The document outlines the tasks and objectives for a course on teachers as informed consumers of educational research. It discusses forming work groups, becoming familiar with an evaluative template for critiquing research articles, and provides guidance on using tools like Google Docs and Scholar Google to collaborate and find appropriate research articles to critique. The goal is for student groups to practice evaluating a sample research article and then locate their own article to critically analyze and write a final paper on.

1. +
GCRD 6353
Teachers as Informed
Consumers of
Educational Research
Colin Lankshear & Michele Knobel
c.lankshear@yahoo.com &
micheleknobel@gmail.com

2. +
Research as systematic inquiry
p. 29 of your textbook

3. +
Relationship of Research Logic to
Evaluation Template
 Context of study (purpose,
question, problem area, relevant
other research)
 Framework (theory and concepts)
 Design and methodology
 The evaluative template
(Appendix 1 in your syllabus)

4. +
Tasks for today
 Forming work groups (teams) & sending
names and email addresses to Michele &
Colin
 Kitting up (key resources for the semester)
 Becoming familiar with the evaluative
template
 Practising with the template in work
groups using the Gainer article we’ve
supplied
 Locating a literacy research-based paper to
critique (that all members of a group can
“relate to”)

5. +
Forming work groups
 Ideally 4-6 members
 Likely to share some common
interest to help with article
selection
 Likely to be able to work together
online and offline and contribute
equally to the final analytic paper

6. +
Kitting up
Using Google Docs to write
collaboratively (http://docs.google.com
)
Using the internet to communicate
between meetings (e.g.,
www.skype.com or messenger/chat,
blog, Twitter, email)
Resources for finding a suitable article
(e.g., http://scholar.google.com ; MSVU
online article archives)

7. +
Using Google Docs

8. +
Google Docs (cont.)

9. +
Google Docs (cont.)

10. +
Google Docs (cont.)
Title your
document here

11. +
Google docs (cont.)
 Share your Google Docs with
Colin and Michele:
colin.lankshear@gmailcom
micheleknobel@gmail.com

12. +
Using Scholar Google as a meta-
search engine
Select “Scholar
Preferences”

13. +
Scholar Google (cont.)
Write out uni
name in full

14. +
Scholar Google (cont.)
Place check
mark in
box

15. +
Scholar Google (cont.)

16. +
Critiquing Gainer article
 In groups, work through the Gainer
article, using the analytic template
found in Appendix 1 of your syllabus
to guide your evaluation
 Discuss as a whole group
 This is a sampling of the kind of
process you’ll go through for writing
your final paper

17. +
Finding a focus article
 The article must be relevant to literacy studies.
 The article must be a peer-reviewed and formally
published research article.
 Ideally published within the past 5 years.
 You need to be truly interested in the focus of the
article. Focus must be good and “meaty”
 The focus of your article needs to have a prior history
of research – be part of a research area or field
 Your final paper must engage with debates, present an
argument, and include critique (your group needs to
take a theorised position and you’ll be reading well
beyond your focus article)

18. +
Course website
& additional resources
https://sites.google.com/site/ourmsvupages
/halifax-2012-consumers
There are 3 examples of final papers
posted here.