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Unit of Study EDU00550 - Understanding Educational Research (2014)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Unit type

    PG Coursework Unit

  • Credit points

    12

  • AQF level

    9

  • Level of learning

    Introductory

  • Former School/College

    Former School of Education

  • Enrolment information

    N/A

Unit description

Engages students in reflective enquiry through structured readings and commentary. Students explore and analyse the nature of educational research, its purposes, processes and outcomes, from various perspectives, e.g. positivistic, interpretive and critical. Criteria for assessing quality research will be addressed, including, methodological, philosophical, political and ethical considerations. Action research styles are interpreted within the context of the overall educational research landscape. Requires access to the Internet.

Unit content

  • educational research as disciplined enquiry; purposes (e.g. descriptive, explanatory, emancipatory), processes and nature including the relationships between data and theory;
  • locating educational research reports; databases; types of research publications; the components of research publications;
  • ethical issues in research, especially in schools, e.g. participation, informed consent, child protection;
  • research perspectives/paradigms – positivistic and non-positivistic (interpretive, critical, others): nature (including as ways of knowing), characteristics and associated methodologies, strengths and limitations; commonalities between, and alternatives to, paradigmatic perspectives in approaching and evaluating research in education; the pragmatic paradigm-mixed-method approaches;
  • research concepts, procedures and processes (e.g. research questions/aims; design, analysis and interpretation of data and their interconnections) from different paradigmatic and methodological perspectives including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches as well as action research;
  • evaluative criteria in research depending upon purpose, data type and style/approach (e.g. validity, reliability, credibility, transferability, authenticity).

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2014

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: Intellectual rigour, GA2: Creativity, GA3: Ethical practice, GA4: Knowledge of a discipline, GA5: Lifelong learning, GA6: Communication and social skills, GA7: Cultural competence
Learning outcome count Learning outcome description GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 identify the conceptions of research with which they entered the unit and identify changes in their conceptions and reasons for these
2 describe the nature of research as disciplined enquiry and compare and contrast the basic differences between research approached from a range of epistemological positions
3 discuss the value of research in the educational workplace and the role of research in the work of a school teacher
4 locate research publications in a field of interest or related to a specified research area
5 describe and explain basic research concepts, components and processes and identify them in research publications which use different methodologies and data types
6 explain and utilise a range of criteria for assessing the quality of different types of research studies

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. identify the conceptions of research with which they entered the unit and identify changes in their conceptions and reasons for these
    • GA1:
  2. describe the nature of research as disciplined enquiry and compare and contrast the basic differences between research approached from a range of epistemological positions
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  3. discuss the value of research in the educational workplace and the role of research in the work of a school teacher
    • GA1:
    • GA2:
    • GA3:
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
    • GA6:
    • GA7:
  4. locate research publications in a field of interest or related to a specified research area
    • GA1:
    • GA2:
    • GA3:
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
    • GA6:
    • GA7:
  5. describe and explain basic research concepts, components and processes and identify them in research publications which use different methodologies and data types
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  6. explain and utilise a range of criteria for assessing the quality of different types of research studies
    • GA1:
    • GA3:
    • GA4: