Research Design in Education

EPSY 509, Fall 2011

Wednesdays 5:00-8:00, EPASW 2235

Instructor: Dr. Theresa (Terri) Thorkildsen

Office: 3549 EPASW

Hours: Weds before class or by appointment.

E-mail: thork@uic.edu, Phone: 312-996-8138, Web: http://tigger.uic.edu/~thork/fair/

Purpose

This course will assist students in designing a research proposal in their area of interest and exploring the design elements involved in the ethical review procedures at UIC. Some students are new to the research enterprise and others are working at the doctoral level. In the course of designing a proposal or reviewing research, students will evaluate the quality of their research questions as well as the strengths and limitations of various research designs. Although most students will have some experience with research design, everyone will benefit from a review of how different research approaches can be tied directly to a research question in their program of study. Fundamental concepts for consideration in the design process will be emphasized.

Objectives

Activities will help students achieve the following steps, even if they are designing a project they do not intend to execute:

Early in the course, students will design a concept map of their guiding theoretical assumptions, including the variables to be compared in their research design.
By the mid-term, students should be able to complete most of the information on the IRB templates addressing the treatment of human subjects and will have completed at least one form of IRB training. These issues can be considered as students review published research or as they craft their own proposal.
The final will consist either of a formal research proposal that can be attached to an IRB proposal as the “research protocol” or a review of published research that focuses on the design elements of the studies published in a specific area. Students who have been in their doctoral programs for a year or more should attempt to design a study. Students who are new to the research enterprise may choose to review existing research and critique the designs of such studies rather than propose a new study. The final project will be designed with feedback from the instructor.

Readings

Because most education outlets and those in the Social Sciences use the APA Publications manual as a guide to writing and preparing manuscripts for publication, everyone will want to purchase a copy of the following and us it when submitting course assignments.

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th ed.). Washington, DC: APA.

Relying on a jigsaw method of learning, readings are selected from three textbooks and will include a self-designed bibliography in students’ area of interest. Important ideas in the following three books will be discussed. Some of the textbooks are available at Chicago Textbooks, located at 1076 W. Taylor St. For the best prices, you may want to visit Amazon.com or your favorite textbook Web site. Realize that because these books can serve as a valuable reference throughout your research career, it is better to purchase newer editions than older ones.

Students in a MEd program or who have no research experience will want to purchase and follow one of the two following texts, but these textbooks also offer a solid overview for students who are working on their own research proposals.

Mertens, D. M. (2010). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods (3^rd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating qualitative and quantitative research (4^th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Students in the doctoral program or who have some research experience are encouraged to purchase and follow both of the following texts.

Kerlinger, F. N., & Lee, H. B. (2000). Foundations of behavioral research (4^th ed.). Wadsworth.

Thorkildsen, T. A. (2005). Fundamentals of measurement in applied research. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Students who are reading empirical research will find two statistics guides to be very beneficial.

Grimm, L. G., & Yarnold, P. R. (Eds.). (1995). Reading and understanding multivariate statistics. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Grimm, L. G., & Yarnold, P. R. (Eds.). (2000). Reading and understanding more multivariate statistics. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Students working on their dissertation proposals or who want to be prepared for this work might also want to read the following text.

Lovitts, B. E. (2007). Making the implicit explicit: Creating performance expectations for the dissertation. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Assignments

You will be asked to complete one small-scale assignment each week to prepare for class. For the second and third classes, I will ask for a statement of your goals for the semester and a review of at least one research study in your area of interest. Both these tasks help me see what you hope to accomplish this semester. Because the evaluation across course activities will be adapted according to the demands of your overall academic program of study, it will be important to establish and clarify your research goals as you progress through the semester. Students who fall behind or do not try to associate weekly activities with their own project invariably tend to receive lower grades. In other words, we will engage in active rather than passive learning throughout the semester.

Later in the semester you will construct a concept map that outlines relations you see among key variables in your project. Then you will work from that map to design a study or organize your literature review paper. This will include deciding how to measure each variable, what design mechanisms you will put in place to ensure you can adequately explore your research questions, and how you might evaluate your results. In the middle of the semester, you will also look at the various design templates that are part of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols and select the one that best matches your needs. Most students will want to complete a draft of the template relevant to their proposal and imagine how to enact the principles of benevolence, justice, and respect for persons as you execute a project. Students doing a review of research, however, will use the principles for the protection of human subjects as part of their article reviews. Final grades will include evidence that you have advanced your knowledge of the Human Subjects Protection Program in some meaningful way. Your project, regardless of its form, should adhere to the content and format criteria outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Finally, you will be asked to write a paper that consists either of a research proposal that might be submitted for possible funding or a review of research that focuses on the design elements of the studies you read.

Accessibility

UIC strives to ensure the accessibility of programs, classes, and services to students with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations can be arranged for students with various types of disabilities, such as documented learning disabilities, vision or hearing impairments, and emotional or physical disabilities. If you need accommodations for this class, be sure to register with the Office of Disability Services, 1190 SSB, 312-413-2183 (phone), and let your instructor know your needs.

Tentative Schedule

Date	Topic	Readings*
Aug. 24^th	Differentiating research and practice	Kerlinger & Lee, Ch. 1 Mertens, Ch. 1-2, Creswell, Ch. 1-2 (*Guiding issues*)
Aug. 31^st.	Preparing to think about design *(Article review due)*	Kerlinger & Lee, Ch. 2-3, 18 Mertens, Ch. 3, Creswell, Ch. 3-4 Thorkildsen, Ch. 1 (*Guiding issues*)
Sept. 7^th	Ethics in Research Design and Measurement *(Goals statement due)*	Kerlinger & Lee, Ch. 17 Mertens pp., 335-349, Creswell 5-9 Thorkildsen, Ch. 2 (*Guiding issues*)
Sept. 14^th	Essentials of Design and Measurement *Sample concept maps*	Kerlinger & Lee, 19-20 Mertens, Ch. 4-10, Creswell 5-9 (*Guiding issues*)
Sept. 21^st	Theoretical frameworks *Concept Maps* *(First draft due)*	Kerlinger & Lee, 4-6 Thorkildsen, Ch. 3, 9, 13 (*Guiding issues*)
Sept. 28^th	Defining and measuring variables: Experimental and quasi-experimental designs	Kerlinger & Lee, Ch. 7-8, 29-31 Mertens, Ch. 4, 11, Creswell 10 (*Guiding issues*)
Oct. 5^th	Defining and measuring variables: Causal comparative, survey, and single subject designs	Mertens, Chs 5-7, Creswell 11-12 Thorkildsen, Chs. 4-8, 10-12 or 14-16 (*Guiding issues*)
Oct. 12^th	Recruiting human subjects: Case study, ethnographic, historical, and other qualitative designs *Human Subjects Protection Site*	Kerlinger, Ch. 8, Creswell 5, 7, 13-15 Mertens, Chs, .7-9 IRB forms (*Guiding issues*)
Oct. 19^th	Comparing sampling, performance sites, design constraints, and the protection of human subjects *(IRB proficiency task due)*	Kerlinger, Ch. 21 Mertens, Ch. 11, Creswell 6, 8, 16 IRB forms (*Guiding issues) (Design review guide*)
Oct 26^th	Writing a proposal *Literature review option* *Proposal option*	Mertens, Appendix, Creswell 2-3 Thorkildsen (web) (*Guiding issues*)
Nov. 2^nd	*The components of a strong design*	Kerlinger & Lee, Ch. 22-25 (*Guiding issues*)
Nov. 9^th	Anticipating the results *Audience*	Kerlinger & Lee, Ch. 9-12, 32-35 Mertens Chs. 12-13, Creswell 6, 8, & 9 (*Guiding issues*)
Nov. 16^th	Present and critique proposals
Nov. 23^rd	*No class--Thanksgiving*
Nov. 30^th	Present and critique proposals
Dec. 9^th	FINALS WEEK	*(Final projects due)*

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