Presentation & Workshop presented at the 2016 University Conference on Teaching and Learning at UMass Boston with Carol Sharicz and Linda Sudlesky.

1. The Social and Engaging Practices in
Developing Research Skills
Carol Ann Sharicz, Ed.D. - Professor of Education
Apostolos Koutropoulos, Ed.D. (ABD) - Program Manager & Lecturer
Linda Sudlesky, M.Ed. - Instructional Designer
Friday, May 13, 2016
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

2. Welcome

3. Helping our students go from:
to

4. Question 1
What does a research project usually look like for
you?
A. Class research paper
B. Researched capstone project
C.Thesis
D.Dissertation

5. Question 2
What does a student researcher look like in your
mind’s eye?
A. Alone in the library, reading and writing
B. Alone in the science lab, experimenting,
collecting data, writing
C.Alone in the field, collecting data, analyzing,
writing
D.Collaborative with peers in the same discipline
E. Collaborative with peers in varying disciplines

6. Participants will be able to:
• Identify an area of interest for research purposes
• Share your area of research in an engaging way
• Think about your positionality in relation to your
research interest
• Discuss practices to undertake research
• Explore collaborative research spaces
Objectives

7. 7 Steps of Research Process
1. Identify research interest and problem
2. Develop research question
3. Review literature
4. Specify purpose
5. Collect data
6. Analyze and interpret data
7. Report and evaluate research
Reference: Creswell, J. (2012). Educational Research, 4th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson, p. 7.
(Adapted from Creswell by C. Sharicz, 2014)

8. Discussing your area of interest...
Exercise:
1. Take out a sheet of paper
2. Reflect on your research
interest. What have you
observed in any of your
classes, socially,
educationally, etc., that you
would be interested
researching?

9. Share your research interest with 2 or 3 other
“dinner party” guests.
Reference: Butin, D. (2010). The Education Dissertation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
“Cocktail Party” Question

10. • Positionality is in relation to your research
interest. When thinking about your research,
what is your relationship to or interest in that
problem. Who is involved in this problem?
Who is affected? Can you speak for them?
Reference: Rocco, T., Hatcher, T., & Associates. (2011). The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Research Positionality

11. 11
"Can a wealthy white woman authentically depict
that which she has not experienced?"
Example of Research Positionality

12. On a piece of paper, write
just 2-3 sentences on your
interest in or relationship to
your research problem.
Research Positionality

13. • Have students share their research interests with
each other, having their own “dinner party”
conversation.
• Have students do their own research positionality.
• Set up peer-to-peer review of certain aspects of
the research process (i.e., survey documents,
interview questions). 13
Social and Engaging Practices in
Undertaking Research

14. A glimpse of a socially engaging
conversation - Peer-to-peer review
• From Week of February 28, 2016 -Postings on
Blackboard
• Course: Instructional Design 624 – Evaluation in
the ID Process
• We have 19 students in this class this semester.
For this one week alone, there were 105 postings
to this assignment

15. RE: ID Interview Questions -
Hi Mary,
I like your questions and think you've hit all the key points
and topics around Needs Assessment. I'm curious if you
feel confident that your interviewee will be able to address
all of these? From what I've seen, many companies don't
really have the patience for trainers to perform a thorough
NA. Instead it's done sort of informally, if at all. I was
concerned about having additional questions that would
be more flexible in case traditional Needs Assessments
like the ones we're learning about were never performed.
I'm curious to hear how your interview went.

16. RE: ID Interview Questions -
Hi Mary, the one thing I did not do was email my
questions to my interviewee, in the future I plan to
incorporate this strategy into my NA for future
interviews.
Did you find emailing the questions ahead of the
interview allowed you to probe for more
details? Pam

17. RE: ID Interview Questions -
Hi Pam,
Providing the questions ahead of time definitely
helped in this situation. I only had 30 minutes in
which to conduct the interview so this way he had
a chance to think of which example would work
best to address the questions. I should have
clarified in my initial post that I did not send the
probing questions ahead of time. When
conducting the interview, I definitely used these
probing questions.
Thanks for the question!
Mary

18. 18
Collaborative Research

19. • Have students share their research interests with
each other, having their own “dinner party”
conversation.
• Have students do their own research positionality.
• Set up peer-to-peer review of certain aspects of
the research process (i.e., survey documents,
interview questions). 19
Social and Engaging Practices in
Undertaking Research

20. • Have students design their own interview
questions and share with each other like in
previous example
• Arrange students to interview 2-3 others in class
to gain experience developing interviewing skills
and collecting data
• Encourage students to learn the rudiments of APA
and have them correct each other’s entries
Social and Engaging Practices in
Undertaking Research

21. Groups
•Set up groups with collaborative tools
Blackboard Collaborate
•Practice rooms for group research activities
•Breakout room use
Requesting a Bb Course (for face-to-face classes): Go to
Additional tips for teaching online...

22. Butin, D. (2010). The Education Dissertation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Creswell, J. (2012). Educational Research, 4th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson, pp. 8-
9.
Rocco, T., Hatcher, T., & Associates. (2011). The Handbook of Scholarly Writing
and Publishing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Szabla, D. and Sharciz, C. (2011). Doctoral Presentation on Developing
Research Questions, Northeastern University.
22
References