Pre-requisites

Must have completed 75% of the course AND
ED950.506 Research Practices for Innovative Educators

Co-requisites

None.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

• State an epistemological position from a range of presuppositional options.

• Describe the ethical dimensions, including the power relationship and impacts upon participants, in educational research settings.

• Design, conduct and interpret the results of a finite and feasible research project and related ethical protocol.

• Justify the choice of a particular research methodology from a range of qualitative, quantitative or mixed method approaches.

• Critically analyse current literature on a chosen topic related to educational practice.

Unit Description

This unit involves a 6,000 word research study grounded in the field of teaching practice, and is designed for those looking to continue educational research. It provides an opportunity for the candidate to integrate their awareness gained through immersion within the practicum aspects of the course along with their theoretical underpinnings in their various coursework units taken to date. The study must address either an aspect of challenge in an area of curriculum, learning or specific student assessment, or the experience and professional demands of the teacher in the local context and be agreed upon with their supervisor. The approach taken must employ at least one appropriate theoretical lens and involve a rich analysis of the sorts of predicaments, responsibilities and challenges commonly acknowledged in the domain of teaching practice.

Topics could therefore be concerned with intervention, innovation and positive culture change and may involve some variant of action research pending institutional access and ethics permissions. In any event, research topics chosen and findings should potentially be of benefit to typical educational stakeholders and the actual participants alike. Other methods such as critical ethnography, phenomenological or narrative methodologies are also welcome, although those involving human participation will require ethics clearance from the college HREC.

This project will usually take place within the scope of the 14 weeks of the semester in which they are enrolled in RP993.506, utilising an appropriate methodology based upon an proposal that has been approved both by their supervising lecturer and the College HREC or their representative.

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Unit offerings

Face to face: (Every Year, Semester 2)

Please note

The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.

This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.