EPS 590 ONL - Advanced Graduate Seminar - Role of Theory in Ed Research

Campus: Urbana-Champaign

Description:

Seminar in educational policy studies; sections offered in the following fields: (a) history of education; (b) philosophy of education; (c) comparative education; (d) social foundations of education; (e) philosophy of educational research; and (f) historical methods in education. Course Information: May be repeated. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

Special Instructions:

Title: The Role of Theory in Educational Research All research is guided by theory. Theory provides a vocabulary, a set of laws or generalizations, a background literature, and a conceptual framework for any effort to plan, design, and execute a research study. There is no theory-free inquiry. This is true in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences. All research seeks to explain phenomena: a theory provides an explanation for those explanations. However, these theoretical assumptions are often implicit and unreflective. Researchers may think they have no theory, or have a theory that is so taken for granted that they don't recognize it as an assumed theory. Much of educational research suffers from this lack of theoretical self-awareness. Like any other aspect of research, theories are falsifiable. They must stand the test of evidence - which may go against them. The goal of the class is not to identify the "right" or "best" theory, but to make the identification and selec

Option 1

Course Level: Graduate

Credit: 4

Term(s): Spring