Action Research

This is what an engineer would call trouble shooting.
and it is a good way of to close the feedback loop.

There are basically 2 paths,
Quantitative and Qualitative.

The Quantitative approach is very similar to an engineer
doing a DOE(Design of Experiments) on a machine.
But this time, we are applying it to students.
So it is a variant and a branch into social sciences.
Deep down inside, I am abit cautious of this process.
Because there are just so many variables that could affect the
output.
You would have to think really hard and cover all angles,
if not, at the end of the day you may get loads of meaningless data.
It was already tough working on machines,
working on humans I believe would be a lot more complex.

But nevertheless, I did take home some valuable points.
and will plan to do some small controlled experiments,
to aid in improving my teaching methods.

The Qualitative method is basically about conducting
detailed interviews.
This too has its whole range of challenges from preparing,
the questions , to interviewing and interpreting the data collected.

It is a holistic approach with a whole lot of work *pant*
but the payoffs would definitely be well worth the effort.

A fellow colleague metioned a problem worth looking into.
Why is there a drop in
academic performance of good students
from the 2nd year of a particular course?
I believe that a Qualitative Research into this would help us shape
our cirriculum better.