People working together at a table with laptops open

Photo by Canva Studio

 

Welcome to EDCI 570/71 Research in Curriculum and Instruction. Although some of you will be registered in EDCI 570 (Elementary) and some in EDCI 571 (Secondary), we will actually run the course as a single course. The only difference for you will be the name of the course that will appear on your official university transcript. The calendar describes this course as a review of the critical issues; and analysis of significant research on curriculum development at the elementary and secondary school level. For the purposes of this course, we will focus primarily on research that relates to Educational Technology.

This course is not a Research Methods course, but rather a reading and process course where we may delve into the research and learn about what research is being done in Educational Technology. Through learning about current research, we can identify key themes and topics in Educational Technology that may impact your own practice as well as help focus your interests for the master’s project.

Course Objectives 

 The purposes of this course are:

  1. To allow students to develop insights into current research regarding curriculum, learning and teaching with a specific focus on technology in education.
  2. To acquaint students with some of the literature on teaching and learning with technology.
  3. To help students develop their library research techniques, academic communication abilities, and professional leadership.

Students are invited to identify and select readings and direct their assignments toward their specific grade range, content area, and research focus for their project. While you may not, at this time, yet know what your project will be focused on, this is an opportunity to explore the literature related to the major themes in educational technology.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Locate and assess scholarly articles related to educational technology in K-12 contexts.
  • Organize and annotate relevant research and start to build a database of literature related to their research interests.
  • Present a synthesis of a research area to peers through a scholarly presentation.

Text / Reading List

No textbook purchase is required. Students are required to access the course website where weekly readings and any additional resources will be made available.

Mode of Instruction

This course will be offered online. Activities will occur via various methods of access and include:

  • participation in weekly live video classes on Zoom (whole group, small group, or pairs)
  • participation via blog posts, Mattermost discussion, social annotation, editable online documents, email, text chat, and/or social media
  • observation or creation of text or multimedia files across a variety of platforms