New Perspectives on Educational Research and Practice: Embedding Collaborative Research in Graduate Education Jim Levin Department of Educational Psychology College of Education University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Educational crisis What to do? An important step that higher education can take is to conduct first-rate research on educational practice and how to improve it

One important goal of education To support the acquisition of expertise in many different areas

What is the nature of educational expertise?

What is the nature of expertise? Studies of expertise What’s the difference between an expert and a novice?

Mental models of the Web Survey study: “What is your mental model of the Web?” Novices with the web: 18 unique responses (from 44 subjects) Experts with the web: 27 unique responses (from 38 of the same subjects) (Levin, Stuve, & Jacobson, 1999)

Mental Models of the Web Case studies of 10 people (2 novices, 4 intermediate, 4 experts) Novices had single models of the Web Experts had several models and chose which model to use depending on the task

An expert is… a person with multiple coordinated representations of a subject area and with the meta-knowledge of when to use which representation and when to switch.

Representational Toolkit Framework for Expertise Experts have a set of representational tools, and know which tool to use for which task and when to switch from one tool to another.

Methodological debate among carpenters? Which is the best tool, the hammer or the saw?

What’s your goal? Do you have two pieces of wood and a nail and want to fasten them together? or Do you have one piece of wood and a line along which you’d like them separated?

Educational research methodological debates Which are the best methodologies, quantitative or qualitative?

Educational research expertise Research methodology toolkit framework The power of multiplicity - bringing multiple coordinated research approaches to bear on educational problems Multiple coordinated methodologies

Educational expertise Multiplicity of educational approaches to support to acquisition of multiple coordinated representations

How to support educational research expertise? New interactional frameworks Collaborative work across disciplines Integration of research and teaching; research and learning

Examples from two programs at Illinois CTER: Curriculum, Technology, & Education Reform Online Masters of Education TSE: Technology Studies in Education graduate specialization (for doctoral and masters students)

CTER: Curriculum, Technology, & Education Reform Online Masters Studies of CTER –Broad survey research of all CTER students –Focused case studies of selected CTER students CTER student activities: collaborative frameworks involving students in activities that have an impact beyond the (virtual) walls of the class

CTER White Papers Educational policy research with an impact beyond the class, the program, the university. Seven areas of expertise Three frameworks for involving students in the research, across three separate classes and three different groups of students

White Paper topics Access Credibility & Web Evaluation Free Speech vs. Censorship Privacy Commercialism Intellectual Property, Copyright, & Plagiarism Computer Crime & Technology Misuse

Original White Papers Seven groups in a course on “Ethical and Policy Issues in Information Technologies”, Spring 1999 (Burbules & Bruce) as a major project.

Updated CTER White Papers (2002) Seven groups, each spending several days reading a white paper, identifying broken links, and either fixing or removing them, as a minor project in a course on “Computer Uses in Education” (Levin)

White Paper Addenda (2002) Seven groups, each creating an addendum to one of the White Papers as a major project in “Ethical and Policy Issues in Information Technologies” (Burbules)

CTER White Paper evaluation Quantitative: accesses in January over the past 5 years (in Jan 03 over 23,000 accesses) First postedRevised

CTER White Paper Evaluation Qualitative –Comments from the CTER students –Comments from others outside Illinois Net-happenings Classroom Connect National Science Digital Library Report

Technology Studies in Education (TSE) Graduate specialization, for doctoral and masters graduate students; for on-campus and on-line students

TSE Challenges

Early Childhood Technology Mentorships

TSE Challenge evaluation Spring 2002:pilot studies (process data, in- depth interviews afterwards) Spring 2003: ongoing formative evaluations

Summary An expert has multiple coordinated representations. –An expert educational researcher –An expert educator It is important to explore new research-based approaches for supporting the acquisition of expertise in educational research and practice, using new collaborative frameworks.

Contact information: Jim Levin,