CEP 930

This was written in February 2010

Salam you all!!

In my last writing janji nak citer pasal CEP930 & TE901. Tapi sebab citernya agak panjang so I decided to devide it into 2 parts. We’ll start with CEP930. Sebenarnya ni kod kelas yang I ambik untuk Fall semester ari tu. CEP930 tu nama panjang dia Educational Inquiry, salah satu compulsory courses bawah research method. Tapi kelas ni macam introduction to research method la. It’s not really focusing on quantitative or qualitative, but more on exposing us to various research methods under social science. Lecturernya 2 orang: Dr. Susan Wilson and Prof. Philip Cusick (pak cik ni memang famous ...lepas dia publish one research on US curriculum, banyak states yang rombak curriculum dia orang based on his report!). Tapi si Cusick ni selamba je orangnya. Dia selalu kata as a researcher kita tak payah sibuk nak bagi suggestions  to anybody on how to do things. Giving suggestions and recommendations is not our responsibility. We just table our findings and it is up to the decision maker to do what they think they should do. Bila tanya what makes a good study? Dia cuma cakap a good study is a study that provides answers to the research questions. Tak kisah la method apa pun guna, as long as it’s consistent with the research framework. Orang lain nak refer tu your study or not, it doesn’t matter. Tapi kalau dapat bagi big impact, tu kira bonus.

Dia kata ada juga research yang framework and method suma ntah apa-apa tapi bagi BIG impact to the whole nation. Dia bagi contoh research on effective schools kat US. Suma orang quote sebab the research was done throughout the whole country, bajet besar, involved a big sum of taxpayers’ money, suma orang aware of it tapi findingsnya banyak yang tak accurate. Bila tengok indicants satu persatu, and buat research semula, suma findings lari. Contohnya class size was later found not even a factor, expenditure pun cuma factor sampingan je. Lagi satu study yang dia buat on School Dropouts. Dia kata at the beginning , the purpose of his study was to find a solution for dropout issue. But in the end, instead of finding the solution for the issue, he found out that dropping out is actually a solution. A solution for families yang tak nak anak dia sekolah, solution for families yang miskin, yang tak mampu, families yang anaknya face inequality in schools, yang selalu kena buli, yang tak score, yang banyak create problems di sekolah. Bila berhenti sekolah, anak-anak dia orang bole kerja and bantu family. So, dia kata dropout maybe an issue to some but actually a solution to others. Menarik kan analysis dia?

Untuk kelas CEP930 ni  mula-mula dia suruh baca article written by Max Weber yang cakap pasal all sorts of studies in general and conclusion yang Weber ni buat  suma kajian tak semestinya 100% betul. Kebanyakannya bias kepada apa pengkaji tu fikir betul. And apa yang kita fikir betul, itu la yang betul..and apa yang orang lain fikir betul..itu pun betul la jugak based on apa yang orang tu fikir betul….confusing kan? Memang pening bila baca article ni. Sape-sape yang pernah baca article tajuk Objectivity In Social Science by Max Weber (1949)ni tau la betapa payahnya  nak synthesize apa pak cik ni nak cakap sebenarnya. So this class started with this broad idea of what research is all about. Not so much on trying to prove who is wrong and who is right, but more on understanding what is there and what makes it like that.(betul ke apa I cakap ni? Ntah?)

Then dia suruh kita analyse banyak research reports, tengok apa yang dia orang  nak kaji and tengok method apa yang dia orang guna. So untuk class ni students kena analyse and critic at least 10 kajian yang dah dipublish di journals. Kena submit kat dia orang seminggu sekali. Nanti dia comment la pulak apa yang kita kritik tu. Kadang-kadang dia setuju ngan kritik kita, kadang-kadang dia defend article tu. Kalau ada issue yang menarik, dia orang akan bawak masuk kelas for open discussion. Students mat-mat salleh dalam kelas ni memang suka kritik suma orang. Tak de research yang bagus. Ada je yang dia orang nak komen (kalau depa ni join MKK suma report kena belasah). Tapi memang dah budaya dia orang macam tu. Bagus jugak in some ways. Dia orang memang dah expert buat critical analysis ni. Macam kita orang Melayu ni banyak rendah diri, tak berani nak kritik orang punya kerja tak tentu pasal..kita dah biasa terima je apa orang bijak pandai cakap..so tak banyak la kita nak kritik kan? Dah yang buat research tu bukan calang-calang orang. Kebanyakannya lecturer university yang gah-gah. Tak kan depa nak buat hentam saja. Mesti dah study banyak sebelum tulih report tu kan?

Apa-apa pun..banyak la yang kita dapat belajar dari kelas ni. Mula-mula dia kata suma study tak 100% betul. Pastu dia beritau kita social science studies memang susah nak convince orang sebab banyak isu reliability and validity. Survey saja tak leh nak buktikan apa-apa. Kalau pakai human samples there’s no way to generalize sebab humans are very individualistic. Then dia cakap pulak even experimental studies or quasi experimental studies pun ada issue especially bila melibatkan pre-test and post-test, and even causal and effect tu suma kebanyakannya cuma inference saja, especially when we are dealing with abstractions, such as, teachers’ motivation, parents’ aspiration, students attitudes, etc. Then dia kata even pure scientists pun ada yang sampai ke tua tried to convince people with all sorts of theories, apa lagi la social scientists. So? How? Dia kata good luck and try not to be too ambitious..ha..ha..

          Tapi yang paling best untuk kelas ni dia suruh kita cari article yang focus kepada tajuk dissertation yang kita nak buat. So, in the end, kalau kita buat betul-betul kita sebenarnya dah boleh siap kita punya Bab2 (Literature Review). Cuma nanti tambah sikit je lagi. Cool kan? Lepas ni kena ambik lagi 3 kelas research method yang akan focus terus kepada quantitative (2 kelas) and qualitative(1 kelas). Plan nak ambik jugak kelas during summer. Terpaksa la korban cuti kalau nak habis cepat…

Till then…adios amigos! J