Version 4-2-1999
Outline Seminar Developmental Research, January 1999
Much Ph.D. research, but also Masters research, will have the character of
developmental research, that is that the research is being conducted in
conjunction with a development project. This seminar, being a follow up of
Core 6, is meant for all students involved in such research.
Goals of the seminar are: getting an understanding of the characteristics
of developing research by studying key publications and discussing examples
of such research. Questions being addressed are: what is specific on
developmental research, what are important methodological aspects, what
are important methods and techniques, what type of results, etc.
The seminar will consists of 5 sessions in which literature and cases will
be discussed. Being a seminar, all participants are expected to have an
active contribution. To finish this elective course, each participant has
to write a paper addressing an aspect of the design of the research he/she
is planning to conduct.
Course load:
- 3 study points
- final paper: about 40 hrs
- per session: about 16 hrs
Topics for the sessions
1. WHAT and WHY of developmental research (DR)
7/1/99: 13.00 - 16.15hr, L 105
Readings:
- van den Akker, J., & Plomp, Tj. (1993). Development research in curriculum: propositions and experiences. Paper presented at the AERA convention, April 1993, Atlanta.
- Richey, R.C. (1997). Research on instructional development. Educational Development Research and Development. 45(3). pp. 91-100.
- Krathwohl, D. R. (1993). Methods of educational & social science research (2nd ed.). New York: Longman (Ch.1 & 2)
Key questions for discussion:
- what is DR (developmental research) as compared to other approaches?
- how to characterize DR?
- how to position DR in relation to quantitative and qualitative research?
- what important questions/issues do you have?
2. HOW to do: design issues, process model (what steps), characteristic activities; case study
14/1/99: 8.45 - 12.00hr, Library TO
Readings:
- Nieveen, N. (1997). Computer support for curriculum developers. Doctoral dissertation. University of Twente (ch. 3: Research design).
- Richey, R.T. & Nelson, W.A. (1996). Development research. In D. Jonassen (Ed)., Handbook on educational communications and technology. London: MacMillan. Only section 42.3 (pp.1230-1232)
- Visscher-Voerman, I., Gustafson, K. & Plomp, Tj. (in press). Educational design and development: an overview of paradigms. In: J. van den Akker, R. Branch, K. Gustafson, N. Nieveen & Tj. Plomp (Eds), Design methodology and developmental research. Dordrecht (Neth.): Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- CASE of Type 1 Developmental Research: Nieveen, N. & van den Akker, J., accepted by ETRD.
- Richey (1997): check Type 1
- van den Akker & Plomp (1998): check characteristic activities
- Krathwohl (1993): Ch.23: Evaluation studies and action research.
Key questions:- what are key steps in conducting DR- what are characteristic activities
- what important questions/issues related to your own research plans do you have?
3. WHAT to do: approaches and strategies for data collection, processing and
analysis
21/1/99: 14.00 - 17.15hr, L 105
Readings:
- Yin, R.K. (1984). Case study research: design and methods. Thousands Oaks (CA, USA): Sage (Ch.1, 2).
- Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. Thousands Oaks (CA, USA): Sage (Ch.1).
- Miles, M.B. (1989). New methods for qualitative data collection and analysis: vignettes and pre-structured cases. To appear in Qualitative Studies in Education (source sofar unknown).
- Denzin, N.K. (1994). Triangulation in educational research. In T. Husen & T.N. Postlethwaite (Eds), The international encyclopedia of education. (pp. 6461-6466). Oxford: Pergamon
- Tessmer, M. (1993). Planning and conducting formative evaluations. London: Kogan Page (Ch.1)
- Gravemeijer, K.P.E. (1994). Developing realistic mathematics education. Doctoral dissertation, University of Utrecht (Ch.4 on the concept of developmental research).
Key questions:
- when to use what approaches in the framework of developmental research (such as formative evaluation, case study, qualitative approach, survey, document analysis, etc)?
- what are typical strategies as part of these approaches?
- what important questions/issues related to your own research plans do you have?
4. HOW to do: typical methods and techniques for data collection and analysis; case study
28/1/99: 8.45 - 12.00hr, L 105
Readings:
- Nieveen, N. (1997). Computer support for curriculum developers. Doctoral dissertation. Enschede (Neth.): Doctoral dissertation (ch. 4.1: coneptual framework for methods and techniques for formative evaluation).
- Marshall & Rossman, ch. 4 about Data collection methods
- Patton, M.Q. (1987). How to use qualitative methods in evaluation. Sage, CSE Program
Evaluation Kit (Ch. 3 on the deisign of evaluation)
- Brinkerhoff, R.O., Brethower, D.M., Hjuchyj, T., & Nowakowski, J.R. (1983). Program evaluation: a practitioner’s guide for trainers and educators. Boston: Kluwer-Nijhof ( Part 3: Collecting information, Part 4: Analyzing information)
- CASE Type 2 Developmental Research: Kessels & Plomp
5. Challenges and issues.
4/2/99: 8.45 - 12.00hr, H 108
Readings:
- Walker, D. & Bressler (1993) AERA paper on developmental research
- Yin, R.K. (1984). Case study research: design and methods. Thousands Oaks (CA, USA): Sage (from Ch. 2 parts on generalization of results: pp. 38-40 and 48-52)
Discussion of issues and questions resulting from previous sessions and put forward by students. First list of possible topics:
- how to report results of developmental research
- methodological contributions of Type 1 DR
- generalizations of results of DR
- potential conflicts of interests of DR-er in his/her roles as researcher and (prototype) designer
Final assignment:
Review of one or two books relevant for developmental research:
A book review should inform the reader about
- the purpose and content of the book
- its strengths and weaknesses
- usefulness for own developmental research project
- recommendations about whether or not to use the book (or maybe better: for what type of research questions is the book suitable)
- how to acquire it (bibliographical information; use APA guidelines).
Stengths and weaknesses may cover a variety of aspects:
- content (state of the art? complete?)
- limitations and possibilities (application areas)
- language (easy to read? etc)
- structure: easy to find your way?
- number and quality of examples
- quality and number of ‘how to do’ suggestions
- references
- etc.