Reflective Practice

A chapter by Michael Seltzer and Mike Rose in the Sage Handbook for Research in Education (2006) keyed my interest in formally reflecting and documenting the subjective aspects of the research process.

In that chapter Seltzer and Rose speak about reflective practice as "thinking about what we are doing, why we are doing it, what might be flawed about it, and how best to convey the important aspects of the process to others" (p. 477). They then go on to discuss:

• the importance of context
• attending to alternative explanations
• the importance of getting close to the data

In regards to attending to alternative explanations is the "need to try to understand the selection process by which individuals wind up in the different groups that we wish to compare" (p. 487). Hence justification for investigating the policies and process schools utilize to place 8th graders in Algebra 1 or pre-Algebra.

---

Seltzer, M. & Rose, M. (2006). Constructing Analyses: The development of thoughtfulness in working with quantitative methods, in Conrad, C. F. & Serlin, R. C., Eds. The Sage Handbook for Research in Education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.