quiz 1 Flashcards
sustainable development
- development that meets the needs of present without compromising needs of future
- Based on 1989 Brundtland report: Report of the World Comission on Environment and Development: our common future
- 2015: UN adopted 17 sust development goals
- aims to promote sound management of natural resources and ecosystems
role of education in sust
- education is humanity’s best hope and most effective means to achieve sust development
universities and sust
- universities educate those who develop and manage institutions
- responsible for increasing awareness, knowledge tehnologies
- criticized for unsustainable practices and poor curriculum
AASHE stars scorecard
- sust tracking, assessment, rating system
- transparent, self reporting framework to measure sust
dal scorecard
- gold
- 69.69
research
- fundamental skill
- use to determine fact from fiction or opinion
where do research ideas come from
- theory
- observation
- resolving conflicting results
- replication
- new phenomenon
- tests of common sense
- advocacy
inductive
- start with observation
- conduct more observations
- create theory based on observations
- keep observing and modify as needed
deductive
- start with theory
- express hypothesis
- test again on new situations
qualitative
- human centred approach
- constructionists: created by humans/individual perspectives
- associated with words
- emphasizes processes: how perceptions/meanings develop, change and emerge
- emphasizes subjectivity: knowing comes from closeness with participants
- preference for an inductive approach
quantitative
- natural science
- realist: reality external to humans
- numbers
- emphasizes cause and effect
- emphasizes objectivity - social distance
- preference for deductive approach
quantitative characteristics
- data is numerical and mathy
- some data already in numbers
- if not numbers, can turn them into numbers (scales)
- goal: to generalize from a sampls
sources of quantitative data
- primary data: observations, measurements, surveys
- secondary data: ex. census data, public energy audits
qualitative characteristics
- mostly words, but also pictures et.c
- data structured and coded into groups
- results give an in depth picture
sources:
- interviews, focus groups, surveys, community boards
- secondary data
- observations
mixed methods approach
- mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches in many phases in the research process
- focus on collecting, analyzing using both methods
- provides better understanding of a research problem than either approach alone
how to decide which approach
- what is the nature of research you want to do
- who is audience
- what is team background
- what is teams worldview in terms of research
good research questions are
- feasible
- clear - operationalize terms, use hypothesis to measure variables and outcomes
- ethical
- significant - worht spending itme on
feasible research questions
- specific
- limited in scope
- related to some evidence
- amenable to specific evaluation criteria
non researchable questions
- assume value judgements (Ex. best, should)
- may be turned into research questions
- If everyone had to take a sust course, would they behave differently
if Dalhousie students from all faculties and programs were required to take a course on sustainability, would we see a reduction in wasteful behaviour
- Are straws bad for campus
What percentage of the landfill waste stream is comprised of single use plastic straws from Dalhousie’s Studley campus?
hypothesis
- testable proposed answer to a question
- start by observing and reading lit (research) and make a guess
- if, then statement
- should include an independent and dependent vairable
purpose of a hypothesis
- helps the researcher to focus experimental design, test something concrete
- not to prove that hypothesis is correct, wnat to understand phenomenon
- one experiment cant definitely answer question - but can support
good hypothesis 1
o Rainbow trout in poorly oxygenated water conditions suffer higher parasite loads
good hypothesis2
o Plants exposed to ladybugs will have fewer aphids after a week than plants which are not exposed to ladybugs
research question should be significant
- contribute knowledge and value
- improve human condition
what is the purpose of sampling
- to make inferences about the pop by sampling a subset
- cant get data from the whole pop - get representative sample
- sample stata used to estimate pop stat
goal of sampling
ubiased, representative cross section of pop
population vs sample
- population: all entities of interest
- sample: proportion that represents the whole
when is a sample represetative
- when the distribution of relevant attributes mirrors the distribution of the population’s attributes
homogeneity
similarity among all units or elements being studied
heterogeneity
diversity within population or attributes
homo and heterogeneity
- affects numbe of samples that are needed
- can come in forms not visible
- in human subjects variation can manifest through gender, race, religion
sampling frame
- all members of a pop of interest
- complete list often unavailable
how to ensure a representative sample
- appropriate sampling technique
probabilistic sampling
- based on probability
- when goal is to generalize to a broad pop
non probabilistic smapling
- when seek strategically chosen samples
- only some participants with certain attributes can advance study objectives
estimating sample size
- 95% condifence interval is a range of values that you can be 95% certain contains the true meaning of the pop
simple random sample
- every individual has an equal chance of being included
- random number generator, table of radom numbers, alorithm are the only true random
- better for smaller sample sizes
systematic sampling
- make use of regular sampling interval (k) btwn individuals selected for inclusion
- randomly choose starting point and select kth individual
- easier than random sampling, better for larger samples
stratified random
- take a simple random sample from different identifiable subgroups or subareas
- select samples randomly within subgroups
proportional stratified random
- sample proportions mirror pop proportions
- weakness: goups with smaller proportions have smaller sample size
disproportional stratified random
- interest in comparing btwn strata
- stakeholder sampling
- all individuals with common stake in a service sampled
- all voices heard
- purposive
maximum varition
- emphasizes sampling for diversity
- full range of voices heard regardless of magnitude of presence in pop
- purposive
thoughtful respondent:
- favouring fewer thoughtful/informative respondents over a larger number of less informed participants
- purposive
snowball
- sampling 1-2 individuals and using connections to generate more samples
- usefull for closed/inaccessible pops
- weakness: participants may be too similar
- fix: initate several snowballs
quota
- samples within strata not selected randomly
- assumption that all individuals within a stratum are equal and can be sampled up to the defined quota
- weakness: assumption may not hold true
advantages of interactive techniques
- versatility
- hear from respondent directly
- questions usually answered
- can collect demographic data that can enhance analysis
disadvantages
- designing meaningful questions is hard
- understand how to analyze results
- time intensive
3 methods of interactive techni
- questionnaires
- interviews
- surveys
survey methods
- pencil and paper
- telephone
- online
survey issues to be aware of
- online responding bias
- telephone - respondent lying ( intercept, leading the respondent)
pros of survey
- get lots of data
- inexpensive
- anonymity of respondnet
cons of survey
- cant clarify ambiguities/misinterpretations
- low response rate
interview types
- face to face
- telephone/skype
pros of interviewa
- higher response rate (70%)
- can clarify questions and answers
cons of interviews
- costly (time and $)
- can be difficult to get rid of participants
focus group pros
- lots of info from a few people in a short amount of time
- some poeple may be more willing to participate in a group
cons of focus group
- group thinking
- influence of power
- difficult to record/code results
three primary methods of data collection
- counts
- measurements
- audits
audit
- objective and independent assessment or evaluation of an organization’s practices in an area
considerations of audits
- space
- time
- subject attributes (categorizing)
- back end indo
- final calculation
audit spatial considerations
- study area (how in depth? how broad? whole capus or specifc area of a building?
audit temporal considerations
- during waht time of day/night
- maximize periods of data collection and conduct replicates (ex. if auditing at 2p on monday, audit at same time another day)
- consider peoples habits during certian times
- condifer ability to focus ona single observation may be short - may lose accuracy
categorize subject - light audit example
- exterior or interior?
- motion sensor or manual shutoff
- timer or manual
- shielded or unshielded
- higher efficiency = lights on motion sensors or timers, shileded lights
- captures detail needed
back end info
- often need to acquire info from facilities management or sust office toaccurately quantify/summarize audit
- are any specialized toolds needed and what is available
- budget enough time
- goal: recommendations to improve current practices
research ethics
- aplies the principles of ehtics to within the framework of a particular research context
ethical issues with the milgram experiment
- deception and coercion
- lack of respect and welfare for participants
- limited protection of participants from harm
basic ethical dilemma
- conflicting obligation to science and to participants
what is research ethics about
- applying ethics to a research context
3 main principles of resarch ethics
- respect for people, animals, environment
- concern for welfare of participants
- justice, obligation to treat people fairly, equitably, with dignity
why do we conduct ethics reviw
- bc we should - social responsibiliyt and research integirty
- bc we must - tricouncil policy statement (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC), dal ethics review board
respect for people directive
- treat participants as autonomous beings (right to make independent decisions)
- respect right to privacy
- protect participants with limited autonomy
implementation of respect for people
- informed consent
- voluntary participation
- participant anoymity data confidentiality
- special treatment of vulnerable pops
- 3rd party consent
confidentiality
- only the invesitgator can identify responses of individuals, make effort to prevent anyone outside of project from connecting individuals with responses
anonymity
project does not collect personal info from individuals, cant link responses to identities
- dont collect names unless ther is reason
concern for welfare directive
- minimize harm, maximize benefits
concern for welfare implementation
- study design, participant screening, risk assessment
- only collect data you need
justice and inclusiveness directive
- dont exploit vulnerable pops
- implementation: select participants equitably
what research needs ethical review
- living human participants
- human remains, cadavers, tissues
- secondary use of human data
- naturalistic observation
- research w animals
- environmental experimentation
wat doesnt need ethics reviw
- research using publicly available info
- legally accessible to public
- no expectation of privacy
- humans answering but with factual questions about info that is publicly available
