the difficulty in discussing new courses and other issues is that ...
academe is a compartment system. most institutions have what is labelled as
general education ... so that, it is assumed that it is GOOD for an
undergraduate to have some from the science compartment, some from the
quantitative compartment, some from the humanities compartment, so on and
so forth. in many cases, this work is done before one declares the major.
BUT, when we get to the major, we find more compartments ... in fact, more
specific compartments ... in psychology for example, there is the
personality compartment, motivation compartment, learning compartment, and
so on
then folks who are courageous might actually move to the graduate level
and, guess what? MORE COMPARTMENTS AND MORE SPECIFICITY within each ... we
have educational psychology and, there is the statistics compartment, the
measurement compartment, cognitive learning compartment, and so on.
this is how we have structured ourselves ... and this is how we act. and we
cannot break out of that mold.
in the area of research, the ideal approach would be to start off a cohort
group ... and, begin real simple. say ... we design a very VERY simple
survey ... a few demographics ... do some piloting to see that it makes
sense to takers ... then begin to talk about how we might work with the
data once we get some ... we write up what we did, what we found, and
limitations to what has transpired
then, we move up a notch ... perhaps work on a scale of some sort ... like
an attitude scale ... work on the notion of developing items to measure
some underlying construct ... actually construct some items ... do some
pilot work ... see what happens ... and introduce some notions of
reliability ... what it is ... how it is assessed ... how we can improve it
...
and perhaps bring in some notions of validation too ... how scores on this
measure might relate to other variables of interest ... we offer up some
hypotheses about what should be related to what ... and when see gather
some data ... we again come back to how we might handle the data ...
perhaps bringing in the notion of correlation ... simple regression ....
and the like
and we write up the results ... say what we did ... how we handled the data
... what the problems were ... and try to summarize what we found
then, we might turn to a simple experimental situation ... where we think
of some useful independent variable to explore and manipulate ... talk
about how do design and implement such a study ... how we recruit and
assign Ss to conditions ... collect data .. and then approach how we might
handle data of this sort ... maybe anova gets some air time ... then we
write up the results ... say what we did ... tell what problems we ran into
... and summarize what we found
in the long run, over several semesters ... we build up a good basket of
skills THROUGH EXPERIENCING the acts ... we learn by doing ... discussing
... summarizing ... and then moving up the ladder of complexity
but, this approach ... is almost impossible to implement within standard
university settings ... whether it be for general education ... for work in
the major ... or for graduate study BECAUSE ... our instruction and methods
have been SO COMPARTMENTALIZED ... and usually, faculty are only really
competent to teach in one maybe two of these subdivisions ...
the only practical way to do this would be for ONE entire department ...
that has complete control over THEIR say 200 students ... could revamp what
they do and what their students take ...
but, this is a pipe dream ... and it is a super pipe dream if you happen to
be a department that is expected to provide overall SERVICE COURSES ... for
those outside of your OWN group of students
so, back to the main issue ... trying to have a survey course ... in whatever
such approaches cover the water ... FAST .... with no depth ... and that
seems to be the way programs want it nowadays ... especially when a student
ventures outside of his or her COMPARTMENT ...
so, do i think that a book or course can be designed in a way that will
focus on READING AND INTERPRETING articles and research reports? well, sure
... but, if the students don't have the PREREQUISITE SKILLS in analysis,
measurement, design, etc. ... then, it is bound to be a watered down and
rather unsuccessful experience ... and ultimately, does NOT serve the
student well
_________________________________________________________
dennis roberts, educational psychology, penn state university
208 cedar, AC 8148632401, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm
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