Crystal Cheng

Last Friday, I went to my aunt’s house in Richmond. At about 4 pm, she started to cook dinner for the whole family. The dinner is typically Chinese food style, and she planed to prepare 3 dishes, including the pig elbow, eggplants and cucumbers. I observed the process of cooking eggplants. As first, she washed the ingredients and cut it into small pieces. Then she put them in a plate and added some salt on them in order to drain the water of the eggplants. Meanwhile, she got the mince form refrigerator and put it into a bowl while adding some pepper, salt, as well as soy sauce. After about 5 minutes, she started to heat the oil in the pot, and fried the eggplants. Then she put all the flavouring including garlic, ginger, and Chinese bean paste into the pot and fried them. Then she added the mince as well as the prepared eggplants in the pot and cooked all the ingredients together for about 4 minutes. After everything was ready, she switch the gas and put them on the plate.

Last Sunday, I needed to get my US visa photo, so I went to the London Drugs in Richmond. I walked in the store and started to observe one of the staff in the store. He is a middle-aged man with grey hair and beard. He was in charge of the photo lab in the store. I stood in a short distance from the counter in order not to bother him. When there were no customers around the counter, he walked around the camera and other electronic devices area, stacking shelves and rearranging the price tags and items. After about 3 minutes, a customer came to the counter, and the man walk to the counter. The customer wanted to take a photo for her passport, and the man told the customer the price and she should wait about 5 minutes to get the photo. The lady agreed and paid the money. The man got a digital camera the office behind and let the lady stand in front of a white van. Then he stood about 2 meters away from the woman and pressed the button. He them switched on the computer and started to adj...

Summary: Ellen and other 4 authors (2005) talked about qualitative studies in special education. According to this article, qualitative study is a systematic approach to understanding qualities, or the essential nature, of a phenomenon with a particular context. This article first discussed the goal of this kind of research in special education, in order to examine personal reaction and teaching strategies. Then, they introduced the types and descriptions of qualitative research (both inductive and deductive). Being  valid instruments and data collection are quite important for qualitative research, since the settings and people are dynamic and diverse. The article also provided some prominent studies which make contribution to special education and some techniques which could make the research more credible.  In addition, quality indicators are essential to help people plan the qualitative research. Finally, three recent cases of qualitative studies in special education prov...

1st observation There is a book named  king of infinite space, which has a king on the cover. 9 robot or astronaut toys with different colours which are 2 blue, 1 black, 2 red and 2 yellow  Three or four balls with cross lines A feather typer  A grey crocodile toy A cup with clocks on it A paper in red and white like a paper cut  a yellow toy 2nd observation a panda puzzle lizard  a typer a painting  the number of toys are different  3rd observation a kite box a gene model  an art craft on the typer an old notebook At the first time, I paid attention to some certain things, such as the name of the book, the colours of the toys. I could not remember all the items. However, they already left memory in my mind. in the second time, I just remind myself the things I left in the first time, and look for new things. what do I observe myself as an observer? I think I am not a good observer, I could not remember ...

Frank (2011) talked about the importance of frameworks in the research. Frank believed that framework is like a scaffold which could help works to repair every parts of the building, and it has at least 4 advantages: to offer a structure for conceptualizing and designing the research, to make the data meaningful, to transcend common sense and to give a deeper understanding. He also categorized frameworks in 3 types: theoretical frameworks, practical frameworks and conceptual frameworks. Each of the three framework has it own advantages and drawbacks. At the end of the article, Frank talked about why those frameworks were ignored or misunderstood and introduced Churchman(1971)’s 5 inquiry systems to guide the research.  A point Frank talked about stopped my reading, and it is about the drawback of practical frameworks. Since practical frameworks need practitioners and participants, these kinds of people are called “insiders” in the research. Although they do realize that their behav...

1How do you know what is true (in education or elsewhere)? 2What would convince you that something is true?  3What counts as evidence?  Some common knowledge, for instance, the sun rises from east.  the thing I have experienced. something I read from a convinced book.  most people said it is true. there is a convinced resource that I could track or trust. things really happened  from convinced news website the people who involved in the event said it is true.

Sun(2012) in her article wanted to explore the relationship between knowledge and identity. She picked up several teacher who teach Chinese in Australia, and chose one example to deepen her study. The teacher's name is Wenying, who is a native Chinese speaker born in China. During the interview and class record, Sun found out that Wenying's identity really had some effects on her teaching practice, though winning students trust, building a qi-field,and teaching smoothly in the classroom. Although she has lived in Australia for many years, her mind has deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture.   Focus question: How knowledge and identity are entwined? World view:                                                                               Teac...