Two possibilities for studying our 726 class:
1) It would be interesting to compare eye movement during peer workshop sessions, similar to what Eric J. Paulson’s did in his study, in order to get a clearer sense of how the peer review strategies of graduate students differs from that of first-year writers. My thinking is that the study could compare the eye movements of students in our class with students in a first-year composition class here at BGSU, and my preliminary thinking is that graduate students would be more apt to comment on global issues than local issues than first-year students, although it’s likely that such a study would highlight many differences and similarities in reading and response processes. The methodology would be similar to that used by Paulson, with all students receiving the same prompt and writing sample. I would need to foreground my positioning as a graduate student and GSW instructor. Some limitations would probably have to do with the extent to which this study would actually measure what happens during peer review – particularly when the prompt and writing sample presented are taken out of the usual social context of classroom peer review, when students know the person whose writing is being reviewed.
2) It might be interesting to study graduate student perceptions of different research methods. Which methods do students feel most likely to use? Which do they see as being irrelevant to their research interests, and why? Which are they resistant to, and why? Do the responses of graduate students to different methods speak to larger trends happening in the field as a whole? Do they fall in line with the agenda of the instructor? What other things might we learn? This study could use participant-observation notes, interviews with graduate students and the instructors, a questionnaire asking students to rank their comfort level or enthusiasm about a particular research method as well as other aspects of the class, etc.
