EDU 508 : Quantitative and Mixed Methods in Educational Settings

EDU 508 is a first-year graduate-level survey of quantitative and mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research methods commonly found in educational studies. The general content base of this course is twofold: 1) research planning and design and 2) data analysis and reporting. Through reading published empirical research, as well as class activities and discussion, students will recognize the theoretical, practical, and sociocultural constraints on all parts of educational research, from questions and design to analysis and interpretation. Students gain an understanding of common and differentiating features of typical research designs; ethical, legal, and diversity considerations in research studies in education; descriptive statistics and basic inferential statistics including measures of central tendency, dispersion, correlations, and group comparisons; basic measurement concepts including validity and reliability and the role of measurement in inquiry; planning and integration techniques for mixed methods analysis; and quality indicators in published research.