Research day 2011
- 1. Tannis Morgan, JIBC Research Day 2011 Getting Started in Applied Education Research
- 2. Introductions Our experiences Your interests What brought you to this session today?
- 3. Research is… Scary? Requires money? Overwhelming? Useless? Boring? … ?
- 4. Overview of the session The research landscape The steps The tools The $$$ Questions?
- 5. SOTL? Scholarship of Teaching and Learning http://www.issotl.org/
- 6. Situating Research SOTL Applied Empirical Smaller scope Own context Larger scope Larger context
- 7. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) Research Teaching Expanded Planned reflection and analysis Systematic investigation or exploration via a research process Manageable scope--scalable Teaching context as a laboratory Focus on student learning
- 8. Where it starts Who am I as an instructor? Are my exam questions too hard? Does a course weblog help students feel connected? Is group work helping first year math students? Are employers satisfied with graduates of our program?
- 9. Carnegie Steps: Step 1 Step What this means How do you do it? Adequate Preparation Literature review (25%) Talk to librarians Google SOTL journals http ://www.cjsotl-rcacea.ca/ Gather information and keep it organized: Refworks, Cite-u-like
- 10. Step 2: Clear Goals Step What this means How do you do it? Clear Goals Develop research question/s What are you curious about? What has been done? (lit review) What does your experience tell you?
- 11. Step 3: Appropriate Methods Step What this means How do you do it? Appropriate methods Is your research question a how or what question? What will be the process for learning more about your research question/s? How can you realistically gather the data (depending on time, availability of participants, etc). How will you systematically analyse your data, and is it appropriate given the methods used? Use or modify what is already out there (surveys questionnaires, interview questions) Identify ‘good’ research and try and do what they did. Get opinions from other researchers.
- 12. Research Design & Methods Qualitative--How? Why? Eg. Case studies, ethnographies, grounded theory Quantitative--What? Eg. (Quasi-)Experimental, correlational, surveys Mixed--combination Evaluation studies--typically program, institutional, or innovation focussed with a clear purpose of assessing the quality and effectiveness
- 14. Qualitative Methods Used to “understand” more deeply. Typically results do not seek to generalize widely. May involve one or more of the following: focus groups/interviews text or discourse analysis observations
- 15. Quantitative Methods Typically seeks to generalize to a large population. It is “hypothetically” more objective and less interpretive. Examples include one or more of the following: Surveys Experimental Design Content analysis
- 16. SOTL/Ed Research Examples Cardiology applied research - quantitative surveys, validation of instruments Net Gen learner - mixed methods interviews/focus groups; survey Teaching Presence and Voice Feedback - qualitative discussion thread; interviews Question Analysis with Clickers - quantitative clickers, Item Response theory , Classical Theory of Tests
- 17. Step 4: Significant Results Step What this means How do you do it? Significant Results Has anything been learned as a result of your research? Reflect honestly Compare with other research
- 18. Results Analysis and discussion of what has been investigated Finding flaws in own research need to investigate further if larger than thought reflective critique of conducting the research so what?
- 19. Step 5: Reflective Critique Step What this means How do you do it? Reflective Critique So what? Reflect on the results but also the process.
- 20. Step 6: Effective Presentation Step What this means How do you do it? Effective presentation Share with the world Use the various communication channels: reports, publication (formal and informal), presentations
- 21. Funding JIBC Office of Applied Research Funding Opportunities (Social Science focussed) http://ltc.bccampus.ca/resources/funding
- 22. Support Peer support Mentor support Collaboration - with students, with other institutions http://ltc.bccampus.ca/
- 23. Parting Words We believe the time has come to move beyond the tired old "teaching versus research" debate and give the familiar and honorable term "scholarship" a broader, more capacious meaning, one that brings legitimacy to the full scope of academic work. Surely, scholarship means engaging in original research. But the work of the scholar also means stepping back from one's investigation, looking for connections, building bridges between theory and practice, and communicating one's knowledge effectively to students. E. L. Boyer
- 24. Thanks View/download the presentation and access the resources at http://researchworkshop.wordpress.com
Editor's Notes
- #5: Shortest distance from current pr
- #7: Acknowledge that room for everybody, may fit on either end of the continuum Continuum goes from simple to complex, from own context to larger context Process is the same but the scope may be different
- #13: Diagram of different types eg case comparitive
- #19: In qualitative importance of triangulation, member checking. In quantitative, interrater reliability