EDF 6481
1
University of South Florida
College of Education
Department of Educational Measurement and Research
1. Course Prefix and Number:
2. Course Title:
3. Course Prerequisites:
EDF 6481
Foundations of Educational Research
None
The College of Education CAREs
The College of Education is dedicated to the ideals of Collaboration, Academic Excellence, Research, and
Ethics/Diversity. These are key tenets in the Conceptual Framework of the College of Education.
Competence in these ideals will provide candidates in educator preparation programs with skills, knowledge,
and dispositions to be successful in the schools of today and tomorrow. For more information on the
Conceptual Framework, visit: www.coedu.usf.edu/main/qualityassurance/ncate_visit_info_materials.html
5. Required Text and Readings:
Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C. & Razavieh, A. (2002). Introduction to Research in Education (6th Edition). Fort Worth:
Harcourt Brace.
*Additional readings as assigned. **Class notes will be provided each week on Blackboard.
6. Course Purpose: The primary purpose of this course is to introduce students to the concepts, methods, and
applications of research in education. Emphasis will be placed on practical issues related to the planning,
conduct and interpretation of research and its results.
A second purpose of the course is to develop students' personal interests in research related to their particular
fields of specialty, or to research in general. To this end, a significant proportion of course effort will be
directed to individual applications in students' fields.
7. Course Objectives: Students who successfully complete all course requirements should be able to:
a. Understand the concepts, purposes and methods that are fundamental to conducting systematic inquiry.
b. Understand the major types of educational research designs.
c. Understand sampling techniques, the meaning of statistical inference, and the interpretation of statistical
tests.
d. Critique research studies in education.
e. Conceptualize and develop a research problem statement and proposed research design to address the problem
in the student's substantive field.
EDF 6481
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8. Course Outline:
Date
Week #
Topics
Readings &
Assignments
1
Course overview
[16, 17]
2
Literature Review
CH 4
Searching: Library
Resources
*Find an empirical
article
Ways of Knowing
CH 1, 2
3
Purposes and Types of
Educational Research
Types of Variables
4
Problems and Hypotheses
CH 3, 5
5
Descriptive Statistics
CH 6
6
Descriptive Statistics
(cont.)
7
Research Topics
Research Questions
*Takehome exam
distributed
Reviewing the Literature
9
Midterm Exam
11
Measurement: Reliability
and Validity
CH 8, 9
12
Measurement (Cont.)
CH 7
Sampling & Inferential
Statistics
13
Sampling and Inferential
Statistics (cont.)
14
No Class Research
Conference
15
No Class Thanksgiving
16
Experimental Designs
*Article review due
CH 10, 11, 12
Causal Comparative
Method
Correlational Designs
17
Descriptive Research
CH 13, 14, 15
Survey Research
*Research Proposals
due
Qualitative Research /
Mixed Methods
16
Final Exam
EDF 6481
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9. Criteria for Evaluation of Student Performance: Each student is expected to complete the reading
assignments in the text and any supplementary readings prior to the class session. Basic familiarity with the
material will increase learning in the classroom. In addition, each student is encouraged to complete homework
exercises whether or not the homework is collected and graded. Attendance is not mandatory but encouraged.
The final course grade will be computed as a weighted combination of (a) homework assignments, (b) article
review, (c) research proposal, and (d) examinations:
Mid-term exam
30%
Final exam
30%
Research proposal
20%
Homework
10%
Article review
10%
Criteria for Article Review: Complete an outline of the following methodological issues as they pertain to the
research article:
1. Identify the primary research question(s) being investigated.
2. Identify the variables investigated in the research and their level of measurement.
3. Identify the population of interest and the sampling procedure employed.
4. Identify the descriptive statistics reported in the research. Are these statistics appropriate and adequate to
describe the data? Why are they appropriate and adequate? If no statistics were used, describe the method
by which the data were analyzed.
5. Identify one inherent strength and one potential weakness in the study.
6. Briefly state the substantive conclusions supported by the research.
This article review is due on _______________.
For the final 20% of the course grade, students will complete a small proposal for an empirical research project.
You will not have to actually conduct the study. The following topics must be addressed in your proposal:
1.
State your research questions - these questions should include mention of the population of interest and the
variable(s) you are focusing on.
2. Importance of the study (practical or theoretical significance).
3. Summarize at least five empirical studies that relate to your research question. Your summary should include
a description of the sampling procedure, sample size, research design, instrumentation used, analyses,
results, conclusions, etc.
4. Discuss the strengths and limitations of each studies. Describe how your proposed study differs or is an
extension of such previous research.
5.
Describe the type of research design that you propose to answer your research question (e.g., qualitative,
experimental, correlational, causal-comparative).
6. Describe the number and types of participants that you propose to include in your research. Describe the
sampling procedure that you propose to employ.
7.
Identify the variables in your study and describe how you plan to measure these variables. Describe how you
plan to analyze your data. What do you expect to find?
8.
List of references formatted in APA style.
**The proposal is due on ______________
EDF 6481
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10. ADA Statement: Students with disabilities are responsible for registering with the Office of Student
Disabilities Services in order to receive special accommodations and services. Please notify the instructor
during the first week of classes if a reasonable accommodation for a disability is needed for this course. A
letter from the USF Disability Services Office must accompany this request.
11. USF Policy on Religious Observances: Students who anticipate the necessity of being absent from class
due to the observation of a major religious observance must provide notice of the date(s) to the instructor,
in writing, by the second class meeting.
12. Grading System and Criteria:
90 –
80 –
70 –
60 –
<60
100
89
79
69
A
B
C
D
F
“No grade below “C” will be accepted toward a graduate degree. This includes C minus grades.”
13. Web Portal Information: A helios account, which is the official USF e-mail account, is given to every USF
student when enrolled. Every official USF correspondence to students will be sent to the helios account.
More information about this and the USF Web Portal can be found at: http://www.acomp.usf/portal.html
14. Academic Dishonesty: More information can be found in the on-line Graduate Catalog:
(http://catalog.grad.usf.edu/2001-2003/section8.asp#academic%20conduct).
Plagiarism is defined as “literary theft” and consists of the unattributed quotation of the exact words of a
published text, or the unattributed borrowing of original ideas by paraphrase from a published text. On
written papers for which the student employs information gathered from books, articles, or oral sources,
each direct quotation, as well as ideas and facts that are not generally know to the public at large must be
attributed to its author by means of the appropriate citation procedure. Citations may be made in
footnotes or within the body of the text. Plagiarism also consists of passing off as one’s own, segments or
the total of another person’s work.
Punishment for Academic Dishonesty will depend on the seriousness of the offense and may
include receipt of an “F” with a numerical value of zero on the item submitted, and the “F” shall be
used to determine the final course grade. It is the option of the instructor to assign the student
a grade of F or FF (the latter indicating dishonesty) in the course.
Detection of Plagiarism
The University of South Florida has an account with an automated plagiarism detection service which allows
instructors to submit student assignments to be checked for plagiarism. I reserve the right to 1) request
that assignments be submitted to me as electronic files and 2) electronically submit assignments to
Turnitin.com. Assignments are compared automatically with a huge database of journal articles, web
articles, and previously submitted papers. The instructor receives a report showing exactly how a student’s
paper was plagiarized. For more information, go to www.turnitin.com and
http://www.ugs.usf.edu/catalogs/0304/adadap.htm#plagiarism.