Qouzi CLass 600

EEC 600 is a course designed to prepare special education teachers to understand and use research to inform decision making in choosing curriculum and instructional interventions. Additionally, students will learn principles governing single-subject and action research in classroom or small group settings.

Required Materials

American Psychological Association. (2009). Concise rules of APA style. Author: Washington D.C.

Creswell, J. W. (2015). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Huff, D. (1954). How to lie with statistics. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Recommended Materials

American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Ed.). Washington D.C.: Author.

Course Goals:

1. Demonstrate the ability to critically analyze research articles to determine their relative contribution to scientific and educational practice

2. Describe the importance of controlling threats to internal and external validity in research studies

3. Identify key elements in research studies that support high internal validity.

4. Describe the importance of external validity and the limits of poor external validity on generalization of findings

5. Explain the purpose and limitations of correlational research

6. Describe the difference between parametric and non-parametric tests of statistical significance

7. Recognize and describe elements of experimental group and single-subject research.

8. Explain what is meant by statistical significance and quickly determine whether a researcher reports statistical significance

9. Explain the difference between statistical and practical significance of research studies

10. Describe commonly used tests of statistical significance and match the test with the correct ways of reporting statistical significance

11. Describe the purpose and characteristics of experimental and applied research

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12. Use APA Style appropriately to communicate ideas in writing

13. Effectively use the specialized vocabulary of research

14. Interpret basic descriptive and inferential statistics

15. Identify major sections and purposes of a research report

16. Discuss substantive issues and methodological considerations for conducting and using research in special education

Course Requirements

Readings and Quizzes

Readings are a critical part of this class. You will be expected to have read the articles and materials that are distributed in class. In addition, you will need to read the articles that you choose as the basis for your introduction and literature review. You will do individual or group work during most classes and you will need to rely on your readings for that evening. Failure to prepare will inhibit your participation in these discussions and workshops and will undoubtedly affect your grade.

Overview of Assignments

· Personal Introduction and Statement of Research Interests (5%)

Students will craft an introduction and statement of research interests. The statement will include information about your program, current employment/career goals, and areas of interest. Additional details and examples will be provided. This is due the third week of class.

· Human Subjects Module Completion (5%)

Students will complete the Human Subjects Training Course. The course includes Human Subject Research, Information Privacy, and Responsible Research modules. Complete the Human Subject Research at https://phrp.nihtraining.com/ This is due by the third week of class.

· Search Procedures (10%)

Students will use a collaboratively developed organizer to complete a search of the literature using applicable databases, ancestral searches, and hand searches of journals to locate articles for the intervention paper. Additional assignment details and a rubric will be provided.

· Weekly Quizzes (20%)

For the first nine weeks of the class, we will start each class with a quiz. It will be a combination of short answer and multiple-choice. There will be a mixture of questions from How to Lie and from the textbook. The quizzes will only last 15 minutes, and will be open note. These will count for 25% of your grade.

· Literature Review, Synthesis, or Mini Meta-Analysis (20%)

Students will complete a comprehensive review of an intervention. A literature review, synthesis, or meta-analysis will be developed adhering to applicable standards. Students have the option to work in research teams. If students choose to work in teams, they must agree upon author order and complete documentation of individual contributions to the work. While there is no required page limit, a 15 to 20 page paper is typical.

Additional details, and a rubric will be provided.

In order to maximize your learning and success in this course, the instructor is available to review drafts of any assignments prior to the due date for submission. The goal in doing this is to provide guidance in terms of the content of the assignment, not to edit writing mechanics. Drafts must be sent via email at least three days prior to the assignment due date to allow sufficient time to provide constructive feedback in a timely manner.

· Research Presentation (10%)

Students will create a presentation based on their literature review, synthesis, or meta- analysis. Some presentation options include KeyNote, Power Point®, Prezi®, or professional poster. Additional information and a rubric will be provided.

· Participation (15%)

You will be expected (demanded) to participate in discussions and questions as we move through the semester. This is 15% of your grade-TAKE IT SERIOUSLY.

· Final Paper (15%)

Putting it all together. APA formatted paper including statement, question, literature review, methodology, and proposal.

· Weekly Readings

I. PROBLEM

1. What is the problem?

2. What is the significance of the problem?

3. What are the variables, Dependent and Independent?

II. HYPOTHESIS, SAMPLE, INSTRUMENTS, DESIGN

1. What is/are the hypothesis/es?

2. How was the sample selected? Is it likely to be unbiased? Why or why not?

3. Are the instruments appropriate? Why or why not?

4. What is the design of this study? Is it the best design possible for testing the hypotheses? Why or why not?

III. DATA, METHOD, RESULTS, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Describe the data used to test the hypotheses.

2. What method of analysis was used?

3. What did the Researcher conclude from the results of this study? Are the conclusions warranted by the results?

4. Can you point to any generalizations, implications, recommendations, and/or further research needs that were not discussed by the author?

5. What do you think of this study in general and why? That is, do you think the study is good/bad, important/not important, interesting/not interesting, makes sense/does not make sense? Would you act on basis of it? Why?

THE MAJOR COURSE PROJECT & PRODUCT

Your major assignment in this course is to write a research proposal or grant application that demonstrates your mastery of the course content. This assignment consists of three of the five major parts of a scholarly article, thesis, or dissertation.

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

3. Methodology

Research Proposal Assignment: Students will prepare an original proposal for a study relative to your own topic of interest. Students should use the criteria for critique of research articles to prepare your proposal. Your proposal will be assesses in terms of suitability for topic, focus of the research question, defensibility of the design, and scholarly writing. Instructor will provide a rubric with additional criteria.

Each step of this process will require you to have an increasingly developed vocabulary and skill in writing. It’s not necessarily as linear as it appears. There will be a lot of back and forth editing as you move through the process and gain greater understanding of the task.

Basic Components of the Assignment

Below you will find the basic tasks necessary to complete this project. There are “micro- steps” in between, but this will give you an idea of the flow of the course.

1. Identify a narrow topic of interest

2. Define the problem (This is the “so-what” question.) Why is what you want to study important? What are the issues that make this topic important?

3. Search the literature for articles on your topic.

You will find many different kinds of scholarly writing. When you’re doing the problem statement and introduction you can use what I call “talk pieces,” but for the actual literature review I want you to stick to data-based empirical studies (group or single- subject) unless you have my expressed permission to deviate from this.

4. Review the literature on the topic – You will analyze the articles you choose based on a theme or question. The goal here is to synthesize your findings rather than to do a study-by-study report. At this point you will also determine a theoretical framework to use as the basis for your study.

a. You should have a minimum five studies to draw from. In emerging fields there may be fewer available. I’ll guide you if this is the case. The review should focus on previous research as it pertains to your study. Some examples of types of studies you will find are:

i. Experimental Group Research

ii. Single Subject Research

iii. Correlational Research

iv. Case Studies

v. Qualitative Studies

vi. Others as approved by me

5. End your review with research questions/hypotheses appropriate for your study.

6. Develop an appropriate methodology (e.g., survey, group or single- subject experiment, interviews, etc.) to answer your research questions following the outline that we work on in class.

Academic Integrity

· Students in this course are expected to exhibit academic integrity at all times. Be aware that plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own. Whether the act is deliberate or unintentional is irrelevant. You must take great care to give credit to an author when you borrow either exact words or ideas. Generally, if you use four or more words in a row you should use quotation marks and a proper citation. The instructor reserves the right to submit your work to Turnitin®, or similar plagiarism detection services, for an integrity assessment as needed. All papers are required to demonstrate Turnitin scores or they WILL NOT be read.

· Copyright rules also apply. Use of graphics or data must also be cited, giving credit to the sources. This material includes but is not limited to journal articles, books, popular press articles, e-mail (don't cite or forward someone else's e-mail without permission), newsgroup material, and information from websites. Even if you give credit, you must get permission from the original source to use any data, graphic, or material that you did not create.

· Any attempt to circumvent the integrity of the testing process or otherwise evade the fullest demands of class assignments in an unethical manner constitutes cheating. This can mean looking on another student’s exam, consulting notes or books during an exam unless specifically permitted by the instructor, stealing an exam and circulating it among other students, or text messaging in class during an exam, all constitute forms of academic dishonesty that amount to cheating. Any offense wholly or partially touching the above definition constitutes cheating for the purposes of this class.

· Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Any act of academic dishonesty may result in earning a “0” in the course. All acts of academic dishonesty will be reported to the applicable program coordinator and department chair.