AERA Offers Roster of Professional Development Courses at Annual Meeting


February 2016

A rich and dynamic program of professional development and training courses is being offered at the 2016 AERA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Expert scholars and researchers from universities, research institutions, and government agencies are offering some 31 courses. The curriculum includes specialized training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, advances skills in statistical techniques, covers important substantive areas, and addresses professional development issues from “How to Get Published” to “Designing Surveys for Education Research.” Courses are designed at various levels (e.g., basic, intermediate, advanced) to reach graduate students, early career scholars, and other researchers who seek to increase their knowledge and enhance research skills.

The 2016 courses include instruction on statistical techniques such as HLM, meta-analysis, and propensity score matching. Some courses emphasize large-scale data sets such as NAEP, TIMMS, PISA, as well as the Civil Rights Data Collection. Many courses focus on narrative inquiry, coding of qualitative data, and other qualitative research methods and practices. Others are designed to enhance skills and knowledge among advanced graduate students and early career scholars and address topics such as academic writing and publishing and using graphics to communicate research.

In collaboration with the World Education Research Association’s Focal Meeting, held concurrently with the AERA Annual Meeting, AERA and WERA are featuring several courses that address cross-cultural and international issues in education research. These include: “Research on Immigrant Families and Education Worldwide,” “Studying Higher Education Access and Attainment Worldwide,” “Advanced Analysis Using School-Based International Large-scale Assessment Databases,” and “Hierarchical Linear Modeling with Large-Scale International Databases.”

The 14 extended courses begin on Thursday, April 7, one day prior to start of the Annual Meeting, or on Friday, April 8. The 17 mini-courses (four hours) take place from Saturday through Monday, April 9–11.

Space is still available for most professional development and training courses but advanced registration is encouraged. Potential participants can register by logging in for the first time, or by logging in and updating their 2016 AERA Annual Meeting registration. Course participants should bring a laptop with any software suggested or specified in the course description. For further information, click here. Direct any questions about the professional development and training courses to profdevel@aera.net.