Conducting Pedagogic Research: Am I increasing my research esteem or just increasing my workload?

1. Conducting Pedagogic Research:Am I increasing my research esteem or just increasing my workload? CETL Active Learning in Computing Durham University Liz Burd

2. Can teachers also be researchers • It is a weakness of much research in education that it is insufficiently tested in action, too readily accepted by its mere survival in the academic debate. • Using research means doing research. Researchers should motivate action research as without interest from teachers research will not be utilised. • From the point of view of experimentalists, classrooms are the ideal laboratories for the testing of educational theory. From the point of view of the researcher whose interests lies in applying observation in the classroom, the teacher is a participant observer in classrooms and schools. Whatever standpoint we view research, we must find it difficult to deny that the teachers is surrounded by rich research opportunity…

3. Notes from Durham RAE Simulation Verdict • The successful CETL bid could contribute indirectly to the department’s research environment and would help to increase the department’s profile and esteem. One member of staff was well positioned to take forward research into pedagogy in the Computer Sciences, but this research was in the early stages of development, and pedagogy is a notoriously difficult area in which to secure the research credibility needed for a strong RAE grade. The department was therefore encouraging all staff to focus on its core research areas in the run up to the RAE.

4. What the RAE Regs. Say… • Interdisciplinary research, arrangements for cross-referral and specialist advice • There have been concerns that the assessment of interdisciplinary research has presented challenges in previous RAEs. In view of these, we will cross-refer parts of submissions and enhance our arrangements for using specialist advisors to ensure interdisciplinary research is identified and assessed by those competent to do so.

5. Does pedagogical research come up to scratch? My feelings • Probably not academic enough • with future considerations of RAE assessment moving to metrics then referencing prior / related work will be essential • Probably not scientific enough • We make little attempt to properly evaluate our work, most papers focus on experiences

6. Turmoil in the Education Research Community • Robert Donmoyer states ‘We have paid the price as a collective by tolerating and even encouraging the practices of Balkanization and benign neglect… I believe it is time to begin to talk with each other, to listen carefully to what others – including those who appear to disagree with us – have to say, and to ask – and try to answer – hard questions about the work each of us does.’ Donmoyer R., ‘Educational research in a era of paradigm proliferation’, Educational Researcher, (2), 1996, pp19-25

7. Research Metrics • Experience versus Research • ICS 15:13 (6 by survey) • CIGCSE 45:23 (6 by survey) • Referencing:

8. Referencing Comparisons ICS/EuroMaint CIGCSE/ICSM IEEE Trans Ed/SE

9. Action research • Action research is inquiry in the context of a focused effort to improve the quality and organisational performance. • It typically is designed and conducted by practitioners to improve their own practice. • Action research has the potential to offer improvements in the provision of education. • It gives educators new opportunities to • reflect on their teaching; • explore and test new ideas, methods, and materials; • assess the effective of new approaches; • share feedback with fellow team members; • make strategic decisions about which approaches to adopt.

10. Action reflections cycles • Whitehead • What am I concerned about/what do I want to improve?? • What am I going to do about it? • What data will I need to collect to enable me to make a judgement on my effectiveness? • Act and gather data; • Evaluation of effectiveness; • Modification of concerns, ideas and actions in the light of the evaluations; • Submission of description and explanation of my learning? in the educational enquiry, ' How do I improve my practice?' to a validation group. • Whitehead, J. (1989) Creating a Living Educational Theory from Questions of the Kind, "How do I improve my Practice?" in British Educational Research Journal, 15, pp. 3-17

11. Science and practice • Scientists are interested in laws and theories which are general and predictive to organise and summarize data derived from observations • application of science to practice • the capacity of predictions to provide information about the context of action • The possibility of applying general laws to the problem of predicting the outcomes of specific acts

12. Is enquiry research? • Enquiry counts as research to the extent that it is systematic, but even more to the extent that it can claim to be conscientiously self-critical • The problem of interests in research is that when the test of our hypothesis or interpretations is not rigorous, there is a temptation to make dubious claims which appear likely to promote our reputation, increase material rewards or endorse some policy to which we are devoted independently of the research.

13. Publication • Too much research is published to the world too little to the village • Publication has two functions: • It opens work to criticism and so to refinement • It disseminates outcomes and so makes accumulation of knowledge possible

14. Experimental Design • Experimental Design Validity Campbell, D.T., Stanley J.C. (1963) ‘Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research’ Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-3087-2 • Evidence Based software engineering http://www.idi.ntnu.no/emner/empse/papers/icse2004_kitchenham_etal.pdf • Systematic review Kitchenham, Barbara. Procedures for Performing Systematic Reviews, Joint Technical Rreport, Keele University TR/SE-0401 and NICTA 0400011T.1, July 2004.

15. Conclusions • Stenhouse stares: • Teachers must inevitably be intimately involved in the research process and researchers must justify themselves to practitioners, not practitioners to researchers. • Stenhouse L., ‘What counts as research?’, British Journal of Educational Studies, 29 (2), 1981, pp103-114