Moving reflective practice to practice based research

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Moving reflective practice to practice based
research

• Glynis Cousin
• Higher Education Academy

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Good practice collections v case study research

• Good Practice
• Inclusive way of describing and sharing practice
• Supports educational development
• Descriptive

• Case study research
• Based on knowledge of research methods
• Supports educational research and development
• Analytic

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Why case study research?

• It can be practice based and involve participant
  observation and thus fits the context of
  educational development and innovation projects
• It can involve a variety of qualitative and
  quantitative methods and is potentially friendly
  to discipline based research
• It supports research and development
• It is a flexible form of research which can be
  intrinsic, instrumental or collective

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Intrinsic case study

• Learner motivation -
• The case of John
• Generalisation
• Within the case

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Instrumental case study an instance of a class

• The problem of learner motivation generalisation
  from an instance of a class

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Collective case study what is happening in these
cases?
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Case study research into fieldtrips (GEES project)
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What is the researcher looking for in a case?

• The quantitative side of me looked for the
  emergence of meaning from the repetition of
  phenomena, the qualitative side of me looked for
  the emergence of meaning in the single instance
  (76).
• Robert Stake The Art of Case Study
  Research
• How can we look for the emergence of these
  meanings?

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What are we looking for truth or understanding?

• The function of research is not necessarily to
  map and conquer the world but to sophisticate the
  beholding of it (Stakes, 1995 43)

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Credibility and case study research

• An ethic of caution about the claims you make
• 2. Reflective about your own position and
  possible bias
• Where you are making a clearly contestable
  assertion, strengthen your evidence by
  providing diverse evidence sources
• 4 Can your account offer a thick description
  of the case such that the reader can share in the
  interpretation with the researcher
• Share the provisional analysis with stakeholders
  (students, respondents, etc.) for their comments
  and verification
• Fuzzy logic rather than truth claims

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Some practical questions

• Why might colleagues in the disciplines want to
  conduct case study research?
• What support is required to undertake robust
  forms of case study research?
• Any others?

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References

• Adelman. C. Jenkins, D. and Kemmis S (1980)
  Rethinking Case Study notes from the second
  Cambridge conference in Simons H, Towards a
  Science of the Singular, CARE, University of East
  Anglia
• Michael Basseys (1999) Case Study Research in
  Educational Settings, OU Press, Milton Keynes.
• Glaser, B.G., Strauss, A.L. (1967). The
  discovery of grounded theory Strategies for
  qualitative research. Chicago Aldine
• Helga Nowotny, Peter Scott, and Michael Gibbons
  (2001), Re-Thinking Science Knowledge and the
  Public in an Age of Uncertainty. Polity Press,
  London
• Simons H (1980) Towards a Science of the
  Singular, CARE, University of East Anglia
• Stakes, Robert E (1995) The Art of Case Study
  Research, Sage Publications, Thousand Oakes,
  Calif.