Oral Defense Questions- AP Research
How did your review of the methods used by scholars in the field inform your selection of a research method/process that is aligned with your research question/project goal? (RATIONALE)
HOW: All of the studies I looked at, such as Busselle and Bilandzic and Mar et. al. as well as a study done by Zoe Walkington in 2013, helped shape my method because they each looked at how some form of media or literature impacted empathy. They each used a survey method with agree/disagree items and quantitative... SO WHAT: so I could clearly tell that this was the most logical way to go about testing a question like mine. I too was studying a type of literature- namely assigned books- and its effects on empathy- or specifically emotional transportation- so because I had the same goals, it only made sense to copy their methods. *RATIONALE for why the choices made during the inquiry process were appropriate
What are the real-world implications or consequences related to your findings? (NEW UNDERSTANDING)
HOW: Because I found a connection between not choosing reading material and lower levels of transportation, it has direct implications or consequences for students. Essentially, students that only read books they are assigned and never have the chance in class to choose their own books will be less likely to be emotionally transported ever and therefore less likely to receive the emotional benefits of reading, as described by Bal and Veltkamp. Furthermore, Stacy Creel's study also found that the vast majority of students are far more likely to be assigned a book than invited to choose their own, so this is likely to impact students nation-wide and this entire generation of readers. SO WHAT: Thus, my general understanding of the research- that student's transportation is lowered by being assigned a book- directly impacts students who don't choose their reading material.. *provides specific DETAILS and describes their relationship to the NEW UNDERSTANDING
How did you determine which results generated by your research method were most important in informing your new understanding? (RATIONALE)
HOW: I had a lot of results that were generated by my method because, in trying to ensure that the results were actually valid, I had to cover a lot of different bases. So, although it seems obvious, I had to prioritize my results in terms of how well they addressed my question. For instance, I did find results on a lot of factors that didn't answer the question, such as the observed trends for each of the various books classes read or trends among participants whose survey results for the personal book section were invalid. SO WHAT: However, because my understanding of this topic has to do with how assigned reading affects transportation, I decided that the most important ones and the ones that had direct implications for the understanding of this topic as a whole were the ones that addressed my question. *RATIONALE for why the choices made during the inquiry process were appropriate
How do your findings provide directions for future research in the field? (NEW UNDERSTANDING)
HOW: My findings were that assigning students books reading material lowers emotional transportation, but as I've previously mentioned, this is essentially only a base conclusion that doesn't explain the deeper reasons why this actually occurs. For instance, I don't know if it's the act of being forced to read or the lack of choosing reading material that causes this. Thus, future research can take my basic conclusion that builds off of it by studying those factors or other explanations for my findings. SO WHAT: Essentially, my new understanding is that assigning students reading impacts transportation, which was a conclusion that had to be made before researchers could build off of it, so it directs a better understanding of transportation as a whole. *provides specific DETAILS and describes their relationship to the NEW UNDERSTANDING
How did your initial exploration of the scholarly conversation lead to your final research question/project goal? (RATIONALE)
HOW: My initial exploration led me to be interested in the numerous benefits of reading fiction, which ranged from cognitive to emotional to even physical benefits. This piqued my interest in the different types of benefits, especially emotional benefits. However, I was most interested in how all of this affected students because, as a busy high schooler and even as someone who likes to read, the vast majority of books I read are class assignments. So, I decided to study the differences in emotional benefits received for assigned books versus personally chosen reading material, which logically progressed into studying emotional transportation as I realized from sources like Mar et. al. and Bal and Veltkamp that transportation is how those benefits are received. SO WHAT: So, all of the steps I took in arriving at my question studying emotional transportation and assigned reading, were very much linear and building off one another. *why the choices made during the inquiry process were appropriate
How did the limitations of your method or data influence your new understanding? (NEW UNDERSTANDING)
HOW: One of my limitations was that my focus had to be constrained to only truly discuss the implications of my hypothesis, instead of delving into more other things that I found or that my research suggested or even exactly why the relationship I found occurs, such as why the findings on otherwise assigned reading turned out the way they did. This limitation influences my understanding because, even though I discovered a lot of things about my research, I can only truly advocate for the answer to my research question and must leave all other things for future research. SO WHAT: So, my new understanding is that although the ability to choose reading material impacts transportation, my research has shown that that's only one piece of the massive puzzle that requires further research. *provides specific DETAILS and describes their relationship to the NEW UNDERSTANDING
How did the choices you made when designing or implementing your research method impact your research process? (RATIONALE)
HOW: Originally, I was considering doing a qualitative study because it seemed to make sense to examine what's going on in someone's head by asking them to describe it. But, after doing a review of my various sources and their methods- such as Bal and Veltkamp, Mar et al, or the unmentioned 2013 study by Zoe Walkington, which was also influential- I realized that qualitative research would be too vague and ineffective because it might not address transportation directly. Ultimately, this led me to take a quantitative approach, which also directly led to my survey method with agree/disagree items because that seemed to be the method of choice among my sources for converting transportation into measurable values. So essentially... SO WHAT: Once I decided to go with a quantitative, survey-based method, everything else naturally fell in line to follow those goals and it shaped both my method and my data analysis or results. *RATIONALE for why the choices made during the inquiry process were appropriate
Think back to the initial curiosity that sparked your inquiry. What other curiosities do you have and how has this process prepared you to explore them? (PERSONAL GROWTH)
HOW: Originally, I was curious to see how the emotional benefits of reading fiction were accessed. While I decided to focus on the school setting, I would love to do more specific research into more subfactors of transportation, such as how the length of the book or genre influences emotional transportation, or, even on the school level, what kinds of assigned books to most students connect with. Ultimately, I've already got a basic knowledge of the field and a good understanding of how to measure emotional transportation through my method, so if I wanted to look at any of those factors, I could almost exactly replicate my quantitative survey method. SO WHAT: So, by doing this research project, I've been prepared to not only know how to conduct my own research, but I know how to research this specific field in both knowledge and method. *shows the project or process is significant for the student's own UNDERSTANDING, SELF-AWARENESS, or PERSONAL LEARNING
If you could revisit your research process, what would you do differently and why? (PERSONAL GROWTH)
HOW: Something I've mentioned as a limitation is that there's a lot of aspects that I could have looked into but wasn't able to, and I actually think that my process would have been easier if I had narrowed my focus. For instance, I asked participants about their personal book genre in my survey but wasn't able to get enough data on it, and I also had a direct comparison of which assigned books got the highest levels of transportation. But ultimately, this just clouded my purpose and made me do unnecessary work that I couldn't draw real, impactful conclusions from. SO WHAT: So, if I were to do this again, I've definitely learned to narrow my focus into what actually matters and let everything else go. *shows the project or process is significant for the student's own UNDERSTANDING, SELF-AWARENESS, or PERSONAL LEARNING
What was the most important research skill you developed as a result of this process, and how might you apply it to your future endeavors? (PERSONAL GROWTH)
HOW: The most important skill I learned was how to be critical of the academic literature I read. Prior to this class, skimming the abstract or the final conclusions of a research paper was usually all I needed to get something from it. However, in this process, I began looking into the specifics of how other researchers conducted their research, such has looking into the specific methods of Busselle and Bilandzic, which made me realize that using agree/disagree items on a scale would be the most effective method, something I would not have realized otherwise. SO WHAT: This will definitely help me in the future because I'm a lot less likely to just skim something and therefore make incorrect assumptions about it and I also am more adept at truly understanding research papers, which will help me in college or in future research endeavors for sure. *shows the project or process is significant for the student's own UNDERSTANDING, SELF-AWARENESS, or PERSONAL LEARNING
How did you handle the uncertainty of the research process? (PERSONAL GROWTH)
HOW: The way I learned to handle research uncertainty, whether through my own novice experience or because of COVID, was by deciding what things I absolutely had to have and being flexible for everything else. For instance, my survey had to have certain things, like emotional transition items, and it had to be released at least two weeks before my data collection deadline. However, I had to let other aspects of my survey go and I had to end up giving myself two weeks exactly rather than at least two weeks. SO WHAT: So, this process taught me to prioritize exactly what I needed to have done, I could focus all my energy on making sure I had what I needed to in order to succeed, which is something I can apply to almost any of my future endeavors. *shows how the project/process is significant for the student's own UNDERSTANDING, SELF-AWARENESS, or PERSONAL LEARNING
How does your new understanding address a gap in the scholarly conversation? (NEW UNDERSTANDING)
HOW: my new understanding mostly ties back to the gap in Bal and Veltkamp's study, which was that little is known about subfactors of emotional transportation as it relates to certain conditions in reading a book. Fortunately, through testing the differences in transportation between assigned and personal books in a classroom setting, my study directly addresses that by suggesting that emotional transportation decreases when the reading material itself is not chosen by the readers. SO WHAT: Thus, my new understanding is that, of all the factors that might increase or decrease transportation, one that definitely does affect transportation is ability to choose reading material, which directly interacts with the biggest gap in the research field thus far. *provides specific DETAILS and describes their relationship to the NEW UNDERSTANDING