Restructuring Research Courses in the Educational Leadership Program Lee Baldwin

1. 1
Restructuring Research
Courses in the Educational
Leadership Program
Presentation to CPED Initiative Convening
University of California at Fullerton
Fullerton, CA
June 8-10, 2015

2. 2
Purpose of Presentation
To describe the restructuring efforts in
the research strand of an educational
leadership program to better meet the
needs of educational leaders to make
informed decisions.

3. 3
Objectives of the Presentation
 Describe an initiative to restructure the
research sequence of courses in an
educational leadership program
 Describe the focus on preparing
educational leaders
 How research plays a key role for
today’s instructional leader

4. 4
Traditional Approach to Teaching
Educational Research
 Taught by methodologists and theorists
usually with limited experience as
practitioners in K-12 education
 Taught for purpose of publication in
professional literature
 Needs of professional practitioner not
emphasized
 Role of research in educational decision
making not emphasized

5. 5
Common Complaints of Students in
Educational Research Courses
 Boring
 Irrelevant
 Little relationship to what is needed as
an educational leader

6. 6
Needs of Educational Leader Today
 Be an instructional leader
 Use data to make educational decisions
 Critically review research and research
claims for credibility

7. 7
Focus of Educational Research Strand at
the University of Central Florida Executive
Ed.D. in Educational Leadership
 Prepare future and current educational
leaders to use research skills and
knowledge to make good decisions
 Prepare students to conduct research
for their dissertation in practice

8. 8
Components of Research Courses:
Research 1 (of Four Courses)
Fall of Year 1
 Introduction to the principles of
educational research with a focus on K-
12 education
 The major components of a research
project from the definition of a problem
statement to the final conclusions
 Application of research components to
educational leadership

9. 9
Research 2 (Spring of Year 1)
 Introduction to basic statistics
 Focus on descriptive statistics and an
introduction to inferential statistics
 More emphasis placed on descriptive statistics
including analyzing and summarizing real-
world data
 Emphasis also placed on communicating the
results of data analysis to various audiences
and stakeholders including faculty meetings
and school board meetings

10. 10
Research 3 (Spring of Year 2)
 Focus on mid-level to advanced statistics
commonly used in education
 Using results to make decisions
 Developing skills to conduct their dissertation
in practice
 Completion of a preliminary proposal for
student’s own dissertation
Note: The sequence of study requires that
students complete their dissertation proposal by
the end of the summer of the second year.

11. 11
Research 4: Planning, Research, and
Evaluation (Summer of Year 2)
 Focus on specific research needs of
students as they complete their
dissertation proposals and begin the
data collection portion of their research
 Topics in planning include strategic
planning and project planning
 Program evaluation and how it is similar
and different to educational research

12. 12
Results so far
 Short Survey Conducted in Research 2
and 3 classes in May 2015
 How well do you think the three
research courses that you have had so
far have accomplished their purposes?
 Compared to the purposes of the
research courses that you have had so
far, which approach would you prefer?

13. 13
Question 1: How well do you think the
three research courses that you have had
so far have accomplished the purposes?
N %
A. Strongly agree 15 50
B. Agree 15 50
C. Neither agree nor disagree 0 0
D. Disagree 0 0
E. Strongly disagree 0 0

14. 14
Question 2: Compared to the purposes of the
research courses shown above that you have
had so far, which approach would you prefer?
N %
A. Strongly Prefer Ed Lead
Approach 17 57
B. Prefer Ed Lead Approach 9 30
C. No preference 2 7
D. Prefer Traditional Approach 0 0
E. Strongly Prefer Traditional
Approach 2 7

15. 15
Conclusions
 Students overwhelmingly agree with
approach and implementation of
approach
 Students like the courses and give high
marks for courses

16. 16
Suggestions from Students
 More real world application of research
concepts
 More practice in interpreting results of
analysis
 More practice with real world data sets
 More of the stated purposes

17. 17
Questions?
Comments?