new perspectives on educational research and practice: embedding collaborative research in graduate...
TRANSCRIPT
New Perspectives on Educational Research and Practice:
Embedding Collaborative Research in Graduate Education
Jim Levin
Department of Educational Psychology
College of Education
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Educational crisis
• What to do?
• An important step that higher education can take is to conduct first-rate research on educational practice and how to improve it
One important goal of education
• To support the acquisition of expertise in many different areas
What is the nature of educational expertise?
What is the nature of expertise?
• Studies of expertise
• What’s the difference between an expert and a novice?
Mental models of the Web
• Survey study: “What is your mental model of the Web?”
• Novices with the web: 18 unique responses (from 44 subjects)
• Experts with the web: 27 unique responses (from 38 of the same subjects)(Levin, Stuve, & Jacobson, 1999)
Mental Models of the Web
• Case studies of 10 people (2 novices, 4 intermediate, 4 experts)
• Novices had single models of the Web
• Experts had several models and chose which model to use depending on the task
An expert is…
a person
• with multiple coordinated representations of a subject area
and
• with the meta-knowledge of when to use which representation and when to switch.
Representational Toolkit Framework for Expertise
• Experts have a set of representational tools, and know which tool to use for which task and when to switch from one tool to another.
Methodological debate among carpenters?
• Which is the best tool,
the hammer or the saw?
What’s your goal?
• Do you have two pieces of wood and a nail and want to fasten them together?
or
• Do you have one piece of wood and a line along which you’d like them separated?
Educational research methodological debates
• Which are the best methodologies, quantitative or qualitative?
Educational research expertise
• Research methodology toolkit framework
• The power of multiplicity - bringing multiple coordinated research approaches to bear on educational problems
• Multiple coordinated methodologies
Educational expertise
• Multiplicity of educational approaches to support to acquisition of multiple coordinated representations
How to support educational research expertise?
• New interactional frameworks
• Collaborative work across disciplines
• Integration of research and teaching; research and learning
Examples from two programs at Illinois
• CTER: Curriculum, Technology, & Education Reform Online Masters of Education
• TSE: Technology Studies in Education graduate specialization (for doctoral and masters students)
CTER: Curriculum, Technology, & Education Reform Online Masters
• Studies of CTER– Broad survey research of all CTER students– Focused case studies of selected CTER students
• CTER student activities: collaborative frameworks involving students in activities that have an impact beyond the (virtual) walls of the class
CTER White Papers
• Educational policy research with an impact beyond the class, the program, the university.
• Seven areas of expertise
• Three frameworks for involving students in the research, across three separate classes and three different groups of students
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/
White Paper topics
• Access• Credibility & Web Evaluation• Free Speech vs. Censorship• Privacy• Commercialism• Intellectual Property, Copyright, & Plagiarism• Computer Crime & Technology Misuse
Original White Papers
• Seven groups in a course on “Ethical and Policy Issues in Information Technologies”, Spring 1999 (Burbules & Bruce) as a major project.
Updated CTER White Papers (2002)
• Seven groups, each spending several days reading a white paper, identifying broken links, and either fixing or removing them, as a minor project in a course on “Computer Uses in Education” (Levin)
White Paper Addenda (2002)
• Seven groups, each creating an addendum to one of the White Papers as a major project in “Ethical and Policy Issues in Information Technologies” (Burbules)
CTER White Paper evaluation
• Quantitative: accesses in January over the past 5 years (in Jan 03 over 23,000 accesses)
First posted Revised
CTER White Paper Evaluation
• Qualitative– Comments from the CTER students– Comments from others outside Illinois
• Net-happenings
• Classroom Connect
• National Science Digital Library Report
Technology Studies in Education (TSE)
• Graduate specialization, for doctoral and masters graduate students; for on-campus and on-line students
Early Childhood Technology Mentorships
TSE Challenge evaluation
• Spring 2002:pilot studies (process data, in-depth interviews afterwards)
• Spring 2003: ongoing formative evaluations
Summary
• An expert has multiple coordinated representations.– An expert educational researcher– An expert educator
• It is important to explore new research-based approaches for supporting the acquisition of expertise in educational research and practice, using new collaborative frameworks.
