Unit rationale, description and aim
A defining characteristic of the modern-day educational professional is not merely specialised content knowledge, but also the ability to draw upon evidence to revise that knowledge and to make informed and ethical decisions. Being able to understand and utilise research enables educational professionals and school leaders to enhance and innovate educational approaches, practices and processes to enhance opportunities for both staff and students.
This unit is designed to provide students with an introductory understanding of various approaches to undertaking educational research and how educational research projects are designed and conducted. The unit provides a foundation for further studies in educational research by presenting students with a structured sequence of modules that cover broad research approaches such as quantitative, mixed-methods and qualitative methodologies while also encouraging students to be critical consumers of different forms of data and research findings.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Discuss advanced knowledge of key research princip...
Learning Outcome 01
Identify, analyse, and synthesise quality educatio...
Learning Outcome 02
Evaluate various methodological traditions and sch...
Learning Outcome 03
Design a feasible applied research project.
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
Module 1. Foundations of Educational Research
- Principles guiding research within the discipline of education
- Philosophical foundations of educational research
- Ethics in educational research
- The role of theory
- An introduction to qualitative data analysis, triangulation
- An introduction to quantitative data analysis and understanding significance
Module 2. Methodological designs and approaches
- Selection of Quantitative and Qualitative Research approaches
- Mixed Methods; Participatory/Action Research; Policy and Discourse Analysis
- Survey research; Correlational research; Experimental research; Principles of sampling
- Principals of participant selection/ researcher positioning; Data generation, selection, analysis and interpretation
Module 3 Qualitative research approaches and data analysis
- Methodologies (Action research, Case study, Ethnography, Phenomenology, Narrative enquiry, Discourse-based approaches; Grounded Theory)
- Qualitative research Methods/generating records and recordings (Interviews, focus groups, photo and video elicitation, field notes, observation, participants’ documents, survey, record keeping)
- Qualitative Data Analysis (Content Analysis, Narrative analysis, Discourse Analysis, Thematic Analysis, Grounded Theory)
- Coding (with and without software).
- Generating evidence (e.g. transcripts, vignettes, narrative accounts).
Module 4 Quantitative approaches and data analysis
- Descriptive statistics (Central tendency, dispersion, graphical representation)
- Hypothesis testing (Probability, t-tests, ANOVA)
- Correlation and regression (Models, assumptions)
- Using statistical software, data cleaning, analysis, interpretation and presenting results
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for students to demonstrate achievement of each of the learning outcomes. In addition, the tasks represent an opportunity to align with the needs of students and their professional and research contexts. Assessment one is based on an initial scan of the educational research literature related to a core topic or theme and provides an opportunity to examine how real-life examples of research projects have been designed and their findings published. Assessment two builds on this by requiring the data analysis and interpretation of a hypothetical case study based on an educational workplace or school setting. Combined this sequence of assessment tasks provides students with key skills and knowledge related to research design and practice and therefore serves as a foundation for higher degree studies.
In order to pass this unit, students are required to demonstrate achievement of the unit learning outcomes by submitting all assessment tasks and obtaining a combined final mark of at least 50 per cent.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Written Task A critical analy...
Assessment Task 1: Written Task
A critical analysis of the research methods used in five high-quality peer-reviewed articles related to a core educational theme or topic.
50%
Assessment Task 2 : Written Task A report that&n...
Assessment Task 2: Written Task
A report that presents evidence-based recommendations for a specific educational issue, using either supplied/secondary data or relevant peer-reviewed literature as the primary source of evidence. The report should include a rationale for the recommendations and outline how further inquiry or investigation might address the problem.
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit is offered in multimode and uses an active learning approach to support students in the development of knowledge, skills, and critical insights related to a wide range of research methods. Students are introduced to the key principles of research design through a combination of lectures, online tutorials, and scholarly literature. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as reading, reflection, online discussion, webinars, case studies podcasts, workshops, self-directed learning tasks and assignments.
This unit has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total.