Undergraduate - UnitEDF3008 - Researching educational practices

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Education
Offered	Clayton Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Renee Crawford (Clayton)

Synopsis

This unit builds the capacity of students for researching teaching and learning in their own educational setting, using data to inform their practice and developing an evidence base for this practice. It will explore approaches and frameworks for teachers (and pre-service teachers) to conduct educational research. The unit addresses questions such as: where this research can occur, what is to be researched, how this research can be undertaken and why such research is important. It will explore methodologies such as action research, self-study, case studies, critical incident analysis, observation, surveys, interviews and narrative enquiry. The notion of what constitutes a research community within a professional setting will also be considered.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit students should be able to:

appreciate the importance of educational inquiry for improving the professional practice of teachers and improving practices in school communities
access and develop an evidence base for the development of skills and knowledge associated with undertaking teacher research
demonstrate an awareness of ethical and pragmatic issues associated with undertaking research in a range of educational settings
develop an evidence base of the impact of research on improving the educational outcomes in educational settings. This includes improvement in teaching, learning and organisational outcomes.

Fieldwork

For courses 3750 Bachelor of Education (P-10) and 4209 Bachelor of Education (Special Education) placement in a school setting taken in EDF3102 Professional experience 3B (10 days) or EDF4042 Professional experience 4B (20 days). For Bachelor of Education (Secondary) courses: students who commenced the course prior to 2014: 5 days

Assessment

Teacher research project (3000 words, 75%)
Evidence-based practice report (1000 words, 25%)
For Bachelor of Education (Secondary) courses commenced prior to 2014: satisfactory completion of teaching practice.