Shaping up my research ideas.

We are now on unit 2 of the module and it is time to really shapen up our research ideas. I don't know if everyone else has this problem too but the more I think about an idea for my research, the more new ideas pop into my head. At the moment my rough list looks like this:

• An evaluation of blended and online education in secondary schools.
• A comparison of the use of blended and online education in higher education in North-Rhine Westphalia.
• A concept for BYOD m-learning at the Fachhochschule Südwestfalen.
• A concept for the integration of online education with a new textbook.
• Development of a blended learning concept for students learning with franchise partners.

 Keith's initial advice was to consider which topic interested me most. They are, of course, all interesting, otherwise I wouldn't have put them on my list. Looking at them  logically though, I think it is possible to see some pros and cons in each one:

External

1. An evaluation of blended and online education in secondary schools.

This topic relies on the cooperation and permission of secondary schools to do the research. Just obtaining this permission could take a long time which might be beyond that available for a Masters dissertation. Education in Germany is also not a federal issue which means each state can do (more or less) what it wants, this would therefore also limit the generalisability of the results.  In addition, the German secondary school system includes five different school forms. Including all five in the study in any sort of representative way would also surely exhaust both the time and manpower available.It would therefore seem necessary to restrict the research to just one school form.

On the other hand, as I have a child who is going to start secondary school next year I am very interested in exploring the blended and online education offered in schools. If it is not possible to do this as my dissertation next year I will get the chance to experience it first-hand as a parent.

2.  A comparison of the use of blended and online education in higher education in North-Rhine Westphalia.

This topic is similar to number one with the distinction that higher education in North-Rhine Westphalia is only split between two forms - universities and universities of applied sciences. Nevertheless finding the correct person and gaining permission to do such a study could take time and carrying out the research in addition to a fulltime job could be difficult.

On a positive note, this kind of study would allow me to compile best practice examples from the institutions involved. It could also supply useful examples of what to do and what not to do in order to improve our own system.

Internal

The remaining three ideas all fit together in relation to projects that can be completed within my own institution.

3.  A concept for BYOD m-learning at the Fachhochschule Südwestfalen.

At the moment the Fachhochschule Südwestfalen where I teach does not have a written policy on either e-learning or m-learning. This project would be a chance to address that by producing a concept for m-learning using the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) method. As I have already completed a couple of smaller projects within the MSc BOE program in this area, doing more work on m-learning would be a natural progression.

On a less positive note, although many institutions now have policies on e-learning I am not sure how many have extended that to m-learning so it may be that there is little existing research to draw on.

4.  A concept for the integration of online education with a new textbook.

This idea is a project which I am already involved in although it is still just at the planning stage. This means that the research would be work-related and valuable to my job as well as my studies. We use our own textbooks at the Fachhochschule and I have just been given a contract to update the existing book on Technical English written by myself and an ex-colleague. It is the wish of the professors in charge that as a pilot project three books which are being revised should include links to additional content online. My idea would be to include QR-codes at the appropriate points in the book which wold link to mobile-friendly resources, such as audio files, videos, apps or quizzes.

The positive aspect of this project is that I am already involved in it and the outcome (in the form of the new book) will benefit my students directly.

Without having done much background reading I fear a negative aspect could be finding enough basic research on this topic to provide a foundation for my own work.

5.    Development of a blended learning concept for students learning with franchise partners.

This is an idea which I also touched on in a previous module.  As well as our normal, fulltime students on campus, we also indirectly offer the opportunity to study elsewhere through franchise partners. These students live in a "parallel world" to the regular students which includes their lack of access to the e-learning resources  provided by the Fachhochschule. The idea behind this project would therefore be to create a blended learning concept for use by the franchise partners in their own institutions and elearning systems.

Providing a concept for an entire degree programme would surely be outwith the capabilities of a Masters dissertation. It is also unclear how happy, or unhappy, the partners might be about someone from "head office" coming to them with a new teaching concept.

The positive aspects of this project would be the creation of a (workable) blended learning concept for the partners as well as advice on implemtation.

Conclusions

Having reflected on my ideas before and during the writing of this post, I can say that topics 3 and 4 now interest me the most and seem most doable. I look forward to my discussion with Keith and any comments from other course members about which idea they find best. In the meantime, I will carry on with the latest tutorials and hope they help me to make my ideas even more concrete.

Key concepts in educational research.

The first readings and tutorials in this unit introduced the central concepts of ontology, epistemology, methodology and methods. In my Bachelor studies I had at least two, if not three, modules on research methods and I am certain that the words ontology and epistemology were never even mentioned. The small scale research I did then, and have also done so far in this degree, was therefore carried out without knowingly considering the philosophocal viewpoints I was taking in constructing and carrying out my research.

Having now watched the tutorials and read the texts it is clear that these issues are important and have an impact on what you research, how you research and how you interpret your results. The definitions I will be building my work on for the rest of this module can be summarised as:

Ontology - the study of reality or being.

Epistemology - the study of knowledge. 

Methodology - a combination of techniques used to research something.

Methods - an individual technique for data collection or analysis. 

The question now is, what do these concepts have to do with educational research?

Ontology

For the researcher an ontology is how you view the world. This includes ideas about what exists, how it is made up and how different parts interact. Your personal ontology will therefore obviously influence what you choose to research and the questions you choose to ask. For example, if in your ontology there is one "true" reality shared by everyone then quantitative, empirical research is all you will need to understand society as a whole. If, on the other hand, you believe that every individual creates their own reality then qualitative methods such as interviews will be required which allow each subject to describe their own personal reality.

Epistemology

As the study of knowledge your epistemological viewpoint will influence both what you already know, or think you know, and what you think you will be able to find out. Epistemology covers issues relating to ideas such as the validity of knowledge and the sources of knowledge. These viewpoints have been defined by theorists on a scale with Positivism at one end of the scale and Constructionism at the opposite end. A postivist would for example believe that there is one reality external to us which we can understand through observation. Also known as the scientific method, this knowledge is gained through methods such as experimentation and statistical analysis.

The constructivist viewpoint holds that each individual constructs their own reality and it is therefore not possible to define one all-encompassing theory. Constructivist research therefore concentrates on individuals and on recording their own personal opinions and attitudes to an event.     

Methodology

How you carry out your research is obviously influenced by your view of the world and the nature of knowledge. If you are a positivist and believe in one true reality then you will be interested in received as much statistical data as possible which confirms your hypothesis. Typical tools for this are experiments, questionnaires and statistical analysis. A constructivist is more interested in individuals and will therefore favour instruments like participant observation and diaries. A combination of these different methods will form the methodology of your research.

Methods

The methods you choose in your research will influence the type and amount of data you receive as well as the time it will take to collate and analyse it. The statistical methods favoured by positivists, such as experiments and questionnaires, can be fast and economical but do not offer in-depth knowledge. In comparison, constructivist tools like unstructured interviews, and observation can be time-consuming and expensive.   Methods from both ends of the epistemological spectrum are however sometimes combined in an attempt to get the best of both worlds.

Now that these concepts and their importance in educational research have been clarified it is time to move on to consider epistemology in more detail. That will be the topic of my next post. 

Sources

Chinn, C. (2009) Epistemological beliefs,
http://www.education.com/reference/article/epistemological-beliefs/ [accessed 20/10/2012].

Darlaston-Jones, D. (2007) Making connections: The relationship between epistemology and research methods. in The Australian Community Psychologist, Volume 19 No 1 May 2007.

Freimuth, H. (2009) Educational research: An introduction to basic concepts and terminology,
http://www.education.com/reference/article/epistemological-beliefs/ [accessed 4/10/2012].

Mack, L. (2010) The philosophical underpinnings of educational research,
http://r-cube.ritsumei.ac.jp/bitstream/10367/1887/1/1-Polyglossia19_The Philosophical Underpinnings of Educational Research.pdf [accessed 20/10/2012].

Epistemology versus ontology.

So, just finished the first Elluminate session for the trimester and had a discussion about epistemology and ontology with Julia, Nicky and Marty. I have to admit that as I haven't done any reading yet I wasn't really sure what to make of these two concepts or what importance they will have in the coming weeks.

Now I know that epistemology relates to knowledge and understanding and asks questions like "What is knowledge?" and "How is knowledge acquired?". Ontology, or as it used to be called Metaphysics, relates to the nature of being, existence and reality. Questions examined in this field include "What can be said to exist?" and "What categories can these things that exist be placed into?". After discussing these two topics we moved on to a discussion of truth and if there is just one truth or many different "personal" truths. My own instinctive feeling is that there are of course many truths because everything sees things from their own perspective and experiences them based on their own prior experience, prejudices, stereotypes etc.

I'm not sure yet how all of this is going to have an impact on educational research but we did confirm that how you see the world will obviously affect how you conduct research: in the questions you ask, in the results that you want or expect etc etc.

I did find what looks to be a very good introductory paper on this topic by Hilda Freimuth (2009).  I'm going to read this now and see if it makes things any clearer for me.

Neil

http://www.ugr.uaeu.ac.ae/acads/ugrujournal/docs/PEER.pdf

What is educational research?

Before I begin any of the first video and reading activities I decided to reflect on what I think educational research is (or should be) before I hear all the expert opinions. I'm interested in seeing if my instincts are right or not and what differences there are between what a layperson expects and what the experts say.

My first thought is of course that educational research is research about education but obviously we can be much more specific than that. I assume that this kind of research will not be interested in how humans learn, which I suppose is more of interest to psychologists, but rather in how we try to influence learning in our roles as teachers, lecturers etc. Obviously, there is also informal education which happens outwith the confines of a set curriculum and this is surely the subject of such research too.

I think what we are really going to be interested in as educational researchers is:

What methods can we use to teach or learn?

How can we measure the success of these methods?

How can we best support different learning styles?

How can we deal with educational difficulties caused by social or economic issues such as children who are not native speakers?

How can we motivate students to learn for themselves and find the joy in learning?

I'm sure there are lots more central questions in educational research but those are the ones that spring to my mind now. Once I have watched the videos and read the articles I will come back and see how close I am to the expert opinions on educational research.

Neil  

Welcome to my Educational Research blog!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my new blog to accompany "Educational Research Methods and Practice" which is the final module of the MSc in Blended and Online Education at Edinburgh Napier University.

I will be regularly updating this blog to document my learning, allow reflection, ask questions and hopefully inspire myself and others to really think about educational research.

I haven't really done any academic research myself since my Bachelor degree many years ago but I did  some small-scale quantative research over the last year for other BOE modules. I enjoyed that so I hope I can build on that whilst trying out some new research methods. If everything goes well I will be a real research expert by the end of this module and ready to put it all into practice doing my Masters dissertation.

Comments on all posts in this blog are, of course, very welcome.

Cheers,

Neil