EDUC59215: Experiments in Education

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• Appreciate and contribute to the debate about the role of experimentation in educational research;
• Recognise and make choices from a range of experimental designs;
• Identify threats to the validity of causal inferences;
• Understand strategies for minimising threats to the validity of causal inferences;
• Analyse, synthesise and interpret data from experimental research.
• Judge the quality of experiments.

• The case for and against experimenting in education.
• The concept of an experiment: types of experimental designs.
• The concept of intervention in education.
• Design issues: threats to validity of causal inferences.
• Design issues: precautions, ethical issues.
• Analysis of experimental data: effect size.
• Cumulation of knowledge: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will:
• appreciate and contribute to the debate about the role of experimentation in educational research;
• recognise and make choices from a range of experimental designs;
• identify threats to the validity of causal inferences;
• understand strategies for minimising threats to the validity of causal inferences;
• analyse, synthesise and interpret data from experimental research;
• be able to apply criteria for judging the quality of experiments.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Critical understanding of the rationale behind the necessary steps to prepare, undertake, analyse and disseminate research in education that aims at causal inferences.

Key Skills:

• Communicate effectively orally and in writing.
• Work with a high level of autonomy.
• Access and use literature.

• Students will take part in a range of learning activities, including reading, discussion, listening to presentations, conducting presentations, critiquing published research, analysing and interpreting data, designing experiments, searching literature and synthesising the results of multiple studies.
• Summative assignment will be a substantial piece on designing an experimental study with in-depth discussion and critical understanding of the concepts in experimental design methodologies.

Formative assessment comprises of staged learning activities that are targeted at the summative assignment. There will be an opportunity to orally present the plan for summative assignment which will receive formative feedback from the tutors and peers (in the class). These activities are either taking place during class or are assigned after class sessions and students receive written and oral feedback at the next session.

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