Course Coordinator:Margaret Marshman (mmarshma@usc.edu.au) School:School of Education and Tertiary Access
UniSC Sunshine Coast |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Online |
Online | You can do this course without coming onto campus, unless your program has specified a mandatory onsite requirement. |
Please go to unisc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
In this course, you will produce a postgraduate practitioner education research project description and ethics application. Through a series of modules, you will explore specific aspects of developing a research proposal including conducting a critical review of the literature, managing references, considering research ethics, framing the research topic into a defined research question and designing the research study. You will explore the use of practitioner research to investigate research problems in education and create a research project. You will develop skills in assessing published literature, identifying research gaps and developing a theoretically sound and ethical research study design.
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Blended learning | |||
| Learning materials – You are required to engage and interact with asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas modules, course readings and required texts. | 1hr | Week 1 | 12 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – A blended learning approach is used to deliver the writing group workshop component of this course. The writing group is synchronous technology-enabled learning and teaching experience that involves on-campus and online students simultaneously. | 1hr | Week 1 | 13 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 2 – A blended learning approach is used to deliver the workshop 2 component of the course. The workshop is synchronous using technology-enabled learning and teaching experience that involves on-campus and online students simultaneously. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 13 times |
| Independent Study/Research – In addition to engaging with the learning materials and workshop sessions, and completing the assessable tasks, you are required to engage in self-directed learning using the Canvas course modules and current research/reading via UniSC library databases, and the required/recommended textbooks and resources. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 13 times |
| Online | |||
| Learning materials – You are required to engage and interact with asynchronous materials and activities accessed through Canvas modules, course readings and required texts. | 1hr | Week 1 | 12 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – The writing group is synchronous technology-enabled learning and teaching experience that involves on-campus and online students simultaneously. | 1hr | Week 1 | 13 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 2 – The workshop is synchronous using technology-enabled learning and teaching experience that involves on-campus and online students simultaneously. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 13 times |
| Independent Study/Research – In addition to engaging with the learning materials and workshop sessions, and completing the assessable tasks, you are required to engage in self-directed learning using the Canvas course modules and current research/reading via UniSC library databases, and the required/recommended textbooks and resources. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 13 times |
700 Level (Specialised)
24 units
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | |
| 1 | Identify and critically read contemporary education research and synthesise research, policy and practice. | Creative and critical thinker |
| 2 | Investigate and evaluate advanced knowledge of complex contested educational concepts, theories and practices involved in education practitioner research that contributes towards social justice or sustainability in education. |
Knowledgeable Empowered Sustainability-focussed |
| 3 | Identify, apply and manage ethical issues in practitioner educational research and practice. |
Empowered Ethical |
| 4 | Apply reflexive research practice to plan and design independent practitioner research. |
Creative and critical thinker Empowered |
| 5 | Generate and communicate practitioner research plans. |
Empowered Ethical Engaged |
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Enrolled in Program ED705
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Written Piece | Individual | 25% | 2,000 words |
Week 4 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 2 | Oral and Written Piece | Individual | 25% | 10-minute presentation and 2-page summary plus reference list |
Week 8 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 3 | Written Piece | Individual | 50% | 5, 000 words |
Week 13 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Practitioner research | |||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to demonstrate your researcher reflexivity and understanding of contemporary concepts, theories and practices involved in practitioner research and contemporary issues in education to propose a research topic. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | ||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||
| Format: | Prepare a scholarly reflective written text that critically engages with: - contribution of practitioner research to social justice or sustainability in education - the education context for your practitioner research - an evaluation of three contemporary educational issues that could be investigated in your practitioner context (consider impetus, contemporary literature and context requirements) - justify one practitioner research topic. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Organisation, Applying technologies, Information literacy |
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| All - Assessment Task 2:Presentation of Research Overview | ||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to present your research design to colleagues and engage in a reflexive scholarly research conversation. |
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| Product: | Oral and Written Piece | |||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | ||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Present a 10-minute audio-visual/ multimedia overview of your research design supported by a two-page summary plus reference list. Your research design overview and summary should communicate: • Background to your problem • Research question/ focus questions and significance • Relevant research literature and/or theory • Data generation and analysis • Research rigour and ethical practices • Reference list Sharing your research design with your peers provides an opportunity to engage in researcher reflexivity and scholarly conversations. Engagement in this way will enable you to use the feedback to clarify your research design reflexively. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Collaboration, Problem solving |
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| All - Assessment Task 3:Research project description and ethics application | |||||||||||||||||||
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to develop an independent practitioner research project description and ethics application. |
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| Product: | Written Piece | ||||||||||||||||||
| Authorship Statement: | |||||||||||||||||||
| Format: | Generate a research project description and all documents required for ethical clearance for the project at both the university and study site location. Begin the process with the development o the project description using the human research ethics description/protocol template. You will generate a project description following the Australian National Ethics Application Form (NEAF) requirements, UniSC human ethics procedures and any other relevant ethics requirements for the study site. For example, all other documents, including research data generation tools or questions, recruitment and content documentation, consent forms, need to be finalised in the format for submission for ethical approval. |
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| Criteria: |
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| Generic Skills: | Communication, Problem solving, Organisation |
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A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
You need regular access to the resource(s) below. Many texts are available as ebooks through the Library at no additional cost.
| Required? | Author | Year | Title | Edition | Publisher |
| Required | Zina O'Leary | 2021 | The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project | 4th | Sage Publications Limited |
| Required | James Williams | 2020 | How to Read and Understand Educational Research | n/a | SAGE Publications Limited |
| Required | Inger Mewburn,Katherine Firth,Shaun Lehmann | 0 | How to Fix Your Academic Writing Trouble: A pracrical guide | n/a | Open University Press |
It is expected that you will require Internet access and a personal computer. Recommendations from information and technology services are available via the Student Portal if you search for computer specifications. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is necessary for each class session. Access to a mobile device with a camera and microphone is recommended for participation in online sessions.
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.