Course

Instructor

Mary Annette Rose

Associate Professor

Department of Technology

Ball State University

Applied Technology 207C

Muncie, IN 47306

Email: arose@bsu.edu
Office Hours: By Appointment
Office Phone: (765)285-5648

Facsimile: (765)285-2162

ITEDU 699 is a review of existing research in technology education and career and technical education with reference to its scope and usefulness. Analyzes selected studies. Design of individual and group research is required.

What contemporary issues underpin the research in technology education and career and technical education?

What criteria should one use to judge the quality of a research study?

How can research inform pedagogical practice?

What is the process of conducting educational research?

ITEDU 699 provides an overview of the logic, process, and methods of educational inquiry. As a required course in the Masters in Technology Education and Masters in Career and Technical Education Programs, ITEDU 699 helps students understand, evaluate, and apply research to the educational problems they encounter within technical and technology programs. It is essential that these future educational leaders become informed, critical consumers of research in order to inform their instructional decisions and contribute to our broader understanding of teaching and learning.

1. Rationale: Develop a valid rationale and appreciation for educational research in technology education and career and technical education.
2. Modes of Inquiry: Develop understandings, practices, and critical judgment concerning modes and processes of inquiry including standards for verifiability, replicability, validity, and reliability.
3. Ethics and Appropriate Use: Develop understandings and commitment to act on principles of socially responsible and ethical research in education, including areas of equity, privacy, copyright, and informed consent policies.
4. Professionalism: Develop an image of oneself as an educational researcher, especially as how one might plan, conduct, and apply educational research in technology education and career and technical education.
5. Skills: Develop understandings and fundamental skills in:
   • conducting literature searches using a variety of appropriate databases;
   • interpreting, calculating, and presenting basic descriptive and inferential statistics; and
   • applying evaluative criteria to critiquing research proposals and reports.

I. Overview of Educational Research

A. Goals and characteristics of educational research

B. Importance of educational research

C. The research process

D. Ethical considerations

II. Quantitative vs. Qualitative Approaches

A. Philosophical considerations, purpose, and goals

B. Research designs

1. Experimental and quasi-experimental

2. Correlational

3. Survey

4. Grounded theory

5. Ethnographic

6. Narrative

7. Mixed methods

8. Action research

III. Research Process

A. Identifying a research problem

1. Stating the research problem

2. Significance and justification for a research problem

B. Reviewing the Literature

1. Purpose of the literature review

2. Designing and conducting a literature review

3. Evaluating the relevance of the literature

4. Abstracting studies

5. Organizing and storing abstracts

6. Writing a literature review

C. Specifying Research Questions, Hypotheses, or Central Questions

1. Research Question vs. Hypothesis

2. Defining Variables

a. Independent (treatment, measured, control, & moderating)

b. Dependent

c. Intervening and confounding

3. Probable causation and controls

D. Collecting Quantitative Data

1. Unit of analysis

2. Obtaining permissions

a. Institutional Review Boards

b. Informed consent

3. Specifying the population and sample

a. Sampling (Probability or Non-probability sampling)

b. Sample size

4. Operational definitions

5. Scales of measurement

6. Measures and instruments

a. Types of measures (Performance, Attitudinal, and Behavioral)

b. Criteria for adoption or development (Reliability & Validity)

c. Criteria for implementation (Standardized & Ethical Practices)

E. Analyzing and Interpreting Quantitative Data

1. Preparing, organizing, & inputting

2. Descriptive statistics

a. Measures of central tendency

b. Measures of variability

c. Measures of relative standing

d. Distribution of scores (Normal vs. skewed distribution)

3. Inferential statistics

a. Parametric vs. nonparametric statistical tests

b. Hypothesis testing (significance level, critical regions, and error)

c. Interpreting the results

d. Reporting the results (limitations and future research)

F. Collecting Qualitative Data

1. Purposeful sampling

2. Observation, interviews, and document Analysis

3. Protocols and recording data

G. Analyzing and Interpreting Qualitative Data

1. Organizing and transcribing

2. Exploring, coding, and developing themes

3. Interrelating and layering

4. Validating findings (Triangulation)

IV. Research in Technical Education

A. Issues, problems, and opportunities

B. Methods

C. Applying research to practice

1. Activities (20% of Overall Grade): Students will provide evidence of thoroughly conducting several learning activities, including:
   • summarizing two research studies, one quantitative and qualitative study;
   • completing the National Institute of Health's Protecting Human Research Participants;
   • surveying the literature using several online databases; and
   • calculating descriptive and inferential statistics using Microsoft Excel.
2. Participation & Discussion (15% of Overall Grade): Class participation will vary in form and quantity to complement weekly learning goals and activities. Students will be expected to independently pursue self-directed learning activities, as well as contribute substance and insight during group discussions and role playing. These class discussions can be productive learning activities if the learner:
   • conscientiously shares relevant resources and experiences;
   • makes connections between first-hand observations of educational problems and research issues;
   • critically examines their own assumptions, as well as the assumptions of others;
   • offers and explains propositions, ideas, and insights;
   • justifies their assertions with evidence or authority;
   • interweaves the ideas of others into their own posts; and
   • summarizes readings and discussions.
3. Exams and Quizzes (30% of Overall Grade): Students will complete small quizzes (≈25 points) and one exam (≈100 points) during the semester.
4. Research Proposal (35% of Overall Grade): Students will envision and propose (NOT conduct) an original experimental research study. The topic of the proposal should be directly relevant to Technology Education or Career and Technical Education. This APA-formatted proposal should be a minimum of 15 pages and include an abstract, specific research questions, significance, review of the literature, and data gathering and analytical methods.

Evaluation of student participation and deliverables will be determined by several criteria, including application of research concepts and procedures, timely completion, accuracy, thoroughness, insight, and quality of work.

Assignment Quality: Although the expected quality of student products and contributions is contingent upon the goals and characteristics of the activity, general quality guidelines for all deliverables include:

1. coherence of work;
2. application of research concepts and procedures;
3. conforming to the 6th or 5th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2010 or 2001); and
4. conforming to standard conventions of English composition. Remember to use a spell checker and a grammar checker before submitting documents.

Assignment Schedule: All activities should be submitted as scheduled. A 5% grade reduction may occur for each day the assignment is late. Extensions will be administered on a case-by-case basis at the instructor's discretion.

Grading: Grades will be assigned for each activity and posted in the Blackboard Gradebook. Final course grades will be derived by averaging all scores for each type of activity according to the weights identified in parentheses above. Letter grades will be assigned to this average according to the following grading scale:

A = 100 - 94

A- = 93.9 - 90

B+ = 89.9 - 87

B = 86.9 - 84

B- = 83.9 - 80

C+ = 79.9 - 77

C = 76.9 - 74

C- = 73.9 - 70

As noted in the 2007-2009 Graduate Catalog "no course with grades below C (2.0) may be counted toward any degree program" (p. 17).

Participation & Discussion. Unlike a traditional class where participation may be judged by attendance, in a distributed environment participation is documented by communiques and information exchange (e.g., email messages, conference postings, telephone calls, and document exchanges) among the class participants. The substance, function, and nature of these communiques (e.g., relevance, clarity, and insightfulness) become indicators of a learner's conceptual and procedural growth. The criteria and procedure outlined in the Assessment Rubric for Asynchronous Discussions is typically used to determine the participation grade for this course. 

Research Proposal. The assessment criteria for the research proposal are outlined in the Assessment Criteria for Research Proposal and in a rubric.

The following texts will be employed during the Fall 2009 offering of ITEDU 699. You may purchase these texts through the BSU Virtual Bookstore or an outside vendor, such as Amazon.

Creswell, J.W. (2008 or 2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (3rd or 2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 2005 ISBN: 0-13-112790-X or 2008 ISBN-10 0136135501

American Psychological Association. (2010 or 2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th or 5th Ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Recommended Texts

Pyrczak, F. (2003). Making sense of statistics: A conceptual overview (3rd Ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak Publishing. ISBN: 1-884585-28-0 

Required Computer Applications

The following computer applications are required tools for ITEDU 699. Please purchase/download and install the following:

• Microsoft Office, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. WARNING: Office 2007 files should be converted to an earlier Microsoft version (i.e., Word ".doc" rather than Word ".docx") prior to sharing or submitting assignments. 
• Latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Email
• Web Browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer is preferred)

Web Resources

Prentice-Hall's Web-based online resources:

• Creswell, J.W. (2008). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research 3rd ed. Pearson Education. Retrieved August 18, 2006, from http://www.prenhall.com/creswell
• Gay, L.R. & Airasian, P. (2003). Educational Research: Competencies for analysis and applications (7th Ed.). Retrieved February 25, 2003, from http://www.prenhall.com/gay/

Additional Resources: Course resources including relevant journals, organizations, books, research studies, and WWW links are located on the course Resources page. In addition, you may find other texts on educational research to be beneficial, such as:

Gay, L.R. & Airasian, P. (2003). Educational Research: Competencies for analysis and applications (7th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-176534-5