This course teaches students important concepts of education research design. The course covers the development of research questions, participant selection, educational measurement and data collection, experimental and correlational research designs, and quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
The learning goals for the course are as follows.
- Understand the nature of knowledge (where knowledge comes from, perspectives about truth, how knowledge is justified), and how education research informs what we know about teaching and learning.
- Understand how to develop a research question and plan a research study.
- Understand important research design concepts (sample, independent vs. dependent variables, survey design, research design)
- Understand concepts of validity in education research (e.g., internal, external, construct validity)
- Understand qualitative and quantitative approaches to collecting data
- Critically evaluate educational research studies with the above concepts in mind.
- Design a study to answer a research question relevant to education in an ethical and rigorous way.
Unique about this course is that students gain hands-on experience with the research process by developing a set of research questions and administering surveys. As a COIL Initiative course, students also survey their peers from International Christian University (ICU) and Aoyama Gakuin University. Students then present their results to one another and engage in discussions on Discord and Zoom.
