Education 412X
Quality and Vision in Education Research
Instructors: Kenji Hakuta and Marshall Smith
Spring Quarter, 2000
Mondays, 3:15 - 5:05
This advanced seminar will address the following questions: What guides priorities and attention of the field? What defines quality research in the field of education? How does the field address standard scientific concepts such as generalizability, replicability, and scale? How strategic is the field in the management of its financial and human resources? What is the relationship between the social/behavioral sciences and education research? Who pays attention to educational research? Readings will draw from various recent and current attempts to establish priorities, quality standards, and an infrastructure for improving education research. The first part of the course will involve discussions of these questions around readings. The second part of the course will involve group and individual projects that will attempt to design a research agenda to study the impact of technology on teaching and learning, schools, and the education system.
This page last updated 4/18/00
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April 3
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Introductory Lecture and Discussion: Key Concepts in Research Planning. |
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April 10
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Old Ideas about Scientific Progress Reading: Platt, J., Eisner, E., Tyack, D. Background: Kuhn, T., Phillips & Burbules Assignment: Take a research field that you are familiar with. Assess that field using criteria that Platt, Eisner and Tyack use to define how fields of research progress and accumulate knowledge, and write a brief (1-3 page) set of notes for class. |
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April 17
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Attempts at Synthesis Reading: Snow, Burns & Griffin, (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Assignment: [see change to assignment under "Attempts at Quality" below; this can be rolled into that assignment] Snow's work presents an important example of how research synthesis can take place even in a controversial field. Find a research synthesis and/or attempt at agenda setting in a field of your chosing, and write two pages on its quality. Be prepared to present this in class. |
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April 24
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No Class: AERA. Note: we will have a double-sesssion class on May 1 as make-up. |
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May 1 Double Session |
Part 1: Attempts at Focus Readings: National Academy of Education (Brown & Greeno); National Academy of Sciences (Wigdor). Assignment: These documents operate under the assumption that focusing research on a small number of use-inspired problems would bring great benefits to the field of education research more generally. Write down your notes on the assumptions contained in these documents, and be prepared to debate their credibility. Part 2: Attempts at Quality Readings: Lagemann and Shulman. Assignment: Take any chapter from this book, or take an existing research synthesis or agenda-setting effort (such as Snow or the recently-released National Reading Panel report); be prepared to make a short presentation in class on how it judges quality of the research in the area. If you were to set up a peer review process to evaluate research proposals in this area, what would your instructions be to this review panel? Food: We'll have pizza delivered to the class at 5:30. |
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May 8
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Impact of Technology on Education Readings: Shaw (PCAST), others. Assignment: Come to class prepared with a rough cut at a promising line of research in technology and education. |
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May 15
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Randomized Experiment in Education Readings: Brookings Press Forum: Can We Make Education Policy on the Basis of Evidence? |
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May 22
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Work on Course Project |
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May 29
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No class - Memorial Day |
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June 2 (Friday)
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Course Projects Due |
Resources
August, D. & Hakuta, K. (1997). Improving schooling for language-minority children: A research agenda. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Berliner, D. & Calfee, R. (eds.). Handbook of educational psychology. New York: Macmillan.
Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Brookings Press Forum: Can We Make Education Policy on the Basis of Evidence? Dec. 8, 1999, Brookings Institution.
Eisner, E.
Kaestle, C.
Kirst, M. & Ravitch, D. (1991). Research and the renewal of education: A report from the National Academy of Education.
*Kuhn, T. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press.
*Lagemann, E. C. & Shulman, L. (Eds.) (1999). Issues in education research: Problems and possibilities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Murnane, R. & Nelson, R. (1984). Production and innovation when techniques are tacit: The case of education. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations, 5, 353-373.
National Reading Panel, Final Report, NICHD.
Phillips, D. C. & Burbules, N. C. (in press) Postpositivism and Educational Research. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield
Platt, J.
*Snow, C., Burns, S. & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
*Stokes, D. E. (1997). Pasteur’s quadrant: Basic science and technological innovation. Washington, DC: Brookings.
Tyack, D. Ways of Seeing, Harvard Educational Review, 46(3), August 1976, pp.335-389.
U. S. Dept. of Education (1988). Making the case: Evidence of program effectiveness in schools and classrooms.
Vinoskis, M.
*on reserve at Cubberley Education Library