Welcome to EDU738
(image source: http://hightalk.net/tag/blogging/page/2/)
You may be entering this course with some apprehension but that is OK! Just don’t let the apprehension translate into inaction!
We’ve stated the various goals for the course on the syllabus but here we want to explain our rationale for how the course is organized.
From a constructivist perspective knowledge isn’t simply transmitted from teacher to student but rather each of us builds our own knowledge of the world. We connect new experiences and ‘information’ to existing knowledge structures in our mind. This building process, to borrow from Piaget, transforms our existing knowledge structures. Thus learning is an iterative process that occurs over time. It isn’t an all or none process. And since each of us has a unique set of knowledge structures, our learning process and our ‘understandings’ are unique too.
So, if learning is an iterative process where one builds his or her own understandings, a good way to learn about research is to actually do it. By doing a complete, although limited, research study you will go through all the steps and you will begin to appreciate and understand how the seemingly disparate steps fit together and support one another. Thus, the next time you encounter issues related to educational research you will have a relatively coherent framework to apply when working with this new information
Thus, we're not expecting you to be highly sophisticated researchers by the end of this course but we are confident that you will be able to ask meaningful questions about the methods, results and implications described in research studies you will encounter in the future. You will also be able to think through issues related to designing your own research or working with others to help them design their research studies.
So, good luck and enjoy the course! And please contact us if you are having any difficulties, questions, concerns or even something uplifting to say! Our phone numbers are on the syllabus since ‘online’ includes the telephone line too! OK?
You can learn more about the course and how the website is organized from this link: Quick Overview of the Website's structure and the Course.
p.s. And why the image of the snails? Well, aside from the fact that Rocky likes the picture, we see this course as a group effort whereby we are all traveling together and supporting one another in various ways along the way. Also while the course is short and there is much to cover, the key is to keep moving forward at whatever pace you can handle.