Activate week 4

Survey research - Chapter 18

We can find out answers to questions through survey research. It seems as though survey research is a type of experiment. We start with a question and then conduct surveys to find out what, how, or why. I know that there are many different types of surveys and we have to have certain rules that we follow when conducting them. We have to make sure our sample represents the population and the question(s) that we ask make sense.

I wonder how we can make sense of survey research and use it as a tool for improving instruction.

Affective instruments - Chapter 12

An instrument is the tool used to make something happen. Affective deals with feelings. In this case, we want to discuss feelings toward reading and also motivation to want to read. Therefore, an affective instrument (I believe) is used to find out a student's feelings about reading and their reading abilities, and also their motivation and engagement when asked to read.

Motivation and feelings toward reading are a couple areas that have been overlooked until recently. We underestimate how important the affective aspects of reading are. We assess student's on the cognitive aspects of reading often, but we should put a greater focus on affective components. Feelings towards reading can affect their comprehension of the text.

I wonder how affective instruments can be used to improve reading instruction and how valid these instruments are with the results.