EDUC 8510A
Educational Research Methods
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Syllabus
ED 8510: Educational Research Methods
Spring 2015
Instructor: Jean Turner
Phone & Voice mail: 647-3522 Email: jturner@miis.edu
Class Time: Tuesday & Thursday 2 – 3:50
Office hours: other times by appointment.
Classroom: Morse B 206
Course moodle: ilearn@miis.edu EDUC 8510
Educational Research Methods is designed to familiarize language teachers with the principles of research for statistical studies in language teaching and language learning. My primary goal as the instructor of the course is to help you become informed consumers of research and competent researchers, able to apply the concepts you learn to your own professional needs and goals. Research design and quantitative (statistical) methods are the focus of the course.
The text for the course is Using statistics in small-scale language education research: Focus on non-parametric data (Routledge, 2014). (I’m the text author.) (Here’s a link to the book: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415819947).
In addition, we'll use a statistical program called R throughout the course for calculations; it’s a free, very powerful, statistical software program that works on both PCs and Macs. Please go to http://www.r-project.org/ now to download the program onto your computer. At that site, locate “Getting Started.” Click on the link, download R and when prompted to choose a CRAN mirror, scroll down to the U.S and choose one of the hubs in California (I usually use the one at Berkeley). [If you become particularly interested in large-scale statistical research and/or R, you might get a copy of Discovering Statistics Using R (Field, Miles, & Field; Routledge, 2012)—it gives very thorough attention to parametric statistics and the authors are experts on R.]
Reading assignments should be completed prior to class on the day they're due. Please try to complete the practice problems before you come to class—we'll discuss them in class.
Students in the course must check the ilearn site both frequently and regularly. We'll communicate with one another through that medium and your MIIS email account so it's essential that you check both! If you experience any difficulty accessing the course site at any time during the term please let me know immediately.
Components of course grades and features of the assignments
Course grades are based on:
1. problem sets, other homework, & class participation (5%) ;
2. a critique of a published article (20%)
3. three quizzes (45% total) and
4. a proposal for an original research project (30%).
Quizzes
The quizzes are take-home tests. (Students who keep accurate notes and organize them in a way that is easily accessible to them tend to do better on take-home, open-book exams than those who don’t). The grading scale for the exams is: 90%-100% = A, 80%-89% = B, 70%-79% = C, 60%-69% = D, and below 60% = F.
Critique of a published article
Individually, each of you will write a critique of an article in which one of the stuatistics you study in this class is used. You may choose one of the articles from the list on the ilearn site; if you want to review an article that doesn't appear on the list please allow me to take a look at it first. Assignment details and example critiques will be presented on our ilearn site.
Proposal
Each of you will create an original research proposal. (This proposal may be the basis for your later Applied Linguistics Research project.) Drafts of various sections of the proposal are due for feedback at times designated in the schedule. You'll have the opportunity to describe and discuss your proposal in an informal presentation scheduled during the last class meeting of the term. The written proposal is due December 12th. Example proposals will be presented on the ilearn site; assignment details will be discussed in class and presented on the ilearn site.
Plagiarism and Use of Sources: Please make sure you know how to use sources and cite your use of sources in your writing. You must cite all sources appropriately (see APA Manual) and paraphrase or use direct quotes with any material or ideas taken from other authors. Plagiarism can lead to failing a paper, a class, or even dismissal from the Institute. The following website gives useful information about plagiarism: www.wpacouncil.org/note/9.
Preliminary Schedule
Tuesday, 1/27 Orientation to the course. What is research? What are the characteristics of good statistical research?
Read Chapter One. We’ll begin Activity One in class. (See the course ilearn site for details on Activity One.)
Thursday, 1/29 What is a variable?
Read Chapter Two (pp. 15-22) & work through Practice Problems 1 – 2 in preparation for class.
Tuesday, 2/3 How are variables organized, measured, and displayed?
ContinueChapter Two (pp. 22-43) & work through Practice Problems 3 - 14.
Thursday, 2/5 Models—and some of the things you can do with them.
Continue readingChapter Two up through p. 52. (We won't address the information in pages 52 - 56 in this class.) Try Practice Problems 15 – 18—we'll discuss them in class.
Tuesday, 2/10 What kinds of roles are variables assigned in statistical research? What is research study validity?
Read Chapter Three up through p. 71; work through Practice Problems 1 – 7 in preparation for class.
Thursday, 2/12 What is the relationship between research study validity and research design? What are the types of research design?
Finish reading Chapter Three and work through the remaining Practice Problems.
Tuesday, 2/17 Focus on test reliability and test validity--why deal with these concerns now?
Thursday, 2/19 Continue discussion, practice of concepts, and review for Take-home Quiz #1.
Tuesday, 2/24 No class today: work on Take-home Quiz and thinking about a research idea
Thursday, 2/26 What are the parts of a research proposal or study? Forming research questions and writing a research proposal.
Read Chapter Four
DUE: Preliminary draft of your research idea & question (not the proposal—just the question you have in mind!). Be prepared to discuss your idea. Assignment details are on the ilearn site.
DUE: Take-home Quiz #1
Tuesday, 3/3 What is statistical logic?
Read Chapter Five & in preparation for class, work through the Practice Problem.
Thursday, 3/5 Continue discussion and practice of concepts—exploring the differences between 2 groups: the parametric t-test formulas.
Read Chapter Six, pp. 123-141 and work through Study C in the Practice Problems
Tuesday, 3/10 Exploring the differences between 2 groups—continue discussion and practice with t-tests.
Finish reading Chapter Six and work through Study A & Study B in the Practice Problems.
Thursday, 3/12 Exploring differences between 2 groups: Non-parametric statistics
Read pp. 165- 192 in Chapter Seven and work through Study B in the Practice Problems.
3/17 and 3/19 No class: Spring Break
Tuesday, 3/24 Exploring differences between 2 groups: Non-parametric statistics
Read pp. 192-213 in Chapter Seven and work through Study C and Study A (Jen’s data set will be available on the course ilearn site.)
Due: Bibliography of possible sources for proposal literature review
Thursday, 3/26 Exploring differences among more than 2 groups: The non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis statistic
Read about the Kruskal-Wallis statistic in Chapter Nine (pp. 243-255) and play around a bit with Rebecca Noreen's data (Practice Problem).
Tuesday, 3/31 Exploring differences among more than 2 groups: The non-parametric Friedman's Test statistic
Finish reading Chapter Nine.
Due: Draft of the abstract for your research proposal.
Thursday, 4/2 Continue discussion and practice of concepts; review for Take-home Quiz #2.
Discussion of the article critique assignment—review several of the example critiques. Take another look at the information in Chapter Four, too. Review the list of possible articles and take a look through 1 or 2 of them before class.
Tuesday, 4/7 Begin discussion of exploring relationships between variables through correlations (parametric Pearson's r)
Read Chapter Ten & work through Practice Problem for discussion in class.
Thursday, 4/9 Exploring relationships between variables through correlations: Non-parametric Spearman rho
Read Chapter Eleven and work through Practice Problems for discussion in class.
Due: Take-home Quiz #2
Tuesday, 4/14 TBA
Thursday, 4/16 Exploring patterns within and between variables through the non-parametric chi-squared statistics
Read Chapter Twelve & work through the Practice Problems for discussion in class.
Due: Draft methods section of proposal
Tuesday, 4/21 Overview of parametric ANOVA—how to read studies that use this family of statistical formulas to explore differences among groups; review for Take-home Quiz #3.
Read Chapter Eight
Thursday, 4/23 Continue discussion & practice of concepts; review for Take-home Quiz 3.
Tuesday, 4/28 Preparing to present a Research Proposal
Thursday, 4/30 Meet with me individually regarding your Article Critique or Research Proposal
Due: Take-home Quiz #3
Tuesday, 5/5 Discussion of your Article Critiques
Due: Article Critique
Thursday, 5/7 TBA
Tuesday, 5/12 Presentations of Research Proposals & course evaluation
Thursday, 5/14 TBA
Friday, 5/15 Due at 2 p.m. Research Proposal
For electronic submission:
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- Save your proposal as a Word document, giving it a name something like this:
- “your name Research Proposal date of submission”
- Attach your proposal to an email directed to me at jturner@miis.edu
- In the subject line indicate ‘research proposal’
- Be sure to attach your proposal (do not embed it in the body of the email!)
- Save your proposal as a Word document, giving it a name something like this:
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