Students will be critically analysing research in education. The course will approach the topic of research design and data analysis from a "consumer perspective," and students will be guided to develop their critical thinking and reflection abilities to recognize the qualities of well-designed research. Topics in the course will include observation and measurement, ethical considerations, research design strategies, and the development and communication of research ideas.
Instructor: Dr. Marion Terry
Winter 2018
Winter 2018
Reflection:
My first recollection of this starting this course was my utter shock at the price of the textbook - hundreds (plural!) of dollars. Fortunately, there was a loose-leaf version that was ONLY ~$150. Thank goodness for small mercies!
Marion started this course with a review of APA rules in order to make sure that we would be successful in our written work. I found this helpful because there are so many minute details to take into consideration - review and guidance is always appreciated.
I remember being skeptical of having to have boiled eggs ready for a "boiled eggs" experiment that Marion had us perform together on Zoom, but then (of course) it made perfect sense once we shared our observations. Unlike many of my fellow students, I thoroughly enjoyed the assignment where we had to calculate central tendencies, variability and relative standing - I am a true math geek! Learning about quantitative research was definitely more up my alley than the qualitative research.
Once again for this course, Marion provided us with templates and exemplars to follow as we completed our assignments. I was always sure to submit my drafts for feedback and I benefited greatly from this option. (I was surprised to learn. again, that not everyone took advantage of this opportunity.) Marion always seemed to find one tiny error that I had missed in my final copy - which always surprised me and made me wonder "how did I miss that?" and "how did Marion notice that?".
Although Marion provided us with much guidance and support, this course was HARD! It took focus and attention to understand the minutia of good research. Two classmates ended up dropping the course at different points through the course. They each shared that it was just too intense and rigorous. I agree about the intensity and rigour required, and I am proud that I persevered with this course. It just took a bit of hope and a lot of faith!
This course definitely helped me appreciate and understand how to evaluate research articles. I knew that I would be required to research and read a plethora of articles over the course of my MEd so understanding how to assess articles for their strengths and limitations was important to learn early on. I learned that not all articles are created equally and that I can't just choose the first few articles that appear in my first search. (Sadly, this meant hours upon hours of searching for quality articles.) I fully understand why this is a required course for all MEd students.
I have included my Analysis of Quantitative Research assignment. I chose to include this assignment because it was the first of the two analysis assignments and used quantitative research instead of qualitative. I continued to delve into the research on school absenteeism and was pleased to give Assessing Reasons for School Non-Attendance a thorough analysis.
I found that the content of this assignment fairly straight-forward, with much guidance from the textbook. The APA rules for this type of assignment was much more intricate than a typical essay. Luckily, the format was quite similar for the final assignment so I was able to use this corrected assignment as a guide for the qualitative paper.
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