Areas of educational research
Our students explore contemporary educational issues through scholarly experiences in curriculum, supervision, teacher education, professional development, teacher leadership, instructional coaching, and mentorship. Graduates go on to academic positions at colleges and universities throughout the world in teacher education, curriculum, and related fields, as well as positions in schools, districts, governments, and other entities concerned with the development of expertise in teaching and childhood childhood education is devoted to educating persons for careers in basic and higher education in areas of research, scholarship, policy, and practice. Research and courses span a range of theoretical and methodological approaches and are often guided by commitments to critical inquiry and educationally and socially transformative y and doctoral students in language, culture, and society work in a set of overlapping thematic areas:Teaching and ges and en's literature studies, children and youth e, society, and atics atics education is an exciting, growing, and changing field. Graduate degrees in mathematics education prepare school leaders, curriculum developers, teacher educators, educational researchers, and college and university math education faculty. In addition to interests in the use of technology in secondary mathematics and theories about the learning of mathematics, our faculty also have interests in curriculum development and evaluation, understandings related to teaching, and the professional development of y and students are currently researching teacher knowledge and learning, scientific argumentation and inquiry, philosophy of science and science teaching, environmental education, classroom discourse, science teacher education, and the uses of technology in science teaching and learning. These research interests include work in a nationally renowned professional development school and through projects in the center for science and the wikipedia, the free to: navigation, logy (electronic marking). Sation ariate ipant ional research refers to the systematic collection and analysis of data related to the field of education. 1][2][3] research may involve various aspects of education including student learning, teaching methods, teacher training, and classroom dynamics. 3][5] conclusions drawn from an individual research study may be limited by the characteristics of the participants who were studied and the conditions under which the study was conducted. Research attempts to solve a ch involves gathering new data from primary or first-hand sources or using existing data for a new ch is based upon observable experience or empirical ch demands accurate observation and ch generally employs carefully designed procedures and rigorous ch emphasizes the development of generalizations, principles or theories that will help in understanding, prediction and/or ch requires expertise—familiarity with the field; competence in methodology; technical skill in collecting and analyzing the ch attempts to find an objective, unbiased solution to the problem and takes great pains to validate the procedures ch is a deliberate and unhurried activity which is directional but often refines the problem or questions as the research ch is carefully recorded and reported to other persons interested in the are two main approaches in educational research. 2] both of these approaches have different purposes which influence the nature of the respective , or academic research focuses on the search for truth[2] or the development of educational theory. 1] generally, these researchers are affiliated with an academic institution and are performing this research as part of their graduate or doctoral d approach[edit]. Pursuit of information that can be directly applied to practice is aptly known as applied or contractual research. 2] applied researchers are commissioned by a sponsor and are responsible for addressing the needs presented by this employer. 2] the goal of this research is "to determine the applicability of educational theory and principles by testing hypotheses within specific settings".
Following are several defining characteristics that were written by gary anderson to compare basic (academic) and applied (contract) research. Academic) d (contract) sponsored by an agency committed to the general advancement of sponsored by an agency with a vested interest in the s are the property of society and the research s become the property of the s rely on the established reputations of the researchers and are totally under their s follow explicit terms of reference developed by the sponsor to serve the sponsor's allocations are generally based on global proposals and accounting is left to the accountability is directly related to the sponsor and relates to agreed terms of reference, time frames and conduct of research is based on 'good faith' between funder and work is contractual between sponsor and research produces findings and conclusions, but rarely recommendations except those related to further research research includes applied recommendations for ic research tends to extend an identifiable scholarly its nature, contract research tends to be ic research is typically focused on a single set of testable ct research frequently analyzes the consequences of alternative policy on-rules relate to theoretically-based tests of statistical on-rules relate to predetermined conventions and agreements between the sponsor and the ch reports are targeted to other specialized researchers in the same ch reports are intended to be read and understood by lay basis for educational research is the scientific method. Tools that educational researchers use in collecting qualitative data include: observations, conducting interviews, conducting document analysis, and analyzing participant products such as journals, diaries, images or blogs. Research uses data that is numerical and is based on the assumption that the numbers will describe a single reality. 5] since educational research includes other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, science, and philosophy[1][3] and refers to work done in a wide variety of contexts[3] it is proposed that researchers should use "multiple research approaches and theoretical constructs. 7] this idea is well summarized by the work of barrow in his text an introduction to philosophy of education:Since educational issues are of many different kinds and logical types, it is to be expected that quite different types of research should be brought into play on different occasions. The question therefore is not whether research into teaching should be conducted by means of quantitative measures (on some such grounds as that they are more 'objective') or qualitative measures (on some such grounds as that they are more 'insightful'), but what kind of research can sensibly be utilized to look into this particular aspect of teaching as opposed to that. Ational journal for transformative sin center for education ion research for an educational research of of formal childhood ative verde (cabo verde). Indian ocean (keeling) and ion in north kitts and vincent and the h virgin pierre and and caicos states virgin ted states of other (keeling) rn mariana ion in south georgia and the south sandwich ries: educational psychologyeducational researchhidden categories: wikipedia spam cleanup from june 2014wikipedia further reading cleanupwikipedia articles with gnd logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia out wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this a bookdownload as pdfprintable version. A non-profit line-based education research: understanding and improving learning in undergraduate science and r: 7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education /10766 to get more information about this book, to buy it in print, or to download it as a free pdf. Emerging areas of discipline-based education line-based education researchers study several other important aspects of teaching and learning beyond those described in previous chapters. For many of these topics, the research base in discipline-based education research (dber) is not yet robust. This chapter highlights a few of these topics that are vital to learning science and engineering and warrant further study:• the role of science and engineering practices in undergraduate education, including in undergraduate research experiences. Of these topics have been studied by cognitive science researchers or educational psychologists, but they are understudied in dber for a variety of reasons. They may be addressed implicitly or as a secondary focus in studies on other topics; they may involve basic research (rather than the applied research that dominated the early stages of dber and remains a strong emphasis today); or they may simply not yet be a priority for dber scholars.
In addition, dber scholars are just beginning to deploy some of the measurement tools used by scholars in other disciplines that are necessary to research these topics. Despite the relatively sparse dber literature on these topics thus far, they are of central ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. Instead, we briefly discuss the cross-disciplinary findings—all of which we have characterized as limited because few studies exist, much of the existing research consists of small-scale investigations, and no reviews have been published—and discuss in more detail the findings from the particular dber field(s) with the most research to date on these emerging topics. Because these topics warrant further study in the context of dber, each section ends with an identification of directions for future research. In chemistry, the american chemical society committee on professional training revised its guidelines for the training of chemists to include the same skills as ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. Indeed, “the idea of science as a set of practices has emerged from the work of historians, philosophers, psychologists and sociologists over the past 60 years” (national research council, 2012, p. That report’s conceptualization of practices is useful to consider here (national research council, 2012, pp. In all three spheres of activity, scientists and engineers try to use the best available tools to support the task at framework goes on to identify eight specific science and engineering practices that advance an understanding of science among 7-1 the three spheres of activity for scientists and : national research council (2012, p. Rather, research at the k-12 level has shown that well-designed curricula and instructional practices can support deeper learning of content at the same time that students are engaging with these practices (national research council, 2007). Much of the engineering education research on professional skill-related process falls outside of these categories. That research largely describes “how to”—for example, how to build and use teams—rather than studying what works for developing students’ professional skills and how those strategies work. Research suggests that students also lack an understanding of experimental uncertainty unless they are explicitly taught about it (see sere, journeaux, and larcher, 1993). In physics, the research on problem solving is extensive, as is research about how students do and do not use discipline-specific models and graphical representations (see chapter 5 for a discussion of research on problem solving and the use of representations in various disciplines). This research shows that students who use representations outperform those who do not but that students rarely use representations on their own (de leone and gire, 2006; kohl and finkelstein, 2005; rosengrant, etkina, and van heuvelen, 2006; van heuvelen and zou, 2001). Research also has shown that some visualization skills that are important to the geosciences can be improved through a targeted set of practice exercises (titus and horsman, 2009; see chapter 5).
Laboratory is an important setting for students to engage in science and engineering practices, either in the context of regular course work or through research experiences with faculty. In astronomy education research, a limited number of studies address the role of traditional laboratories in improving proficiency with practices, and the results so far are mixed. Although some research suggests that these laboratories do not help students understand that scientists use a wide variety of methods to conduct investigations, they have been shown to help students improve their ability to develop appropriate scientific questions (slater, slater, and lyons, 2010; slater, slater, and shaner, 2008). Spectrophotometers) simply as objects, without any knowledge of their internal workings, or as useful tools for collecting evidence about the behavior of molecules and their practices to enhance conceptual erably less research exists on using science and engineering practices to leverage learning. 2010) and that making predictions can enhance the educational impact of professor-led demonstrations (crouch et al. Experiences for colleges and universities use undergraduate research experiences and internships to supplement traditional learning experiences and offer students additional opportunities to engage in the practices of science and engineering outside the course setting. Research experiences can give the student a sense of whether advanced study and a career in the particular field is a good personal fit (hunter, laursen, and seymour, 2007; seymour et al. These studies show that students who participate in undergraduate research believe that they have enhanced their research skills and report being more motivated to pursue a career in science after the experience. Widespread assumption is that extended research experiences will promote more robust knowledge of science content and understandings of scientific ideas and principles, but this assumption has not been adequately tested or borne out (sadler et al. The typical methodology is students’ or mentors’ self-reports via survey or interview; direct assessment of students’ pre- and post-apprenticeship knowledge/understanding is few studies that have examined group differences show that research experiences enhanced retention in science for students from underrepresented groups (gregerman, 2008; locks and gregerman, 2008; nagda et al. The most promising findings come from a longitudinal study of the undergraduate research opportunity program (urop), which includes many science disciplines and has been in existence at the university of michigan since 1988. In that research, 75 percent of the african american men who participated in urop completed their degrees, compared with 56 percent of a control group who applied but were not accepted into the program (gregerman, 2008; locks and gregerman, 2008). Research experiences appear to improve student retention, they do not appear to affect students’ decisions about their future courses of study. In a multi-institutional survey study of the benefits of research for undergraduates and the progression rate of those students to advanced degrees,3 83 percent of the 1,135 respondents earned, or intended to go on to earn, advanced degrees (hunter, laursen, and seymour, 2007; lopatto, 2007). Along similar lines, a separate study of 51 students found that an undergraduate research program made little difference in the intent of females to pursue a graduate degree in astronomy (slater, 2010).
The self-selection of students into these programs potentially confounds the research findings because the students who opt to participate might be more motivated or inclined to pursue further study or a career in science or engineering. Notable efforts to counter self-selection bias in the research include the evaluation of urop (gregerman, 2008), which compared students in the program to students who applied but were not. 2007) validated an instrument to measure how students experience undergraduate research (survey of the undergraduate research experience, sure). The quality of the instrument adds weight to the evidence that undergraduate research enhances student perceptions of their science skills and interest in ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. For future research e and engineering most of the disciplines examined in this report, the research on how students learn in laboratories or in the field—where they are likely to engage in science and engineering practices—is scarce. Additional research is needed to better understand how to measure and promote proficiency with these practices, and to explore relationships among practices and other outcomes such as overall understanding of concepts, practices, and ways of thinking of science and addition to the general practices described in this chapter, which span all of the science and engineering disciplines, individual disciplines may emphasize other practices or nuances of the general practices. Future research on practices at the undergraduate level might involve scientists, engineers, and/or scholars of the nature of science in reflecting on such discipline-specific variations and taking them into account when studying student specifically, given the increase in undergraduate research programs and the expense of these programs in both time and money, it is important to understand the short- and long-term impacts of undergraduate research experiences and other research apprenticeships. Ideally, future research examining these mechanisms would be conducted in ways that minimize or account for the effects of the self-selection bias of undergraduate research experiences. Additional studies are also needed on research experiences that occur during the regular school year, as most of the published research on the impact of undergraduate research experiences has been conducted on 10-week summer research apprenticeships rather than ongoing, independent, or mentored research in faculty would be useful to study a wider variety of opportunities that engage students in science and engineering practices (e. As one example of the latter, although knowledge of professional ethics is mandated through the abet engineering accreditation criteria, engineering education research on enhancing student knowledge of professional ethics is scant, and represents a promising area for future ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. Thus, one of the enduring problems in education—no less an issue at the undergraduate level than in k-12 education—is that transfer of learned material to new situations is much more difficult than educators line-based education research on ch focus and er is a two-part process: transfer during learning (effect of past learning on new knowledge acquisition) and transfer of learning (the degree to which the new learning is applied in future situations) (sousa, 2011). Dber scholars have partially addressed the first dimension through ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. Indeed, much of that research is predicated on the assumption that instructors need to know what their students already know, because prior knowledge can either interfere with new learning (negative transfer) or facilitate it (positive transfer) (ausubel, 1968; ausubel, novak, and hanesian, 1978; bretz, 2001; novak, gowin, and kahle, 1984). 2003), and the relationships between learning in the classroom, laboratory, and field (mogk and goodwin, 2012) could provide early insights into of the physics research on transfer in the context of problem solving is based on the theoretical underpinnings of information processing (simon, 1978). However, the meaning and even the utility of the idea of knowledge transfer as a theoretical construct is controversial within physics education research (mestre, 2005).
Knowledge transfer, in this approach, is a derived physics education researchers take a more phenomenological approach, driven by the assumption that learning is so complex that a linear set of mechanisms and interactions, even if they exist, are not adequate to describe knowing. Chemistry, researchers have analyzed students’ transfer of knowledge related to the characteristics and behavior of nacl and nacl (aq) (kelly,Suggested citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. This research is guided by ausubel, novak, and hanesian’s (1978) theory of meaningful learning, which proposes that students store new information according to what they identify as similarities between what they already know and what they need to know. Of studying transfer range from individual interviews and experiments in controlled research environments to the analysis of student behavior and written work in classes. Participants typically include students in general introductory ts’ difficulties transferring dber, most a priori studies of transfer come from chemistry education research. Consistent with research from cognitive science (national research council, 1999), the findings of teichert et al. 2008) suggest that students need help to understand which aspects of problems are critical for determining the appropriate solution method and which are ions for future research on science and engineering, educators and researchers need a greater understanding of how to widely assess and promote the transfer of knowledge and skills within courses; across courses in the major; and among majors and nonmajors as they take different science courses. Ideally, these studies would be interdisciplinary to understand how students’ knowledge transfers across the suite of science and engineering courses they take in of the greatest research challenges will be framing transfer in a way that is both measureable and acceptable to instructors and students. Bransford and schwartz (1999) have developed a broader theory of transfer that emphasizes preparation for future learning, which could be a useful framework for further research. Bransford and schwartz argue that the college students had greater general education experience and that they were able to transfer this experience to the new learning situation—evidence of positive transfer that might be missed using more traditional ive science research has illuminated some factors that influence transfer, including the quality and context of original learning; the similarity of problems across settings; and, as discussed, students’ recognition of the critical attributes of problems (bassok, 2003; sousa, 2011). Although this research has been conducted primarily in the context of investigating analogical problem solving in mathematics and physics, dber scholars in other disciplines might be able to use this research to design studies that advance the understanding of transfer in different disciplines and learning ive science research also provides insight into specific conditions under which successful transfer occurs, such as when instructors teach students to monitor their own thinking and learning processes (bransford and schwartz, 1999; see discussion of metacognition below) or, in the context of problem solving, when source and target problems are superficially and structurally similar (e. Students need to be metacognitive so that in every learning context—during lecture, independent reading, laboratory work, research, or discussions—they monitor their comprehension and, if comprehension fails, take corrective steps. Extensive research base in psychology indicates that the ability to make an honest and accurate appraisal of one’s own knowledge state is crucial to academic success. These metacognitive sensibilities steer the research agenda, alert investigators to promising questions, and give insights into whether investigative probes are answering the driving questions. However, research has shown the benefits of teaching metacognitive skills as part of learning content (collins, brown, and newman, 1989).
Based education research on ch focus and ts’ metacognition is an implicit focus of some research on problem solving and other kinds of decision making, and is increasingly an explicit focus of some dber. Most of the research that the committee reviewed investigates or assesses the role of metacognition in specific learning environments, typically in the context of problem solving (see chapter 5), and some research focuses on the development of tools ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. In other disciplines, researchers have assessed metacognitive activity in the context of a learning environment such as an inquiry laboratory, or a specific problem solving activity. Consistent with findings from cognitive science research (national research council, 1999), dber suggests that students can develop metacognitive skills over time when metacognitive strategies are built into instruction (mccrindle and christensen, 1995; weinstein, husman, and dierking, 2000), but that relatively few students report using metacognitive strategies such as self-testing when studying on their own (karpicke, butler, and roediger, 2009). Focus of dber on metacognition concerns the self-explanation effect, which is the benefit to learning and problem solving that ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. In prior work, the researchers investigated student learning using the interactive multi-media exercises system (cooper et al. This research examined whether the way information about the human circulatory system is presented affects learners’ self-explanations and subsequent learning. Students were directed to generate explanations to themselves during the study phase, and the students who generated ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. Similarly, research in engineering education has found that incorporating metacognitive reflection steps and self-explanation prompts into instruction can improve students’ problem solving (svinicki, 2011). This research suggests that generating and articulating explanations can be an effective pedagogical tool to help students process more deeply the underlying structure of unfamiliar concepts and problems in all disciplines. This deeper processing can lead to enhanced learning compared with what is achieved by simply reading textbook paragraphs and examples or examining textbook ions for future research on gnition is a necessary skill for meaningful learning and thus merits continued study in the context of dber. These findings suggest that researchers and instructors should not consider cognitive and affective development apart from each line-based education research on the affective carnegie preparation for the professions program (sullivan, 2005) describes three apprenticeships: the apprenticeship of the head (intellectual development), the hand (skill development), and the heart (development of habits of mind, values and attitudes). Many science disciplines and engineering stress the first apprenticeship (the head), place less emphasis on ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. Similarly, in dber, the affective domain has received less attention than the cognitive ch focus and research that has been done in dber is as broad as the affective domain itself, and ranges from students’ views about the discipline, to their motivations for pursuing science and engineering, to the social dimensions of fieldwork, to the role of student beliefs in conceptual rly research on the affective domain rigorously probes students’ attitudes and beliefs about content, pedagogy, the discipline as a whole, and/or learning in general. Student attitudes in physics after instruction diverge further from “expert-like” norms than before instruction, even when ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research.
Geoscience affective research network has conducted research on the affective domain, with an emphasis on the attitudes and motivations of introductory students (mcconnell and kraft, 2011; van der hoeven kraft et al. One study of 539 males and 607 females from 14 introductory classes at 7 institutions used the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire to measure pre- ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. For future research on the affective date, much dber has treated cognitive and affective outcomes as distinct “variables. Future dber on the affective domain should avoid this dichotomy and recognize the interdependence of affect and cognitive ctors and researchers would benefit from a greater understanding of the attitudes and beliefs that are the most salient to learning science and engineering, including the role of cultural and social factors and potential differences among different groups of students (e. A broader level, research on multiple dimensions of the affective domain would enhance the understanding of “what works” in the recruitment and retention of students into science and engineering majors, with longitudinal studies to determine which career paths students ultimately choose (e. As one example, in light of the larger percentage of undergraduate females majoring in biology compared to the physical sciences, studies that focus on the persistence of females in undergraduate majors and careers in the life sciences would be ted citation:"7 some emerging areas of discipline-based education research. Based education research: understanding and improving learning in undergraduate science and paperback | $ members save 10% or register to save! National science foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (dber) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. It describes the discipline-specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student line-based education research is based on a 30-month study built on two workshops held in 2008 to explore evidence on promising practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) education. The book provides empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the sciences, explores the extent to which this research currently influences undergraduate instruction, and identifies the intellectual and material resources required to further develop line-based education research provides guidance for future dber research. In addition, the findings and recommendations of this report may invite, if not assist, post-secondary institutions to increase interest and research activity in dber and improve its quality and usefulness across all natural science disciples, as well as guide instruction and assessment across natural science courses to improve student learning. Discipline-based education research will be of interest to educators, policy makers, researchers, scholars, decision makers in universities, government agencies, curriculum developers, research sponsors, and education advocacy 're looking at openbook, 's online reading room since 1999. Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're er to attend "a forum for the national center for education statistics: commemorating 150 years of innovation—and exploring future opportunities. Centennial lecture: bruce mccandliss examines new insights into the connections between brain science and early educational aera research on cte school students who complete cte courses are more likely to graduate on time and less likely to drop, according to new research published in the american educational research journal. Centennial lecture: charles payne explores research evidence challenging the persistent idea that schools can have little influence on children coming from poor homes and : "supporting college student access and success".
A: ies's liz albro discusses how ies advances education more news about education research and aera, see the latest issue youth families and communities advisor - imperial county, university of california division of agriculture and natural ant or associate professor, adult learning & leadership/rs college, columbia ch associate all educational research jobs. K street nw, suite 1200, washington, dc : (202) 238-3200 | fax: (202) -shandwick youth families and communities advisor - imperial county, university of california division of agriculture and natural ant or associate professor, adult learning & leadership/rs college, columbia ch associate all educational research capability areas of higher education vocational, adult and workplace education early childhood education indigenous education education and research earch online research repository contains acer's research available in digital form, including, reports, working papers, conference papers, and ’s global research expertise in the school education sector draws on decades of experience to inform educational policy and ’s global research expertise in the school education sector draws on decades of experience in national and international surveys, systemwide testing and monitoring, assessment and reporting, research to inform educational policy and practice, including research into teacher education, professional development and school works with intergovernmental agencies such as the organisation for economic co-operation and development and the southeast asian ministers of education organization; independent and international cooperative research institutions such as the international association for the evaluation of educational achievement; national governments; education systems; curriculum and assessment authorities; and other education stakeholder groups in more than 40 ’s global school education research supports leaders, policymakers, teachers and learners through a wide range of research and assessment services. Our research capabilities broadly span three areas: policy research, assessment and r access, participation and es between curriculum, assessment and ace and workforce needs and trends, and the professional learning of teachers and school -quality measurement, psychometric and data analysis, and -scale national and international and automated ment of student ability, achievement and ion tools for scholarships and selective -scale national and international surveys, including surveys of literacy, numeracy, civics and citizenship, and computer and information r access, participation, engagement and post-school improvement, school performance measurement and school ’s four strategic research priorities also address the school education sector through the centre for global education monitoring, centre for assessment reform and innovation, centre for education policy and practice, and centre for the science of learning @ school education research includes:Icils - international computer and information literacy al school improvement ring trends in educational growth in australia – programme for international student assessment land review of senior assessment and tertiary entrance in australia’s r absenteeism in design fosters real anxiety – and what to do about ch nous education ots - global assessment, local ational developments.
