Syllabus: Y520: Strategies for Educational Inquiry

3 Credits (Section 1753: Summer I, 1995)
Room 1210, TR 8:30-11:30; May 9-June 9th


Dr. Curtis Jay Bonk, Ph.D., CPA
Dept. of Counseling and Educational Psychology,
4022 Education Building, (812) 856-8353
E-mail: cjbonk@indiana.edu


Course Description

This course is intended to orient beginning students to social science inquiry. My hope is that you will become familiar with the strategies and dialogue of both quantitative and qualitative educational research. The focus in the early part of the cours e will be on research terminology and later on research methods and procedures.

Course Goals

This course aims to help students become intelligent readers and interpreters of educational research reports. In addition, this course should help build the foundation for graduate research as well as action research in one's present job (if applicable). This course also should prepare one for other tracks and courses that emphasize more in-depth understanding and skills of quantitative and qualitative methodologies such as: Y502 Applied Statistics in Education, Y527 Educational Measurement, Y535 Evaluation Models and Techniques, and Y611 Naturalistic Inquiry. In terms of my philosophy, I agree with Laurie R. Gay (1992) that this course should be more skill and application oriented than knowledge and theory. I want you to understand more about research and the research process as a result of enrolling in this course. A useful goal for this course is to become a good consumer and producer of research, not a statistician. Along these same lines, during this course, I would like for you to select a research problem of interest that has some relevance to your profession; the earlier you start to think, collect data, or analyze relationships the better. I want you to understand how to analyze existing literature, formulate hypotheses, develop research and grant plans, evaluate measurement instruments, select from possible experimental designs, analyze data, and prepare final reports.

Each day our classroom activities will include a combination of two or more of the following: lecture, statistical package presentations and hands-on workshops, discussion and reactions to the readings, discussion of research ideas, presentation of research proposals, relevant videos on research and educational inquiry, in-depth analysis of educational research cases and simulations, and discussion of thought papers and volunteer assignments. As a prompt to keep up with the readings, there will be a midterm exam in the first part of the course and I reserve the right to a 10-20 point quiz at any time. I plan to refer to other texts, research articles, and case examples that refer to actual published research in order to make educational research more authentic and palatable. Daily readings from the textbooks will be supplemented by at least one research article or theory/position paper. As there is a lot of material to cover in 5-6 weeks, this will most likely be a mentally and physically demanding course. To be successful, you must keep up with the readings stated in the syllabus.

There are many important reasons why this course is included in your program of study. First of all, as educational research continues to proliferate, we all need to know the most effective ways to search, access, comprehend, and evaluate "supposedly" seminal research. Though you are often unaware of it, you are deluged with research findings/reports each day. As a result, I have embedded a number of options for your major project including: Article Honesty Rewrites; Expert Advice Columns; Article Rebuttals; Personal Publications; and Rebuttal Tracing. Just reflect for a moment on when in your school or work life you are given the opportunity and responsibility to distinguish between legitimate findings and ill-founded claims. When? How?

Texts

We will use the following new texts (#2 and #3 are optional, please select 1 of them):

  1. Fraenkel, &J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (1993). Applying Educ. Res.: A Practical Guide (2nd Ed). NY: Longman.

  2. Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1992). Qualitative Research for Education: An Introductory to Theory and Methods (2nd Edition). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

  3. Maykut, P., & Morehouse, R. (1994). Beginning qualitative res: A philosophical guide. London: Falmer Press.

  4. Book of Readings of articles at the library.

Other Reference Books of Interest:

  1. Borg, W. R., Gall, J. P., & Gall, M. (1993). Applying Educ. Res: A Practical Guide. NY: Longman.

  2. Gay, L. R. (1992). Educ. Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application (4th Edition). NY: Merrill.

  3. Lancy, D. F. (1993). Qualitative research in educ: An introduction to the major traditions. NY: Longman.

  4. Langenback, M., Vaughn, C., & Aagaard, L. (1994). An intro to educ. res. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Specific Objectives

  1. Understand basic terms, concepts, and principles of educational and social scientific research (i.e., the basic concepts in research sampling, measurement, evaluation, and design).

  2. Identify differences in the key goals and procedures of quantitative and qualitative research traditions (e.g., the importance of interpretation in qualitative research and statistics in quantitative research).

  3. Acquire skills to critically reflect on the appropriateness of various research in the social sciences (i.e., interpret reliability, validity, quality, credibility, and overall soundness of educational research).

  4. Discriminate among types of qual/quantitative data and describe instruments approp. for collecting these data.

  5. Describe the basic structure and design of studies conducted in qualitative and quantitative inquiry traditions.

  6. Acquire some basic skills in the use of bibliographic retrieval tools such as article search and selection (i.e., have the ability to find, select, read, and interpret research articles related to personal interests).

  7. Design a study in educ. research that one is interested in.

  8. Identify educational research journals, reports, and reviews; especially those in one's specialty areas.

  9. Actively construct one's own understanding of educational research and facilitate the learning of one's peers.

  10. Begin to discern the ethical and social-political issues embedded involved in the conduct of disciplined inquiry.

    Daily Schedule
    (Note: a partial list of daily classroom activities is provided)

    Day 1 Tues, May 9th, Orientation: Ethics; Computers, Ed. Research, and the 1990s

    Read: BOK: Glossary of Terms; Ch. 3 of F & W

    Comment: Howe & Dougherty "Ethics, IRB's, and the Changing Face of Educational Research"

    Comment: Fisher & Fryberg "Partic Partners: College Students Weigh the Costs/Benefits of Deceptive Research"

    Class Activities: Examine syllabus, review assignments, ethics, computer tool/library resources

    Day 2 Thurs, May 11th, Scientific Method, Problem Statements, and Brief History of Educational Research

    Read: Ch 1 and 2 of F & W; Chapter 1 of B & B or Ch 1-3 of M & M.

    Case #2: Alamsi, Palmer, Gambrell, & Pressley "Toward a Disc Inquiry: Method. Analysis of Whole Language."

    Comment: Daiute & Dalton "Collaboration and Cognition in Writing"

    Comment: Cizek "Crunch Granola and the Hegemeny of the Narrative"

    Day 3 Tues, May 16th, Lit Reviews, Hypotheses, and Prep/Eval of a Research Plan/Reports (Due: Critique #1)

    Read: Ch 4, 5, and 19 of F & W; Chapter 2 of B & B or Ch 4 of M & M.

    Case #3a: Krendl & Williams "The Importance of Being Rigorous"

    Case #3b: Bangert-Downs "The Word Processor as an Instructional Tool"

    Day 4 Thurs, May 18th, Sampling and Instrumentation

    Read: Chapter 6 and 7 of F & W.

    Case #4: Huebner "Bias in Teachers' Special Education Decisions"

    Comment: Gay "Evaluation of a Research Report"

    Comment: Tuckman "A Proposal for Improving Quality of Educational Research"

    Comment: Fiske & Fogg "But the Reviewers are Making Different Criticisms of my Paper"

    Comment: McEwen "Quality Criteria for Maximizing the Use of Research"

    Class Activities: Evaluation Criteria and Questions; Development of Evaluation Forms

    Day 5 Tues, May 23rd, Reliability/Validity and Descriptive Statistics (Due: Critique #2)

    Read: Chapter 8, 9, and 12 of F & W

    Case #5a: Pittenger "The Utility of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator"

    or Case #5b: McLain, Gridley, & McIntosh "Value of a Scale to Measure Metacognition"

    Comment: Bracey "The Numbers Game"Day 6 Thurs, May 25th, Inferential Statistics in Perspective (Midterm Exam on Chapters 6-12 of F & W)

    Read: Chapters 10 & 11 of F & W

    Comment: Dalhstrom "Tests: Small Samples, Large Consequences"

    Day 7 Tues, May 30th, Collecting and Gathering Data in Qualitative Research

    Read: Chapter 17 of W & F; Chapter 3-4 and Appendix of B & B or Ch 5-7 of M & M

    Case #7a: Freedman & Katz "Pedagogical Interaction during Composing: The Wtg Conference"

    or Case #7b: Dyson "Transitions & Tensions: Interrelationships b/t Drawing, Talking, & Dictating"

    Comment: Flinders & Eisner (1994). "Educational Criticism as a Form of Qualitative Inquiry"

    Comment: Purves (1994). (In response to Flinders & Eisner) "The Need for Critics"

    Day 8 Thurs, June 1st, Analysis and Reporting of Qualitative Research (Due: Generative/Evaluative Assignment)

    Read: Ch. 5-7 of B & B or 8-10 and Appendix of M & M

    Case #8a: Delgado-Gaitan "School Matters in the Mexican-American Home"

    or Case #8b: Kuh "In Their Own Words: What Students Learn Outside the Classroom"

    Day 9 Fri, June 2nd, Experimental and Causal-Comparative Research (Due: Research proposal topic: tell me)

    Read: Ch. 13 & 15 of F & W

    Comment: Pickett & Burrill "The Use of Quantitative Evidence in Research: A Comparative Study of Two Lits"

    Class Activities: Cases and Research Proposal Ideas; video on blocking designs?

    Day 10 Tues, June 6th, Correlational and Survey Research

    Read: Ch. 14 & 16 of F & W

    Cases #10a: Six-Seven Articles on Alcohol, Wellness, and Learning in College Settings

    Case #10b: Marsh & Gouvernet "Multidimensional Self-Concepts"

    Class Activities: GB-STAT/Sample Studies; video on correlational research

    Day 11 Thurs, June 8th, Historical and Action Research by Practitioners

    Read: Chapter 18 & 20 of F & W

    Comments: Sprinthall, Schmutte, & Sirois "Getting Started: Research Simulations and Errors"

    Class Activities: Analyzing Cases and Simulations

    Day 12 Fri, June 9th, Catch-up and Presentation (Due: Educational Research/Grant Proposals)

    Read: (catch up or vegetate)

    Case #12: Wang, Haertel, & Walberg "Toward a Knowledge Base for School Learning"

    Comment: Salomon "Transcending the Qualitative-Quantitative Debate"

    Comment: Research News and Comments "Research and the Renewal of Education: Exec Summary/Recs"

    Class Activities: Research/Grant Presentations

    Grades

    In attempting to help you become good consumers and producers of research, you will think about research not fully yet formed in your head, evaluate research already published, discuss research findings and possibilities with your colleagues, and present some new ideas for research to your classmates. Grades will be based on the five criteria stated below. Incompletes typically only involve health or other unavoidable problems which make it impossible to complete assignments.

    Summary of Course Point Allocation