General Education Course Descriptions
An introduction to the process and methods of educational research articles and to developing a preliminary plan or proposal for research in the field.
Exploration of one or more selected topics in General Education.
Philosophical foundations of modern educational thought and practice in America, it also explores contemporary educational ideologies in the U.S.
Fundamental principles of anthropology as applied in education, business, and community learning contexts. An overview of the history, tradition, and political ideologies of two or more countries, other than the United States, provides a backdrop for the study of culture, technology, and values in an American pedagogical setting.
Systematic exploration and critical investigation of the theoretical foundations and the practical problems and issues encountered in the application of psychology to education.
Survey of federal and state statutory and case law in the following: compulsory education, loyalty, religion, freedom of speech, due process, equal protection, termination, evaluation, negotiations, records, discrimination, the Civil Rights Act as amended, special needs, ADA, and civil and tort liability.
A conceptual and procedural understanding of descriptive and inferential statistical procedures in educational research.
A continuation of applied educational statistics (706) and an introduction to multivariate statistical analyses used in research in education. Among the subjects to be considered are the following: factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis of covariance, repeated measures ANOVA, multivariate ANOVA, multiple regression, discriminant analysis, and factor analysis. Prerequisites: GEDU 706 with a minimum grade of B- and GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
Introduction to quantitative and qualitative educational research traditions, procedures, theories, and methods. Includes practical applications to educational problems. Recommended that 0704-706 be taken before 0704-708.
The use of analysis of variance techniques in research designs. The course aligns specific research designs (experimental, quasi-experimental, and ex post facto) with specific analysis of variance techniques. The complete range of univariate analysis of variance designs are covered (including factorial ANOVA, repeated-measures ANOVA, split-plot ANOVA, and the analysis of covariance). The issues of power, practical significance, and multiple comparison tests are also addressed. Prerequisites: GEDU 706 and GEDU 708
Introduction to the logic and methods of survey research. Common problems of conceptualizing, planning, conducting and analyzing surveys along with strategies, designs procedures and techniques used to solve such problems. Prerequisite: GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
This course revolves around the theory and methods of qualitative research, drawn from the social sciences of anthropology and sociology, as applied to education. Students will learn to formulate a research question, collect data through observation and interviewing, and analyze data. Coursework includes a student-developed research project. Prerequisite: GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
This course examines issues related to the collection and analysis of textual and other representational data for research purposes, covering several approaches to content analysis, both qualitative and quantitative. Prerequisite: GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
Principles of classical, modern (item-response theory), and cognitive test theory applied to educational and psychological measurement and their application to doctoral research. Applications to both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing orientations will be stressed throughout the course. The focus will be on test development and test evaluation. Prerequisites: GEDU 706 with a minimum grade of B- and GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
A survey of social anthropological schools of thought including functionalist, structuralist, critical, and interpretive. Attention is given to styles of anthropological research including ethnographic, symbolic, historical, documentary, autobiographical, participatory, and textual analysis. An examination of major anthropologists and their contribution to study concepts of culture form various perspectives. Application of selected autobiographical principles to the study of one professional, domestic, or international setting. Prerequisite: GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
Introduction to program evaluation. Basic issues of evaluation design, data collection, interpretation, and communication of results are discussed. Emphasis is placed on designing evaluations based on an understanding of how programs are implemented. Prerequisite: GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
An examination of various research paradigms employed by social scientists, educators, human service professionals, and community agencies interested in the study of comparative group behaviors, educational strategies and learning patterns within racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse populations. Prerequisite: GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
Correlational approaches to analyzing educational data, including simple and multiple regression, path analysis, LISREL, and hierarchical linear models. Prerequisites: GEDU 706 and GEDU 707 and GEDU 708
This course deals with the methods and process of meta-analysis, which is a quantitative review of the literature. Students will have the opportunity to plan a meta-analysis and to evaluate published meta-analyses in an area of education. Prerequisites: GEDU 706 with a minimum grade of B- and GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
A discussion of the theoretical foundations of participatory critical pedagogy research as well as a description of effective processes to conduct research utilizing this methodology. Students will be encouraged to (a) define and/or refine the methodology of their own dissertation and (b) acquire experience in the process of dialogic retrospection - the praxis of dialogue as an emancipatory tool, the creation of a text from dialogue transcripts and the analysis of the generative themes contained in the dialogue. Prerequisite: GEDU 708 with a minimum grade of B-
A second course in statistics using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Topics include file organization, data entry and cleaning, variable creation and recoding, data analysis, record keeping, reliability analyses, merging data files, and SPSS data analysis procedures (descriptive, comparative, correlational, classificatory), and table creation. Prerequisite: GEDU 706 with a minimum grade of B-
This course is designed to assist doctoral students to learn a style for scholarly writing, including the dissertation. Dissertation writing requires a distinctive type of writing, an academic, scholarly approach that meets local conventions, in contrast to an "essayist," term paper method of writing or a popular periodical style. The tasks, activities, and discussions of this course will include attention to approaches to formal writing that retain clarity, logic and interest, applications of APA as appropriate to dissertation writing, and a review of common grammatical usage.
Exploration of one or more selected topics in General Education.
