I make a video?
(hr 328) Still trying to determine APA rulings on obscure things like where figures & tables should go in a dissertation. #deathtoAPA
(hr 327) In an effort to procrastinate Ch.3, I am fixing the APA issues in Ch. 1 and 2.
(hr 326): Became utterly captivated by pilot results … even with just 14 people, can already see that results will be fascinating
(hr 325): Made some more question revisions this morning and then sent to my assistant to carefully make changes (takes too much time)
(hr 324) Forgot my computer will lock me out after 10 hours of work in 1 day. Guess I’m done for the day. 
(hr 323): Here is my general survey design (it’s complicated & required a diagram) http://screencast.com/t/QOteXlVBv
(hr 322): Rewriting a large portion of chapter 3 now that the survey population and sampling has changed.
(hr 321): Which questions still need slight revisions … some of these are tricky to phrase properly.
(hr 320): Examining data from 1st and 2nd pilot and I can already see KAP-gap evidence! Yay! I think this just might work!
(hr 319): Have finished the rewrite of the procedural pilot. Sent surveys to volunteers.
(hr 318): Almost done with redesign of survey. Changing font of every question one by one sucks.
(hr 317): Still working on redesign of pilot survey. Wish I had faster Internet. Sigh.
(hr 316): Working on the redesign of the pilot survey. Need to get this done first so that it can be tried today. Shorter now.
(hr 315): Pep talk from advisor. Must get proposal done!!! Will spend 12 hours on it this weekend.
(hr 314): Met Trigwell AND Prosser. Discussed survey design with Trigwell for an hour. AWESOME!
(hr 313): Interesting discussions at IMUC09 with various people about dissertation research.
(hr 312): Interesting discussions with Conrad Wolfram about dissertation research.
(hr 311): How can we measure teaching and learning in math? See prezi presentation.
(hr 310): Building this presentation is helping me see this research from 10,000 feet.
(hr 309): Building a presentation that involves some of the individual pieces of this dissertation.
(hr 308): This actually flows much better than I thought. Progression is logical.
(hr 307): Drive to MichMATYC. Joann is reading me Chapter 2 after leaving it alone for a month.
(hr 306): Hour-long conversation with member of dissertation committee, have strategy for cutting back.
(hr 305): Discussed survey pilot with advisor. Survey is too long, must painfully decide what to cut.
(hr 304): Dealt with logistics of survey pilot … lost links, etc.
(hr 303): And there goes the pilot for the precalculus instructors. Hopefully they will be able to get to it this week.
(hr 302): Just sent out the procedural pilot to my four algebra-instructor-guinea pigs.
(hr 301): Trying to figure out how to get participants to actually answer a 60-minute survey.
(hr 300): Happy 300th hour of dissertation writing to me!
(hr 299): Writing small pockets of Chapter 3. Data collection, population, sampling methods …
(hr 298): Read five chapter 3’s from a variety of dissertations. I can do this - much easier than the lit review.
(hr 297): Still working on procedural pilot. Inserting actual MIPs with repeating pages. Just about ready to build web version.
(hr 296): Tweaking the procedural pilot questions, especially the ETQ. To leave in all the inventory items or not, that is the Q.
(hr 295): Discussion with Psych faculty about wording of the MIP section of the research survey.
(hr 294): Correspondence back & forth with Trigwell about ATI and ETQ inventories.
(hr 293): Some minor tweaks to survey instrument and permission to do a procedural pilot of the survey. Light at end of tunnel!!!!
(hr 292): Met with my adviser to discuss the proposed survey instrument. Chocolate Raspberry coffee. Mmmmm.
(hr 291): Got up really early to type in the last of the questions for the proposed survey instrument.
(hr 290): Figured out which of the ETQ items to use to measure the degree of “Control of Teaching” for the subject level.
(hr 289): Wrote out the entire list of questions about contextual variables related to MIPs. Also decided to do only 6 instead of 10.
(hr 288): Explained the entire structure of the survey to Diane in the car.
(hr 287): We roughed out the entire survey on blank paper. It is lengthy. I think there will be 300 or so possible hypotheses to test.
(hr 286): Spent time with @jillm57 discussing the different statistical tests and correlations that I want to run in the study.
(hr 285): CC Faculty work almost 50 hours per week (2004 figures) and teach 4.5 courses per semester (Townsend & Rosser, 2009)
(hr 284): Have spent an hour looking at other dissertations (ch 3) and am floundering a bit on how to begin mine. Need outline.
(hr 283): Conference on skype with advisor. Chapters 1 and 2 are okay content-wise (some revisions necessary). On to Chapter 3.
(hr 282): I have sent Chapter 1 and 2 of my dissertation to my adviser. 64 pages (without references).
(hr 281): Editing little details … commas, sentence structure, one or two missing citations … delete those sentences!
(hr 280): Is it possible? Could I actually have a cohesive lit review? Just final edits from Jesse. Back thru 64 pages one more time.
(hr 279): 62 pages and counting. Now for the finale. Evidence that there IS a KAP gap in math.
(hr 278): Closing in on the end of this damned lit review. 58 pages and counting. Two sections to go. Where are my cheerleaders?
(hr 277): I have passed off “Act II: Attitude” to Jesse for editing/destruction. He hasn’t left yet, but probably will after this.
(hr 276) Working on influences on the motivation to change … colleagues (positive), institution (little), and student feedback (neg)
(hr 275): Plugging away at this Attitudes & Beliefs section. Have you read Pajares (1992) Cleaning up a Messy Construct? You should.
(hr 274): Attitudes, beliefs, influences, experiences, desire, motivation, vitality, assimilation, accommodation, … this sucks!
(hr 273): I know this is crazy, but I really am going to finish… I have plowed through 34 pages so far today with approx 25 to go.
(hr 272): I’m getting to the point where if I can’t easily find a citation, I consider deleting the sentence. Less is more, right?
(hr 271): I have finally figured out the rearrangement for Chapter 2. It’s a play…
(hr 270): Chapter 1 is going to my editor … yay Jesse for agreeing to read all 60 pages today as I write.
(hr 269): Throwing down the gauntlet-will not sleep until Chapters 1 and 2 are done. Luckily, I have an insomniac visiting right now.
(hr 268): Rearranging the Lit Review one more time. Sigh. If I don’t finish this today, I might just quit.
(hr 267): Recategorizing the various “influenced by…” catetories and “administration” as well
(hr 266): Interesting to go back and look at some of these older notes I’ve made … recategorizing “infrastructure” issues right now.
(hr 265): I like this idea of “potential” and “kinetic” beliefs. Kinetic are the ones you are acting on. (Shaw, 1989, Dissertation)
(hr 264): More time cleaning up tags in @nnotate and deleting relatively unused tags.
(hr 263): Trolling through my @nnotate database to find relevant citations about contextual variables.
(hr 262): I seem to have actually drafted this section on contextual variables that influence the decision to adopt a new practice.
(hr 261): Control of teaching, class size, enabling student characteristics, dept support for teaching, appropriate academic workload.
(hr 260): Reading about how math teachers adopt, reinvent, or ignore curricular recommendations. (Remillard, 2005)
(hr 259): Have reconstituted Chapter 2 (Lit Review) as a complete document … still missing 2 big sections, 46 pages w/o references.
(hr 258): Working on Edits to Chapter 1 from advisor. Mostly looking up citations for various statements.
(hr 257): Fixing Research Questions - have to backtrack to more general questions
(hr 256): Discussed attitude and belief with Psychology instructor to try to clear it up in my head.
(hr 255): Still reading Pajares paper. Highly recommend.
(hr 254): Reading dense (but good) Pajares (1992) paper on Teachers’ Beliefs and Educational Research: Cleaning up a messy construct
(hr 253) There has GOT to be some way to cut back on this dissertation topic, but God help me if I can find it.
(hr 252): Majorly struggling with concepts of affect, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. Why didn’t I pick up a psychology degree?
(hr 251): A key factor that might reduce the occurrence of a math KAP gap might be whether teacher engages in reflective practices.
(hr 250) Planning how you teach may be counterproductive if instructors become single minded and do not adapt to student needs.
(hr 249): Uploading the 24 papers I now need to read, and making a list of things to do that might seem doable.
(hr 248): Just uncovered 24 articles that I should read about teacher beliefs in higher ed and the effect on practice. Will this end?
(hr 247): Researching any findings on how faculty beliefs are related to practice (for beliefs section and KAP section).
(hr 246): Still stuck in writing the Educational Practice section and wishing W|A could track down citations for me.
(hr 245): I think that one of the MIP parts of Ed Practice is now well-written. One down, nine to go? E.n.d.l.e.s.s.
(hr 244): Still sick. Still doing lit review. Now working on opening paragraphs in lit review (big picture stuff) to get context.
(hr 243): Still slogging away on lit review. Going back through references on cooperative learning, writing in math, etc.
(hr 242): Quick talk w/advisor, who says “sorry it sucks, but that’s the way Ch.2 is” … very helpful. Cold + dissertation = misery.
(hr 241): I KNOW that I have a reference that said this specific thing I need to support and I can’t find it - totally aggravating.
(hr 240): Still plugging away in the Ed Practices section. Hoping to emerge from this one victorious sometime today!
(hr 239): I’m beginning to see this Lit Review as one really long proof, every sentence supported by a citation instead of a theorem.
(hr 238): Two MIPs left in this Educational practice section. This needs to be done now.
(hr 237): Still working on Educational Practice section of lit review. I will be in this section for the rest of my life.
(hr 236): Back to writing on the never-ending lit review. Working on Educational Practices section today. Why did I want a PhD?
(hr 235): Very strange (Clarkson & Williams, 1997). Men who were given feedback on test errors performed worse than men who were not. Women who were given feedback on test errors performed better than women who were not.
(hr 234): Some great stuff about what influences teaching in this Entwistle (2003) paper: http://is.gd/D19j and http://is.gd/D1as
hr 233): Finished W|A rate of adoption analysis. (forgot to tweet this yesterday)
(hr 232): Rereading Rogers’ chapter on attributes of rate of adoption, and analyzing new W|A situation in that context. Interesting.
(hr 231): Improving student learning though focus on the TEACHING context-students need to perceive they have choice, but clear goals
(hr 230): Reading the last of the ILL papers; Role of memorizing, effect of CAS systems, Calc Reform & Critical Thinking, …
(hr 229): I have finally cleared my ILL “Electronically Received Articles” list completely. (first time in 2 months)
(hr 228): Still dealing with the pile of ILL material that accumulated during the week I was gone. But I can see the light …
(hr 227): Finishing off the ILL pile of books that I received while in Utah. I swear I am not ordering another reference from ILL.
(hr 226): Fantastic pocket of research on teaching & learning in higher ed here: http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/publications.html
(hr 225): Still working on educational practices section of lit review. Ugh.
(hr 224): Working on MIP section of educational practices. Just want this lit review to be OVER WITH.
(hr 223): Working on ITTF and CCSF section of educational practices.
(hr 222): Phone call with VilmaM at U of M about CC Math Instructors and her research. I feel like I have achieved “expert” now.
(hr 221): It seems that whenever I get to a Lit Review section where I’m stuck, ILL delivers some book or article that is perfect.
Took a week off!
(hr 220): Sent all completed parts of lit review to my advisor. Leaving for a week to take a break from dissertation!
(hr 219): Finished writing up research notes on MIP. Will not finish lit review today. Bummed. Also hungry (no breakfast or lunch)
(hr 218): Still writing up research notes on MIP. Brief call with advisor.
(hr 217): Writing up research notes on Mathematical Instruction Practices.
(hr 216): Closed 2nd informal survey on 10 practices after 46 responses … thank you cloud! Modified descriptions to be same tense.
(hr 215): Still modifying instructional practices section (will put on website when finished)
(hr 214): Looking through today’s comments to revise descriptions and examples slightly.
(hr 213): Took a jump over to work on the Educational Practices writeup for a little while.
(hr 212): Writing about how professional organizations provide training on ed practices for math. Do I deserve pizza for dinner?
(hr 211): Finished the section on commercial training (not much to cite there … working on professional organizations now.
(hr 210): Working on “Formal Education” and “Faculty Development” as part of Knowledge of Innovation section. Is it over yet?
(hr 209): Leaving Faculty Motivation and Change (done enough) … On to Acquisition of Knowledge (fac dev, self-directed learning, etc
(hr 208): Finally making serious progress on the section about motivation and effectiveness of faculty. So much information.
(hr 207): Wearing PJs and my magic dissertation boots to help me push through the final sections of lit review. Can see the light …
(hr 206): 24 responses to the informal survey about math practices and it’s only 11am EDT. Yay cloud!
(hr 205): Wow, this is a late night (1:48 AM). My Ten Final Practices survey is just about finished.
(hr 204): Last instructional practice for math. Although this isn’t the end of the lit review, it sure feels good for today!
(hr 203): Still here. Still working on instructional practices section of lit review. Now on mini-lecturing. My brain is full.
(hr 202): Halfway through the list of math ed practices (description and three examples for each) Going to test them out tomorrow.
(hr 201): Every time I think I am finally making progress, the dissertation seems to suddenly expand by a factor of 2. Why is that?
(hr 200): I’m a little worried that “inquiry-based instruction” is too hard to define (having found several widely varying definitions)
(hr 199): Had to make tough decision to cut homework practices unless they were interwoven with a classroom practice. Just too much.
(hr 198): The survey I sent out today was immensely helpful (thank you online world!) I’ve managed to restructure math ed practices
(hr 197): Worked on the motivation section a little … got mired down in “attitude”
(hr 196): Wrote the “cooperative learning” section. Looked obsessively at survey results (almost 50 responses). Some good ideas!
(hr 195): Faculty rewrite almost complete. 38 responses to my informal survey.
(hr 195): So far so good. Cranking away on rewriting the faculty section. Leaner and more compact.
(hr 194): Created survey to try to narrow down field of math instructional practices (need to get down from 21 to 10).
(hr 193): Set up new documents to work in (transferring and writing new materials). Table of innovations based on email responses.
(hr 192): Even better than the PTE, the new version is called “Experience of Teaching Questionnaire” (ETQ) … Trigwell & Prosser 2008
(hr 191): Sunday meeting with advisor. I think we finally worked out an order that makes sense for the lit review.
(hr 190): Modeling the influences of learning outcomes of study processes in Univ Math (Eley & Meyer) 2 ways to measure math studying
(hr 189): More fascinating research from Australia (U of Sydney) on how mathematicians view the role of memorization in math.
(hr 188): Filling in more blanks in my tables to support variables in my KAP model. Interesting stuff on faculty dev at CCs.
(hr 187): Trying to get my head back together. Is it time to completely reorganize the lit review? Need to talk with advisor.
(hr 186): The problem is, can those even be separated in mathematics? Graphing calculators,clickers, online homework …
(hr 186): This kills me to do it, but I am thinking about dropping tech-related practices & looking only at student-focused practices.
(hr 185): I am seriously thinking of paring back my research question. Maybe this is just too much for one dissertation?
(hr 184): Back to reading and writing about mathematics instructional practice. You all are tired of teaching and I want to go back!
(hr 183): Why oh why did I think I needed a PhD. I am so sick of this *!?* lit review. Can’t I just go back to blogging?
(hr 182): Still working on contextual variables. 19,716 words (70 pages single-spaced) and counting.
(hr 181): Starting to wonder if I’m writing a dissertation or a book. Hmmm. Trolling back through references for variable citations.
(hr 180): Still working on this table to summarize the multitude of findings from research articles in my little database.
(hr 179): Making a table to summarize all the different studies that support the variables in my KAP diagram.
(hr 178): Submitted to temptation to read PTE article. It is, as I suspected, fantastic. Now back to writing.
(hr 177): Still writing in the KAP section. Managed to avoid the temptation to read the new PTE article (at least for this hour).
(hr 176): Spent the hour WRITING in KAP (knowledge-attitude-practice) portion of lit review. Can’t read anymore. Must just write.
(hr 175): This math ed research from Australia just keeps leading me to better stuff. I’m like an addict that can’t get enough.
(hr 174): Still not writing yet - the articles keep pouring in from ILL (ones I’ve ordered in prior weeks). Have to at least skim.
(hr 173): Version 3 (?) of the knowledge-attitude-practice relationship: http://screencast.com/t/ontYi9BvI3U
(hr 172): Finished reading and thinking about Prosser & Trigwell book. Some great indexes in here, ATI, PETI, CEQ, COMQ, …
(hr 171): Completely new KAP gap diagram (with PTE vocabulary): http://screencast.com/t/PssdiLdwr
(hr 170):Tremendous breakthrough. Up to this point I’ve been guessing about the mediating variables. Now I have research confirmation.
(hr 169): Reading. (I know, I need to be writing, but I spent this hour reading)
(hr 168): Incorporated changes from readers. Dealt with scanned files from Prosser & Trigwell book (which is fantastic BTW).
(hr 167): Met with advisor to talk about getting Lit Review back under control. So many problems in math ed deserve solving, no time.
(hr 166): Now through 2nd? 3rd? revision of section about faculty. Moving on to some other section.
(hr 165): Revising Faculty section of Lit Review (incorporating hubby’s comments from late night review last night).
(hr 164): Went through pile of new books from ILL and Amazon to look for specific sections of importance. Such a nice sunny day.
(hr 163): Reading this fantastic Crawford et al (1998) paper about the Conceptions of Mathematics Questionnaire
(hr 162): Questions about “reform fatigue” (real? or strange data fragment?) Tracking down more references. Almost 200 collected now.
(hr 161): More HERI survey data and back to KAP gap research
(hr 160): Incorporating data from 2004-2005 HERI Faculty Survey into lit review. Nice graph: http://screencast.com/t/kl7C8HzKYuG
(hr 159): CSS 2005 Survey: 40.2% of seniors rate themselves above their peers in math. The same group, as freshman? 51.7% (decreased)
(hr 158): Just found this AMAZING pocket of math ed research from Australia. Fantastic research designs, what is the student role?
(hr 157): Interesting 3P model of teaching & learning (Biggs, 1993). http://screencast.com/t/LzVw2YK9Nz My KAP gap = Presage-Process.
(hr 156): Just dictated several more pages for my dissertation in the section “instructional practices in mathematics.”
(hr 155): Finished adding stats from Carnegie 1997 Faculty survey to lit review. Found another “government call to action” to read.
(hr 154): Incorporating 2008 CCSSE data into the exogenous variables section of the conceptual framework (student population).
(hr 153): Still working on that faculty section of the Lit Review … which is starting to look close to “done enough”
(hr 152): Finished reading the 14 new articles. One is decent (& finally mention of student issues, although not accountability)
(hr 151): The disappeared hour. Apparently I can’t count.
(hr 150): Still working on the “faculty” portion of the Lit Review and now also on assimilating the 14 new ILL items. Time for walk?
(hr 149): Working on the Lit Review section about faculty, cognitive dissonance, and change.
(hr 148): Counted # of workshop participants for various STEM educational initiatives that were mathematicians. Not many.
(hr 147): Restructured Lit Review. Need to spend the whole day today re-reading what I’ve written and filling in gaps.
(hr 146): Mathematics half life is 1 yr (from H.S. through grad school we lose approx half the students from math each yr)
(hr 145): Reading some of the NRC workshop reports and national reports (like Everybody Counts).
(hr 144): Incorporating the NMAP findings into lit review. I have so many ideas for grants and no time to apply for any of them.
(hr 143): A different kind of gap, between how teachers teach and how students approach learning: http://screencast.com/t/hhTDsVrjpt
(hr 142): Major result of the NMAP 2008 study? We can’t wholeheartedly endorse any instructional strategies for teaching math.
(hr 141): Now looking at 2008 NMAP report on effectiveness of Instructional Practices in mathematics (http://tinyurl.com/cbndbv)
(hr 140): Reading Ladner dissertation on math instructor self-efficacy and teaching at CCs.
(hr 139): Read Preuss dissertation on characteristics of CC Dev. Math faculty. I’m not sure that anything can be gained from this one.
(hr 138): I’ve been sitting at this computer for 2 hours since the last report and surely I’ve done SOMETHING productive (what?).
(hr 137): Incorporated results of AMATYC climate survey into Lit Review.
(hr 136): Another round with KAP gap between beliefs & attitude and educational practice, thoughts? http://screencast.com/t/9yleGyESU
(hr 135): Gathering some older “national” reports about STEM and CCs.
(hr 134): Searching online index of 2002-2008 AMATYC Review issues. Still mystified about how to find TOCs for 1995-2001.
(hr 133): Searching back issues of AMATYC Review for relevant articles. (1989-1994 are indexed on ERIC) What to do about the rest?
(hr 132): Met with advisor to discuss Ch1 and Lit Review (in progress) and more on conceptual framework.
(hr 131): Looked up the editorial boards of 3 math ed journals. 51 board members from 4-yr institutions, 1 from a community college.
(hr 130): Writing about graphing calculator research and adoption by instructors.
(hr 129): Writing about math faculty at 2-yr colleges - what do we know about them, their professional development, etc. (not much)
(hr 128): Lit review … section on student pushback … section on part-time faculty …
(hr 127): Writing the lit review section on part-time faculty. Just in time for this, ILL delivers the Digranes article digitally.
(hr 126): Skimmed four ILL books that came in the mail yesterday - some interesting (older) stuff on CCs, faculty, and STEM.
(hr 125): Found some text in a paper I wrote in 2007 that can be modified for at least a small chunk of the lit review. Tired.
(hr 124): Back into the Lit Review and Conceptual Framework. Just read a chapter on cluster sampling from a book I got yesterday.
(hr 123): I think Chapter 1 is as done as it’s going to get (for now). You can only beat a dead horse for so long. On to Ch. 2.
(hr 122): I hate Chapter 1. That’s all I have to say about that.
(hr 121): Still working on Ch.1 Statement of Problem - having to track down various citations is a b*tch.
(hr 120): Built graphs to compare the percent of sections using each type of “reform” method between 4-yr and 2-yr colleges.
(hr 119): Built a graph to compare adoption rates of “reform” teaching strategies in courses before Calculus.
(hr 118): I have produced a graph! (which I find pretty interesting) http://screencast.com/t/4aQzozIr20
(hr 117): Compiling data from four years of CBMS reports into one spreadsheet.
(hr 116): Still working on data comparison based on CBMS report - having to tease out the numbers I need.
(hr 115): Mining for statistics that I need to use in Chapter 1.
(hr 114): Spent the last hour rewriting the “Statement of the Problem” over and over - trying to get it right.
(hr 113): Constructed a visual diagram of the conceptual framework (KAP gap in education): http://screencast.com/t/tQqOk8oMWCb
(hr 112): Great 2008 lit review of technology and calculus reform efforts (long, but good).
(hr 111): Reading a very difficult (but interesting) paper on Applications and Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Math Ed
(hr 110): Mostly spent skimming articles of little use to me. No way to know they are of little use unless I look (unfortunately).
(hr 109): Read a 1997 Cooney article about understanding math teachers beliefs and change. Wondering why this discussion died?
(hr 108): Finished deLong and Winter article (really good) and a couple of others - catching up on my ILL returns reading.
(hr 107): Reading a few good articles on student-centered instruction, student pushback of innovations, and CC Faculty Development.
(hr 106): Results from 90’s research: PT faculty do not tend to adopt innovations in teaching UNLESS they get prof dev.
(hr 105): Met with advisor to make sense of the conceptual framework and lit review.
(hr 104): Found a little more busywork to do (new ILL items) and now need to do some more reading.
(hr 103): Finished the HSIRB course modules. I’ve been doing busywork all day - I’m afraid it’s back to brain-draining work now.
(hr 102): Finished sorting through list of references I have marked “to find” (eliminated 25, still need 25)
(hr 101): Back to sorting through references I have, have received from ILL, or have ordered. Trying to make sense of it all.
(hr 100): Finished 4 HSIRB modules and spent an hour discussing the “conceptual framework” with my husband.
(hr 99): Simultaneously testing out text-to-voice options for the web and doing the first of the HSIRB web modules.
(hr 98): Trying to organize general structure for Lit Review. So much lit - which stuff to include?
(hr 97): Struggling with the conceptual framework and lit review organization -muddy thinking- may need more coffee or a chat w/human.
(hr 96): Now working on the “Significance of the Question” section. Trying to not just write B.S. to fill space.
(hr 95): Writing the “Statement of the Problem” section.
(hr 94): Still working on pieces of survey tool (I know … not writing, but I have to get these ideas from today’s chat out of mind)
(hr 93): Now outlining general survey tool because I keep thinking of things I want to include and I don’t want to forget them later.
(hr 92): I think I’ve almost completed the Data Collection section in Chapter 3. Felt inspired to write that one, I guess.
(hr 91): What to do about full-time instructors who teach in another discipline (Chem or Physics) but teach math on the side. Include?
(hr 90): Reread the Lit Review chapter of “Surviving Your Dissertation” to remind what should and should not be included.
(hr 89): Skyped with advisor and one of my dissertation committee members for an hour. Have go ahead to WRITE!!! (good thing or bad?)
(more hr 88): This brings us to Cognitive Dissonance Theory (we go to great lengths to avoid dissonance between behavior and self-concept).
(hr 88): For instructors to accept ed research, they first have to accept that their image of being a good teacher is false.
(hr 87): Outlining some possibilities for research design - this is going to be tricky!
(hr 86): Finished tagging all those documents. Tomorrow I’m going to begin writing.
(hr 85): 69 papers retagged, 11 to go. I am so rewarding myself with a movie and chocolate when I’m done tonight.
(hr 84): 40 papers retagged, 40 to go.
(hr 83): Writing a new tagging scheme for documents that are part of my lit review. I’ve changed my mind too many times.
(hr 82): Finding and compiling some of the 2-yr and 4-yr data together.
(hr 81): Reform math teaching (except GC use) at CCs and 4-yr has decreased from year 2000-levels.
(hr 80): Still reading CBMS stats. Thinking that I should start writing soon.
(hr 79): Spent the whole hour reading the CBMS report on 2-yr colleges. Interesting stuff!
(hr 78): Found answer in CBMS report (p.31). There were 18,227 PT CC math faculty and 9,403 FT CC math faculty in 2005.
(hr 77): Back to the sample size question - how to estimate the total number of CC math faculty in the U.S.?
(hr 76): Hmmm. No idea what happened to this hour. Apparently I can’t count.
(hr 75): Switched to looking at recent ILL articles, some may have the population stats that I need to estimate the sub-pop for math.
(hr 74): Cluster sampling is going to be the method of choice. Now how to estimate the total # of CC math faculty (w/adjuncts) in US.
(hr 73): Writing up a general description of the sampling method and looking for good references to cite on cluster sampling.
(hr 72): Jumping to research design for a little while. Looking at cluster sampling and worrying about summer sampling issues.
(hr 71): Revising and refining research questions and working on general organization for Lit Review.
(hr 70): Met with dissertation advisor over breakfast.
(hr 69): Have ordered a bunch more articles through ILL (all on national CC stats from national surveys: fac dev & STEM in particular)
(hr 68): Every time I think I’m at the end of my lit search, I find another (large) pocket of information. Now: National statistics(hr 67): Adoption of a tech innovation: A=f(R,PV,C) A=available resources, PV=perceived value, C=communication iw/other adapters(hr 66): Looking for digital copies of some papers I have on paper. Just mundane busywork.
(hr 65): I think I’m starting to suffer from Information Overload !!! (and still wishing that search databases got along better)
(hr 64): Reading MAA Curriculum guidelines and recommendations for College Algebra - lots of stuff on interdisciplinary math here.
(hr 63): Scanning papers, downloading papers from ILL, writing citations. UGH!
(hr 62): Math faculty are trapped between fields - must teach certain content, can’t teach more in depth without jettisoning content.
(hr 61): Do math instructors view the text as little more than a problem bank? (largely ignoring any pedagogical push of the book)
(hr 60): Reading fascinating Windham dissertation (2008) about faculty perceptions of calc reform - it’s like a TV drama-controversy!
(hr 59): Amazing how many times student pushback (in various forms) is a barrier to sustaining teaching reform.
(hr 58): Reading NDTL articles on STEM reform. I think I’m operating on California time - which makes sense since I was born there.
(hr 57): 3 stages to adopt reform: exposing user to reform, informing them about reform, teaching them how to implement (Foertsch 97)
(hr 56): “reachable moment” in reform-when a potential user is ready to try something new but isn’t quite sure how to go about it yet
(hr 55): Stats support Calc Reform increasing persistence in post-calculus courses and > or = in overall performance (esp females).
(hr 54): History Math Teaching Tools http://tinyurl.com/cwksm4 and Research on Technology & Teaching Math http://tinyurl.com/d3vap4
(hr 53): Spent time on the phone with a ref librarian and found another good visual influences of reform: http://screencast.com/t/ …
(hr 52): Beautiful and well-thought out change and contexts model for college classes http://screencast.com/t/hTr…
(hr 51): Sent 40 references to my assistant to find full-text. That means I have to just do a LOT of reading tomorrow.
(hr 50): Database searches on mathematics + innovation, dissemination, adaptation, or improvement, re-run with stats instead of math?
(hr 49): Obtaining papers that cite 1994 Hutchinson & Huberman Lit Review about Dissemination of Knowledge in Math & Science.
(hr 48): Spent this hour tracking down the NDTL full-text articles, downloading, and searching NDTL for other possible articles. Sigh.
Oh come on! The new issue of NDTL came out today and it’s all about STEM reform efforts - so there’s another 8 articles to read.
(hr 47): Shoulder hurts. Tired of reading, proper citations, and asking ILL for articles I can’t get. Still in pajamas.
(hr 46): Looking in library databases again … what a thankless task - when will all the databases get along?
(hr 45): Reading about fac dev in general at 2-year colleges. Papers say $ is incentive to participate, but never mention adoption.
(hr 44): Buried in articles and dissertations to read. How to know when to stop reading and start writing?
(hr 43): Calculus Reform and New Math - how well did these innovations diffuse? musing about how to do rule-of-four better online
(hr 42): Reading the Lauten dissertation on Reform in Teaching Calculus (and this is a long one!
(hr 41): Another chapter of Rogers Diffusion of Innovations … sigh.
(hr 40): “instructional materials and designs should be developed with the expectation that faculty will engage in local customization”
(hr 39): Finished reading and tagging Barriers to use of research-based instructional strategies http://tinyurl.com/2gvk8k
(hr 38): Read Pankowski’s dissertation, which surveyed online math faculty about training in online teaching.
(hr 37): Reread (and tagged) Beyond Crossroads (standards document for 2-year math) http://www.beyondcrossroads…
(hr 36) Tagging about adopter categories in Diffusion of Innovations. So much reading! Better on a computer screen believe it or not.
(hr 35) Reading “Barriers to the use of research-based instructional strategies” (Henderson and Dancy on barriers to physics reform)
(hr 34) Preparing Math Teachers for Tech-rich Environments (PRIMUS, March 2009) … and other articles … still tagging happily!
(hr 33): Reading and tagging now. Tag & highlight the text as you read, then go to notes and pull up all relevant parts at once.
(hr 32): Constructing ways to find other innovations (emails, message board posts, etc.)
(hr 31): Searching through PRIMUS archives for innovations, change, faculty development, reform, etc.
(hr 30): Spent entire hour trying to get PRIMUS articles through two different libraries. Broke down and paid $43. Information age?
(hr 29): Totally fascinating. Calculus reform movement was born BEFORE graphing calculators. Can anyone explain what caused it?
(hr 28): Still researching history of math technology … can’t find any complete Internet resources - that’s a first!
(hr 27): Finding these dates is actually difficult. Did you know that Calculus Reform was born before Graphing Calculators?
(hr 26): Working on list of mathematics innovations that affected teaching and a timeline of these. Harder than it sounds!
(hr 25): Used headers and subheaders to build clickable outline of dissertation and started writing research questions. Yay!
(hr 24): Working on TOC to see where I am going and begin working on parts. Also, danced on the deck with the dogs to Billy Idol.
(hr 23): Trying to decide the best way to set up the written dissertation … subdocuments in word, a wiki, in wordpress? Suggestions?
(hr 22): Still dealing with file organization and citations - going to go read for an hour. How to get this book into A.nnotate?
(hr 21) Still working on files … while searching ERIC.
(hr 20) Organizing, finding, and converting files.
(hr 19): Optimizing my technology … have to convert some of these papers using OCR and then downsize the file size.
(hr 18): I am totally geeked about the ability to search by subject, notes, text, or whatever in A.nnotate (this is a godsend!)
(hr 17): Finished reading/scanning Motivation of Online Adjunct Faculty (another dissertation on motivation issues).
(hr 16): Loading papers into A.nnotate for searchable notes, tags, and citations. Also useful is http://www.pdf-search-engine.com
(hr 15): Reading about pro-innovation bias and individual-blame bias.
(hr 14): Trying madly to scan through the bottom of the relevancy list in the tagged dissertations from my search.
(hr 13): Thinking about “technology clusters” in diffusion of innovations. Studying clusters will be more appropriate I think.
(hr 12): Reading about graphing calculator, CAS, and calculus reform (math innovation adoptions). Some are good, some are bad.
(hr 11): Scanning more dissertations about innovation adoption studies at community colleges - many related to technology adoption.
(hr 10): Best quote so far in today’s research: “You can (or can’t) teach an old mouse new clicks.”
(hr 9): Three tools I might be able to use … LoUOI, CBAM, and SoCQ.
(hr 8): Now searching for dissertations that specifically discuss faculty adoption (and motivation) of some kind of innovation.
(hr 7): Looking for dissertations that discussion innovation and/or change (esp. related to math).
(hr 6): Working on a list of major topics (and subtopics) for a 3rd-stage outline (building a mindmap to organize my thoughts).
(hr 5): Spent the whole hour reading Preuss (2008) dissertation on relationship between traits of dev math faculty & student success
(hr 4): Is implementation of change hindered by others who did not participate in the intervention? (i.e. other faculty or staff)
(hr 3): How does self-efficacy factor into the ability to change? Self-efficacy definition (http://tinyurl.com/cwe9sb
(hr 2): Searching for relevant (and recent) dissertations that are close in topic to my possible topic.
(hr 1): Sorted through 2-ft stack of printed papers to find ones that are actually appropriate to topic.
