Prerequisites: EDUC 795 or other regression-based course.
 
The major phenomenon of interest in educational research is the learning of individual students. Because learning (a) implies change over time, and (b) occurs in organizational settings, two troublesome methodological problems persist in the social sciences: how to measure change and how to accommodate the grouped nature of the phenomenon (also referred to as the unit of analysis problem). In a sense, the problems share a common cause, since traditional statistical techniques are inadequate to model the hierarchical nature of both phenomena. This advanced course in quantitative methods introduces students to the analytic situations in which multilevel methods are ideal, trains students in the use of the statistical program Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM), and provides experience in multilevel analysis. Students must possess skill in multivariate data analysis through regression.

Prerequisites: EDUC 792 or permission of instructor
 
Workshop of presentations of educational research using qualitative methods. Generally, each session will be a presentation of qualitative research in progress. Students enrolled in the course will need to recruit a faculty mentor (generally not the instructor) to supervise their research project. Students should register for the course in the semester they present their research. This course fulfills the advanced research methods requirement for Marsal School doctoral students.
 

Prerequisites: EDUC 695 or equivalent
 
Reviews and analyzes assumptions that underlie and support the various methods used to study educational phenomena. Considers question-finding and ways of linking research questions to appropriate methods.
 

Prerequisites: none
 
Introduces students to current scholarly and professional issues within specific specialization areas. Designed to create and sustain a program of academic research.

Prerequisites: 60 credit hours.
 
The overall goal of the Qualifying Papers is for students to conduct an in-depth, critical analysis of the existing literature relevant to a specific topic (QP A) and, based upon one researchable question from this literature review, to develop a conceptual framework or theory (QP B). The QP process certifies the student’s ability to engage in independent scholarship, and often the response becomes a basis for the dissertation. Whereas the goal of a dissertation literature review is to rationalize a particular empirical approach to a question, the QP involves a comprehensive and critical analysis of relevant literature. In the QP, writers must create thoughtful portraits of the existing literature on their topics. This consolidation process involves the identification of key crosscutting themes, evaluation of the knowledge claims made by others, assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the extant literature, and articulation of the various questions that follow logically from one’s interpretations of the readings.