Weekly Schedule
| Week | Topic | |
| 17 | Introduction to research in education | |
| 18 | Using Research as a Practitioner: locating and interpreting research | |
| 19 | Writing a literature review | |
| 20 | Teaching and Research in the NZ: Teaching as Inquiry | |
| 21 | Designing your own Inquiry Project | |
| 22 | Collecting Evidence | |
| 23 | Interpreting and Using Evidence | |
| 24 | Ethics and Research, Rethinking Research and Practice |
Week 24: Ethics and Research
This week explores the key ethical principles in educational research and several examples of how people or institutions are rethinking the relationship between research and practice in education.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the key ethical principles in educational research.
- Engage with literature on different initiatives and approaches to the relationship between research and practice in education.
- Recognise some of the opportunities available to you going forward if you are interested in becoming more engaged with research.
'All social research (whether using surveys, documents, interviews, observation, or computer-mediated communication) gives rise to a range of ethical issues around privacy, informed consent, anonymity, secrecy, being truthful and the desirability of the research’ (Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., Tight, M. 2001, How to Research (2nd edn.), Oxford, UK: OUP.)
While as a teacher-researcher (undertaking research in your own classroom or school) you are not required to go through any formal ethics process, it is still critical that you think about the ethical implications of your research.
Research ethics are important for:
- Protecting others (particularly the participants in your study) and minimising harm
- Ensuring trust from those we work with
- Promoting integrity of the research
- Reconciling the responsibilities to participants, research and other communities involved
The British Educational Research Association (BERA) states that all education research should be conducted within an ethic of respect for:
- The person
- Knowledge
- Democratic values
- The quality of educational research
- Academic freedom
The key principles of research ethics are:
- Voluntary informed consent. That is participants have the right to opt in and opt out of the research and may not be forced or coerced into participating. Issues of consent are particularly important when working with children and generally require more rigorous consent procedures (often including a parent or guardian giving consent on behalf of the child).
- Avoid deception. The aims and nature of the research must be clearly and accurately articulated to those involved.
- The right to withdraw. All participants must have the right to withdraw from a study at any stage. If a participant withdraws, none of the data previously collected on them can be included.
- Avoid detriment to participants.
- Respect Privacy. This often includes ensuring anonymity for participants.
- Consider disclosure.
- Aim to debrief participants.
Ethics in your own work
Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that to mitigate ethical issues it is not only necessary to follow the ethical guidelines of your particular institution but also to consider why the study is worth doing and how it will contribute in some significant way to the broader domain. Tracy (2010) further advocates ensuring the worthiness of the topic of study and considering the significance of the contribution it will make to the research field or to practice.
Therefore, when planning any inquiry projects in your own practice it is helpful to think carefully about the purpose of your inquiry. Think about what your research might be able to contribute and to whom, and also how you will disseminate and share the findings of your research.
Further Information
For further information on research ethics have a look at the BERA Guidelines uploaded to the portal as well as the following websites:
British Educational Research Association (BERA) https://www.bera.ac.uk/researchers-resources/resources-for-researchers
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Tasks for this week
1. Read the class note on ethics and research.
2. Two readings have been uploaded to the platform, each focusing on a different approach to research in education.
Improvement Science: The Carnegie Foundation has been involved in developing a new form of research in education called improvement science. For more information on Improvement Science have a look at the Carnegie Foundation website: http://www.carnegiefoundation.org
Shonkoff’s Three Cultures: Shonkoff is a researcher in child development at Harvard University. He is interested in how research knowledge, what he terms science, can better inform policy and practice. He suggests the development of three knowledge typologies:
i). Established knowledge – the types of validated knowledge established by researchers in academic settings.
ii). Reasonable hypotheses – knowledge, developed by researchers, practitioners or policy makers, which may not be validated by scientific knowledge but could be used as a basis for responsible action based decision-making.
iii). Unwarranted assertions – these are essentially myths, ideas that are not supported by research and often result from misrepresented or misinterpretation of research.
(The article is also available from: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irpweb/initiatives/trainedu/igrfp/readings05/Shonkoff2000.pdf)
3. If you are interested in research and in particular in becoming more involved in using and undertaking research, Unitec offers several opportunities to you. To find out more about these have a look at the presentation materials uploaded to the portal.
References
Miles, M. and Huberman, A. (1994). An Expanded Sourcebook: Qualitative Data Analysis (2nd edn.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Tracy, S. (2010). Qualitative Quality: Eight ''Big-Tent'' Criteria for Excellent Qualitative Research. Qualitative Researcher, 16 (10) 837–851.
Week 23: Interpreting and Using Evidence
This week we examine how you can interpret the data or evidence you collect during your inquiry project and use it to inform, direct and improve your practice.
Learning outcomes
- Recognise different techniques for interpreting evidence and understand how these can be employed in your practice.
- Understand how you can use the evidence you collect to inform, direct and improve your practice.
Jonathan Gray wrote a very useful piece for The Guardian newspaper on the limits of data. It is well worth a read and is available from:http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/31/data-journalism-focused-critical
Gray offers the following pieces of advice about data:
- Data is not a force unto itself. It is what individuals (or groups) do with data that brings meaning and power.
- Data is not a perfect reflection of the world. The choices we make about data, including what we choose to collect, how we collect it, how we analyse it and how we interpret our analysis all influence the findings and conclusions we can make.
- Data does not speak for itself. It requires interpretation and analysis (hopefully by knowledgeable individuals). In education especially, it needs to be understood within its particular context. This might be in relation to a particular class, school, community etc.
- Interpreting data is not easy. Really understanding what the data is telling us can be very tricky.
Despite these cautions about data, the evidence you collect as part of your teaching inquiry can be very useful.
The following blog post provides some good ideas of how different types of evidence can be used by teachers:
Resources to support you
The TKI website contains some useful resources to support you in using evidence to inform your teaching practice.
For a general overview of the principles of data analysis go to:
For more specific tools and strategies that you can use, go to:
For a good overview of using evidence in schools have a look at the article published by The Digest and uploaded to the platform.
Tasks for this week
1. Read the class notes on interpreting and using evidence.
2. Check out the information available on the TKI website:
3. For more information and detail on using evidence read the article from The Digest uploaded to the portal (also available fromhttp://www.vit.vic.edu.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/The Digest/1636_The-Digest-Issue-3-08_final.pdf).
Week 22: Collecting Evidence or Data
This week focuses on the different methods you can use to collect evidence (or data) during your inquiry project.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the importance of collecting evidence during an inquiry project
- Become familiar with the different types of evidence you could collect
- Decide on the types of evidence / collection methods you will use in your inquiry project
The success of your inquiry project relies on your ability to collect evidence or data in order to determine the impact or influence your project is having. Data and evidence can take many forms, however, one of the defining features of collecting evidence in an inquiry project is that data collection is planned and systematic. Earl and Timperley (2014) suggest that evidence must be ‘fit-for-purpose, of sufficient quality to form an accurate representation of the situation being evaluated and be available when decisions are being made’ (p. 17).
There are a myriad of methods that can be used to collect evidence. Some possible methods include:
- Document analysis (this may include examples of students’ work)
- Surveys
- Focus groups and/or interviews
- Student assessment data (this could include both formative and summative assessment).
- Pre and post test data (this could be used if you are developing an intervention designed specifically to raise student achievement in a particular area, e.g. spelling or math. You could give students a pre test to ascertain their current level and then give them a similar or the same test after the intervention to determine whether there has been improvement)
- Students’ just-in-time responses using digital technologies and social media
- Classroom (or other locations) observations
When deciding on the methods you will use you need to think about the purposes of your inquiry and the constraints and opportunities in your specific context. You also need to think about how many different methods you should employ. By using multiple methods you will get richer data, which may be more reliable (if different methods indicate the same findings you can be more confident in these findings). However, you also need to make sure that you don’t try to do too much. You are a single person/researcher and if you spread yourself too thin you run the risk of not being able to analyse your data as thoroughly as you need to.
Earl and Timperley (2014) provide two examples of different types of evidence that were collected as part of two separate inquiry projects.
Just In Time Evidence
An innovative arts programme focused on increasing student engagement in their learning, partnered artists with teachers in classrooms to deliver elements of the curriculum through arts-related activities. To gather data related to the students’ engagement with their learning during these activities, the evaluators designed surveys to be completed by the students. These were delivered to the students through an “experience sampling” process (Hektner, Schmidt & Csikszentmihalyi, 2007) in which students received the survey via their cellphones at selected times during their classroom activities, coinciding with their participation in the arts-related activities and in their other classroom experiences, several times during the school year. This produced “just in time” data rather than asking students to give global statements related to their engagement, after the fact.
Some helpful online resources
The Ministry of Education has created some very helpful resources to support teachers in collecting and using data in their practice. The following links might provide you with some
TKI provides some useful guidance on how teachers can use a range of assessment methods. (http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Using-evidence-for-learning/Gathering-evidence/Topics/Assessment-methods).
The Ministry of Education has also produced some useful information to support teachers and school leaders in using evidence.
Also on the MoE and TKI websites are a number of case studies of how schools around NZ have used evidence and data to inform their teaching and learning.
Using self-report measures
It is probably fairly likely that at least some of the evidence you collect will be based on self-report measures (that is participants – i.e. students, teachers, whanau – providing their point of view). The document entitled Self-report Methods (chapter 6 in Barker, Pistrang, and Elliott's 2016 book), which has been uploaded to the platform has some useful information on how you can use self-report methods.
Some things that would be useful to think about.
Interviews: Interviews can take a variety of forms. They can be structured, meaning they follow a set of pre-determined questions and do not deviate from these. They can be unstructured, which means that you do not establish any questions before the interview. The final form of interviews is semi-structure, where you create an interview schedule but you can deviate from it to follow up any interesting points that the interviewee might raise.
Something to think about when creating an interview schedule (the questions you will be asking) is whether you ask open or closed questions. Open questions are going to provide you with potentially much deep and more detailed information.
Surveys: There are several things to consider when designing a survey. The first is the form that the questions will take. Do you want to use short answer questions, long answer questions, yes/no questions or a likert scale (where participants rank their responses on a scale, for example from 1 to 5). Each type of question will provide different types of data.
You also need to think about the length of your survey. You don’t want it to be too long, as participants will loose focus. However, at the same time you want to make sure that you collect all the information that you will need. Try to think about what information you are trying to gain from your survey and what questions you need to ask in order to get this information.
Also think about your mode of surveying. Do you want to use an online survey builder or do you want people to complete the survey by hand? The benefit of an online survey is that the programme will collate the data for you. However, the online format may make it harder for some participants to access it.
Observations: You might want to conduct observations of your students (or possibly other staff members or community groups) as part of your data collection. Before you start your observation it can often help if you think of some questions or topic areas that will help to structure or guide you and remind you of things to focus on or think about. You also need to think about how you will record your observations. Do you want to be taking notes or videoing students while you are observing them? Or do you want to do the observations and then write up your thoughts afterwards? Do you need to collect any artefacts (for example students’ work) as part of your observation?
Further Recommended Reading
Two short documents have been uploaded to the platform to provide additional reading on using data.
Easton, C. (ND). Data for self-evaluation. Slough, NFER. Retrieved from http://www.nfer.ac.uk/schools/data-for-self-evaluation-seced.pdf
Ministry of Education (2014) Using Data: Transforming Potential into Practice. Ideas into Action, 5, 1-32. Retrieved fromhttp://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/leadership/IdeasIntoActionFall11.pdf
Tasks for this week
1. Read the class notes and explore the links to videos that have been developed by the Ministry of Education on how teachers can use evidence and data (these are in the class notes).
2. Have a read through the two short documents uploaded to the platform:
- Data for self-evaluation (also available at http://www.nfer.ac.uk/schools/data-for-self-evaluation-seced.pdf)
- Using Data: Transforming Potential into Practice (also available at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/leadership/IdeasIntoActionFall11.pdf)
3. Think about the methods that will best enable you to collect the evidence you need for your inquiry project.
If you are going to use interviews, focus groups or surveys it would be a good idea to start thinking about how you are going to design these. See the class notes and the reading on self-report methods for more information about this.
References
Barker, L., Pistrang, N., & Elliott, R. (2016). Research Methods in Clinical Psychology An Introduction for Students and Practitioners. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Earl, L. & Timperley, H. (2014). Evaluative Thinking for Successful Educational Innovation. Report prepared for CERI/OECD. Unpublished.
Week 21:
The focus of this week is supporting you in the planning of your own inquiry research project. You will be introduced to the steps that you will need to go through when planning and undertaking your project. The tasks this week are designed to support you in undertaking assignment three.
Learning Objectives
- Recognise the components and steps that are involved in designing an inquiry project
- Know how to design your own inquiry project
- Understand how to involve your chosen community(s) in your project design
For your third assessment you will be designing your own inquiry project and community engagement plan. The assessment itself will focus primarily on the design of your project, rather than on you actually implementing your plan in your school context. However, it is hoped that you will then actually implement the plan in your practice.
Last week focused on the teaching as inquiry process, developing your understanding of what teaching as inquiry is, why it is important and how it actually looks in practice. This week is focused on outlining the steps and stages you will need to go through when developing your own inquiry project and community action plan for your third assignment. The format of the project you will be developing for assignment three is slightly adapted from that outlined last week.
A key element of your assignment is deciding how you will involve community (this could be students, other teachers in your school, whanau etc) in the planning and implementation of your project. Community involvement will include informing your community about your project, seeking feedback from your community about your project during the planning stages as well as throughout its implementation, and sharing the findings of your project with your community.
Steps and stages for developing your inquiry project
Topic area
The first thing you need to do is to clearly establish your topic area. This should be the topic, or a sub-set of the topic, that you have been focusing on throughout this course.
You will need to create the research question(s) that will guide your inquiry project. Think about what it is that you want to find out about. Try to be as specific as you can be.
You need to assess the relevance of your project and justify your decision for focusing on this topic. This should include:
- How the literature on your topic supports your area of focus
- Why your topic is particularly relevant to your school setting
- How your topic will support your community
Culturally responsive projects
It is important that you think about how you can ensure that your inquiry project will be culturally responsive to all learners, and for the assessment you will need to include a section discussion how it incorporates or responds to aspects of Kaupapa Maori and Te Noho Kotahitangi. The Ministry of Education has created a resource on Improving Outcomes for Maori and Pasifika Students through Inquiry that may be helpful. The document is available on the portal as well as from the Ministry website, which also provides other useful information (http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry).
Establish your community
You need to clearly identify the community or communities that you will be engaging with in your inquiry. Communities could include students, other teachers and school staff, whanau. You need to discuss why you have chosen to focus on this community and how your topic is relevant to them.
For your assessment you need to discuss at which stages of the inquiry project you will be engaging with your community and why. Here are some stages that you could engage with your community:
- designing the focus of your inquiry
- gaining initial feedback on the design of your inquiry
- the methods you will be using to collect data
- the data collection process
- the analysis of your data
- the presentation of your findings
Data collection methods
You need to think about what data you will need to collect in order to answer your research questions (next week focuses on data collection in more detail). This data can be either qualitative or quantitative, or a mixture of both. Some things to think about with regards to data collection:
- What baseline data do you need to collect? Baseline data is data collected at the start of an inquiry project that allows you establish the current situation and will enable a point of comparison for data you collect through out your inquiry.
- What data do you need to collect throughout your inquiry project? Do you need feedback from students? Do you need student achievement data? Think carefully about the best way to collect this data. It might be in the form of tests, surveys, focus groups, interviews, classroom observation, student portfolios of achievement.
- What summative data do you need to collect? This is data collected at the end of your inquiry project that will enable you to see what has worked and what has not worked.
For each data collection method you need to explain why you have chosen it, the data it will provide for you and why this data will be important.
You need to think about how and why you will be including your community in your data collection.
Next week will focus more specifically on the types of data you could collect and collection methods.
Seeking initial feedback
As part of your assessment you need to get initial feedback on your inquiry plan. This feedback could take a variety of forms. You may want to show your plan to your mentor/principal/HOD etc and ask them to provide feedback on it. You could engage with your community (students/teachers/whanau) and ask for their feedback on what you are proposing. While the way in which you collect this feedback is entirely up to you, for this type of feedback, it often is most helpful if it involves face-to-face discussions.
Responding to feedback
For your assessment you will need to document the feedback you received as well as discuss how you will respond to the feedback. It might involve the modification of some aspects of your inquiry project, for example slightly modified research questions or a different data collection method. You need to show evidence that you have reflected on the feedback you received.
Impact of findings
You will need to assess the potential impact of the findings from your inquiry project. While you will not know yet what the findings will show you, you do need to think about some of the ways in which they might impact on you, your community, your school etc.
Task for this week
- Read through the class notes.
- As part of your assessment 3 you will be asked to think about how the Teaching as Inquiry project you design will engage various communities in your school (i.e. students, teachers, whanau etc) as well as how it relates to Kaupapa Maori research. The following website discusses how teaching as inquiry can be designed so that it is culturally responsive to all students. http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry/Teaching-as-inquiry
- Start planning your own inquiry project.
Week 20: Teaching and Research in the NZ Context
This week we examine the relationship between teaching and research in the New Zealand context and in particular the concept of teaching as inquiry, which is outlined in the New Zealand Curriculum. We will explore the theoretical concepts underpinning teaching as inquiry as well as examining case studies of the inquiry method in action.
Learning Objectives
- Understand what the inquiry process is and how it operates in practice
- Recognise how the inquiry model can support you in your teaching practice
TEACHING AS INQUIRY
For the past three weeks we have been looking at how you can use research in order to develop an evidence-informed practice. For the next four weeks the focus shifts from using research to becoming a researcher in your own classroom or school setting.
In your practice you are constantly deciding what to do and how to act. You will be evaluating and reflecting (either consciously or subconsciously and often both) on your teaching practice and making judgments on what you should do next. Adopting the stance of teacher researcher formalises these evaluative and reflective processes. As Wilson (2013) explains:
Researching our practice presents the opportunity to problem-solve more intelligently, through drawing on existing research findings and by using rigorous methods to collect evidence which helps clarify our thinking. Experiences of participating in an informed way, and acting freshly, offer the teacher for whom teaching has become a routine a sense of freedom, of meaning, of worthiness and consequently increased self- esteem. (Wilson, 2013, 5)
Concept of teacher as researcher
The concept of the teacher as researcher has a long history in the academic literature. Lawrence Stenhouse in the 1970s first popularised the idea of teachers acting as researchers of and in their practice. Stenhouse believed that ‘educational knowledge exists in, and is verified or falsified in, its performance’ (Stenhouse, 1984, p.110).
Schon (1983) developed the concept of the reflective practitioner, invests teachers with an active role in the procurement and development of the specialised knowledge that they require to become expert teachers. Schon believes that teachers’ personal, practical knowledge is developed only when teachers reflect on their actions:
He [the teacher] reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carriers out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation. (Schon, 1983, 68).
Lytle and Cochran-Smith (1992) built upon and extended Schon’s theory of the reflective practitioner to suggest that teachers also learn and create new knowledge by assuming an inquiry stance within their practice. They claim that ‘what is worth knowing about teaching includes teachers’ ‘ways of knowing’, or what teachers, who are researchers in their own classrooms, can know through their own systematic subjectivity’ (p.43). Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) developed the concept of ‘knowledge-of- practice’, which places teachers at the centre of knowledge production. It assumes that the knowledge teachers need to teach effectively is generated when teachers treat their classrooms and schools as research spaces. Teachers conduct inquiry projects into their practice, as well as interrogating and interpreting the knowledge and theory produced by others, to create knowledge that is applicable and relevant to their teaching context.
The importance of teacher research/inquiry
There are two main themes dominating discussions of why teacher research is important. The first relates to the importance of teacher-created knowledge for improvement in teaching and learning, and in particular student outcomes. The second centres on notions of teacher professionalism. The following quotes represent various reasonings behind the importance of teacher-research or teacher-inquiry.
It is a community of teachers that is needed to work together to ask the questions, evaluate their impact and decide on the optimal next steps … Such passion for evaluating impact is the single most critical lever for instructional excellence – accompanied by understanding this impact, and doing something in light of the evidence and understanding (Hattie, 2012).
The critical characteristics of that extended professionalism which is essential for well-founded curriculum research and development seem to me to be:
- The commitment to systemic questioning of one’s own teaching as a basis for development
- The commitment and the skills to study one’s own teaching
- The concern to question and to test theory in practice by the use of those skills
To this may be added a readiness to allow other teachers to observe one’s work – directly or through recordings – and to discuss it with them on an open and honest basis. (Stenhouse, 1975)
Enquiry stands at the centre of all activities in developing an activist teacher. Professional teachers are viewed as researchers of their own practices, capable of producing worthwhile knowledge about teaching which can contribute their own and others’ professional development (Sachs, 2003).
Teacher research has the potential to act as an important source of teacher and academic professional renewal and development because learning standards at the core of this renewal through the production and circulation of new knowledge about practice (Sachs, 2003).
Teaching as Inquiry: The New Zealand Context
Teaching as inquiry is a process that involves educators investigating the impact of their decisions and practice on students. The New Zealand Curriculumdescribes it as a cyclical process in which questions are posed, evidence is gathered and decisions are made. Aitken and Sinnema (2008) describe teaching as inquiry as a systematic process for teachers to use in their classrooms, which draws on successful experience of teachers and research sources.
Teaching as Inquiry goes beyond the reflective practices teachers regularly employ to develop a more systematic approach for investigating and evaluating practice. Below is the page from the NZC describing what teaching as inquiry is.
For more information about teaching as inquiry read Graeme Aitken’s background paper, The inquiring teacher (available fromhttp://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Leadership-programmes/First-time-principals-modules/Module-2-Teaching-effectiveness).
It is also worth watching a video Graeme Aitken has made on teaching as inquiry (http://connect.vln.school.nz/ftpmodule2/).
Tasks for this week
1. Read through the class notes on teaching and research in New Zealand. These are designed to give you some background on the concept of the teacher researcher and to provide a brief introduction to the teaching as inquiry model, as it is established in the New Zealand Curriculum.
The following activities will help to give you a better understanding of teaching as inquiry
2. Read Graeme Aitken’s paper on teaching as inquiry and watch the video presentation he gives about the importance and nature of teaching as inquiry. Both are available from: http://assessment.tki.org.nz/Assessment-in-the-classroom/Teaching-as-inquiry/Teaching-as-inquiry-useful-readings-and-links
3. To get more of an understanding of how the teaching as inquiry model can work in practice have a look at some of the short videos, which discuss various inquiry projects that teachers have been involved in.
References
Aitken, G. & Sinnema, C. (2008). Effective Pedagogy in Social Sciences: Tikanga ā Iwi: BES. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. (1999). The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later. Educational Researcher, 28, 15-25.
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. London: Routledge.
Lytle, S. & Cochran-Smith, M. (1992). Teacher Research as a Way of Knowing. Harvard Educational Review, 62, 447-474.
Sachs, J. (2003). The activist teaching profession. Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Schon, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
Stenhouse, L. (1975). An introduction to curriculum research and development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishers.
Stenhouse, L. (1984). Artistry and Teaching: the Teachers as Focus of Research and Development. In D. Hopkins and M. Wideen (Eds.), Alternative Perspectives on School Improvement (pp. 67-76). Lewes and Philadlephia: Falmer Press.
Wilson, E. (2013). School-based Research: A guide for education students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Week 19: Writing a Literature Review
This week will focus on how to write a literature review. You are going to be writing a literature review on your chosen area for your second assessment. The readings, videos and tasks for this week are designed to support you with this assessment.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the purpose of a literature review
- Recognise the different elements that make up a literature review
- Understand the process you must go through in order to produce your own literature review on your chosen topic area
What is a literature review?
A literature review can form the first part of a research paper or it can be an entire, stand-alone paper, which often forms the first stage of a larger research project. The literature review you will be writing will function as an independent paper, however, it is also intended to inform the inquiry project that you will be developing.
The literature review is a critical evaluation of the research that has been done in a particular area. A literature review should:
- Provide an overview of the research that has been conducted in a particular topic
- Describe and summarise the findings of previous research
- Make connections and compare and contrast research findings
- Evaluate and analyse the research findings and organise information into coherent themes.
A literature review can provide an up-to-date picture of the research area of interest and show which areas:
- have been investigated and the results obtained
- identify methods of investigation that could be used in further research
- give indications of problems that might be encountered and possible solutions
- reveal common findings among studies
- reveal inconsistencies between studies
- identify factors not previously considered
- provide suggestions for further research.
(Hewitt, M. (2009). How to Search and Critically Evaluate Research Literature. The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber.)
Important to note
When writing your literature review it is important that you do not just provide a list of the research that has been done in your chosen area. You must critically engage with the research, evaluate the findings, identify common themes and commonalities and also recognise any disagreements or tensions that exist in the literature. It is important to use the literature to tell a particular story. You should use the literature to explain why this topic is important to focus on and to possibly identify gaps in the literature that your inquiry project can help to address.
Martyn Shuttleworth has written a useful (and short) article on what a literature review is (and is not). You can access it here: https://explorable.com/what-is-a-literature-review
How to do a Literature Review: The Steps and Stages
| 1. Identify research problem and develop your research questionsBefore you can undertake a review of the literature it is important that you define the area you will be focusing on. Writing a research question or questions will help you to structure your literature search and literature review. |
2. Find relevant literature You need to gather the literature that you are going to review in your paper. Use the notes and resources from last week to help you with this stage. |
3. Critically evaluate literature This follows on from last week’s focus on how to interpret academic literature. It is really important in your literature review that you are not just presenting and describing the research findings but that you are also evaluating and interpreting them. Here are some questions that you should be asking your self as you read the literature:
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4. Synthesise the literature Following on from step 3, when you are planning and writing your literature review it is really important that you synthesise the literature. Synthesis involves combining ideas from a range of sources, grouping together common ideas and key arguments. As you read through the literature try to identify the key themes that are emerging. What are the commonalities between the different sources you are reading? Are there any disagreements or tensions? It can be useful to identify key themes as you go and to then place relevant excerpts or quotes from different sources under each theme. In order to work out whether you have critically analysed and synthesised the literature as your self these questions: - Do I compare and contrast different concepts and ideas, rather than just listing or summarising them? - Do I assess the strengths and weaknesses of the different ideas and concepts I am discussing? - Have I cited and discussed studies that are contrary to my perspective? For a good and easy to read discussion about how to write a literature review, have a look at this blog post: http://getalifephd.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/six-steps-to-writing-literature-review.html |
5. Writing your literature reviewOnce you have read and interpreted the literature, identified the key themes and organised your literature under these themes, it is time to start writing your literature review. Your review should start with an introduction. The introduction should inform your reader about the topic and purpose of your literature review. For your assessment you need to establish your purpose in the form of a research question(s). Your research question(s) are what have guided your literature search. You should organise the main body of your literature review into sub-sections. Each sub-section should focus on a different theme within the literature (they may also relate to your sub-research questions). For each theme you need to discuss the key ideas, definitions and findings. You should highlight where there is agreement and commonality between different studies. You should also try to analyse any areas of disagreement and to identify any gaps within the literature. It is also important to write your literature review in such a way that you make it clear how the research you are reviewing relates to your research question(s) and purpose. Think about the story your literature review is trying to tell. Your literature review should end with a conclusion, which summarises the key ideas you have discussed. In your conclusion you could also briefly reference how the literature relates to and will help to inform your own research efforts. The following quote provides a useful reminder of what a literature review should be aiming to do: A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. It’s usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question. (Taylor, D. (n.d.) The Literature Review: A few tips on conducting it. University of Toronto. Retrieved from www.writing.utoronto.ca). This YouTube video also provides some helpful information on writing a literature review (despite the narrator’s monotone voice!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2d7y_r65HU The writing centre at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also has some helpful suggestions for how to write a literature review: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/literature-reviews/ |
Writing style in a literature review A literature review is a piece of formal, academic writing. This means that you should write in full sentences and organise your writing into paragraphs. Avoid using bullet points. Try to avoid using the first person (‘I’ statements). For example, instead of writing ‘I think that’ turn it around and write in the third person, ‘the literature shows’ or ‘this suggests that’. This way you are still putting across your own interpretation of the literature without using the first person. You need to make sure that you use correct referencing. This includes both in-text citations (i.e. when you refer to a piece of literature you need to provide the reference) and a reference list at the end of your review of all the literature you have cited. The Unitec library website has very good resources to help you with your referencing. |
*Checklist for your Literature Review
Below is a list of things you need to make sure that you have done/included in your literature review:
- Engaged with a range of literature. The strength of your literature review in part relies on you having engaged with the major literature in your chosen topic.
- Developed research questions to structure your literature review
- Critically evaluated the literature, rather than just describing or listing it.
- Identified major themes within the literature and synthesised the literature. This includes comparing and contrasting findings and identifying any disagreements and gaps in the literature.
- Used the literature to tell a particular story (as opposed to just listing and describing the research findings).
- Used formal, academic writing conventions, including accurate referencing.
- Included a section examining how the principles of Kaupapa Maori research could relate to your chosen topic (the notes and resources from week 17 will be helpful for this). Make sure that you include citations in this part of your literature review.
- Remember to proof read your work. It is often really helpful to read your writing aloud. That way you can hear whether it flows and makes sense. Having a friend read your work and offer constructive feedback can also be very useful.
Additional resources
The following resources may be useful for you when writing your literature review.
The exemplar literature review uploaded to the platform, with comments.
Course Assessment and Outputs:
The course is eight weeks in length. It will be assessed through 3 assessments, which sequentially build upon each other. The resources and activities associated with each week of the course are designed to facilitate the knowledge and skill development you need to undertake each of the assessments.
At the start of the course you should identify an area that you would like to develop within your practice. It is anticipated that you will focus on this topic area for all three of your assessments. The list below provides possible areas to focus on. You may select a topic outside of this area, however, we strongly suggest that if you do so you talk to the post graduate team about this.
For your chosen area you will:
- Engage with the research literature to identify why your chosen area is important and what is already known about it
- Recognise how the research literature could help to support you in your practice
- Identify opportunities or gaps within the research literature that you could build upon in your own practice
- Use the research literature as a basis to develop and justify an inquiry project plan, which engages with your community in addressing the chosen area/topic
- Demonstrate how you will utilise evidence from your inquiry project in your practice and evaluate the potential influence this evidence will have for you and your community.
Suggested Topic Areas:
- Assessments – Creative Ways of Assessing
- Key Competencies or 21st Century Skills
- Leading Change
- Innovative Leadership Practice
- Growth Mindset
- Design Thinking
- Entrepreneurship
- Blended Learning
- Games/Gamification
- Inquiry or Problem Based Learning
- Agile Based Learning
- Collaborative Learning
- Technology Practices (Coding/Robotics/3D printing/Game Development)
- Digital Media Tools and Pedagogies
- Innovative Learning Environment
Note that it is possible that you might want to focus on a specific aspect of one of these topic areas (e.g. for blended learning you may focus specifically on the flipped classroom model).
Each Week
Each week focuses on a different aspect of research and the community. There are learning objectives that set out what you should be able to do (or what you should know) after completing the readings and activities for that week. The weekly readings, videos and tasks are designed to help you understand how research (both that undertaken by others and research that you do in your own context of practice) can help to support you in your teaching practice. Each week we provide suggestions for what you should be doing, in conjunction with the assigned readings/videos and tasks, in preparation for your assessments.
Week 18: Using Research as a Practitioner
This week is focused on understanding how to search for and locate education research and how to critically interpret and evaluate research reports and findings.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the different types and formats of education research
- Know how to search for and locate education research
- Develop skills to interpret and critically evaluate research
Searching for Academic Research
The following flow diagram provides a basic overview of the search process you will go through when trying to locate academic literature and research.
1. Define your topic
Before you can begin your literature search you need to define your topic area.
2. Background reading
Before you begin your search proper it can be useful to undertake some general, background reading on your topic. This will help you to familiarise yourself with the topic and some of the key ideas and issues associated with it. It will also give you insight into some of the key terminology connected to your topic, which will become important later on. 
3. Create research questions and keywords
Creating a research question or questions will help you to structure your literature search (and also your literature review). It may be that you want to develop an overarching research question and then a couple of sub questions that allow you to focus on specific aspects of your topic. You may also want to consider the parameters you are going to place on your literature search. For example, are you going to focus on a specific geographic area? Will you confine your search to a specific time period? Will you just be focusing on a specific area of education or school (e.g. primary schools, secondary schools etc)?
You also will need to come up with a list of keywords or terms to structure your search around.
4. Identify possible sources
There are a range of different sources that you can engage with. The Unitec library website has helpful video tutorials, which will provide you with more detailed information on how to search for each of these sources. Some of the most common sources of research literature include:
Books: Search for books using the keyword search function on the library catalogue. For more information go to:
Journal Articles: Journal articles are one of the best sources for academic literature. The most important research is published in journals and because they are published regularly they tend to contain more up-to-date information than books. There are lots of education journals, many of which focus on a specific area of education (e.g. teacher education and professional development, technology, pedagogy, curriculum etc). The majority of journals operate a rigorous peer review system, which means that all articles have been reviewed by other academics before they are published.
There are several different types of journal articles. Some of the main types include research papers, review articles, opinion pieces and case-studies.
There are several ways that you can locate journal articles:
- Use websites such as Google Scholar (NB to access many of the articles that you find on Google Scholar you will need to use the library online catalogue).
- Databases – you can conduct keyword searches on academic databases to find relevant articles. For more information go to: http://libguides.unitec.ac.nz/content.php?pid=418921&sid=3497515
Grey Literature
You also may want to consult grey literature. Grey literature refers to academic material that has not been formally published. The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature (GL '99) in Washington, DC, in October 1999 defined grey literature as follows: "That which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers."
Grey literature includes reports (including technical reports, statistical reports, governmental reports, policy reports), theses, conference proceedings, official documents that have not been published commercially). Research reports are published by a range of institutions and organisations, for example Ministries of Education, think tanks, not for profits, consultancies, private research organisations. Most conferences will also publish their proceedings papers as well. The best way to locate these is to conduct a keyword search using an Internet search engine.
The Unitec library website contains some resources to help you in your evaluation of sources found on the Internet. http://libguides.unitec.ac.nz/content.php?pid=418921&sid=3424396
Use the reference list at the ends of books, journal articles and reports to help guide your literature search. Also, if an author references a source in their writing that sounds interesting, use the reference list to find the source. It is always best to go back to the original source rather than relying on another author’s interpretation.
5. Organising and keeping track of your sources
You might find it helpful to develop a way of keeping track of all the different sources that you are engaging with. You may want to do this informally in a Word document or spreadsheet or you can use specially designed referencing software. Mendeley is a free and easy to use reference manager and pdf organiser (https://www.mendeley.com).
6. More information
For more information on conducting your literature search go to the Unitec library website or read the document ‘How to conduct an effective literature search’ which is available on the platform.
Key information about quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods studies
Both quantitative and qualitative studies are valuable and valid research methodologies. One is not better or worse than the other. Rather, different methodologies are better suited to answer some questions than others. This table presents some of the key differences between quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods studies.
How to interpret and critically assess literature
It is important when you read research literature that you are critically engaging with it. Critical reading requires you to:
- Interpret: understand the significance of the data or findings
- Analyse: examine the text in detail to determine its meaning
- Question: interrogate the assertions and assumptions presented in the text
- Reason: develop your own point of view on the text
- Evaluate: judge the credibility or strength of the text based on its reliability, validity and generalisability.
The following table contains questions that you should be thinking about as you engage with the literature.
| General |
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| Purpose |
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| Research Design |
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| Methods |
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| Sample |
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| Data analysis |
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| Ethical questions |
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| Main findings |
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| Conclusions |
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| Limitations |
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Articles
The table below contains a list of the sample articles and papers on each of the suggested topic areas. These articles are designed to provide you with a starting point for your own literature search. You need to make sure that you engage with literature beyond these sources.
The table below contains a list of the sample articles and papers on each of the suggested topic areas. These articles are designed to provide you with a starting point for your own literature search. You need to make sure that you engage with literature beyond these sources.
Week 17: Introduction to Research in Education
This week is focused on understanding the roles that research can play in education. It introduces the concept of education research and outlines various types of research in education.
You will also be exploring the principles of Kaupapa Maori and will examine how they relate to research in education.
Week 17 Learning Objectives
- Understand what education research is
- Recognise the various roles that research plays in education
- Understand what is meant by research-informed/evidence-based practice and what this means for your practice.
- Understand the principles of Kaupapa Maori how they relate to research
Tasks for this week:
Read the course note for this week and have a look at the additional readings suggested in the notes.
Decide on the topic area you want to focus on for the literature review (assessment 1) . Ideally, this topic would be developed through the Teaching as Inquiry project plan (assessment 2). You may choose a topic from the list or select your own topic (if you decide to choose an area outside of this list please advise the PG team). There is information in this week’s course notes that may help you to identify the topic area that you want to focus on.
Visit the website http://www.rangahau.co.nz/research-idea/27/ and read through the information on Principles of Kaupapa Maori and Kaupapa Maori as Research.
Record your answers to the following questions, this will help you to prepare for future assessments:
- How can Kaupapa Maori inform research?
- How can the principles of Kaupapa Maori relate to your own practice?
For more information on Kaupapa Maori, particularly in the education context have a look at the following papers, which have been uploaded to the portal:
The working paper by Alex Barnes entitled What can Pakeha learn from engaging in kaupapa Maori educational research?
The paper by Jessica Hutchings, Alex Barnes, Nicola Bright and Katrina Taupo, Reflexivity in Kaupapa Maori Research: “He Ua Kowhai”.
Education is often divided into three key areas, research, policy and practice. In an ideal world all three areas will inform and shape each other (Figure 1). Unfortunately this often is not the case. There has been much written about the lack of connection between research and practice in education (see for example Hargreaves, 1996; Hargreaves, 2000; Levin, 2004) and the subsequent impact this has on all three areas of education.
Figure 1: How research, policy and practice can inform each other (in an ideal world)
What is research?
There is much debate surrounding definitions of research and more particularly education research. Here are some definitions of research:
The term “research” is itself contested and can cover quite a wide range of activities, from carefully designed studies by independent, university-based researchers to analysis of data for particular administrative or political purposes to arguments for specific policy positions that may be more or less well grounded in evidence. Any consensus that might once have existed about what counts as research has vanished in education, with highly contentious arguments about the relative merits of research based on methods from the natural sciences vs modes closer to the humanities. (Levin, 2004, 2)
Research is systematic, critical and self-critical enquiry which aims to contribute towards the advancement of knowledge and wisdom. … Discipline research in education aims critically to inform understandings of phenomena pertinent to the discipline in educational settings. … Critical enquiry [is] aimed at informing educational judgements and decisions in order to improve educational action. This is the kind of value-laden research that should have immediate relevance to teachers and policy makers, and is itself educational because of its stated intention to ‘inform’. It is the kind of research in education that is carried out by educationists. (Bassey, 1999, 38-39)
Educational research is not just a way to come up with new ideas about teaching and learning, but most often it is a way to convince us that the ideas we already have are worth exploring—that they are worth buying into (Morrell and Carroll, 2010, 2).
Research is a process of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a topic or issue. At a general level, research consists of three steps:
1. Pose a question.
2. Collect data to answer the question.
3. Present an answer to the question.
(Creswell, 2011, 3)
Resource
For more information on research in education, including how research projects are designed read the first chapter of Creswell’s Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research(This has been uploaded to the portal and is also available athttp://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780131367395/downloads/Creswell_C01.pdf)
The main things you should take away from this reading are:
- What research is and the roles that it can play
- The basic steps in the research process
- The nature of quantitative and qualitative research
- Different types of research design in education
How research can support teachers – evidence informed practice
You may have heard the term evidence-informed practice or evidence-based practice used in relation to schools and education. Evidence-informed practice refers to the ways in which teachers and schools use research evidence, in conjunction with other sources of evidence (such as student data) and their own expertise to make decisions and to support their teaching. It is based on the idea that to be their most effective teachers should engage with research and keep up to date with the latest developments in their curriculum areas and in the discipline of education more generally.
Most people agree that when discussing evidence-informed practice it is necessary to think about not only how research produced by academics can be used to support practice but also how teachers can become involved in the research process themselves. This could involve teachers working with professional researchers to collaborate on particular projects or teachers undertaking small-scale research projects in their own classrooms or schools, and using the findings to help them to plan and develop their practice.
The British Education Research Association (BERA) has released a report outlining how a closer relationship could be developed between research and practice
(https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf).
(https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf).
The following diagram is taken from the BERA (2014) report:
BERA (2014). Research and the Teaching Profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system. BERA. Retrieved fromhttps://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf.
Further Reading (most of these readings have been uploaded to the portal)
For further reading on evidence-informed practice read Coe’s (1999) Manifesto for Evidence-Based Education (http://www.cem.org/attachments/ebe/manifesto-for-ebe.pdf)
There is a lot of literature available on education research and evidence-informed practice. Some supplementary readings that you may enjoy:
- Carr, W. (2007). Educational research as a practical science. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 30 (3), 271-286.
- Hargreaves, D. (2000). The Production, Mediation and Use of Professional Knowledge Among Teachers and Doctors: A Comparative Analysis. In OECD (Ed.) Knowledge Management in the Learning Society. Paris: OECD. http://ocw.metu.edu.tr/file.php/118/Week11/oecd1.pdf
- Goldacre, B. (2013, March 15). Building Evidence into Education [web log]. Retrieved from http://www.badscience.net/2013/03/heres-my-paper-on-evidence-and-teaching-for-the-education-minister/
This Course
In this course you will be exploring how research can help to support you and the communities you work. The first three weeks of the course will explore how you can use formal research (especially that undertaken by academics) to deepen your knowledge of particular topics and areas and to inform your teaching practice. This week you will focused on understanding the different types of research that are undertaken in education and the various roles that these can play. You will also explore Kaupapa Maori research, which is focused on empowering Maori people, voice, processes and knowledge. Week 18 will focus on how you can locate relevant research and how to read and interpret research findings critically. Week 19 will explore how you can synthesise the research you have found into a literature review on a particular topic.
In weeks 20 to 24 the focus will shift from how you can use research to how you can conduct your own research in your own practice in the form of an inquiry project. Week 20 will provide an introduction to the concept of teacher-led research. In week 21 you will learn how to design your own inquiry project. Week 22 will focus on the different methods you can employ to collect data to inform your teaching practice and in week 23 you will learn how to analyse the data you collect and use it to make changes in your practice. Week 24 will discuss about ethics and research.
The final week of the course will examine several initiatives that have been developed around the world to support closer connections between research and practice in education. You will also receive information about some of the various opportunities available to you to continue your involvement with education research.
As part of this course you will be designing your own inquiry research project, which should focus on an area of your practice that you wish to develop. Each of your first two assignments will focus on the area that you select.
For your chosen area you will:
- Engage with the research literature to identify why your chosen area is important and what is already known about it
- Recognise how the research literature could help to support you in your practice
- Identify opportunities or gaps within the research literature that you could build upon in your own practice
- Use the research literature as a basis to develop and justify the design of an inquiry plan, which engages with your community in addressing the chosen area/topic
- Demonstrate how you will utilise evidence from your inquiry project in your practice and evaluate the potential influence this evidence will have for you and your community.
The list below provides possible areas to focus on. The topics have been selected because they are all areas that you have encountered as part of other courses.
You may select a topic outside of these fifteen suggestions. However, if you want to work with a partner on assignment one then it will be easier to find someone if you have selected a topic from one of those listed below. Also, some of the weekly tasks that form part of this course are focused on the topics below.
Suggested topic areas:
- Assessments – Creative Ways of Assessing
- Key Competencies or 21st Century Skills
- Leading Change
- Innovative Leadership Practice
- Growth Mindset
- Design Thinking
- Entrepreneurship
- Blended Learning
- Games/Gamification
- Inquiry or Problem Based Learning
- Agile Based Learning
- Collaborative Learning
- Technology Practices (Coding/Robotics/3D printing/Game Development)
- Digital Media Tools and Pedagogies
- Innovative Learning Environment
How to select your topic area
Decide on the topic area you want to focus on for this course. You may choose a topic from the list or select your own topic. To help you to decide on your topic it might be helpful to think about:
- a question you have about your practice
- an issue that you are currently facing
- an area of your practice that you would like to develop
- a particular initiative or intervention that you would like to trial in your practice.
Here are some other ideas that could help you to decide on your topic:
Pine (2009) in his book Teacher Action Research: Building Knowledge Democracies, suggests some ways to identify your topic:
conversations with your colleagues; professional literature; examination of your journal entries and teaching portfolio to identify, for example, patterns of teacher/student behavior or anomalies, paradoxes, and unusual situations; dissonance between your teaching intentions and outcomes; problematic learning situations in your classroom that you want to resolve; a new teaching strategy you are eager to implement; an ambiguous and puzzling classroom management concern; or your curiosity about testing a particular theory in the classroom.
(Pine, G. (2009). Teacher Action Research: Building Knowledge Democracies. Los Angeles: Sage Publications).
Caro-Bruce (2007) suggests some questions that might help you to identify an area:
- What would I like to improve?
- What am I perplexed by?
- What am I really curious about?
- What do I think would really make a difference?
- What is something I would like to change?
- What would happen to my students’ learning if I did _______?
- How can I implement _________?
- How can I improve _______?
(Caro-Bruce, C., Flessner, R., Klehr, M. & Zeichner, K. (2007). Creating Equitable Classrooms Through Action Research. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.).
Online self-tests for APA referencing
References
Bassey, M. (1999). Case Study Research in Educational Settings. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
BERA (2014). Research and the Teaching Profession: Building the capacity for a self-improving education system. BERA. Retrieved fromhttps://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/BERA-RSA-Research-Teaching-Profession-FULL-REPORT-for-web.pdf.
Caro-Bruce, C., Flessner, R., Klehr, M. & Zeichner, K. (2007). Creating Equitable Classrooms Through Action Research. Thousand Oaks: Corwin
Creswell, J. (2011). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. London: Pearson.
Hargreaves, A. (1996). Transforming Knowledge: Blurring the boundaries between research, policy, and practice. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 18,2, 105-122.
Hargreaves, D. (2000). Production, Mediation and Use of Professional Knowledge Among Teachers and Doctors: A comparative analysis. In OECD (Ed.).Knowledge Management in the Learning Society (pp. 219-238). Paris: OECD.
Levin, B. (2004). Making Research Matter More. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12, 56. Retrieved from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/vl2n56.
Morrell, P. & Carroll, J. (2010). Conducting Educational Research: A Primer for Teachers and Administrators. Rotterdam: Sense Publishing.
Pine, G. (2009). Teacher Action Research: Building Knowledge Democracies. Los Angeles: Sage Publications
Weekly schedule
| Week | Topic | |
| 17 | Introduction to research in education | |
| 18 | Using Research as a Practitioner: locating and interpreting research | |
| 19 | Writing a literature review | |
| 20 | Teaching and Research in the NZ: Teaching as Inquiry | |
| 21 | Designing your own Inquiry Project | |
| 22 | Collecting Evidence | |
| 23 | Interpreting and Using Evidence | |
| 24 | Ethics and Research, RethinkingResearch and Practice |
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