Compelling Line-up of Professional Development Courses Unveiled for Annual Meeting
Compelling Line-up of Professional Development Courses Unveiled for Annual Meeting
 
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January 2022

AERA has announced a robust program of professional development courses for the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting in San Diego. The courses cover salient topics in education research design, quantitative and qualitative research methods, meta-analysis, and other data analysis techniques. They will be held in person, beginning on Wednesday, April 20, one day prior to the start of the meeting. Led by expert faculty, these courses are designed at various levels to reach graduate students, early career scholars, practitioners, and other researchers who seek to increase their knowledge and enhance their research skills.

To encourage course participation as AERA returns to in-person learning, the association is charging a modest fee of $75 for the extended course and $40 each for the mini-courses. Professional development courses can be added to new or existing Annual Meeting registrations in the My AERA section of the AERA website.

Early registration is encouraged as space is limited. Questions about the courses should be directed to profdevel@aera.net.

The courses are described below.

Extended Course

PDC22-1: Introduction to Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Instructors:


 
Amy L. Dent, University of California–Irvine
Terri D. Pigott, Georgia State University               
Joshua R. Polanin, American Institutes for Research
Joseph Taylor, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Date: Wednesday, April 20
Time: 9 a.m.–5 p.m. PT
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Floor: Upper Level, Room 11B
Fee: $75

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one-day course will introduce the basics of systematic review and meta-analysis. Topics covered include developing a research question, searching the literature, evaluating and coding studies, conducting a meta-analysis, and interpreting results for various stakeholders. Participants are encouraged to bring an idea for a systematic review to the course, with time reserved for discussion about it with course instructors. Course activities will include lecture, hands-on exercises, small group discussion, and individual consultation. The target audience includes both those new to systematic review and meta-analysis and those currently conducting either type of project. Knowledge of basic descriptive statistics is assumed. Participants are required to bring a laptop computer.

Mini-Courses

PDC22-2:
 
Developing Actionable Research Questions and Moving Into Study Design
Instructors:
 
Leslie Nabors Oláh, Educational Testing Service
Sharon M. Ravitch, University of Pennsylvania
Date:   Friday, April 22
Time: 8 a.m.–12 p.m. PT
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Floor: Mezzanine, Room 15B
Fee: $40

 

 

 

 

 

 


This four-hour inquiry-based methods course will focus on how researchers can take a problem of practice or topic of interest and transform it into a set of researchable questions. Through intensive methods instruction, modelling of question formation and iteration through live workshopping, and peer review of research questions in rounds with scaffolding, participants will learn the fundamentals of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research question development. They will be guided into the beginnings of research design, which in turn helps focus and iterate research questions, define study goals, and develop a reasonable scope for the research project or dissertation. This course is particularly relevant to practitioner researchers, executive doctoral and master’s students, and early-career educational researchers. This will be a creative, collaborative, and constructively critical space of inquiry and support.

Taught by a qualitative methodologist and a quantitative methodologist who both teach graduate students and mentor early-career researchers, this seminar will be hands-on and supportively critical. The goal is for every participant to leave with a set of research questions and a plan for next steps in research design. Participants will review characteristics of actionable research questions, learn guidelines for strengthening research questions, and practice refining research questions. They will also be asked to read short articles or chapters and enter their draft research questions or topics on a shared document prior to the course. Required material and software include a word-processing program and access to Padlet and Google Docs.

PDC22-3:

 
Latent Code Identification (LACOID): Cultivating Programming-Free, Equitable Access to Data Science Tools in Education Research
Instructors: Manuel S. González Canché, University of Pennsylvania
Date: Saturday, April 23
Time: 8 a.m.–12 p.m. PT
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Floor: Mezzanine, Room 15B
Fee: $40

 

 

 


 

 

 

Computer-assisted techniques based on machine learning and text classification tools have proven useful in the fracturing or classification of written data. However, computer programming and specialized technical knowledge requirements have deterred the use of these techniques in qualitative and mixed methods research analyses. Aligned with the goal of “Cultivating Equitable Education Systems for the 21st Century,” this course offers a mixed methods integrative framework that removes computational, technical, and even monetary barriers by offering a rigorous, state-of-the-art, yet user friendly and cost free analytic tool for latent code identification (LACOID). Accordingly, all participants will be able to apply machine learning and text classification tools to identify latent codes in interviews, focus groups, or any other form of transcripts or written information gathered in qualitative and mixed methods studies.

Because all computer coding literacy is removed as a requirement for the application of text mining, machine learning, and data visualization tools, and the software provided is run locally, participants will be able to identify qualitative codes in dozens or hundreds of transcripts in minutes. Nonetheless, the integrative nature of the method requires that, once these latent codes are identified, researchers qualitatively interact with the original texts in order to understand their latent meaning. That is, the proposed machine learning and visualization tools do very much require the expertise of qualitative researchers gained as part of the design, data gathering, and text preparation processes. Researchers at all stages are strongly encouraged to bring their transcripts so that they can fully interact with LACOID.

PDC22-4:
 
Exploring NTPS and TALIS Data Using NCES’s Free Online Data Analysis Tools
Instructors:

 
Ebru Erberber, American Institutes for Research
Frank Torres Fonseca, American Institutes for Research
Sakiko Ikoma, American Institutes for Research
Date:  Sunday, April 24
Time: 8 a.m.–12 p.m. PT
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Floor: Mezzanine, Room 15B
Fee: $40

 

 

 

 


 

 


The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) collects data on teachers, principals, and schools through various nationally representative surveys, such as the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), a primary source of information about what is happening in K–12 schools across the United States, and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), an international survey of lower secondary teachers and principals. While these large-scale surveys provide rich and reliable information, analyzing them may be overwhelming to potential users for various reasons, such as the size of the files, with thousands of variables, and the comprehensive technical documentation and analysis procedures that must be considered due to the surveys’ complex sample designs.

The course is designed for researchers, school administrators, teachers, and policymakers interested in national or international data on teachers, principals, or schools. The purpose of this four-hour mini-course is to familiarize participants with NTPS and TALIS and to help them conduct analyses with these data using NCES’s two free online data tools—PowerStats for NTPS and the International Data Explorer (IDE) for TALIS—to generate descriptive statistics, perform regression analysis, and interpret the results. Participants will use their own research questions to gain hands-on experience with the tools.

PDC22-5:
 
Diverse Applications of the Multivocal, Multi-sited Video-Cued Ethnographic Method
Instructors:






 
Jennifer Keys Adair, The University of Texas at Austin
Julie L. Kaomea, University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa
Joseph J. Tobin, University of Georgia
Patrick Graham, Rochester Institute of Technology
Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove, Texas State University
Akiko Hayashi, Keio University
Alejandra Barraza, The University of Texas at Austin
Bing Xiao, Austin Peay State University
Date: Monday, April 25
Time: 8 a.m.–12 p.m. PT
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Floor: Mezzanine, Room 15B
Fee:            $40

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


This course will focus on the methodology of video-cued ethnography (VCE) as a means to reveal the cultural and political nature of everyday practices and policies and to compare those views across contexts and communities. Video-cued ethnography, also referred to as multivocal, multi-sited video-cued ethnography, refers to comparative work that utilizes video to prompt discussion, reflection, explanation, and analysis by insider participants as a mechanism towards understanding shared patterns of understanding as well as divergence within and across communities. This course is meant to offer intermediate and advanced researchers a deeper understanding of video-cued ethnography through a range of examples from diverse scholars around the world. The course will include thematic short-form presentations and videos with small group discussions between experienced VCE researchers and early career researchers and graduate students. Basic knowledge or reading of video-cued ethnographic work is a requirement. This is not a beginner “how-to-do” VCE research course. Instead this course will focus on the ways in which VCE is being applied to diverse communities and contexts.