Teaching

In the various courses I teach, my goals are (1) to show my students how quantitative methods can help them as they make and critique educational research arguments, (2) to impress upon them that the validity of educational research conclusions depends not upon the specific methodological approach being taken, but upon how well the approach fits the research question that was posed, (3) to help them learn how different quantitative methods fit together and how they can be used effectively, and (4) to motivate them to deepen their understanding of different methodological approaches.

Courses Frequently Taught:

EDUC 8230: Quantitative Methods in Educational Research

In this class I attempt to convince students to think of quantitative methods as “the art of making numerical conjectures about puzzling questions [1] .” I also attempt to teach them how to be critical consumers of quantitative methods that are often used to obfuscate more than they are used to enlighten. My classroom sessions are usually a mix of lecture, demonstration, whole-class discussion and small-group activities. Since I believe that the best way to learn statistical methods is to apply these methods in context, my class involves the frequent use of problem sets that combine conceptual and analytical practice questions. Conceptual questions are typically drawn from the course textbook, while analytical questions require the use of statistical software with empirical data sets. To accomplish the latter I expose my students to primary data sets taken from actual examples of published educational research. I find that using real data sets from published research provides students with a grounded context within which to interpret the results of their analyses. On each problem set I emphasize to students that the reasoning and evidence they provide to support their answers is just as important to me as the correctness of their answers. This is the basis for the formative comments I provide as feedback on all completed problem sets. Other structural elements of this course have included midterm and final exams, and a research project in which students are expected to critique the presentation of a statistical analysis from a newspaper report.

For a copy of the most recent course syllabus for EDUC 8230, click here.

In these specialty courses I emphasize the idea that measurement is both art and science, and that while much of the science can be learned from textbooks and articles, the art can be learned only from experience. The aim of the first course is to give students an introduction to fundamental concepts of measurement through a semester-long project in which students are expected to develop, pilot test, analyze and evaluate their own survey instruments. The concept of validity serves as a unifying theme that motivates the development and evaluation of these instruments. The focus of the second course is on obtaining a deeper understanding of specific psychometric models for measurement and their applications in educational and psychological research. Consistent with the approach taken in all my courses, students are expected to apply and compare different psychometric models in the context of empirical data.

Syllabus for Measurement in Survey Research

Syllabus for Advanced Topics in Measurement