TEP 233A: Topics in Education Research

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TEP 233A Topics in Education Research Design

• Welcome!
• Four presentations over the Winter Quarter
• Jim Levin (today)
• Ross Frank, Ethnic Studies (Monday, Jan 24)
• Amanda Datnow, USC (Wednesday, Feb 9)
• Brian Goldfarb, Communication (Monday, Feb 28)

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Proseminar web page

• http//tepserver.ucsd.edu/courses/tep233a/wi05/

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Coordinators for next 3 presentations

• Ross Frank, Ethnic Studies (Monday, Jan 24)
• Jo Daniel
• Amanda Datnow, USC (Wednesday, Feb 9)
• Ruth Carrie
• Brian Goldfarb, Communication (Monday, Feb 28)
• Krysti Suzanne

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Educational Research Expertise as Multiple
Coordinated Research Methods

• Jim Levin
• Teacher Education Program
• University of California, San Diego
• http//tepserver.ucsd.edu/courses/tep233a/wi05/lev
  in/

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Plan for this session

• Short presentation by Jim Levin
• Survey of research methods you use and why
• Small group discussion of methods
• Report to whole from each group
• General discussion and summary

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Debate about research methods

• NCLB "scientifically based research"
• Random-assignment
• Qualitative vs. quantitative

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What is the nature of educational research
expertise?

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What is the nature of expertise?

• Studies of expertise
• What's the difference between an expert and a
  novice?

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Mental models of the Web

• Survey study "What is your mental model of the
  Web?"
• Novices with the web 18 unique responses (from
  44 subjects)
• Experts with the web 27 unique responses (from
  38 of the same subjects)
• (Levin, Stuve, Jacobson, 1999)

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Mental models of the Web

• Case studies of 10 people (2 novices, 4
  intermediate, 4 experts)
• A novice had a single model of the Web
• An expert had several models and chose which
  model to use depending on the task

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An expert is

• a person
• with multiple coordinated representations of a
  subject area
• and
• with the meta-knowledge of when to use which
  representation and when to switch.

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Representational Toolkit Framework for Expertise

• An expert has a set of representational tools,
  and knows which tool to use for which task and
  when to switch from one tool to another.

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Methodological debate among carpenters?

• Which is the best tool?
• the hammer or the saw?

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What's your goal?

• Do you have two pieces of wood and a nail and
  want to fasten them together?
• or
• Do you have one piece of wood and a line along
  which youd like them separated?

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An expert carpenter

• Has expertise with a wide range of tools
• Has the knowledge of which tool to use for which
  purpose

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Educational research methods debates

• Which is the best research method?

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What are your research goals?
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Which research method best accomplishes your
research goals?
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Mixed Methods Research

• Johnson Onwuegbuzie "Mixed Methods Research A
  Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come"

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Educational research expertise

• Research methods toolkit framework
• The power of multiplicity - bringing multiple
  coordinated research approaches to bear on
  educational problems
• Multiple coordinated methods

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Distributed educational research expertise

• A distributed network of coordinated educational
  researchers with expertise in a diverse set of
  research methods - a community of educational
  research practitioners

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How to achieve educational research expertise?

• One step is to make explicit the range of
  educational research methods and the strengths
  and weaknesses of each method

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Interactive portion of presentation

• Survey activity take a few minutes to fill out
  the questionnaire being handed out
• Small group discussion activity count off by
  twos and form three groups to discuss research
  methods identified by each member
• Whole group discussion reports from each group
  and general discussion

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Mental models of educational research (generated
during the presentation)

• Dinner party
• Big blob
• Luxor - pyramid with floors
• Telescope - stars as students observer as
  researcher stars as other researchers
• Gardening - planting, watering, weeding, noting
  changes, changing
• Debate forum - between practitioners and
  researchers

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More mental models of educational research
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Strengths and weaknesses (generated during the
presentation)
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More strengths and weaknesses
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Yet more strengths weaknesses
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Summary

• An expert has multiple coordinated
  representations.
• An expert educational researcher
• An expert educator
• A learner moving to expertise
• A community of educational research practitioners
  is a distributed network of coordinated
  educational researchers with expertise in a
  diverse set of research methods

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Contact information

• Jim Levin
• jalevin_at_ucsd.edu
• http//tepserver.ucsd.edu/jlevin/

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p.s. on Educational expertise

• Multiplicity of educational approaches to support
  to acquisition of multiple coordinated
  representations

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How to support educational research expertise?

• New interactional frameworks
• Collaborative work across disciplines
• Integration of research and teaching research
  and learning