Foundations of Educational Research

3 units

Educational researchers in today's world use an interdisciplinary toolbox of approaches to examine the complex issues facing today's students, teachers, educating institutions, and communities. Providing an introduction to the basic concepts, philosophies, and kinds of methodologies used in educational research, this course will examine research designs such as experiments, surveys, mixed methods, ethnography, and action research. Students will be required to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of each. Furthermore, the course is devoted to understanding the importance of identifying a research problem, the literature review, research questions, and the alignment with appropriate methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods) in responding to the research inquiry.