replies
theedukator2020
Directions.docx
Directions: In 200 words, you will respond to both classmates’ discussion post below with references included. Please be sure to label each response so I will know which classmate you are responding to.
Student 1:
Now that I have had the opportunity to read several research reports, I have learned so much about the topic I have chosen. There are so many different aspects that needs to be considered that I am afraid that may have taken on a little more than I can manage on my own. With the first dissertation I reviewed, I was quite surprised with the amount of difficulty the author encountered with acquiring the necessary approvals for conducting her research. After explaining the goal of her research, she was denied approval by many schools and school districts the opportunity to conduct her research, which resulted in her only being able to use three schools. One high school, one middle school and one elementary. I believe this significantly reduced her focus groups, which may or may not have influenced the findings of her research.
I have learned that if I am to continue with my topic, I would have to try secure the schools to conduct my research or try to find others way of obtaining the necessary data. As this was my first time reading a dissertation, I have come to realization that it is something that will require a lot of time and effort. I really enjoyed the detailed breakdown of each dissertation and the how the authors utilized multi-stage processing and to ensure that data results were valid and consistent. The use of the triangulation method was particularly new to me; however, I really like the fact that the author utilized this method to establish validity by using multiple perspectives to that the results were reliable. Member checking and audit trail are also other perspective that I will also utilize to ensure increase the validity of the data.
Providing detailed descriptions words that may be unfamiliar to some readers is something that is necessary for helping the readers to better understand the context of the research. I struggle with analyzing information that I am not too knowledgeable about. The question I frequently ask myself is, how do I analyze something that I do not know much about specifically for the purposes of identifying strengths and weaknesses.
I am not necessarily certain if the “situation of self” is required for the dissertation; however, I liked the fact that the author included it because it provided a brief synopsis about the author and how she feels about that particular topic. In doing so the reader is able to identify potential biases on the part of the author and for me that help assisted with the development of trust and transparency of the author. I would include the “situation of Self” in my research as it well clarify and highlight my perspective of the topic. Another strategy the author utilized that I found particularly helpful, was the fact that she documented every aspect of research from beginning to end which made her research very transparent. This is great for developing trust and further validates the findings of the research. This review assignment for me was very much like threading through uncharted territory. However I believe it was necessary for me to become acquainted with this type of assignment so that I will be more familiar with it.
Student 2:
The biggest lesson that I learned from the research reports that I have read related to the impact of Christian schools to worldview development of students is that the research is very mixed on whether or not attending a Christian school positively influences Biblical worldview development. According to Baniszewski (2016), for every study that shows that Christian schools do significantly impact the Biblical worldview of students, there is another that shows that it doesn’t. These findings have challenged my assumptions, because when I selected my topic I assumed that the literature would show that students who attended a Christian school would overwhelmingly display more of a Biblical worldview than Christian students who attended a secular institution.
Another important article that is relevant to this research is Nathan Alleman’s (2015) article on whether or not faculty who attended Christian institutions for their education were better able to integrate faith into their courses at a private Christian school. This article demonstrated that there is a small yet statistically significant difference between the degree to which faculty members who were trained at Christian institutions and those who were trained at secular institutions make connection between their faith and their instruction. This helped me to see that Christians schools are making an impact.
One of the most surprising things that I learned from this review of the literature is that there is a possibility that Christian students who are on secular campuses are able to strengthen their Biblical worldview simply because when differing worldviews exist on a campus this can actually increase one’s commitment to a Biblical worldview. This concept was brought out in Davignon and Thomson’s (2014) study of the impact of institutional characteristics of Christian colleges on student religiosity and religious practice. As a Christian student who attended secular institutions, I definitely can attest to the fact that opposition to my faith from the culture were not threatening to my faith, rather it caused me to become more confident in what I believed, much like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who asserted that they would not bow down to the king’s idol (Daniel 3:18, King James Version).
In Simoneaux’s (2015) dissertation, she focused specifically on the Biblical worldview development and religious commitment of Apostolic Christian students. This focus on one particular denomination made me wonder how generalizable her findings were to other Christians. However, with that said, this narrow focus did cause me to consider the fact that there are many different groups and beliefs systems that call themselves Christian, so it might make sense for me to narrow the focus of my research on evangelical Christians in particular.
The article that I found least useful was the study from Mayhew et al. (2017), which examined the conditions that cause non-evangelical students develop appreciative attitudes toward evangelical Christianity on secular college campuses. The findings basically showed that Catholic and mainline Protestant students had the most positive attitude toward evangelical students, while students of any other religion, atheists, and agonistics did not have a positive attitude toward evangelicals. This was not an earth-shattering revelation. Also, the authors seemed to imply that the negative attitude toward evangelicals was the fault of the evangelicals and that they should stop attending church and Bible studies with other Christians and participate in more campus-based inter-faith activities. This seemed to be a thinly veiled attempt by the authors to take a jab at evangelicalism rather than to produce helpful research.
References
Alleman, N. F. (2015). The christian college advantage? the impact of christian versus secular training among faculty at christian colleges and universities. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 24(3), 252-270. doi:10.1080/10656219.2015.1100101
Baniszewski, D. (2016). A causal comparative analysis of biblical worldview among graduate students based on christian school attendance. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1202/
Davignon, P., & Thomson, R. A. (2015). Christian colleges and universities as moral communities: The effects of institutional characteristics on student religiosity. Review of Religious Research, 57(4), 531-554. doi:10.1007/s13644-015-0214-5
Mayhew, M. J., Rockenbach, A. N., Bowman, N. A., Lo, M. A., Starcke, M. A., Riggers-Piehl, T., & Crandall, R. E. (2017). Expanding perspectives on evangelicalism: How non-evangelical students appreciate evangelical christianity. Review of Religious Research, 59(2), 207-230. doi:10.1007/s13644-017-0283-8
Simoneaux, C. P. (2015). A comparitive analysis of worldview development and religious commitment between apostolic college students attending apostolic christian and secular colleges. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1027/
