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Education Week 2023

Education Science Research: Getting Started

This webinar gives an overview on conducting research on teaching, learning, and other education topics, and outlines a process to help you develop an education science research project.

About

What is Education Science Research?

Education science research is a systematic investigation that applies to solving challenges in teaching and learning that shape educational outcomes. Examples of education research are projects that seek to:

Improve Study Assess
  • curriculum and instructional design
  • teaching and learning technologies or simulation techniques
  • skills of teachers in the classroom and at the bedside
  • recruitment strategies for educational programs
  • assessment of teachers and/or students/trainees
  • the training of the educational workforce
  • the perspectives of learners, teachers, and/or administrators
  • educational leadership practices and/or strategies
  • the operational design of educational activities
  • populations consisting of students and/or trainees
  • educational program design and implementation
  • diversity of the classroom to improve teaching and learning
  • specific educational problems
  • different approaches to teaching and learning
  • the success or impact of educational programs/courses
  • outcomes for continuous improvement of educational programs/courses
  • teaching and learning methods

Start a Project

Identify a research topic, and formulate it into a question

  • Identify a topic by observation, curiosity, or interest
  • Gather background information and refine the topic, if necessary
  • Use a research question framework to formulate the topic into a question

Research Question Frameworks

Frameworks help develop a well-focused question. Popular qualitative frameworks are outlined here.

SPICE
Setting, Perspective, Intervention, Comparison, & Evaluation
ECLIPSE
Expectation, Client, Location, Impact, Professionals, & Service
SPIDER
Sample, Phenomena, Design, Evaluation, & Research type
PEO
Population, Exposure, & Outcome

Framework in Practice: SPICE 

Setting School of Health Professions
Perspective 1st semester students
Intervention/Interest In-person lectures
*Comparison Virtual lectures
Evaluation Course performance

*This element is optional

Learn what is known/not known about the topic
  1. Design a search strategy (hint → refer to your question framework)
  2. Identify relevant literature resources (PubMed, ERIC, and other journal indices)
  3. Search and select citations
  4. Read articles & take note of what is known/not known, contextualize your research, & identify its importance

Literature Searching Services

Faculty, trainees, and staff can schedule an online search consultation or request a literature search from our librarians specializing in literature searching.

Determine Research Type

The research type identifies the nature of the data to be collected and analyzed, and the goals of an investigation.

  • Quantitative Research: analyzes numbers-based data to tell us how many, how much, or how often  ​
  • Qualitative Research: analyzes non-numerical data to understand and describe subjective perceptions, experiences, and behavior​
  • Mixed Method Research: combines both quantitative and qualitative data

Determine Research Design

The research design is a blueprint for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data. Common Research Designs in Education Science include:

  • *Survey and correlational design: data from a survey is analyzed to see if any factors are related​
  • Phenomenological/Ethnographic Studies: Lived experiences as told by the people involved​
  • Quasi-experimental designs: compares two groups ​
  • Experimental designs

*Academic Analytics & Technology offers assistance with Qualtrics and Power BI (linked below)

Get Approval

Before you conduct your research, you are required to get approval from the The Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB is an administrative body established to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the institution. Please see our Guide on IRB for Education Science Research for more information.

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Consult Reporting Guidelines

A reporting guideline provides a minimum list of information needed to ensure a manuscript can be understood by the reader, replicated by a researcher, and used by a clinician to make a clinical decision.

What is a reporting guideline? | EQUATOR Network. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.equator-network.org/about-us/what-is-a-reporting-guideline/

Identify a Journal

Selecting the right journal is essential to ensuring that your findings reach the desired audience. Find steps for finding a journal that would be a good fit on our Choosing a Journal page. 

Be Aware of Publishing Discounts

The Library has paid fees to some publishers to allow our authors to publish their articles with open access with reduced article processing charges (APCs). Find more information about this arrangement and other discounts from our FAQ on this topic. 

Get Writing Help

The Research Medical Library can support you throughout the writing and publishing process. Our scientific editors and librarians offer classes, online resources, consultations, and editing to help your manuscript impress reviewers, reach the right readers, and make the biggest possible impact. Find more information on our Writing & Publishing page. 

Editing services are also available free of charge to MD Anderson's faculty and staff. Editors perform both substantive and copy editing of grant proposals, journal articles, and other reports of original research. Find more information on our Editing page. 

To submit a proposal to the Education Ancillary Review Committee, fill out the online form at: https://redcap.link/mafcxequ

For more information on the IRB process for Education Science, see: IRB Tools for Education Science Research