EDCI (581) 681 – Winter 2015 (Jan 05 – Mar 30)

Advanced Research Methods (Research Methodologies In Education)

Wolff-Michael Roth

 

Purpose

The purpose of this course is to extend what you already know (rather than merely re-doing what you already know and are familiar with). Thus, this course
   (a) will familiarize students with a variety of analytic techniques applied to communication (because all data involve communication); and
   (b) provide students with the opportunity to produce a (near) publishable quality paper on a specified topic (one of two choices).

 

Philosophy

All research involving human beings involves communication. Being able to analyze communication therefore is a primary issue in the process of becoming a research. It is through your own analyses that you will see the relevance of the descriptions found in the textbook. I believe – with Vygotsky – that all higher psychological functions are social relations first. What you will know about analysis and writing will be a relation between us. Throughout this course, we engage in two types of activities:

  1. reading and talking (about) major analytic methods and
  2. learning to use these methods by producing an analysis of (near) publishable quality.

These two activities stand in a dialectical and reflexive relation that constitutes each of the two.

 

Process

In this course, we will read and discuss the course text, which exemplifies major approaches to the analysis of communication. We will utilize these approaches in the production of analyses. For each meeting, students will read assigned chapters from the textbook. From the beginning, students will work toward producing the analysis that will constitute their major assignment.

 

Tentative Outline

A tentative outline is going to be available online, easily reachable from my home page (www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth). The outline may be modified to meet specific and changing needs of the students and instructor. Specific and detailed lesson outlines and additional information will be made in an ongoing manner. [Tentative and Developing Outline]. All materials will be made available electronically. There will be no hand-outs.

 

Textbook and Readings

The text for this course is Roth, W.-M and Hsu, P-L., Analyzing Communication (Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2010). (ISBN 978-94-6091-089-0 paperback). The students will do additional readings that are required as theoretical background in the production of their course assignment.

 

Participation

There are four types of participation:

  1. students willread the assigned chapters from the textbook;
  2. the students actively contribute to the class discussions;
  3. the students will continuously engage in data analysis and cumulative (process) writing; students will be presenting from their continuing analysis. (Students may ask for feedback throughout the course to assure students will be able to produce a text of the highest quality possible;
  4. from the process writing, students will produce a major assignment in which they present their analysis. The assignment text that the student submits must reflect the precise journal and audience for which the analysis is intended.

 

Course Grade

The course grade is made up of class participation (30% = 15% from participation in discussions + 15% presenting ongoing results of your analyses) -- as measured by the quality of the students' comments to the readings that they are requested to make during each lesson -- and major assignment (70%) (see below).

 

Appointments

I hold electronic office. You reach me at my regular email (mroth at uvic dot ca). You may also arrange for a Skype video-mediated meeting, which means you do not even have to leave where you are working at the moment.

 

Assignment Resources

Assignment Resources

Students are to find background readings that contextualize their own particular analysis. For example, a student who does a feminist analysis of the data sources provided will contextualize her/his analysis in the appropriate feminist (sociological, cultural studies) literature.

Assignment Description

In this assignment, you show the extent to which you have become competent in data analysis and in the presentation of the analysis in the context of a scholarly text (introduction, analysis, discussion, conclusion). The text should have the structure of an article for a specific journal (a copy of an article of the journal that you emulate must be submitted as well. The purpose of this assignment is to write a text that would make a peer-reviewed research article in a specified journal. The length of the resulting text is upwards of 6,000 words. Your text provides evidence that you have read additional materials, which you reference appropriately in the style of the journal you are targeting. In general, your paper should have all the parts that a typical article in that journal has; and it should show evidence that you have developed competence in writing in the scholarly genre. There are two (2) options. You choose one (1) for your assignment.

OPTION 1

Problematic-----Many people are turned off from schooling. But they begin to be interested in developing new competencies by reading online materials. Thus, online materials not only address themselves to existing audiences but also allow new audiences to become interested.
Task----- Your task is to collect 1 months worth of a regular feature of an online news paper or journal in an area of your interest (e.g., I once did this for the science and technology column of the BBC online news). Conduct an appropriate analysis of content and structure of this (regular column) and write a paper of (near-) publishing quality for possible submission to a relevant journal (in your area).
Here some specifications of your paper, which should

  1. address its audience in style, discourse, etc.;
  2. is structured like the papers in the journal of your choice (your final submission should have 1 copy of the article), containing introduction and statement of the problem, background, description of method (including selection of articles etc.);
  3. provides a full analysis of the selection of features;
  4. has in-text references and reference section in the style of the journal (most often, this will be APA);
  5. includes an Appendix in which all articles included in the analysis are listed with full citation of the webpages.

Sample articles you may consult as to how such studies may be set up are:

  1. (a) Roth, W.-M., & Friesen, N. (2014). Nacherzeugung, Nachverstehen: a phenomenological perspective on how public understanding of science changes by engaging with online media. Public Understanding of Science. DOI: 10.1177/0963662513512441 and
  2. (b) Roth, W.-M (2010). An anthropology of reading science texts in online media. Semiotica, 182, 409–442.

OPTION 2

Problematic-----Talk-in-interaction. Talk is the predominant way for conducting everyday life affairs.
Task-----Download from the internet an interview or videotape in the area of your interest. Transcribe the materials using appropriate transcription conventions (for discourse or content analysis, for analysis of relations and turn-taking). Conduct a full analysis that contributes in a novel way to your field.
Here some specifications of your paper, which should

  1. address its audience in style, discourse, etc.;
  2. is structured like the papers in the journal of your choice (your final submission should have 1 copy of the article), containing introduction and statement of the problem, background, description of method (including selection of articles etc.);
  3. provides a full analysis of the selection of features;
  4. has in-text references and reference section in the style of the journal (most often, this will be APA);
  5. includes an Appendix in which all articles included in the analysis are listed with full citation of the webpages.

Sample texts that you might want to consult for seeing how this is done:

  1. "The origins of reading: science texts," chapter 2 in Roth, W.-M., Goulart, M. I. M., & Plakitsi, K. (2013). Science during early childhood: A cultural-historical perspective. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. (Available from Springer linke through library)
  2. "The genesis of conceptual categories," chapter 3 in Roth, W.-M., Goulart, M. I. M., & Plakitsi, K. (2013). Science during early childhood: A cultural-historical perspective. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. (Available from Springer linke through library)

 

Evaluation Criteria

Any creative work is inherently difficult to evaluate. I know from the peer review process that an article may be rejected by one (or more) reviewer and be unconditionally accepted or accepted with minor revisions by another (or more) reviewers. Above all, an article has to be convincing and has to have a logical structure. A sample assignment that received an A+ can be found [here]. The articles by N.I. McRae (2009), L.J. Starr (2009), and V.M. Collyer (2009) also are the results of a course assignment (EDCI 600).

  1. Collyer, V.M. (2009). Influence of interlocutor/reader on utterance in reflective writing and interview. Cultural Studies of Science Education. DOI:10.1007/s11422-009-9234-1
  2. McRae, N.I. (2009). Linking experiences with emotions and the development of interpretive repertoires. Cultural Studies of Science Education. DOI:10.1007/s11422-009-9226-1
  3. Starr, L.J. (2009). Does anyone really know anything? An exploration of constructivist meaning and identity in the tension between scientific and relious knowledge. Cultural Studies of Science Education. DOI: 10.1007/s11422-009-9227-0

(To find those articles, click here)

A typical evaluation grid that a journal such as the Canadian Journal of Education would use looks like this:

Excellent

Very Good

Good

Poor

1. Contribution to advancement of knowledge in education

... ... ... ...

2. Originality

... ... ... ...

3. Method

... ... ... ...

   a. Central question

... ... ... ...

   b. Theoretical framework

... ... ... ...

   c. Data analysis

... ... ... ...

   d. Interpretation

... ... ... ...

   e. Substantiation

... ... ... ...

4. Structure of the argument

... ... ... ...

5. Conclusion

... ... ... ...

6. References (APA 5th style)

... ... ... ...

Submission

Your assignment is due April 7, 2015, that is, the week after class ends. The assignment is to be submitted electronically to my email (mroth at uvic dot ca) in PDF, DOC or DOCX (Word) format. Do not forget to send transcriptions and data sources, and link to video, if applicable.