Teaching Research Methods Research Articles

Overview of Hieroglyph in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

In teaching Chinese as a foreign language, Chinese characters teaching is an essential part of teaching. With the continuous development of teaching Chinese characters, the Hieroglyph teaching plays a positive role in the process of helping foreign students learn Chinese characters. By retrieving documents in China Knowledge Network and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, this paper reviews the status of the Hieroglyph teaching in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Based on the basic situation of the Hieroglyph teaching, this paper analyzes the historical development and advantages of it, points out its guide ideas, and summarizes relevant research of teaching methods. Through the comparison of the Hieroglyph teaching methodology and traditional Chinese characters teaching methodology, this paper further explores the significance of the Hieroglyph teaching, finally, the shortcomings of it and suggestions for improvement are pointed out, aims to demonstrate the feasibility and practical significance of the Hieroglyph teaching. This paper summarizes the current basic situation, potential problems and suggestions for improvement of this research field in the Hieroglyph teaching, which can help experts and scholars enhance the depth and breadth in future.

The role of arts-based methods in supporting safe and participatory research addressing sexual violence with young people

Background: The use of participatory visual methods in humanities, health, education and social science research to study ‘sensitive’ subject matter with children and young people is growing. Such approaches have been widely – though sometimes uncritically – celebrated for contributing to safe data elicitation, promoting participant influence and strengthening research dissemination and impact. Some authors have pointed to their political contributions – challenging the traditional politics of representation and fostering critical consciousness and thinking. Methods: This article explores these claims, reflecting on a study using creative and participatory methods to explore the concept of ‘resistance’ among young people affected by sexual violence. It begins by outlining the background, rationale and use of creative methods in the project, moving from plans to utilise ‘Photovoice’ methods to a more diverse and responsive set of creative methods. Findings: The paper presents evidence for the contribution of such methods to creating safety and fostering participation while developing new conceptual thinking among researchers and participants. Conclusion: In this project, the success of creative methods is rooted in the dynamics of what we term spaciousness and playfulness which support dialogical practice. These dynamics are critical to enabling a safe participatory culture that bridges divides between stakeholders of different status, identity and ownership.

A systematic review of afterschool STEM literature in education

In this study, the literature on Afterschool STEM education was reviewed from the Proquest database. Within the scope of the research, 25 theses and dissertations that met the criteria were examined. The year, type, a method used, data collection tools, study group and number, and keywords of the theses were systematically analyzed. The systematic review method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used to examine the graduate theses on Afterschool STEM. As a result of the findings obtained by examining the theses related to Afterschool STEM; it was found that the first thesis study was a doctoral dissertation in 2003, there was a great increase in the number of theses published in 2015, and no thesis was published between 2004-2013, and most of the published theses were in the doctoral thesis type. In addition, in the distribution of theses according to the fields selected in the Proquest database, it was determined that most theses were published in the field of Science Education, qualitative and mixed research methods were used equally and mostly as research methods, and survey, interviews, and observation were mostly used as data collection tools. In the analyzed theses, data were collected mostly from Middle school students. When the number of participants in the theses was examined, the participants between 31-100 were mostly preferred in the studies. According to the keywords used in the theses, the words "education", "out of school time", "afterschool", "STEM" and "STEM education" were preferred.

Information Training and Media Education: a Method of Solving Students' Educational and Cognitive Problems in an Integrated Information Environment

Discusses the method of solving students' educational and cognitive problems in an integrated information environment. The purpose of the study is to determine effective forms and methods of information training and media education to ensure universal access to education throughout life. The source of the study was the works of scientists who consider issues of media education and information training as an important component of the educational and cognitive tasks of students in the context of an integrated information environment. A set of pedagogical research methods, both theoretical and practical, was used. According to experts, in the field of educational resources, the total volume of knowledge doubles every year, while the degree of satisfaction of the information needs of users in the absence of an appropriate level of skill in working with information does not improve. Computer science is today defined as one of the fundamental areas of scientific knowledge that forms a system-information approach to the analysis of the surrounding world, the study of information processes, methods and means of obtaining, transforming, transmitting, storing and using information, a rapidly developing and constantly expanding area of human practical activity associated with the use of educational resources. In this regard, media education and information training of students are considered as an important part of the professional and educational skills and abilities of students in the context of an integrated information environment. The results of the study can serve as a basis for solving educational and cognitive problems of continuous education, since today no serious economic, social, technical problem can be successfully solved without processing significant amounts of information.

Construction and Practice of High School Art Education Mode Based on Project Learning

The in-depth implementation of education reform, the high school art teaching gradually received more attention, to better carry out quality education, play a high school positive role of art education in aesthetic education, the actual teaching process, strengthen the exploration and research of diversified teaching methods, project learning in improving the students 'learning interest, cultivate students' ability to explore advantages gradually highlighted. Based on this, this paper starts with the role of project learning in high school art teaching, and further analyzes the key points of constructing high school art education model under project learning, including determining the project theme, designing the project framework, etc. Finally, the practical strategy of high school art teaching under project-based learning, including the change of teachers' roles and the integration and utilization of teaching resources, in order to effectively improve the level of art education.

Best practices for implementing equitable and just large-scale randomized trials in majority world countries.

This article focuses on a widely used method in developmental and education research in majority world countries: large-scale impact evaluations and randomized controlled trials. We build on our experience implementing such programs in majority world countries, primarily in West Africa, and reflect on our experiences to propose a set of best practices in maintaining equity and justice in collaborations between majority and minority world countries. These include prioritizing research-policy-community partnerships, promoting complementary research approaches, considering measurement timescales, and capacity exchange approaches. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Bringing embodied approaches to on-campus research methods teaching for large STEM cohorts: design, challenges, learning

In the post-pandemic world, Learning Development researchers have posited a ‘new hybrid era of teaching’, in which lessons from lockdown in best practice for online and remote teaching play a key role in increasing the inclusivity of higher education (Kantcheva and Bickle, 2023). At the same time, as many students have returned to campus, research has begun to interrogate the role that campus spaces and in-person interaction play in teaching and learning in this new era (Hrach, 2021; Cox et al., 2022). Whether through explicit pedagogical design or implicitly, courses with practical elements, particularly in many scientific disciplines, tend to favour principles of embodied learning through ‘learning-by-doing’. Courses incorporate hands-on interaction with laboratory equipment and social constructivist approaches through student co-creation (Deshmukh, 2021), the centrality of which to students’ professional training was made even more apparent during the move to remote learning. However, these same principles have not underscored the pedagogical approach to research methods education on the undergraduate Engineering degree programmes at the University of Manchester, which has typically been taught more didactically in recent years. This lecture-format approach has been used partially due to challenges of practicality, with the course unit being delivered to a large cohort that can reach 500 students in a typical year. With these principles in mind, this academic year, the Library Teaching, Learning and Students team has collaborated with academic leads across Engineering disciplines to deliver embedded research methods workshops that incorporate elements of an embodied, social constructivist approach, playing to the unique strengths of in-person group learning. This presentation charted the process of Learning Developers and academic staff co-designing these workshops, highlighting challenges encountered, and outlining learning from the process to take forward into future collaborations with disciplines with large cohorts.

Short-term conservation education influences Ugandan adolescents' knowledge, attitudes and investment decisions.

Environmental education research methods often focus on measuring changes in people's attitudes toward conservation. While attitudes are an important indicator of change, it is critical to target incentivised behaviour because conservation efforts often involve behavioural changes that are costly to one's self (e.g., reducing water use, purchasing pricier alternatives). In the present study, we measured both attitudes and behaviours in a short-term conservation education program near the primate-rich Kibale National Forest in Western Uganda. Adolescents ( N = 59) participated in a three-hour curriculum over three weeks integrated into an after-school wildlife club. After almost 30 years of successful primate conservation education in this region, we chose a novel taxonomic group (bats) for this study. Our pre-registered study had two conditions: an experimental condition, in which students learned about bats as an important local pollinator species, and a control condition, in which students learned about the moon. Only the experimental condition emphasised conservation's delayed benefits. We compared attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours pre- and post- curriculum. To capture behaviour, we employed an investment task in which participants could invest their own resources in a 'fund' to support work relating to bats or the moon, depending on condition. Across both conditions, participants showed positive shifts in attitudes and knowledge from pre- to post-measures and showed increased investments in bat- and moon-related funds. These findings reveal that short-term conservation education influences adolescents' investment decisions as well as their attitudes and knowledge. Our method can easily be edited for conservation education of any species including endangered primates.

Erratum: Using Non-Probability Sampling Methods in Agricultural and Extension Education Research

Erratum: Using Non-Probability Sampling Methods in Agricultural and Extension Education Research

Indigenizing research methods: making research outcomes better for all

In the context of Indigenizing academic practices and promoting cultural inclusivity within library and information institutions, this paper explores the significance of incorporating Indigenous approaches to research within LIS research methods courses. It argues that Indigenous research methods can be adapted and applied to other contexts, especially where research is being done in Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) communities, who also have a history of being marginalized in research. This paper advocates for research methods to be transformed by incorporating Indigenous approaches into research methods education and empowering students to become culturally competent researchers. The paper will demonstrate how the use of Indigenous methodologies provides students with an understanding of alternative paradigms informed by indigenous ways of knowing.

Editorial

This issue of RERM includes four papers that boldly attempt to propose ways in which educational research practices, traditions and methods might be enacted differently. They take seemingly foundational research methods (reviewing literature, ethnographic observation, walking methodologies) and transform them in to something less familiar that invite our readers to stutter and reappraise how else research might be done and with what outcomes. Firstly, researching from Danish inner cities, Staunæs and Vertelyte draw on affect theory and a concern with moods and felt pedagogies in education to explore how hopes and anxieties are woven through school objects and architecture. Through minor interventions the authors propose that there are abundant possibilities to improve the inclusion of racialized students in the inbetween, and often pathologised spaces of school. This holds the potential to radically shift perceptions, prejudices and behaviours that are not always identifiable but that can be sensed through the minor gesture. The authors attend to the significance of language and what happens through translation and diffractive readings. They stress that concepts that travel require careful consideration when transposed into alternative geopolitical contexts. They take Ahmed’s ‘happy objects’ as a case in point to make visible the specificities of local context and what that means for advancing theory that can pay closer attention to time and space. The next two papers address ways in which literature reviews – a staple element to any research project – can be up-ended and reimagined when post-foundational theories and practices are put to work. Naomi Pears-Scown makes use of Baradian theoretical concepts to think-with literature rather than merely review what is already known and organize a corpus of knowledge into useful categories. Through literature cartographies, Pears-Scown develops a mapping strategy that makes visible her affective engagement with literature through the crafting of found-poems which tell stories of the ways in which place shapes approaches to arts therapy in various geopolitical contexts. This novel approach to engaging with and encountering literature disrupts received wisdom about how literature should be reviewed and instead invites the reader to sit with the discomforts of expanding how literature stories can be told. In resonance with Pears-Scown, the next paper written by co-authors Boks-Vlemmix and Aspfors, offers a similar challenge to orthodoxies surrounding what a literature review is and how it should be undertaken. In their experimental piece the authors offer glimpses into what gets generated when the emphasis concerns processes and practices of doing a literature review rather than what it represents. Like the previous paper, the authors are inspired by a cartographic approach that holds the potential to map the processes involved in becoming deeply immersed and affect with a body of literature. They take literature on Teacher Educator Professional Learning as a case in point to explore how mapping and tracing entangled concepts can generate unanticipated insights and present new lines of thought. Finally, Louisa Allen explores the potential of smell, with all the senses and beyond the human, for educational research. She takes the reader on ‘smellwalks’ which presented themselves as an unlikely research method during pandemic lockdown. Allen provides detailed accounts of the ways in which smellwalks came into being in a small coastal town in Aotearoa-New Zealand and enabled a deep exploration of pandemic-transformed life at a daily and local level. The paper offers a theoretical examination of smellwalk methodology as a means to consider smell through multisensory conceptualisations where human senses are understood as distinct but overlapping. Further, the paper theorises the act of smelling as unbounded and ultimately, always more-than-human. A series of research moments are examined to demonstrate how smelling involves a multisensory experience that emerges with/through the material landscape. Together these papers offer important ways to reappraise approaches to research methodology in education that have become so deeply embedded that they unwittingly shape conventional expectations of how research should be done, has always be done. Each of these papers offer exciting invitations to interrupt this routine way of thinking. Respond to the invitation to pause, to ask, must we do it that way? The way it has always been done? What happens if we question and dare to experiment with alternative approaches? When theory is mobilized through research that seeks to pursue alternative lines of inquiry, what then? When theoretical concepts are taken up in/to ‘foreign’ spaces what happens to them? How do they travel? What do they agitate? What do they make possible? Aligned with the aims of this journal, these papers individually and collectively, invite a pause to business-as-usual in educational research. Jayne Osgood Camilla Andersen Mona-Lisa Angell Ann Merete Otterstad Editors

A Book Review on Research Methods in Education (8th edition)

A Book Review on Research Methods in Education (8th edition)

MLA Research Training Institute (RTI) 2018 and 2019: participant research confidence and program effectiveness.

The article reports on an assessment of the effectiveness of the MLA Research Training Institute (RTI) for the years 2018 and 2019. The RTI is a year-long continuing education research methods training and support program for health sciences librarians. The study focuses on assessing RTI participants' research confidence after program completion and compares these results with their perceptions of workshop/program performance and learning outcomes. In addition, the authors discuss how the findings were applied to inform and improve the program. The study used a 26-item questionnaire, RTI Research Confidence Questionnaire, to gather information on participants' self-reported research confidence before the workshop, immediately after the workshop, and one year after the workshop to determine statistically significant differences. Differences in research confidence were identified by using three nonparametric statistical tests. Additional workshop and program surveys were used to corroborate the research confidence findings. Post-workshop and one-year-after-workshop research confidence ratings were significantly higher than pre-workshop levels for years 1 and 2. A comparison of median ratings between years 1 and 2 showed significant increases in research confidence for nine items in year 2. Participants' positive perceptions of workshop/program effectiveness and learning outcomes corroborated these findings. Overall assessment findings indicated that RTI training helped participants understand, use, and apply research skills to conduct research. Findings also revealed that participants' heightened research confidence persisted at least 12 months postintervention. The RTI Research Confidence Questionnaire proved effective for rigorously assessing and improving the RTI program. This study enhances the currently limited evidence on evidence-based approaches for assessing and improving research instruction for librarians.

An Exploration of Pedagogical Research Methods in Traditional Chinese Thought: The Study of Lao-Zhuang Philosophy as the Core of Discussion

This study takes “Lao Zhuang’s Philosophy of Education” as the core of discussion, and tries to analyze the pedagogical research methodology of traditional Chinese thought, as well as to clarify the boundaries between the “study of history of education” and the “study of philosophy of education” in the study of traditional Chinese thought in education. It is found that there are two types of Lao-Zhuang's research results related to the theme of education research. First, the research on Lao-Zhuang’s thought is conducted with the concepts related to pedagogy as the main vein and analytical framework, which has the advantage of highlighting the value and characteristics of education, but the disadvantage is that this kind of research does not necessarily present the completeness of the traditional thought. The second is to take Lao-Zhuang’s thought as the core and then interpret its educational implications in the study of philosophy of education. The advantage is that it can highlight the completeness of the thought and avoid the interpretation of the meaning out of context, but the disadvantage is that many papers become mainly based on the interpretation of the meaning of the traditional thought, and the part of the educational derivation is relatively small and not systematic enough. On the whole, most of the educational research on traditional Chinese thought follows the three stages of Chinese philosophical research, and the application and explanation of research methodology is generally rare. If the study itself is a study of “the interpretation of thought itself”, then it belongs to the study of “philosophy of education”. If the study emphasizes on the ideological interactions of traditional thought in different times, or the exploration of the meaning of a certain thought in relation to the political and social context of the time, then it belongs to the study of “history of education”, so the study of the education of the current philosophy of Lao and Zhuang can be categorized as a study of “philosophy of education”.

Essential Foundational Education Research Methods Articles for Graduate Medical Educators: A Delphi Study.

Background Graduate medical educators interested in designing and conducting education research may seek foundational general overview articles on education research methods. Objective We aimed to identify the most useful foundational education research methods articles for medical educators. Methods We identified candidate articles through a 2020 Ovid MEDLINE literature search augmented by the authors' personal files and by cross-checking references of included articles. Articles that were primarily about general education research principles were included; articles were excluded if they were not focused on medical education research methods, were published prior to the year 2000, were written in a non-English language, or had no available abstracts. We conducted a modified Delphi study with 10 participants representing a range of specialties and education research experience to find consensus about the most useful articles. We planned 3 rounds of the Delphi process, the first to eliminate any articles not deemed useful for this audience, and the second and third rounds to include articles that at least 80% of the panel deemed "most useful" to education researchers. Results Of 25 relevant articles identified in the literature search: one was excluded in round 1, 7 met the a priori threshold of 80% agreement for inclusion in round 2, and an additional 2 met inclusion in round 3. These 9 foundational education research methods articles relevant to graduate medical educators are described, along with a capsule summary and specific use for education researchers. Conclusions Our modified Delphi study of foundational education research methods articles identified 9 articles deemed useful for graduate medical educators who are seeking methods resources.

Research Methodology Courses in Advanced Studies in Education: Trends from the Portuguese Case

The identification and characterisation of all course syllabus on research methodologies in education in advanced studies in education allows to present the current Portuguese teaching and learning scenario in this field for the first time. The approach for the development of this empirical work was a national survey of all master's and doctoral programmes in education and in teaching, coding and translating the information. The data collected was validated with the respective higher education institution, the master or doctoral coordinator and the teacher responsible for the research methods teaching. A qualitative based methodology through descriptive statistical analysis enables a presentation of trends in the design and organisation of the course syllabus. The results show a research knowledge that is fragmented and not clear. The descriptions of course syllabus undervalue the epistemological and methodological issues inherent in the construction of scientific knowledge in education. Privilege is given to the operationality of the methodology with a view to developing a scientific project.

Модель интерактивного обучения: полиморфный подход

Introduction. The peculiarity of building a model of interactive learning lies in the polymorphism of the term “interactive”, which has different forms of realization. Interactivity is considered from two positions: a high level of activity of students and the technology of using information and communication technologies in distance learning. It is required to eliminate the contradictions existing in the perception and realization of interactivity in learning. The aim of the study is to develop a model of interactive distance learning, taking into account the polymorphic approach in interactivity. Methodology and methods: study of methodological literature of domestic and foreign authors on the issue of organizing interactive learning, acquaintance with the experience of leading educational institutions and large companies promoting interactive technologies. The obtained materials were subjected to theoretical and empirical methods of pedagogical research. Findings of the study. The author proposes to expand the informativeness of the interactive learning model. In the case of activation of classes in the classroom there is a contact model – “interactive learning”. For distance learning it is necessary to introduce the “model of interactive learning” and structure it by realized activity: a passive “model of interactive learning”, an active “model of interactive learning” and an interactive “model of interactive learning”. Conclusion. Interactive technology of distance learning has peculiarities. It is effective at alternation of small blocks of information and requires realization of “active learning strategy” – controlled change of learners' activity during classes.

Research Methods for Education and the Social Disciplines in Aotearoa New Zealand. Edited by Frauke and Kane Meissel. (2023)

Research Methods for Education and the Social Disciplines in Aotearoa New Zealand. Edited by Frauke and Kane Meissel. (2023)

Issues and Challenges of Qualitative Research Methods Education in Communication

Issues and Challenges of Qualitative Research Methods Education in Communication

The design, implementation, and evaluation of a blended (in-person and virtual) Clinical Competency Examination for final-year nursing students

IntroductionStudies have reported different results of evaluation methods of clinical competency tests. Therefore, this study aimed to design, implement, and evaluate a blended (in-person and virtual) Competency Examination for final-year Nursing Students.MethodsThis interventional study was conducted in two semesters of 2020–2021 using an educational action research method in the nursing and midwifery faculty. Thirteen faculty members and 84 final-year nursing students were included in the study using a census method. Eight programs and related activities were designed and conducted during the examination process. Students completed the Spielberger Anxiety Inventory before the examination, and both faculty members and students completed the Acceptance and Satisfaction questionnaire.FindingsThe results of the analysis of focused group discussions and reflections indicated that the virtual CCE was not capable of adequately assessing clinical skills. Therefore, it was decided that the CCE for final-year nursing students would be conducted using a blended method. The activities required for performing the examination were designed and implemented based on action plans. Anxiety and satisfaction were also evaluated as outcomes of the study. There was no statistically significant difference in overt, covert, and overall anxiety scores between the in-person and virtual sections of the examination (p > 0.05). The mean (SD) acceptance and satisfaction scores for students in virtual, in-person, and blended sections were 25.49 (4.73), 27.60 (4.70), and 25.57 (4.97), respectively, out of 30 points, in which there was a significant increase in the in-person section compared to the other sections. (p = 0.008). The mean acceptance and satisfaction scores for faculty members were 30.31 (4.47) in the virtual, 29.86 (3.94) in the in-person, and 30.00 (4.16) out of 33 in the blended, and there was no significant difference between the three sections (p = 0.864).ConclusionEvaluating nursing students’ clinical competency using a blended method was implemented and solved the problem of students’ graduation. Therefore, it is suggested that the blended method be used instead of traditional in-person or entirely virtual exams in epidemics or based on conditions, facilities, and human resources. Also, the use of patient simulation, virtual reality, and the development of necessary virtual and in-person training infrastructure for students is recommended for future research. Furthermore, considering that the acceptance of traditional in-person exams among students is higher, it is necessary to develop virtual teaching strategies.