EDU 8603 – Educational Research

Tuesday and Thursday,

3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Old Falvey - Room 104

Credit Hours: 3

Professor: Dr. Edward Garcia Fierros

Phone: 610 519-6969

Email: edward.fierros@villanova.edu

Office: St. Augustine Center for the Liberal Arts Room 359

Office Hours: by appointment – please email me at Edward.fierros@villanova.edu or leave me a phone message

URL: http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/Edward.Fierros

“no natural history can be interpreted in the absence of at least some implicit body of intertwined theoretical and methodological belief that permits selection, evaluation, and criticism.” Kuhn

Required Texts:

• McMillan, J.H. (2004). Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer (4^th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc
• Readings as assigned.

Course Description: Analysis of diverse types of educational research; familiarization with research resources and literature survey procedures; evaluation of educational research; its implications for, and application to, educational practice; emphasis on the scientific methods of investigation; development of competency to conduct a research study and write a research paper.

"To endure the speech of false ideas and then to counter is part of learning how to live in a democratic society, a society which insists upon open discourse toward the end of a tolerant citizenry."

-Justice Kennedy, Slee v. Weisman 1990

With new advances in technology, the free to exchange of ideas is easier than ever before. It is, however, up to each of us to decide for ourselves what information to trust and what to discard. While open-mindedness to new ideas is the mark of wisdom, this does not mean that we should blindly accept anything that researchers, news-media, or even close friends have to tell us without evaluating the validity of their statements.

The major goal of this course is to help you critically reflect upon some of the research claims you may encounter in your everyday teaching life. Several common criteria for evaluating the trustworthiness of research claims will be discussed (e.g., reliability, validity) along with some of the important issues that should be addressed when conducted a research study (e.g., bias, ethics). In addition, the course is designed to help you acquire certain skills that will allow you to formulate and study your own in a systematic way.

The emphasis in this course will be on research that you can use in your own classroom (i.e., action research). Each of you will be expected to think about a research topic related to your area of concentration in your Masters program. You will then learn how to formulate several possible research hypotheses, decide on an appropriate approach to gathering data to test your hypotheses, analyze the results, and present a final write-up. In order to make this task more manageable, the final paper will be written in two stages over the course of the entire semester. This will allow you to receive specific feedback on each part of the project as we progress through each section.

The overall goal is to expose you to the process of conducting research that will be useful and meaningful to you and your classroom. The general steps that you will learn throughout this course are the same steps that are followed when preparing research grants and publishing research findings.

Course Objectives

Students will be able to:

1.         Demonstrate how the research process can be effectively used to answer educationally relevant questions.

2.         Understand the theoretical and practical principles of research;

3.         Describe the principles and phases of action research;

4.         Develop the skills and understandings for evaluating published educational research studies;

5.         Know the requirements of completing a research study.

6.         Consider how educational research can be used to meet teacher education standards.

7.         To use correct APA style when citing references including pages numbers!

8.         Explain the basic principles of educational measurement and the types of educational measures.

9.         Students will be able to articulate at least three criteria that distinguish good research from poor research.

10.     Design an appropriate action research proposal based on observations of your field placement observations.

Pennsylvania Teacher Performance Standards:

A. Managing the instructional environment including:

• creating a climate that promotes fairness,
• establishing and maintaining a rapport with students,
• communicating clear, challenging learning expectations to each student,
• establishing and maintaining consistent standards of classroom behavior,
• creating a safe environment conducive to learning,
• using the instructional time effectively

B. Planning instruction which promotes problem analysis, critical thinking, creativity, leadership development and decision-making based upon:

• subject matter, organization and integration of content and the relationship of content to educational, career and life goals,
• students and their learning, motivation, supervision and guidance with emphasis on human behavior and development, individual differences, diversity and the special needs of the exceptional student,
• the community, and community resources,
• current educational standards and practices

C. Selecting, analyzing or modifying teaching methods, learning activities and instructional materials, resources and technologies that meet the learning needs of diverse learners, and which are aligned with the goals of the lesson

D. Assessing, evaluating, implementing, adapting and assimilating teaching methods, learning activities and instructional materials, resources and technologies to strengthen the effectiveness and quality of instruction and meet the learning needs of diverse learners

E. Monitoring student progress and performance and adjusting instructional strategies through a variety of assessments and evaluation tools in order to provide student feedback, and strengthen the effectiveness and quality of instruction for improved student learning.

INTASC STANDARDS:

1. Content Pedagogy

The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.

7. Planning

The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

8. Assessment

The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the learner.

9. Reflective Practice: Professional Growth

The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

The candidate:

• uses classroom observation, information about students and research as sources for evaluating the outcomes of teaching and learning and as a basis for experimenting with, reflecting on and revising practice.
• uses professional literature, colleagues and other resources to support self-development as a learner and as a teacher.
• consults with professional colleagues within the school and other professional arenas as support for reflection, problem-solving and new ideas, actively sharing experiences and seeking and giving feedback.

COURSE FORMAT

The course will include multiple instructional approaches including: lecture, discussion, small group activities, presentation, and critical reflection activities.

Students will be asked to conduct thoughtful discussion of the material assigned for the day’s reading. The course experience will be cooperative in nature with students working in small groups toward resolution of issues and debates raised in class and in the readings. These are not intended to exhaust the potential themes in the course, only to suggest some possible directions for exploration.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Tentative Calendar – The professor reserves the right to change the syllabus at any time during the semester. It is your responsibility to note these changes.

Dates

Topic

Required Readings (to be read before class)

¿ = Available via WebCT

Recommended Readings

What is Research and Why Should We Do It?
The term “research” is often used rater loosely in our society. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about “research”? What is that separates research from other ways of knowing?

1/17

Syllabus Review - Questions?

Complete Course Pre-Test

*(Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions  pp. 10-51)

What is Action Research? http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc/act_res.html

1/19

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

McMillan p. 1-26; ¿ Hendricks 1-20

An Overview of the Methodological Approach of Action Research http://www.web.net/~robrien/papers/arfinal.html

Ethics and Access
Professional societies serve and important function for researchers and society in general. These societies are bound together by a shared devotion to a particular code of conduct, known as ethics. Within the field of Educational Research, there is an established code of conduct that is shared by all legitimate researchers. This section will discuss how the necessity of ethical codes, and whether or not they are truly necessary.

Group Assignment. You will be assigned to one of 3 groups. Each group will read and focus on one controversial experiment. Each group member will then write a brief reaction to the study they read. Then each group will share a short summary of their controversial experiment and present the ways the experiment supports or violates ethical standards. The audience will expected to play Devil’s advocate if everyone seems to be on the same side. In other words, what were the benefits to the study? What were the consequences? Was it worth it?

1/24

Ethics in Educational Research

Ethics Presentation

Fraenkel & Wallen (2003).

AERA Ethical Standards http://www.aera.net/about/policy/ethics.htm

Quiz #1

APA Guidelines for Ethical Research (http://www.apa.org/ethics/code.html)

Stanford Prison Study (http://www.prisonexp.org/)

Links to various Ethics sites on the Web (http://methods.fullerton.edu/chapter3.html)

Defining the Research Problem
The first step in any research project involves brainstorming about the topic area you wish to investigate. All of us have had experience in educational settings, and we all have ideas about how things might have been done better. What are some ideas that you have about how to improve education?

Consider three potential research problems that you might want to explore this semester. Submit your list along with methodological approaches - Due 1/31.  Note the possible pros and cons to each of the three questions. 

After you receive your graded assignment, write a 1-2 page paper describing a research problem you would like to investigate. Discuss a minimum of two hypotheses related to the question that you might consider investigating in your current study. Make sure that the hypotheses meet the criteria for good hypotheses outlined in McMillan. – Due 2/7.

1/26

Conducting Library Searches

Literature Reviews

McMillan – Chapter 3-4

Review of Research in Education (EJournal available via Falvey Library Website)

U.S. Regional Educational Laboratories

http://www.relnetwork.org/

1/31

Research problems, variables, and hypotheses.

McMillan, Ch. 2.

Research Design Explained

http://www.researchmethods.com/

Hypotheses:http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/hypothes.htm

2/2

Qualitative Design

McMillan, Ch. 11.

Qualitative Design Basics http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v9n1/hoepfl.html

Part of good planning is anticipating potential problems and then doing what you can to prevent them.

2/7

Sampling Procedures

Validity & Reliability

McMillan, Ch. 5-6

Quiz #2

Hypotheses: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/hypothes.htm

2/9

Data Collection

McMillan, Ch. 7

Data Collection http://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr/TRcollection.shtml

2/14

Mid-Term Examination

2/16

Analyzing Statistical Inference

McMillan, Ch. 10

Elementary Statistics Primer: What are variables?

http://www.statsoftinc.com/textbook/esc.html#What%20are%20variables

Now that you have decided what topic area you wish to explore and you have a few research questions of interest, it is time to get up to speed on the latest thinking in your field. In developing your Action Research Pre-Project (i.e., rough draft, project introduction/rationale, & literature review) you will explore various approaches for finding out what has been done already in your research area. You will also exchange your paper with a fellow classmate so that you can critique their work.

2/21

Peer Edit Action Research Projects – Rough Draft, Project Intro/Rationale, Literature review

Quiz #3

2/23

Quantitative Design – Descriptive, Comparative, Correlational, and Causal-Comparative

McMillan, Ch. 8

Article Critiques Due

¿ Porter, A.C. (1997). Comparative Experiments in Education Research in Methods for research in Education 2^nd Edition. Washington DC: American Educational Research Association.

2/28

Experimental and Single-Subject, Interpreting Results

McMillan, Ch. 9

Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. http://pareonline.net/Home.htm

3/2

Using Research as a Teacher

Grant Opportunities

Final Project Due