ED 635 Action Research

Unit 1: Introduction

Unit overview

This unit will serve as an overview for our entire course. It reviews the two major camps of research - quantitative and qualitative - and explores several research genres or designs associated with each. Spend some time here, complete the associated activity, and make sure you have the language and ideas down before you move on.

Moodle discussion

1. Use the first Moodle discussion forum to post questions to your classmates about the assignment associated with this unit. For example, just what are the weaknesses or limitations of a causal-comparative research design?

Unit content

The first unit begins with a broad overview of the two major camps in research — those belonging to the quantitative tradition and those belonging to the qualitative tradition. There are fundamental differences between these two camps that separate them in terms of their view of the world, methods of inquiry, tools, analysis, sought outcome… basically everything. After the overview, we’ll take the time to explore 4 more specific types of research within each of these two broad camps. By the end of the unit, you should have a decent perspective on the basic landscape of educational research.

Click here to download the first reading which is the introductory chapter from a popular educational research methods textbook. Read the chapter and then click here to download a little grid - print it off and fill in the chart in ways that summarizes the chapter content. You could, of course, make your own grid too... in fact, that might be easier. I'll post an answer key in about two weeks so you can kind of check yourself.