Welcome to this blog where I document my reflections throughout the semester for ETEC500: Research Methodology in Education lead by Prof. Oksana Bartosh.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the scientific research process and its integrated components
- Describe the guiding principles of research ethics
- Understand how the research process applies to education and the field of educational technology
- Understand the relationship between research questions, designs and methodologies
- Understand different research designs and methods, such as correlational, experimental and ethnographic
- Hone library search skills and knowledge about resources for locating research articles and reports
- Know how to think critically about the research process in education
- Conduct analyses of published reports
Course Reflection
Having come out of a research-heavy undergraduate degree, this course was a good refresher in terms of the research methodologies and analyses, as well as honing evaluation and critical thinking skills.
In particular, the focus on closing the gap between theory and practice through action research and qualitative methods of data collection was novel to me. The nature of action research leaning towards change in practice as an iterative and process. It was surprising to me how the reporting style of qualitative research focused more on personal, quasi-story-telling formats, compared to more rigid theory-based/quantitative research. Bringing in personalized and lived experiences into the research helps contextualize it to more nuanced and specific contexts, such that it highlights the autonomy and diversity that is reflected within various learning settings, understanding that learning and teaching very much goes hand-in-hand.
With the credibility of action research largely determined by the data collection step, I also learned about the ways that qualitative information can be mapped, ensure for validity and reliability, as well thoroughly evaluated and interpreted.
This realization very much revolutionized my ideas of what research can and could look like, opening-up new territories when thinking about reflection as a form of research practice as well.