CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT  SYP 5105-01:  SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

COURSE OVERVIEW

REQUIRED MATERIALS

ASSIGNMENTS

WEB-ASSISTED INFO

COURSE TOPICS

 

PLEASE INFORM ME IMMEDIATELY IF YOU REQUIRE ANY ASSISTANCE WITH DISABILITIES!
 

In METHODS OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH we study how researchers conceptualize and collect research data. You will learn how to construct  a research question and how to search the relevant literature, as well as about issues arising in:

• experiments
• quasi-experiments
• survey research methods
• ethnographies
• unobtrusive measurement (e.g., historical research, content analysis, and gleaning), and
• secondary data searches, including many datasets now available on the Internet.

There is more to methods than learning about different types of study designs. Each researcher hopes and believes that they will demonstrate valid relationships among factors, typically valid causal relationships. When we are better able to establish causal inferences, we have a much better idea about which policy changes are feasible, how to design a better curriculum, or how to motivate players to a better performance. But the road to causal inference is often difficult, presenting unforeseen obstacles. A solid grounding in methodology will help you to identify and either overcome or compensate for such obstacles.

Even if you engage in other professional tasks besides conducting research studies, there should be important outcomes for you as a result of this course. These include:

• increased fluency in reading research materials in your discipline
• better assessment of the validity of findings, and
• evaluating the outcomes of program evaluations.

Previous experience with research methods and statistics may be helpful, but is definitely not essential. There will be very, very few formulas, and virtually no applications of statistics in this course. As you may know, Educational Research has several statistics courses but only ONE basic course on data collection.

By the end of the semester you should:

• Be able to identify key research questions in a research report or journal article
• Be able to evaluate the methods of data collection in a research report or journal article
• Be able to formulate a testable research question
• Understand basic levels of measurement
• Understand types of probability and nonprobability samples
• Be familiar with several types of research study designs
• Be able to locate and access several Internet data bank resources

McMILLAN:   James H. McMillan (2000) Educational Research: Fundamentals for the Consumer, THIRD EDITION. New York: Longman. Paper. ISBN = 0-321-02337

WIERSMA:  William Wiersma (2000). Research Methods in Education: An Introduction, SEVENTH EDITION.  Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Cloth. ISBN = 0-205-28492-2

COURSE LECTURES will be placed on the Internet and linked in with each course topic.

Below is information about  assignments, exams, due dates, and course weights. There will be three equally weighted exams, each about one hour. While each exam will focus on the immediately prior units, please be advised that much of the methods material is cumulative in nature. In addition, if a concept or concepts appeared to give considerable trouble in one exam, there will probably be questions addressing that concept on the next exam. Exams will be a mix of short answer, short essay and multiple choice and have a strong problem-solving orientation.

Assignments are weighted so that if you make a mistake, it will not hurt your final grade to a large extent, and mistakes can then be corrected on the exams, which weight more heavily.

Details on each assignment will be posted to our course WEB site prior to the due date.

Assignments have two primary foci:

1. To help develop your research interests in your discipline by writing a research problem statement, hypotheses, and a structured data collection procedure (especially assignments 1-3) and
2. To alert you to common problems that occur with different kinds of methodologies and ways to solve these problems.

I AM SORRY. I DO NOT ACCEPT EMAIL ATTACHMENTS! PLEASE DO NOT SLIDE PAPERS UNDER MY DOOR OR UNDER THE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND LEARNING SYSTEMS SUITE DOOR! There have been too many problems with computer viruses. This is especially true for University computers, which have proven to be hotbeds of infection.  DO NOT slide papers under my office door.They may or may not be placed on my desk--where I may not be able to find them! Similar problems occur with materials slid under the EPLS suite door. Here are some alternatives if you absolutely cannot hand assignments to me in person: My office mailbox in 307 Stone Building FAX to the EPLS Office (850) 644-8776. Be sure to put my name and EDF 5481 on the Cover Sheet and include the total number of pages Mail (USE FIVE DAYS ADVANCE NOTICE!)  to Dr. Susan Carol Losh, Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, FSU, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4453 Include as text in an email. PLEASE DO NOT USE HTML, which my Eudora programs will turn into unreadable source code. In all these alternatives, your assignment MUST reach me by the stated due  dates. Please be sure to include your name! IF YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES ARE TRULY DIRE (FINAL DRAFT ASSIGNMENTS ONLY), YOU CAN SEND ATTACHMENTS HERE:  naomilosh@yahoo.com I DO NOT OPEN ATTACHMENTS AT THE slosh@garnet.acns.fsu.edu email account.

During the semester, I may ask for a copy of your work on disk. All disks are scanned with Norton or McAfee Anti Virus software. I will let you know if your disk is infected.
 

More information about course assignments will be posted and linked later in the semester prior to the assignment.  Be sure to visit this site again!

 

GRADING CONSIDERATIONS

While each assignment focuses on unit readings and other course requirements, material on research methods is cumulative by nature. For example, principles of internal or external validity are considered throughout, even if their applications more directly apply to one research method as opposed to another.

I use plus and minus grading, throughout and for final grades. Improvement over the course of the semester is defintely considered in grading, and exams weight more heavily  toward your final grade than exercises. Adherence to principles of essay organization, and the conventions of spelling and grammar is expected and understood. Spell checkers on word processors are there to be used! I know that English is a second language for many students, but I also know that the overwhelming majority of international students are extremely careful with their writing. If I believe that you need assistance in principles of essay organization, etc., I will alert you so that you may take advantage of several of the FREE centers on campus that specialize in these areas.

Our course is WEB assisted through the CourseInfo/Blackboard 5.0 and WEB-MC  systems at FSU. You must be registered for edf5481-01 to access our site. To access our course, here is what to do. Go online to:

Enter your GARNET username (USERNAME ONLY!) and password to log in. For example, I would enter "slosh" ONLY and omit the "@garnet.acns.fsu.edu" part. Then click on “METH EDUCATNL RESRCH” to enter our site.

If you DON'T have a garnet account, you need to get one NOW. Go to the Academic Computing and Network Services website (address below) and follow the links to register online for your garnet account at FSU.

I will use WEB-assist for several course features:

• All lectures will be available online and linked with course topics. Objectives will be posted for each section of the course as the semester progresses.
• The site will include links to methodological resources.
• Information on chosen research topics will be posted to our site (there will be examples from Fall 2000 too).
• Exam coverage and sample questions will be posted prior to exams.
• Generic feedback on exams and other assignments will be posted. Please read this feedback before you ask questions about your personal written work because these sites may answer many of your questions.
• Announcements on the main page will alert you to any changes in the nature of or to  the schedule for the syllabus, course deadlines, or class meetings.
• More detail will be posted on each course assignment. Information will be updated throughout the semester.
• On line databases will be linked with our site.

DATES	TOPICS TO BE COVERED	ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES
August 28- September 4	Introduction Developing a Research Question Types of Variables Levels of Measurement Concepts and Measurement Hypotheses	Navigating our course WEB sites How do you select a research problem? Issues in alternative explanations What are the characteristics of a variable? What are nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio variables?
SEPTEMBER 2	LABOR DAY HOLIDAY. University closed.
September 11- September 18	Causality and Internal Validity Randomized treatment groups Experiments  Quasi-Experiments Threats to Internal Validity Experimental Objectivity	Reliability, Internal Validity, External Validity, and Construct Validity Causal rules in nonexperimental designs What makes an experiment? How do experiments differ from "quasi" experiments? Internal validity and study design
SEPTEMBER 11	ASSIGNMENT 1 DUE	RESEARCH PROBLEM  STATEMENT
SEPTEMBER 18	THE "MILGRAM VIDEO "OBEDIENCE	An Experimental Example
FRIDAY NOON SEPTEMBER 20 MY MAILBOX	ASSIGNMENT 2 DUE	OBSERVE DUE DATE! NO EXCEPTIONS (A) RESEARCH HYPOTHESES EXERCISE (B) BRIEF EXPERIMENT CRITIQUE EXERCISE
September 25	External Validity and Generalizing Introduction to Survey Research	Types of Probability and Nonprobability samples Type of Surveys Question Construction Interviewer Training
OCTOBER 2	"Catch up" and EXAM REVIEW              EXAM ONE	EXAM ONE COVERS MATERIAL THROUGH SEPTEMBER 25
October 9- October 16	More on Survey Research Probability and Non-Probability     Samples Questionnaire Design Interviewing Focus on Focus Groups	There will be special linked lectures associated with each of these topics.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 23	ASSIGNMENT 3 DUE BY CLASS	(A) QUESTION DESIGN (B) BRIEF SURVEY RESEARCH CRITIQUE
October 23- October 30	A "Whirlwind tour" of less structured studies: Ethnographies Studies, Historical     Research,Content Analysis, "Gleaning"	Generic differences between more and less structured research Terms & comparisons
OCTOBER 27	DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME ENDS	Set your clocks back one hour.  One more hour's sleep!
NOVEMBER 11	VETERAN'S DAY. University closed.
November 13- November 20	Research Resources on the Internet: Searching, Accessing, On-line analysis	Learn about archives and databases.  Problems to anticipate with databases.  Where to hunt for databases.  Lots of links to databases you may be able to use.
NOVEMBER 13	"Catch up" and EXAM REVIEW EXAM TWO	EXAM COVERS THROUGH SURVEY RESEARCH AND FOCUS GROUPS
NOVEMBER 20	ASSIGNMENT 4 DUE BY CLASS	QUALITATIVE DESIGN CRITIQUE
NOVEMBER 27	NO CLASS	HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
December 4	The Educated Consumer Last day of class. "Catch up" and EXAM REVIEW
DECEMBER 4	ASSIGNMENT 5 DUE BY CLASS	ONLINE DATABASE ASSIGMENT
DECEMBER 11	Scheduled Final Exam 5:30-7:30 P.M.	EXAM THREE

A LECTURE (AND ASSOCIATED MATERIALS) WILL BE LINKED WITH EACH TOPIC AS THE SEMESTER PROGRESSES.

SPECIFIC COURSE OBJECTIVES WILL ALSO BE PRESENTED WITH EACH TOPIC AS THE SEMESTER PROGRESSES.
 

DETAILED SCHEDULE OF EDF 5481  READINGS AND ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES  HERE!

This page created with Netscape Composer
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Under construction with more to come as the semester progresses.
Your patience is appreciated.
Susan Carol Losh September 1  2002.

Proud to announce that our course's WEB pages are archived as a resource to date in: The University of British Columbia Research Methods Resources on the WWW Indiana University's Methods Recommendations The SySurvey White Papers, London, England Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research, supported by The International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication The New School for Social Research DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR EVALUATORS AND we were a top pick on the Methods list_serv in Fall 2002 as a recommended resource for novices teaching a course in Methods for the very first time!