EDU 522: Research Methods: Improving Learning Organizations

Overview

This course familiarizes you with the "process of knowing" used by professionals in the field of education. The goal is to help students become critical consumers of educational research through an understanding of alternative research approaches and the issues involved in each choice. It also focuses on two very important skills for a graduate student in education: using information (library and online) resources and writing a research paper. Additional emphasis will be given to ethical use of data, intellectual property, and student privacy issues.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Interpret and evaluate educational research with a critical eye.
• Critically analyze research reports/studies in relation to a current educational topic/theme.
• Explain the features of a researchable question.
• Describe the core concepts of research methods – i.e., design options, sampling considerations, methodology choices, and acceptable alternatives for interpreting and discussing findings.
• Report relevant research findings in a coherent report, using APA appropriate form and structure.
• Write a literature review.

Required Texts
EDU 522 texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore