ideas for methods course

[isa barriere]

Hi Ruth,

Here is what I do for my graduate research and lg development courses  (and
I used to do something similar for an advanced undergrad course at JHU).  My
students are Speech Lg Pathology Masters students but you can easily adapt
the exercise to Psych students.

I select 5 to 6 articles that rely on the analyses of speech production data
on typically developing children (e.g. Valian 1986 on lexical categories,
Fagan 2008 on repairs, etc- I tried to give students a choice between
lexical, morphosyntactic topics).

The students have to pick one article and write a precis.

- Then for my research methods class they have to select an atypical
population (SLI, children with ASD, TBI, Down Syndrome or acquired
disorders) or a population speaking a lg other than English that they can
speak
- for my lg development class they use a transcript they have collected
themselves and two more from CHILDES (matched on a relevant measure ie age,
MLU, Context, lexical density etc) that they have to justify- different than
the ones used in the study
- develop a hypothesis for the atypical population (for the Research Methods
course)
- use the same coding system as the one used in the article or an improved
coding system that they have to justify
- select an appropriate sample in CHILDES or TALKBANK
- Analyze the data
- Present and discuss the results
- Conclude, re: if their hypothesis is supported

For the lg development they conduct this work in groups and they are
expected to replicate the results (I have had many many students replicate
Valian 1986 and when they don't replicate the results they have to propose
and discuss posible explanations)  of the article and for the research
method class they work individually and apart from the article, they have to
do a lit review on the characteristics of the atypical population to develop
their hypotheses.   When they feel the need to propose a better coding
system it is often after they have started analyzing the data and they
make some relevant observations.

I do guide them re: the size of the samples - they are doing it in a
semester and they can not always use the CLAN tools (it depends on the focus
of the analyses).

I am attaching a poster that is the outcome of an assignment conducted for
the research methods class.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
Isabelle

On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 10:40 AM, Brian MacWhinney <macw at cmu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Ruth,
>    It would be great if you could pursue this.  You will find some things
> already collected at
> http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/teach/index.html
> It would be great to add more materials and detailed exercises.  It doesn't
> matter whether or not they make
> use of CHILDES materials, as long as they deal with language development.
>  Many thanks.
>
> --Brian MacWhinney
>
> On Jun 10, 2011, at 4:17 PM, ruthtincoff wrote:
>
> > Hi, I am looking for examples and resources for mini-projects that I
> > can use for undergrads to learn basic research methods.
> >
> > The course is psychology research methods. We do these topically and
> > mine is focused on (no surprise) language development. I have access
> > to daycare centers, families coming to my lab for structured
> > observations and looking time experiments, and, of course, CHILDES.
> >
> > Do you have a research methods exercise on language development that
> > you would be willing to share? Are there things from the childes
> > teaching resources that have worked especially well for you? I am glad
> > to compile and post a summary.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ruth
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Ruth Tincoff, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor
> > http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rjt023
> >
> > Department of Psychology
> > Bucknell University
> > Lewisburg, PA 17837
> >
> > Office: 205 O’Leary
> > phone 570-577-1787
> > fax 570-577-7007
> >
> > Lab: 301 & 306 O'Leary
> > phone 570-577-1828
> > http://www.bucknell.edu/ChildLanguageResearch
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
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