Transcript PowerPoint Presentation - CTER OnLine

New Perspectives on Educational
Research and Practice:
Embedding Collaborative
Research in Graduate Education
Jim Levin
Department of Educational Psychology
College of Education
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Educational crisis
• What to do?
• An important step that higher education can
take is to conduct first-rate research on
educational practice and how to improve it
One important goal of education
• To support the acquisition of expertise in
many different areas
What is the nature of educational
expertise?
What is the nature of expertise?
• Studies of expertise
• What’s the difference between an expert and
a novice?
Mental models of the Web
• Survey study: “What is your mental model of
the Web?”
• Novices with the web: 18 unique responses
(from 44 subjects)
• Experts with the web: 27 unique responses
(from 38 of the same subjects)
(Levin, Stuve, & Jacobson, 1999)
Mental Models of the Web
• Case studies of 10 people (2 novices, 4
intermediate, 4 experts)
• Novices had single models of the Web
• Experts had several models and chose which
model to use depending on the task
An expert is…
a person
• with multiple coordinated representations of
a subject area
and
• with the meta-knowledge of when to use
which representation and when to switch.
Representational Toolkit
Framework for Expertise
• Experts have a set of representational tools,
and know which tool to use for which task
and when to switch from one tool to another.
Methodological debate among
carpenters?
• Which is the best tool,
the hammer
or
the saw?
What’s your goal?
• Do you have two pieces of wood and a nail
and want to fasten them together?
or
• Do you have one piece of wood and a line
along which you’d like them separated?
Educational research
methodological debates
• Which are the best methodologies,
quantitative or qualitative?
Educational research expertise
• Research methodology toolkit framework
• The power of multiplicity - bringing multiple
coordinated research approaches to bear on
educational problems
• Multiple coordinated methodologies
Educational expertise
• Multiplicity of educational approaches to
support to acquisition of multiple
coordinated representations
How to support educational
research expertise?
• New interactional frameworks
• Collaborative work across disciplines
• Integration of research and teaching;
research and learning
Examples from two programs at
Illinois
• CTER: Curriculum, Technology, &
Education Reform Online Masters of
Education
• TSE: Technology Studies in Education
graduate specialization (for doctoral and
masters students)
CTER: Curriculum, Technology, &
Education Reform Online Masters
• Studies of CTER
– Broad survey research of all CTER students
– Focused case studies of selected CTER students
• CTER student activities: collaborative
frameworks involving students in activities
that have an impact beyond the (virtual)
walls of the class
CTER White Papers
• Educational policy research with an impact
beyond the class, the program, the university.
• Seven areas of expertise
• Three frameworks for involving students in
the research, across three separate classes
and three different groups of students
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/
White Paper topics
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Access
Credibility & Web Evaluation
Free Speech vs. Censorship
Privacy
Commercialism
Intellectual Property, Copyright, & Plagiarism
Computer Crime & Technology Misuse
Original White Papers
• Seven groups in a course on “Ethical and
Policy Issues in Information Technologies”,
Spring 1999 (Burbules & Bruce) as a major
project.
Updated CTER White Papers
(2002)
• Seven groups, each spending several days
reading a white paper, identifying broken
links, and either fixing or removing them, as
a minor project in a course on “Computer
Uses in Education” (Levin)
White Paper Addenda (2002)
• Seven groups, each creating an addendum to
one of the White Papers as a major project in
“Ethical and Policy Issues in Information
Technologies” (Burbules)
CTER White Paper evaluation
• Quantitative: accesses in January over the
past 5 years (in Jan 03 over 23,000 accesses)
First posted
Revised
CTER White Paper Evaluation
• Qualitative
– Comments from the CTER students
– Comments from others outside Illinois
• Net-happenings
• Classroom Connect
• National Science Digital Library Report
Technology Studies in Education
(TSE)
• Graduate specialization, for doctoral and
masters graduate students; for on-campus
and on-line students
TSE Challenges
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/tse-challenges
Early Childhood Technology
Mentorships
TSE Challenge evaluation
• Spring 2002:pilot studies (process data, indepth interviews afterwards)
• Spring 2003: ongoing formative evaluations
Summary
• An expert has multiple coordinated
representations.
– An expert educational researcher
– An expert educator
• It is important to explore new research-based
approaches for supporting the acquisition of
expertise in educational research and
practice, using new collaborative
frameworks.
Contact information:
Jim Levin, [email protected]
http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/jalevin/