ELE 5000
Research in Elementary Education
Theme: Educators as Creators of Effective Educational Environments
Course Description: Provides experiences in identifying, interpreting, and evaluation research in elementary education. Provides practice in developing research designs, and in applying research findings.
Purpose of the Course: This course is designed to assist in the development of skills in locating research, in interpreting research, in writing a research proposal, and in making educational decisions based on research findings. This course is required for completion of the M.S. Degree in Education in Elementary Education.
Dr. Marylin Lisowski
BB2201
email:
217-581-7830
Office Hours M & W 10:00-11:30 and T 2:30-4:00
(I am also in the office very early and very late each day, and on weekends)
Outcomes for all ELE classes:
· Develop a desire of life-long learning in students and personally display one's own desire for lifelong learning, including self-evaluation skills-.
· Demonstrate good communication skills.
· Demonstrate/exhibit sensitivity to students feelings.
· Design instruction to develop and utilize the cognitive processes by which pupils learn.
· Demonstrate a knowledge of facts, and an understanding of fundamental principles, ideas, and relationships among various knowledge domains.
· Demonstrate knowledge of past and present developments, issues, research, and social influences in the field of education.
Outcomes specific to this course:
· Synthesize knowledge gained from published research in Education on curricular, instructional, and legal issues.
· Apply knowledge gained from published research in Education to current curricular, instructional, and legal issues.
· Differentiate between types and various components of educational research.
· Complete a literature review on a current issue in Education in APA style.
· Critically evaluate various types of Education research as to their usefulness for research and practice in the field.
· Relate research to the world of practice.
· Design appropriate research projects relative to curriculum and instruction.
· Articulate and defend one's own philosophical, sociological, and psychological perspectives.
· The purpose of research in Education.
· Psychometric statistics including types of test scores, measures of central tendency, indices of variability, standard errors, and correlations.
· Basic types of research methods and basic statistics.
· Reliability including methods of establishing content, construct, and empirical validity.
· Reliability including methods of establishing stability, internal and equivalence reliability.
· The uses of computers for data management and analyses.
Learning Models: Ecological, Information-Processing Model and Development
Course Goal: 'This course aims to assist educators in becoming critical consumers and producers of research through its emphasis on reading, analyzing, doing and using research.
50 20 15
15
100
Course Requirements:
1. Development of a Research Proposal
2. Oral Presentation of the Research Proposal
3. Critique of a Research Study
4. Completion of Successful ERIC Searches
Textbook:
Gall, J.P. (2005) Applying Educational Research. New York,
Pryczak, F.
Topic 1: Rational for and Characteristics of Research Sessions 1-2
References:
Allendir, J.S. (1986) "Educational Research: A Personal and Social Process. Review of
Educational Research, 56 (2), 173-193.
Gage, N.L. (1978) The Scientific Basis of the Act of Teaching. New York, Teachers College Press.
Travers, R.M. (1983) How Research has Changed American Schools. Kalamazoo, Mythas Press.
Topic ll: Locating Educational Research Sessions 2-4
The student will be able to:
A. identify primary and secondary sources of research
B. select appropriate descriptions for research topics
C. conduct ERIC searches specific to researchable problems
D. locate quality research reports from databases, periodicals and documents
E. critique studies for completeness, clarity and research quality
References:
Berry, D.M. (1980) A Bibliographic Guide to Educational Research. Metuchen, W.J.Scarecrow Press.
Woodbury, M.L. (1982) A Guide to Sources of Educational Information. Washington, D.C., Information Resources.
Yarborough, J. (1985) How to Prepare a Computer Search of ERIC. Stanford, ERIC Clearinghouse on Information.
Topic III: Developing a Research Proposal Sessions 5-6 & 13-15
The student will be able to:
A. formulate a clear problem statement and testable hypotheses
B. describe the procedures involved in developing a research proposal
C. conduct a literature review of a specific topic
D. formulate recommendations for further research and practice based on the proposal development
E. orally present and defend a proposal
References:
Barzan, J. (1985) On Writing, Editing and Publishing: Essays Explicative and Horatory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Katzer, J. (1982) Evaluating Information: A Guide for Users of Social Science Research. Reading, MA: Acklison-Wesley Publishing Co.
Kerlinger, F.N. (1986) Foundations of Behavioral Research. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Locks, L.F. (1987) Proposals That Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant Proposals. Beverly Hills: Sage Publishing.
Patten, M (1992) Educational and Psychological Research. Los Angeles,
Pyrczak Publishing.
Wittrock, M.C. (Ed.) (1986) Handbook of Research on Teaching. New York:
References:
Bogdan, R. (1982) Oualitative Research for Education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Campbell, D.T. and Stanley, J.C. (1963) Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.
Fink, A. (1985) How to Conduct Surveys: A Step By Step Guide. Beverly Hills: Sage
Publishing.
Glass, G.V. (1981) Meta-analysis in Social Research. Beverly Hills: Sage Publishing.
Hedges, L.V. (1986) "Meta-Analysis: A Review and a New View." Educational Researcher
15 (8) , 14-21.
Mehrens, W.A. (1987) Measurement and Evaluation in Education and Psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
The students will be able to:
A. describe the types of descriptive research
B. differentiate between descriptive, correlations, experimental and qualitative research
C. select a research design that is appropriate for the research proposal
D. identify the characteristic and components of quality surveys
E. construct and pilot/test a survey
Topic IV: Types of Educational Research
Sessions 7-9
Sessions 10-12
MacMillan
The students will be able to:
Topic V: Educational Measures and Statistics
The students will be able to:
A. identify the characteristics and limitations of the major measures of central tendency and
variability
B. describe appropriate applications for use of the measures of central tendency and variability
C identify appropriate applications of correlation indexes
References:
Best, J.W. (1989) Research in Education. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Comray, A.L. (1989) Elementary Statistics. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown.
Minium, E.W. (1986) Statistical Reasoning in Psychology and Education.
New York: Wiley
Philips, J.L. (1992) How to Think About Statistics. New York: Freeman
Weinberg, G.H. (1980) Statistics: An intuitive Approach. Belmont, CA:
Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
Wonnacott, T.H. (1985) Introductory Statistics. New York: Wiley.
D.
E.
F.
recognize the characteristics and applications of meta-analysis
distinguish between validity
and reliability (execute a statistical program on the computer)