My answer (following) to your question is somewhat "tongue in cheek" but not entirely so:

What is your research aim? To gain a new and reliable insight into some phenomena

Why is it important? Because without such insights we are lost

What is the expected timeline? As long as it takes

What methods to you plan to use at the outset? careful evidence (eg observations) based thought

What will conclude the project?  Discovering a new and reliable insight into some phenomena

What will be the key progress or performance indicators as you prosecute your project? Phenomena that at first seem disjoint starting to connect together

What outcomes will determine your success or failure? A requirement for project success  (i.e. a new and reliable insight into phenomena) is that peers agree that the insight is indeed new and reliable.

Cheers

Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I feel as though we failed to connect, like two ships passing in the night. So, I'll take another tack:

1.) What are the major challenges you are facing?

2.) How can I help you?

Sincerely,

Mark

The Guide consists of three chapters and an appendix. The first chapter is entitled ‘Why Measure’. It details the benefits of measurement, including the importance of data- and results-driven programming, the need for baseline data collection to track programme impact as well as the usefulness of evaluation tools to expand successful RoL initiatives. The second chapter is entitled ‘What to Measure’. It provides practical guidance on how to determine the purpose and scope of measuring the success of a development programme. This chapter also provides direction on engaging stakeholders, and assessing the feasibility of a research design. The third chapter is entitled ‘How to Measure’. It describes common measurement and evaluation approaches, provides guidance on data collection and analysis, and offers suggestions for translating findings into policy recommendations.

Hi Mark

“Like ships that pass in the night” -- one of my favorite sayings – Longfellow, I believe

Another favorite: “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear”  attr. JC (no, not Jeremy!)

Sincerely

Jim

Dear James and Siavash,

Thank you both for your answers. I think I have my first glimpse of your project. An outcome of your Speaking of STEM project is a document called, at this point, The Guide. The Guide will provide a vocabulary for how we talk about STEM or STEM Education or STEM Promotion (or something else?) in terms of Why?, What? and How? to measure.

I think that measurement was implicit in my original question. Although I remain challenged and continue processing it, Jim's answer seems to be a response that is implicitly qualitative. Siavash's answer seems to brought the focus back to the quantitative.

Our conversational thread seems to be taking steps in the qualitative and quantitative realms. This is very interesting. In a way it resembles my project, Partnership 2.0 (https://www.researchgate.net/project/Partnership-20-Why-are-There-Still-so-Few-Women-in-the-Mathematically-Intensive-Fields-Answers-that-Forward-New-Partnerships-from-Personal-to-Global-Toward-Gender-Equity-as-Merely-Normal) which is somewhere between a collision and synthesis of nomothetic and ideographic methods.

The problem I am working on is part of "The Larger Issue of STEM" and may also lie within your project of "Developing a useful and integrative STEM disciplinary language" since how we are able to talk about problems affects who participates and how we approach them.

Perhaps The Guide could address the Who? question, alongside Why?, What? and How? if it does not already.

Perhaps I can learn something from learning this new integrative language, something that is both qualitative and quantitative and, I imagine, both nomothetic and ideographic. I don't know if either synthesis will allow one to apprehend the "whole" picture, but I think we will fail to get that without some soft of synthesis like this.

I plan to stay tuned. Let me know if I can help.

Sincerely,

Mark