This course helps beginning educational researchers balance the competing demands of formal experimental and survey design principles with the ever-present practical constraints of the real world so that they can conduct sound quantitative research. Emphasis will be placed on formulating research questions, identifying relevant target populations, selecting respondents for study, refining definitions of the effects of interest, identifying relevant comparisons, selecting appropriate measures, determining how many subjects to study, taking advantage of the results of previous research and pilot studies, and anticipating the unanticipated. This course examines how belief structures undergird the methods educators use to motivate people to learn. Through the light of ethical theory students examine how people respond to the situations they face in their lives. Students also reflect on and apply their own values and ethical understanding to shed light on case studies that represent situations they often face as teachers.
Teachers spend their lives in a social interchange with students, peers, and their community.
This social interchange requires them to be knowledgeable in solving problems, building consensus, resolving conflict, and establishing community connections. These skills are most effective when people, within a school community, agree on values that shape the mission of their organization. Thus, this course examines how school organizations develop their shared values that enable them to build character in their students and meet organizational goals. Special emphasis will be placed on students reflecting on their own mental models of the world. Following registration students will be contacted by faculty via email.