ERMA+7200-+Basic+Research+Methods

Semester: Spring 2010

 * Summary:** This course provided a basic overview of the various research perspectives: positivism, constructivism, advocacy, and pragmatism. Students are also introduced to the various approaches to research methods: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Students were required to evaluate articles for threats to validity to determine the quality of the research and its findings.

Roles of the Media Specialist

 * Leader:** This class caused me to operate in the capacity of a leader because it taught me to be critical of research contained within peer reviewed journals. In the role of leader, I will need to seek out professional learning resources to ensure that I am current on issues regarding library media and education in general. This course taught me that even though the article was published in a peer reviewed journal, it does not mean its research is sound. The evaluative tools this course provided me will help me select articles with quality research to assist my faculty.


 * Information Specialist:** As an information specialist, I will be required to select and recommend professional resources to faculty members. I will also need to work with them on search skills and evaluating professional materials. Through this course, I learned the skills necessary to put together a literature review which I have already applied to my work as a teaching assistant for the university.


 * Work Samples**



The term paper for this course required me to hone my information searching skills. I was required to gather a literature review regarding to opposing methods in teaching: direct instruction and digital game based learning. From the articles I collected, I was to evaluate their validity based on such considerations as author bias (e.g., positivism), methods (e.g., mixed-methods), and sampling procedures. I feel that this project will help me in my role as a leader as I will need to seek out learning opportunities on my own. This means not only participating in professional development opportunities, listservs, forums, and webinars, but also staying updated on current issues by reading professional and peer reviewed journals. This course taught me that just because an article is published, it does not mean it has been backed by good research. As an information specialist, I feel that this is a good message to pass on to faculty and students. Even when selecting resources from reputable publishers, it is still a good idea to evaluate the quality of the research. For example, a student can use Britannica Online and find an entry with no author. In this case, the student has no way of knowing if an authority wrote the article and thus will need to seek out other sources to verify the information.