Graduate Teachers' Knowledge Change on Qualitative Research

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the difference between what graduate students' knowledge on qualitative research was before they took a class and after they took a class. The class on qualitative research was held on summer semester, 2008 by the researcher. Subjects are 9 graduate teachers (male 3, female 6) for this study. They are all primary school teachers. Open-ended questionnaire are used. It has 5 items. The researcher extracted the main conceptions out of responses collected through the questionnaires. Their main conceptions are categorized based on research question. The research results are as follows. First, some of them considered the qualitative research as the counter part on the quantitative research, or others considered the unmeaningness (unnecessity) as the research methodology before they took the class. Second, they all agreed that the qualitative research was necessary in all science education after they took the class. It has on science concept study, science curriculum study, science teaching method study, science retard study, science learning theory study, etc.