3 Credit Hours

Course description

This course focuses on key concepts such as sources of knowledge and problems in science education as well as guidelines on the selection of research topics. Purpose and types of research, instruments and sampling procedures are also treated. This course stresses the scientific aspects of educational research that centre on hypothesis formulation and hypothesis testing. Students are encouraged to design studies that address important and current educational issues, gather data to shed light on these issues, analyse these data, and derive conclusions based on their analyses. The strengths and limitations of various educational research designs, and the types of instruments used to measure educational outcomes, will be emphasized.

Course objectives

This course will:

• Equip students with the sources of knowledge in science education;
• Enable students explain and apply the knowledge of the characteristics and purposes of research
• Help students to display knowledge in the importance of research
• Equip students with the skills of writing research proposals, design various types of research, collect data, and write research reports.

Course content

• Sources of knowledge in Biology education
• Characteristics and purposes of research
• The importance of research
• Research designs: case studies, descriptive studies, experimental research; causal comparative research
• Research questions and hypotheses
• Literature review
• Research methodology (Sampling procedures; Instrumentation: observation, interview, questionnaire, document analysis, attitude skills, anecdotes etc.; Development and validation of assessment instruments; Data collection techniques)
• Reporting research findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

Mode of delivery

Lecture, individual and group work, presentations, projects and online mode.

Reading list

Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2017). Research Methods in Education (8^th ed).

Routledge.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods

approaches (4^th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.) (2011). The SAGE handbook of qualitative

research. (4^th ed.). SAGE Publications

Lebrun, J. & Lebrun, J. (2021). Scientific Writing 3.0: A Reader and Writer's Guide.

WSPC.

Merriam, S. B. & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and

implementation. (4^th ed.) Jossey-Bass.

Tan, W. (2017). Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Students and Researchers.

WSPC.