My tentative ethnography proposal is to study computer science students in two different lab sections of the same class. The idea is to learn how the differences between sections encourage or discourage learning and interaction. The Teaching Assistants of each lab will also be observed, to discover if the differences in teaching style seem to affect the differences between the sections. If this information can be discovered, it could be put to use in future to design and teach lab sections in a way that best promotes learning.
As a peer teacher, I am already part of two different freshman-level lab sections with two different TAs, and therefore, am able to study each lab section for two hours a week without interfering with the environment that is already established. I would just have to interact with the students as I usually do, helping to answer questions and such. This allows me to ask them questions about their understanding without disturbing the initial environment and thus disturbing the data.
Quantitative data that can be collected includes the number of students who actually show up the the lab and the number of questions that are asked during each lab per day. Qualitative data includes the overall attentiveness of the class, how the students interact with the TA, and the overall quality of the students' programs.
For the moment, this is a tentative individual project to discover what kinds of ethnography ideas will be the most useful to implement for the actual ethnography group project.
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