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EDUCATION 429: RESEARCH FOR THE CLASSROOM TEACHER
Summer Session
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Instructor: ?
Dr. A.S. Tindil
June 29 - August 7, 1987
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Location: ?
MPX
7600
Tuesdays & Thursdays
1:00 -
4:50
p.m.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed for all teachers, in-service and pre-service engaged in education K -
12. The course has, as its basic premise, the notion that all teachers should be familiar
with, understand and be able to apply some basic guidelines as practitioners to educational
research. Further, the understanding that some research is helpful, some is not helpful,
some research is good, some is bad. Where are we as teachers? What do we know? What
can we use? What should we ignore? and, where are we as professionals with respect to
utilizing good research to assist practice and how can we contribute to the growing body of
knowledge based on our own experience with children?
OBJECTIVES
1.1 ?
To become familiar with what research means in the educational context.
1.2 ?
To understand research design and the importance of integrity in research design.
1.3 ?
To be able to determine from 1.2 above what is useful, what is useless and what
needs re-design.
1.4 To understand the difference between experimental research, historical research,
descriptive research, correlational research, face-value research and assumptions
based on practice.
1.5 ?
To be able to set up a classroom research experience from which new insights may
be learned and variations of practice determined.
1.6 ?
To be able to discuss research, dismiss faulty design, suggest improvements and in
general advance the status of educational research.
TOPICS
2.1 ?
Research per se
2.2 ?
Pre test/Post test
2.3 ?
Research biases
2.4
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Treatment
2.5 ?
Correlations vs. cause and effect relationships
2.6 ?
Historical, contemporary and future research in education
2.7 ?
Topics related to research which are applicable to the classroom teacher
2.8 ?
Removing the mystery from research
2.9 ?
Topics related to research and germane to class members enrolled in the course
COURSE EVALUATION
3.1 ?
Active class participation
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15%
3.2 ?
Ad hoc written assignments
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10%
3.3 ?
A formal written research proposal
which can be applied to your classroom
assignment effective next school year
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75%
AST:st:466
.
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.
Outline for Education 429 ?
Research in Education
This is a seminar course which explores contemporary research in
Education. Students will study different forms of educational research,
the empirical philosophies upon which such research is based, and the
relationship between educational research and practice. The seminar portion
of the course will involve presentations and critical analyses of
ongoing research programs in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser
University and other seminal works. Students will sulirilt written
syntheses and critiques of the presentations which demonstrate their
ability to comprehend the essential connections between framing 'research-
able' questions, collecting pertinent data, examining data which have been
collected, and drawing conclusions from these examinations. The specific
course outline is:
I. Principles of Science and Educational Research
1.
Knowledge and knowledge changes
2. Variables, constructs and relations
3. Causality and probability
4.
Models, theories, and hypotheses
5.
Measurement, inference, and generalization
II. Research Designs
1. Experimental designs
2.
Quasi-experimental designs
3.
Descriptive and survey designs
4.
Developmental, longitudinal designs
5.
N of 1 design and case studies
III. Areas of Educational Research (SFU projects will be used if available)
1. Research on Learning, Motivation
2. Research on Teaching
3.
Curriculum Development Studies
4.
Program Evaluation
5.
Policy Surveys
IV. Educational Research and Practice
1.
The relationship between educational research and educational practice.
2.
The ethics of educational research.
