Reflective Summary
Admittedly when I enrolled in Understanding Educational Inquiry, I was feeling very daunted. The learning outcomes of the unit seemed well out of my achievable realm and it had been quite a while since I attended face-to-face lectures at University. The face-to-face days during Summer School, however, put all my anxieties at ease. I found the sessions over the three days to be highly useful, informative, collaborative and insightful into the area of Educational Inquiry, and I really valued being able to discuss the content of the course as well as the assignments with the other participants. Whilst leaving the three days with “brain-overload”, I did feel slightly more at ease that achieving the learning outcomes for Understanding Educational Inquiry would be something that I could do.
I found the layout of the course, through the use of modules, to be quite helpful. Rather than having to approach the course as one big area, we were able to work through the various sub-categories of Educational Inquiry in smaller parts, largely at our own pace. Similarly, whilst not posting any of my own thoughts/reflections on the discussion board (didn’t feel quite brave enough) I did value being able to gain insight into the thoughts of others as we progressed through the various modules.
Module one, What Is Educational Research? provided me with a solid introduction into the course through the exploration of different types of educational research and the different perspectives it can take. Central to my learning in this module was the clarity I gained about qualitative and quantitative research methods, as I had always got confused between the two. For this module I chose to complete the Goldilocks And The Three Bears activity and The Concept Map. The Concept Map was made using an App called Simple Minds, which made the whole process a lot easier and simpler. I found both activities highly insightful and engaging.
I found module two, Practical Aspects Of Educational Research, to be highly practical and useful in developing a “hands-on” understanding of educational research. For this module, I chose to complete The Observation Activity, which I found particularly useful (and entertaining) and the Writing Survey Questions, which was somewhat more challenging than I expected at the outset. I did find Assignment One somewhat challenging during the early part of the course, but in hindsight I was happy to complete it early on during module one and two as this provided me with more of a base for the rest of the course.
Module three, Quality In Educational Research, gave me a solid base for understanding what constitutes quality educational research. It was interesting as I read through the readings by Burkhardt and Schoenfeld (2003) and Pollard (2006), that what I had and would have regarded as quality educational research was in actual fact debatable. For this module, therefore, I chose to complete the Different Perspectives On Educational Research activity as well as Undertaking Commissioned Research. The ethical and bias issues in commissioned research, was also something I found very interesting.
The final module, module four, Ethical Considerations In Educational Research, provided a sound overview of the ethical issues associated with educational research. Prior to this module, I was unaware of the ethical issues and obligations, which must be upheld when engaging in educational research. I enjoyed exploring The National Statement On Ethical Conduct In Human Research (2007) and examining Other Approaches To Ethical Conduct In Research. I also thoroughly enjoyed Assignment Two, as not only did it allow me to cover several areas of educational research, it encouraged me to expand my technological abilities and branch out and try something new. I chose to use Weebly to complete my electronic portfolio and despite some technological slip-ups along the way, am happy with the final outcome.
As a primary school teacher, I found this course highly beneficial to my own practice. I feel that I have now developed a somewhat clearer understanding of the various attributes and components that make up educational research and its complexities. Some of the main insights I gained, centred around the difference between qualitative and quantitative research, the importance of having a clear framework when dong field research (observations) and the ethical issues/requirements needed to be taken into consideration when dealing with children under the age of 18. I believe that as I come across these and other aspects of educational research in my teaching practice I will now be much more aware and tuned in to their intricacies.
On the whole, Understanding Educational Inquiry was a challenging, insightful and rewarding subject that I feel I have gained and developed a great deal from. From the first time I read the learning outcomes, I feel happy to say that I have achieved the learning outcomes to the best of my ability and enjoyed the journey along the way.
Reference List
Burkhardt, H. & Schoenfeld, A.H. (2003). Improving Educational Research: Toward A More Useful, More Influential, And Better-Funded Enterprise. Educational Researcher 32(9), 3-14.
Pollard, A. (2006). Challenges Facing Educational Research. Educational Review Guest Lecture 2005. Educational Review, 58(3), 251-267.