Improving Your Serve: Consuming and using educational research in the classroom
This presentation is meant to be a general introduction and guide for classroom teachers in the thoughtful and strategic use of research to inform their practice. Downloading the PDF gives viewers access to the speaker notes.
from research? •What types of research are out there? •How do I find what I am looking for? Justin Olmanson Guiding Questions CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
•Examples of Research from each Flavor •Locating Personally Relevant Research Justin Olmanson Presentation Overview CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
Methods: the tools used in data gathering and sense making Knowledge: how we know what we know –epistemology Reality: what is out there, what exists –ontology Data: anything and everything you can use N: the # & type of research participants Objectivity: a setting aside of biases Theory: any explanation Justin Olmanson The Language of Educational Research Key Terms CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
finding out what is true Good Research simplifies teaching All Good Research = scientific method Justin Olmanson The Language of Educational Research Research Myths CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
•Examples of Research from each Flavor •Locating Personally Relevant Research Justin Olmanson Presentation Reset CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
measured, categorized and replicated. Knowledge: the right methods can be used to discover the truth/correlations, make claims and generalize. Objectivity: is possible through variable control. Data: Standardized test scores, survey results… N: the higher the better (more subjects = less error) Goal: reject null hypothesis –produce actionable results with bounded certainty parameters Justin Olmanson The Four Flavors of Research Positivism/Post-positivism CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN One reality exists and [it] is the researcher’s job to discover that reality (Guba & Lincoln 1994) One reality, knowable within probability. (Mertens 1998)
Conference 2006 Mankato MN Reality: [meaningful] reality is made up largely of people interacting in complex social contexts. Knowledge: the methods we use, and the perspective we bring, color, shape and limit the sense we can make. Objectivity: is impossible, we can merely state our biases. N: the unit of social interaction (a classroom, a family, a village) Data: field notes, interviews, video, audio… Goal: to understand how a group of people interact in specific contexts. Meanings are constructed by human beings as they engage in the world they are interpreting… We do not create meaning. We construct meaning. We have something to work with [the world and its objects]. (Crotty 2003)
Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN Reality: is shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender values (implicit & explicit). Knowledge: is colored, shaped and limited by language and power that permeate all social interactions. Objectivity: is a claim made by dominant groups. N: the unit of oppression (a classroom, a class, a society) Data: field notes, interviews, video, audio… Goal: to help people understand how language and dominant structures are used in oppressive ways. Critical Theory is suspicious of the constructed meanings that culture bequeaths to us. (Crotty 1998)
Conference 2006 Mankato MN Reality: is a problematic concept which implies and supports overly simplistic and problematic notions of things. Knowledge: is tentative, local, temporal and nebulous. Objectivity: is a construct that buckles under its own weight. N: the unit of language (an idea, a discourse, a society). Data: the language of field notes, interviews, video, texts… Goal: to remain skeptical of societal narratives, to expose fissures in thinking & knowing. Reality is ultimately unknowable; attempts to understand it subvert themselves. (Sipe & Constable 1996)
•Examples of Research from each Paradigm •Locating Personally Relevant Research Justin Olmanson Presentation Reset CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN Positivism/Post-positivism (choose one) –Ten Traits of Highly Effective Teachers (McEwan 2002 p. 89-94) –Classroom Management that Works (Marzano 2003 p. 13-17) –Classroom Instruction that Works (Marzano 2001 p. 7, 14-16) Two minutes left…
CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN Critical Theory (choose one) –The Dreamkeepers (Ladson-Billings 1994 p. 104-18 (reading)) –Social Linguistics & Literacies (Gee 1996 p. 6-11 (grammar)) –A Place to be Navajo (McCarty 2002 p. 49-53 (learning) –Deschooling Society (Illich 1970 p. 1-5 (school) Two minutes left…
•Examples of Research from each Paradigm •Locating Personally Relevant Research Justin Olmanson Presentation Reset CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
•Examples of Research from each Paradigm •Locating Personally Relevant Research Justin Olmanson Presentation Conclusion CLC Teacher Conference 2006 Mankato MN
Conference 2006 Mankato MN ~ Justin D. Olmanson IES Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of Illinois Urbana Champaign [email protected] | olmansju.tumblr.com