What is Research and Why Do Post-Grads Have to Know About It? Judy M. Parr PhD Professor of Education School of Curriculum and Pedagogy Te Kura o te Marautanga me te Ako Presentation at Taiyuan University of Technology November-December, 2016

What do you think research is? Write down some words that describe it.

Definition of Research Systematic, rigorous examination of a phenomenon using appropriate means Objective as possible, acknowledging potential researcher bias Open to scrutiny by peers (methods, analyses & conclusions) Described in enough detail enough to replicate Needs multiple studies to establish “truth” of a theory or finding

The Reading 10 Myths… What is the aim of the article? How does it try to achieve this aim? Is it different or similar to a text-book? If so, in what way?

Aim & How Achieves It Aim is to give second perspective on myths about reading The author does this by presenting a series of arguments, using logic, reason & opinion The author quotes people (authorities- references at end) and makes reference to “research” The author also presents facts and describes briefly one of his research studies

Different or Similar to Textbook? The author makes the point it is NOT a research article but a piece written by a researcher He calls it an informative, journalistic document like a commentary or an editorial

The Reading: 10 Myths… Why do you think I gave you this reading? (consider in relation to the topic of this seminar) I will return to this so start thinking!

The Nature of Different Readings as Sources for Learning In academic learning there are basically three sorts of readings or literature: Secondary sources like text books and some books (especially for professionals) Theoretical pieces or scholarly synthesis or critiques Primary sources. These are empirical articles/ papers reporting studies which collect data and report the results of analyses of those data)

The Baby Bird Analogy

Appreciate the Difference! Text books “feed” you like bird parents feed their young They provide “predigested” material The material is both selected and interpreted for you

Back to 10 Myths.. The aim of this piece was to give a second perspective because: The author questioned Michael Pressley’s “10 Dumb and Dangerous Claims about Reading Instruction” Are they the “top ten” D and D claims? Has Pressley missed any? Are they in the right order from most D and D to least?

Why Do Post-Grads Have to Know What Research Is? PGs need to be able to recognize what is an “original” research source and what is a secondary source As a post graduate you need to learn to read the original research studies and draw your own conclusions (Two “big name” reading researchers do not agree on 10 D and Ds, so how can you be sure the text is right?)

Different Forms of Research Research takes different forms in different disciplines or fields of study Even within a field or discipline there are different theoretical perspectives, different research questions posed and different methods used to answer them

Different Forms of Research The field of education or of applied linguistics has a diversity of ways of creating and testing knowledge The framing (and subsequent investigation) of a research question around a topic of inquiry tends to reflect disciplinary roots and theories. Why introduce myself in this way? Education is not a discipline. It is a field of study- a locus containing phenomena, events, institutions, problems, people, processes which constitute the raw material for inquiry. Disciplines serve as the sources for the principles and practices or procedures of the researcher. Disciplines (Shulman, 1988) are distinguished by the manner in which they formulate questions, define the content of their domains, organise that content conceptually and by the principles of discovery and verification that constitute the ground rules for creating and testing knowledge. Each discipline has its own set of concepts, methods and procedures that are applied to investigate a problem or phenomenon in education. A researcher from one discipline does not just employ a different method to answer the same question, but may ask when dealing with the same topic of inquiry, a different question. Take the example of teaching and learning of reading

Example: Teaching and Learning of Reading RQs What does it mean to be able to read? Are there differences across socio-economic or ethnic groups in reading abilities? How literate are Chinese/NZers now and in previous generations?

Cont’d What makes some students successful readers and others less successful? What distinguishes good from poor readers? What is involved in becoming a skilled reader? How is reading instruction carried on? What are the experiences of teachers and students? What is the best method for teaching reading?

The Reading: 10 Myths… Déjà vu / ground hog day/ back again!! Why do you think I gave you this reading? (consider in relation to the topic of this seminar)

Questions, comments? jm.parr@auckland.ac.nz