ITEDU 699: Research in Industrial Education

 

Fall 2006 Syllabus

Ball State University

______________________________________________
|GOALS | ACTIVITIES | CONTENT |  POLICIES | SPECIAL NEEDS | RESOURCES|

 

Course

Instructor

Mary Annette Rose

Assistant 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
Course
Description		 ITEDU 699: Research in Industrial Education is a required 3-credit course for Ball State University students pursuing a Master of Arts in Technology Education or Career and Technical Education.

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.

Essential
Questions		 What are the modes of inquiry commonly employed in educational research?

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?
Course
Goals		 The content and activities of this course provide the learner with the opportunity to:
  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.
Content Outline
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 Industrial Education
A. Issues, problems, and opportunities
B. Methods
C. Applying research to practice

Top of Page
Activities, Projects, and Evaluation Successful completion of this class requires the learner to critically read the research literature, contribute substance and insights to class discussions, and document new understandings in a final synthesis project.  Highlights of the activities and projects are described below:
  1. Activities (30% 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 Institutes of Health (NIH) tutorial entitled: "Human Participant Protections Education for Research Teams" located at http://cme.nci.nih.gov/ ;
    • 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 (≈70 points) during the semester.
  4. Research Proposal (25% 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 methods.

Evaluation of student participation and projects 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 latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 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 Graduate Catalog (2005) "no course with grades below C (2.0) may be counted toward any degree program" (p. 19).

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 Assessment Criteria for Research Proposal, a Word document.
Policies and
Expectations

Blackboard is a Web-based course management system which will serve as our common classroom. Access Blackboard through any Web browser, such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, at http://my.bsu.edu. Since this is a secure space, a valid BSU Network ID and a password will be required to access the course site.

Blackboard offers numerous communication tools (e.g., an asynchronous discussion board and a chat tool) and file storage areas that will enable the exchange of information. For example, the Announcements section of Blackboard will be used to inform students of current learning goals, assignments, and deliverables. The Documents section will house informational and instructional resources such as Powerpoint slide presentations and activity sheets. 

BSU Network ID:  A BSU student is entitled to a wealth of computer services including email and space to publish Web documents. To use those services, the student must establish an electronic identity called a BSU Network ID. When enrolled in an Extended Education section of ITEDU 699, the student should receive a packet of information from BSU Extended Education which includes a username and password. On-campus students may obtain a network identity at the Information Desk in Room 165 of the Robert Bell Building.

Computer Rights & Responsibilities: All students must conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards of responsible, legal, and ethical computer use while accessing BSU computer resources. These rights and responsibilities are outlined in the Computer Users' Privileges and Responsibilities including institutional purposes, user security responsibilities, legal usage, confidentiality, and sanctions.

Communication: Prompt and effective communication is essential to the learning and teaching process. The BSU computer network, especially email and Blackboard's computer conferencing tool, will be employed in ITEDU 699 to:

  • discuss learning goals and concepts related to educational research;

  • share resources, ideas, and make suggestions;

  • request assistance or make appointments; and

  • discuss and clarify class activities.  

Consider using Microsoft Outlook as your email system. BSU accounts are available for all students by completing the Outlook Web Access Request available at http://www.bsu.edu/ucs/ 

Guidelines for Email correspondence:

  • include only one subject per message;

  • use a descriptive subject heading;

  • when conducting group business, carbon copy (cc) all group members;

  • follow acceptable e-mail etiquette; and

  • be concise, write short sentences, and use bulleted lists.

Code of Ethics: Students of the university must conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity. Plagiarism or violations of copyright policies are a form of academic dishonesty and are treated as ethics violations. The Student Code covers student rights and responsibilities, student complaint procedures, student misconduct, student disciplinary procedures, and other related information. It is the responsibility and right of every student to become familiar with the information contained in the Code. If you need a little review on How to Recognize Plagiarism, take a look at the tutorial located at Indiana University.

Equity and Inclusion: All written, graphic, and aural communications must conform to guidelines for non-sexist and non-racist language. Consult the most recent edition of a professional style guide for specific guidelines such as the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2001).
Special
Student Needs		 If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if special arrangements need to to be arranged, please share these needs with the instructor as soon as possible. The instructor can be reached via email arose@bsu.edu), telephone (765-759-0210), fax (765-285-2162), or by appointment in my office (Applied Technology 207C).
Resources  Required Texts

The following texts will be employed during the Fall 2006 offering of ITEDU 699. You may purchase these texts through the BSU Virtual Bookstore or an outside vendor, such as Amazon.

Creswell, J.W. (2005). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-13-112790-X

American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th Ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.  ISBN:1557987912

Recommended

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

Web Resources

Prentice-Hall's Web-based online resources:

  • Creswell, J.W. (2005). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. 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

© Author: M. Annette Rose
URL: http://arose.iweb.bsu.edu/BSUCourses/ITEDU_699/syllabus.htm
Last Updated: 04/25/2008