Introduction to Reading Evaluating and Using Educational Research

3 credits · Graduate

This course develops students’ capacity to critically read, use, and mobilize educational research within their own professional and scholarly contexts. Emphasizing application and evaluation, the course scaffolds students in locating, appraising, and synthesizing empirical studies to inform decision making, program design, and/or scholarly writing in education. Students will interpret and compare qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches relevant to their areas of interest, and will construct an argument-driven literature review suitable for inclusion in a thesis, capstone project, or professional report. Students will learn the value and process of peer review in academia and will be required to perform a structured peer review of classmates’ work. Through structured peer review, critique of published studies, and iterative drafting, students will also practice communicating research insights to academic, professional, and practitioner audiences in the form of a presentation.