Developing research skills for our students

The Social and Engaging Practices in Developing Research Skills

Carol Ann Sharicz, Ed.D. - Professor of EducationApostolos Koutropoulos, Ed.D. (ABD) - Program Manager & Lecturer

Linda Sudlesky, M.Ed. - Instructional DesignerFriday, May 13, 20161:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Welcome

Helping our students go from:

to

Question 1What does a research project usually look like for you?

A. Class research paperB. Researched capstone projectC. ThesisD. Dissertation

Question 2What does a student researcher look like in your mind’s eye?

A. Alone in the library, reading and writingB. Alone in the science lab, experimenting,

collecting data, writingC. Alone in the field, collecting data, analyzing,

writingD. Collaborative with peers in the same disciplineE. Collaborative with peers in varying disciplines

Participants will be able to:

• Identify an area of interest for research purposes• Share your area of research in an engaging way• Think about your positionality in relation to your

research interest• Discuss practices to undertake research• Explore collaborative research spaces

Objectives

7 Steps of Research Process

1. Identify research interest and problem

2. Develop research question

3. Review literature

4. Specify purpose

5. Collect data

6. Analyze and interpret data

7. Report and evaluate research Reference: Creswell, J. (2012). Educational Research, 4th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson, p. 7. (Adapted from Creswell by C. Sharicz, 2014)

Discussing your area of interest...

Exercise:

1. Take out a sheet of paper

2. Reflect on your research interest. What have you observed in any of your classes, socially, educationally, etc., that you would be interested researching?

Share your research interest with 2 or 3 other “dinner party” guests.

Reference: Butin, D. (2010). The Education Dissertation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

“Cocktail Party” Question

• Positionality is in relation to your research interest. When thinking about your research, what is your relationship to or interest in that problem. Who is involved in this problem? Who is affected? Can you speak for them?

Reference: Rocco, T., Hatcher, T., & Associates. (2011). The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Research Positionality

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"Can a wealthy white woman authentically depict that which she has not experienced?"

Example of Research Positionality

On a piece of paper, write just 2-3 sentences on your interest in or relationship to your research problem.

Research Positionality

• Have students share their research interests with each other, having their own “dinner party” conversation.

• Have students do their own research positionality.

• Set up peer-to-peer review of certain aspects of the research process (i.e., survey documents, interview questions). 13

Social and Engaging Practices in Undertaking Research

A glimpse of a socially engaging conversation - Peer-to-peer review

• From Week of February 28, 2016 -Postings on Blackboard

• Course: Instructional Design 624 – Evaluation in the ID Process

• We have 19 students in this class this semester. For this one week alone, there were 105 postings to this assignment

RE: ID Interview Questions - Hi Mary, 

I like your questions and think you've hit all the key points and topics around Needs Assessment. I'm curious if you feel confident that your interviewee will be able to address all of these? From what I've seen, many companies don't really have the patience for trainers to perform a thorough NA. Instead it's done sort of informally, if at all. I was concerned about having additional questions that would be more flexible in case traditional Needs Assessments like the ones we're learning about were never performed. 

I'm curious to hear how your interview went. 

RE: ID Interview Questions -

Hi Mary, the one thing I did not do was email my questions to my interviewee, in the future I plan to incorporate this strategy into my NA for future interviews.  Did you find emailing the questions ahead of the interview allowed you to probe for more details?  Pam

RE: ID Interview Questions -

Hi Pam,Providing the questions ahead of time definitely helped in this situation. I only had 30 minutes in which to conduct the interview so this way he had a chance to think of which example would work best to address the questions. I should have clarified in my initial post that I did not send the probing questions ahead of time. When conducting the interview, I definitely used these probing questions.Thanks for the question!Mary

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Collaborative Research

• Have students share their research interests with each other, having their own “dinner party” conversation.

• Have students do their own research positionality.

• Set up peer-to-peer review of certain aspects of the research process (i.e., survey documents, interview questions). 19

Social and Engaging Practices in Undertaking Research

• Have students design their own interview questions and share with each other like in previous example

• Arrange students to interview 2-3 others in class to gain experience developing interviewing skills and collecting data

• Encourage students to learn the rudiments of APA and have them correct each other’s entries

Social and Engaging Practices in Undertaking Research

Groups•Set up groups with collaborative tools

Blackboard Collaborate•Practice rooms for group research activities •Breakout room use

Requesting a Bb Course (for face-to-face classes): Go to

Additional tips for teaching online...

Butin, D. (2010). The Education Dissertation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Creswell, J. (2012). Educational Research, 4th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson, pp. 8-9.

Rocco, T., Hatcher, T., & Associates. (2011). The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Szabla, D. and Sharciz, C. (2011). Doctoral Presentation on Developing Research Questions, Northeastern University.

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References