Teaching Research Methods: How to Make it Meaningful to Students

Los Angeles | London | New Delhi
Singapore | Washington DC
Dahlia Remler & Gregg Van Ryzin
October 29, 2014 #SAGEtalks
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Singapore | Washington DC#SAGEtalks
Teaching Research Methods:
How to Make It Meaningful to Students
Content and Presentation by
Dahlia Remler and Gregg Van Ryzin

Gregg G. Van Ryzin
Rutgers University, Newark
Dahlia K. Remler
Baruch College, CUNY
Nicole Elliott
Executive Marketing Manager, SAGE

Research
Methods
Matter
Engaging
Real-
World
Examples
Focus on
Causal
Research
Encourage
Visual
Thinking
Q&A With
Dahlia &
Gregg
Our Agenda

RESEARCH METHODS MATTER

Judging factual
claims
(political polls)
Being a good
leader or
decision-maker
(student
evaluations of
teaching)
Engaging in
policy debates
(gun control)
Research Methods Matter

● Give assignments that let students apply
methods to their own area of interest:
 Design a survey of a population of
interest
 Evaluate published studies in their
field of interest to them
Tip: Ask Students to Practice
Encourage students to practice
discussing and presenting research.

ENGAGING REAL-WORLD
EXAMPLES

● Engaging examples are
 Timely: About important, current issues
 Interesting: Surprising findings, clever methods
● Teaching with real-world examples helps
illustrate
 The importance of research
 The range of methods (and why they are used)
 The creativity, and limitations, of research
Engaging, Real-World Examples

Surveys support legalizing
marijuana.
Source: © STEPHEN LAM/Reuters/Corbis.
Researchers used sampling to
understand the effects of
Hurricane Katrina.
Source : © iStockphoto.com/MichaelDeLeon

Qualitative study of barriers to the delivery of a new
malaria treatment in Kenya

National comparison of private and public schools
(NAEP), illustrates the use of control variables

Tip: Have students read real studies
● Hand out several abstracts in class to discuss:
 For the week on sampling  Is it probability or non-
probability sample?
 For the week on natural and quasi experiments 
What kind of natural or quasi experiment is it?
Use research reports from journals, government agencies,
foundations, international organizations, advocacy groups, etc.

FOCUS ON CAUSAL RESEARCH

Focus on Causal Research
Are private schools offering a
better education than public
schools?
Source : © iStockphoto.com/MichaelDeLeon
● Distinguish descriptive
from causal research:
 “What is” vs “What if”
• “What if” questions are
practical and compelling
 Ask students for research
questions whose answers
can improve the world—or
one small bit of it

Tip: Use examples to practice finding
alternative explanations of correlation
Examples like family dinners and drug use show correlation
is not always causation
• Show examples where correlation is not due
to causation

Do family dinners reduce
teen substance abuse?
Or do teens who drink & do
drugs avoid family dinners?

Illustrate the range of strategies for proving
causation:
Control
variables
Randomized
experiments
Natural and
quasi
experiments

Ray and Janay Rice | Photo courtesy of AP Images

PATH DIAGRAMS | VISUAL
THINKING

● Visual thinking
 More intuitive than a verbal (terms) or mathematical
(equations) approach
● Path models: a useful tool for
 Theory
 Correlation vs. causation
o Common causes, reverse causation
 Control variables strategy
o Picking good control variables
Encourage Visual Thinking

● Use Path Diagrams to visualize research:
 Using ovals (variables) and arrows (relationships)

Path Diagrams

Visual Thinking | Path Diagrams
Tip: Get students to create a logic model
For example, ask them to create a path model (logic model) of
a program or intervention of interest to them
• Encourage students to use path models to
think about research

Help students use path models to think about complex issues
Establish the importance and challenges of causal evidence
Engaging Real-World Examples
Help them understand and apply difficult concepts
Show students how valuable methods can be to their careers

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some feedback
from you
Before we start our Q&A session…

While we do our best to answer as many questions as we can, time constraints
may not allows us to answer every question. Thank you for understanding.
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Webinar recording available on at www.sagepub.com/sagetalks.
Teaching Research Methods:
How to Make it Meaningful to Students
• Google
Scholar
• LinkedIn
Gregg Van Ryzin
•Google Scholar
•RSME Facebook
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•Blog
Dahlia Remler
vanryzin@rutgers.edu dahlia.remler@baruch.cuny.edu
Be sure to join us for our next SAGE Talks webinar “Empowerment Evaluation”
with Dr. David Fetterman on Thursday November 20th!

Teaching Research Methods: How to Make it Meaningful to Students

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