Research methods

Assessment:
About the assessment. The activities that you do each week contribute to the overall assessment. There are two parts. Part 1. Peer-assessment. • Students will have to create a digital rubric based on the following one: https://www.cornellcollege.edu/library/faculty/focusing-on-assignments/tools-for-assessment/original-research-project-rubric.shtml • Other peers/groups will contribute to the development of each research proposal throughout discussions. Part 2. peer & professor evaluation Each group will modify/complete their proposals with the tips learned from the evaluation and will submit the final project within 10 days. This task will be made as homework as will have the professor’s supervision if/when required. Generic Assessment Criteria

Underpinning methodologies:

Resources required:
This course is intended to be used with digital and social technologies. In particular – wonder.me and google Meet
Resources - there is a full list of resources (such as readings and videos) as well as examples in the module guide.

Technology needed:
Moodle, videoconferencing tool

People needed:
BA, MA, PhD students

Evaluation:
Peer-assessment rubric, group discussions, feedback and teacher’s observations

Skills:

Competencies:
Participants are expected to curate their own skills profile as part of the module/course using appropriate tools. Digital skills are notoriously ‘spiky’ good at some and not at others. Likewise, participants may also want to reflect a range of collaborative and teamworking skills that they might develop or equally, self efficacy. Possible frameworks include:

http://www.digcomptest.eu/

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/education-research/evaluation/what-can-i-evaluate/self-efficacy/tools-for-assessing-self-efficacy/

See: Team Member Evaluation form (Oakley, Felder, Brent, & Elhajj, 2004, p. 29-30).
Peer-assessment: https://www.cornellcollege.edu/library/faculty/focusing-on-assignments/tools-for-assessment/original-research-project-rubric.shtml
Worksheet with prompting questions to discuss team roles, responsibilities, and expectations. Hillier & Dunn-Jensen (2012, p. 722) suggest wording for a Team Charter worksheet, to help students discuss team expectations and functioning.
Global competencies
• Complexity of tasks, Creating:
7. Resolve complex problems with limited solutions. Specialised problem-solving skills required in research and/or innovation in order to develop new knowledge and procedures and to integrate knowledge from different fields.
8. Resolve complex problems with many interacting factors. The most advanced and specialised skills and techniques, including synthesis and evaluation, required to solve critical problems in research and/or innovation and to extend and redefine existing knowledge or professional practice.
• Autonomy, Creating:
7. Integrate to contribute to the professional practice and to guide others. Manage and transform study contexts that are complex, unpredictable and require new strategic approaches.
8. Propose new ideas and processes to the field. Demonstrate substantial authority, innovation, autonomy, scholarly and professional integrity and sustained commitment to the development of new ideas or processes at the forefront of research.
• Knowledge, Creating:
7. Highly specialised knowledge, some of which is at the forefront of knowledge in a field, as the basis for original thinking and/or research. Critical awareness of knowledge issues and at the interface between different fields
8. Knowledge at the most advanced frontier and at the interface between fieldsa
Competencies for problem solving
https://states-of-change.org/assets/downloads/05.2018-Competency-Framework-1.pdf

Attributes:

Activities:

The course is designed to engage participants across 5 sessions and yet each session can be used as a ‘stand alone’ activity that can be added to other courses.

The course moves from the individual interests and needs to more collaborative tasks. This is compounded by the need for collaborative group working. Participants’ own choice and freedom to navigate their own learning is an underlying premise of the course. Lecturers/tutors/ should see themselves as facilitators or consultants – guides,  mentors and or coaches.

It might be worth having a read of this paper: Digital Media and Learning: A Prospective Retrospective – See pre reading in the module/course guide –  https://academic.jamespaulgee.com/pdfs/Digital%20Media%20and%20Learning.pdf

Session 1 (90 minutes)

• Icebreaking module (duration: 20 minutes)
• Introduction to research planning module (duration: 50 minutes)
• Homework: Self study: research planning module
• Professor will recommend the following key books to develop research in language teaching:
  • Dörnyei, Zoltan (2007). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methodologies. Oxford University Press.
  • Eco, Umberto (2015). How to Write a Thesis. The MIT Press.
  • Paltridge, Brian & Phakiti, Aek (2015) (eds.). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics: A Practical Resource. Bloomsbury Academic.

Session 2 (90 minutes)

• Group discussion (30 minutes)
• Professor and students will comment upon the main topics covered in the following video they had to view as homework the first session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVuCeKhHioY (A worked example on bilingualism)
• Making groups (20 minutes)
• Professor will ask students to make 3 groups integrated by mixed international students (Spain, Germany, Serbia), according to research or personal interests. Students create rooms in Google Meet to discuss about it.
• Professor will give freedom to form these groups. He/she/they will supervise the dynamics of group-making: leadership, communication abilities, problem solving, etc.
• Journal critical surfing module (40 minutes)
  • including homework and presentation next week

Session 3 (90 minutes)

• Group presentation (30 minutes)
  • Each group will present in a maximun of 10 minutes their findings and the methodological principles behind the articles they have considered more attractive.
• Research Project design (Module designing a research project)  (60 minutes + 15 days supervised homework)

Session 4 (90 minutes)

• How to evaluate a research Project (20 minutes): Professor will explain students the importance of evaluation (peer evaluation in this case) as a tool to improve any group work. He/she/they will show some rubrics samples. This one from Cornell College may serve as a starting point: https://www.cornellcollege.edu/library/faculty/focusing-on-assignments/tools-for-assessment/original-research-project-rubric.shtml
• Rubric selection + adaptation (40 minutes): In groups, students will have to investigate diverse databases on the Internet to find and adapt a rubric to peer-evaluate their projects.
• Elaboration of a final rubric model (30 minutes + homework): The 3 groups will agree on a unique final model of rubric to use in the 5th and final session. It will need the professor’s approval.

Session 5 (90 minutes)

• Students will present their projects to the rest of the class.
• They will spend 30 minutes per group (15’ presentation + 15’ peer & professor discussion, evaluation)
• Each group will modify/complete their proposals with the tips learned from the evaluation and will submit the final project within 10 days. This task will be made as homework as will have the professor’s supervision if/when required.

Extra

The course can be extended to more sessions by arranging group and individual tutorials at key points in the course.

Focus:
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