SUMMARY
At this point, the data collection and initial analysis was complete and I was ready
to embark upon answering the research questions. The research process to this point
consisted of these procedures:
Videotaping 14 groups solving six physics problems (“raw” data).
Transcribing the videotapes.
Editing the transcripts with annotations to written solutions and the
videotapes.
Identifying the Toulmin statements of Claims, Grounds, Warrants, and
Backings.
Identifying new statement categories based on the cooperative group roles and
the problem-solving strategy.
Characterizing each group qualitatively and their written solutions
quantitatively.
This “processed” material comprises the “data” in this research. Next I turned to
a major part of the analysis. Since my research question involves looking for patterns, I
realized I could not look for patterns within single statements. Rather, I had to look for
patterns in a group of statements. That group of statements became known as “the
episode”. In order to answer the research questions, another analysis tool was used, the
flowchart. Both of these tools will be discussed in the next chapter.