Graduate Research Courses

Research Course Prerequisites

WSU Course	Prerequisites
Ed_Res 562	Doctoral standing in Education or Ed_Psych 505 or concurrent enrollment
Ed_Res 563	Ed_Res 562 or admission to the EdD program
Ed_Res 564	Ed_Psych 507 and Ed_Res 563
Ed_Res 565	Ed_Psych 508 and Ed_Res 563

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Competencies for Ed_Res 563: Prior to a student enrolling in Ed_Res 563, the student should be very familiar with the general topics listed below. These topics should be covered before enrollment in Ed_Res 563, like in a course such as Ed_Psych 505 or its equivalent.

Knowledge basics for Ed_Res 563

• Describe the process of scientific inquiry and various sources of knowledge.
• Identify multiple research designs and when they might be used.
• Develop basic research questions with at least one independent and one dependent variable.
• Describe the difference between a research question and research hypothesis.
• Describe the difference between quantitative and qualitative research designs and identify a given study’s approach.
• Identify different sampling/selection approaches to both qualitative and quantitative studies.
• Define internal and external validity, content validity, trustworthiness, credibility, and positionality.
• Define different epistemological lens and assumptions.
• Describe how your epistemology influences research approaches.
• Describe why the Institutional Review Board review process is important in the research process.

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Competencies for Ed_Res 564: Prior to a student enrolling in Ed_Res 564, the student should be very familiar with the general topics listed below, these should be covered before enrollment in Ed_Res 564, like in a course such as Ed_Psych 507 or it’s equivalent.

In order to waive Ed_Psych 507 as a pre-requisite to Ed_Res 564, students need to have their IRB Approval (see last bullet point) and the following competencies need to be demonstrated through another course syllabus prior to Taking Ed_Res 564.

Knowledge basics for Ed_Res 564

• Understand theory and foundation for qualitative/ interpretive research.
• Understand range of qualitative/interpretive paradigms.
• Understand and experience with developing qualitative research questions.
• Experience with collecting qualitative data (e.g., interviews, observations).
• Experience with data transcription.
• Experience writing/adapting interview and/or observation protocols.
• Experience coding data using few forms of coding (e.g., thematic, descriptive).
• Experience writing analytic memos.
• Understand positionality and experience with developing a positionality statement.
• If an IRB is needed for the pilot study, an approved IRB at the start of 564 for a pilot study during the course, or a determination that the pilot study qualifies as “not human subjects research.” For more information about IRB applications and/or the “not human subjects research” classification, go to https://irb.wsu.edu/forms/ and select the form for “not human subjects research.”

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Competencies for Ed_Res 565: Prior to a student enrolling in Ed_Res 565, the student should be very familiar with both conceptual and technical aspects of central tendency and variability measures, regression and correlation, hypothesis testing, z-tests and analysis of contingency tables. Below is a list of general topics that should be covered before enrollment in Ed_Res 565, like in a course such as Ed_Psych 508 or it’s equivalent.

Knowledge basics for Ed_Res 565

• Displaying Data, Freqency Tables, Graphs
• Percentiles and Percentile Ranks
• Measures of Central Tendency
• Measures of Variablity
• Normal Distributions and Standard Scores
• Normal Distribution
• Introduction to Correlation
• Introduction to Simple Linear Regression
• Probablity
• Sampling Distributions
• Introduction to Hypothesis Testing
  • Testing Hypothesis about a Single Mean
  • Confidence Intervals
  • Hypothesis Testing for Independent Samples
  • Hypothesis Testing for Dependent Samples
• Chi-square Goodness-of-Fit Test
• Chi-square Test of Independence