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Research and Analysis I (407-1-20)

Instructors

Melanie Kay Woodward

Andrew Jon Hirshman

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall 303: Tues 6:00PM - 7:20PM

Overview of class

Teaching and education are complex, intellectual, and iterative endeavors. Skilled educators continually take experiences from the field in the form of observations, curiosities, and challenges to inform structured inquiry—with the purpose of improving conceptual and pedagogical understandings for themselves and their students. MSED 407-1 & 407-2 are grounded in a model of action research. In our view, action research is not distinct from the work of teaching and educating, rather when done well it drives the work of teaching and learning. Data we use in action research is precisely that which we encounter in our educational settings on a daily basis—we are responsible for mining and learning from them. As a result of these courses you will not only have designed and conducted action research— your Master's Project —but more importantly, you will have a set of stances and tools to embark on a career as an educator scholar who continues to notice various aspects of teaching and learning, ask important questions, and engage in meaningful, guided examinations of practice to evolve learning.

The goal of MSED 407-1 and 407-2 is to help you become informed educators who are able to turn curiosities and challenges from your settings into potential areas of structured reflection and research. The basis of the course is the model of action research — of studying our own settings around questions we are passionate about, for the purpose of improving our students and colleagues learning as well as our own practice. Action research is not distinct from the work of teaching, rather the data we use in action research is precisely that which we encounter in our educational settings daily. As a result of these courses you will not only have conducted action research— your Master's Project —more importantly, you will have the tools to embark on a career as an educator scholar who continues to ask important questions and embark on meaningful, systematic examinations of teaching and learning in your selected setting.

During MSED 407-1, you chose a question that was of personal importance to you. You reviewed relevant literature related to this question, you identified different types of classroom data to investigate this question. During MSED 407, we will focus on techniques for analyzing the data that you have collected, revisit the literature surrounding our project, and consider how the work will influence your teaching and learning moving forward. In addition to meeting as a whole class, a central component of the 407-1 and 407-2 course sequence is working in coaching groups.

Registration Requirements

This course will meet every-other week on the following dates: 10/1/24, 10/15/24, 10/29/24, 11/12/24, and 12/3/24.

Class Attributes

Attendance at 1st class mandatory