Hi I'm back

It has been a long time that I have not updated my blog. It has a long story that I might get back to it and write about it for you sometimes in future!
However, I am back and am going to post atleast one sentence a day!
Mehrdad

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 23 Oct 2010 13:37 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Thesis submitted!

Finally I have finished this long journey. I finished the correctioins and submitted my PhD thesis on 28th of Sept. 2009

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 03 Oct 2009 18:51 |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Validity and Reliability in Qualitative & Quantitative research

These terms are normally related to measuring in quantitaive research approaches. Validity measures the extent to wich the results of the study measured what they were intended to measure. In the other hand Reliability measures whether the research is replicable in the similar situatins or not.
This is a point of separation of meanings and objectives of these terms between qualitative and quantitaive approaches. There is well known phrase in qualitative research saying, you can not cross teh same river twice! the water is not exactly the same water that you have crossed it before. Also the river side is not exactly the river side that you have seen before because of erosions! This argument can similarly ised in the most real world situations.
That is the reason that researchers in qualitative

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 06 Jun 2008 20:35 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Qualitative & Quantitative and DBR

It has been a long time that rsearchers in social sciences should determine that using which one of the Qualitative or Quantitative approaches they are going to embark and run their research. Using deterministic numerical methods and statistical analysis is normally called quantitative approacha nd using illuminative arguments and describing the events is qualitative approach. In the latter one the researcher is normally immersed in the real world situation and observe the case and tries to describe the phenomenon which is being studied. However, in the former one – quantitative – researcher is normally works in his office and analysed the numerlised data using statistical techniques.
Recently, many reserachers began to use mixed approaches which is quite appropriate for analysing and describing the social sciences phenomena. I was thinking is it the time to get rid of these terminology and try to find some practical and comprehensive approaces. Obviously answering to this question is not an easy job. However,using new and advanced methodologies are pretty useful to achieve that point. One of these methodologies is DBR (Design-Based Rresearch) methodology. DBR let researcher to use any appropriate tactic and technique in different stages of test and modificition. Simply, it is a cycle of design a tactic to attack the research question, test it, modify it, and redesign the tactic, and another test and modify, etc. This process of test and modification can be done in any format whether qualitative or quantitative.

To have a inclusive source for DBR I’d like to refer you to Educational Researcher 2003.

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 06 Jun 2008 20:23 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Thesis submitted!

I have submitted my PhD thesis on 31th of March 2008.

It is titled MODELLING RECURSION, it is actually a Microworld Animative Visualisation, abbreviated MAV approach towards the concept of recursion and its latent layers as well as studnets’ evolution of mental model of the concept.

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 06 Jun 2008 01:36 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

IRCE 2005

13th multi-disciplinary Iranian Researchers Conference in Europe will be held in the Leeds university on second of July.
In this conference I am a member of organising committee- subgroup organiser for mathematics.
Also I will present a paper about my lastest works in my PhD program.

IRCE

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 19 Jun 2005 20:54 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Do you want to see me in a cold autumn day in Cannon park?

Yes Its me! tired and looking for future.
and this one is on the bike, cold but enjoyful!

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 16 Jun 2005 15:49 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Exploring students’ understanding of the relationship between Iteration and Recursion

Mojtaba Ammari-Allahyari
Institute of Education-University of Warwick

Abstract
_In this study, I examine students’ appreciation of the relationship between recursion and iteration, including how they perceive the intra-relationship of the components within those processes. My approach is to design a logo-based microworld, which acts as a window on the students’ thinking. In this environment, the students model trees and fractal-shape objects.
I use a design-based research methodology in order to gain insights into students’ understanding and design issues of the software. These early results show that having a clear understanding of the relation between recursion and iteration and of the flow of control are important in understanding the recursion itself. In addition, functional abstraction is a key concept in dealing with recursion. In the light of these results, I am planning to open up the software such that students will be able to engage with recursion at two levels, namely “functionality” and “functionnings”._
Keywords
Logo, recursion, functional abstraction, fractal, modelling, design-based research

The main page of my microworld?

This paper presented in BSRLM conference on 11th of June in Open University and will be published here very soon.

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 15 Jun 2005 11:31 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Recursion and LOGO

Although it seems that recursion is a very easy concept to grasp, in practice, a few students are able to understand it carefully. Perhaps the reasons of their difficulties to understanding it are, mixing the concepts of iteration and recursion, lack of a clear understanding of the concept of base case(s), lack of everyday analogies for the concept of recursion. With using software which is being designed during the study we tried to figure out the most crucial points of understanding recursion by students. Through a design-based research methodology, we are making a logo-based environment to figure out that how students are dealing with the crucial points of recursion. Some of the insights which obtained from the first iteration of our study are presenting here and they show that using appropriate tool could be helpful for understanding the relationship between base case(s) & recursive call(s), recursion & self-similarity, and also flow of control. These results are being progressed in the later iterations.

Mojtaba Ammari Allahyari : 28 Apr 2005 19:49 |  Tags: Academic |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem