Education 724.01-.17: Research Methods for Secondary Education

Topic Outline

Nature of Educational Research
	 Curriculum Research
		Curriculum development and evaluation
		Critical curriculum theory and research
	 Interpretive-Qualitative Research
	 Experimental-Quantitative Research
Selection of a Researchable Topic
Library and Bibliographic Research
	 Locating relevant sources: CUNY+, ERIC, Databases, Internet
	 Evaluating relevant sources
	 Critical review and synthesis
Curriculum Development and Documentation
	 The Curriculum Development Process
	 Documenting a Curriculum
	 Evaluating a Curriculum
Interpretive Research: Data Production
	History of Qualitative-Interpretive Research
	Ethnographic methods; historical methods
	   Interview and survey protocols
	   Ethical issues
	   Attitude inventories
	   Documents and Media as data
Interpretive Research: Data Analysis
	 Quantitative descriptions
	 Content analysis and presentation
	 Likert scale analysis
	 Discourse analysis, semiotic methods
Experimental Research and Statistical Analysis
	History of Scientific Experimental Research
	Scientific methods; natural and applied disciplines
	Social science methods and Education research
	   Experimental design and causal explanation
	   Collecting quantitative data; measures
	   Descriptive statistical analysis
	   Inferential statistical analysis
	   The Logic of Statistical Significance
Critical Curriculum Research
Writing Research Reports
The Genre of the Research Paper: Reading and Writing
Critical Perspectives on the Research Process 
Alternative Approaches to Research: The Postmodern Experiment
Research and Program Evaluation in Education
Policy Research