E891 Part 3 Design

Frames
Credit to Lee (permission to share given)
The following slides were put together by
Lee, an E891 student in 2012. He uses
South Park characters to explain some of
the key concepts.
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
In Part 3 there are six
design frames. These
are a lot more down-
to-earth than
paradigms or
theories
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
Experimental design is
where one group is
treated and another
isnt, and then the
results are compared..
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
Longitudinal studies
are ones that happen
over time so the
temporal effects of
something are studied
and/or measured.
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
Case studies are where
particular cases,
situations or contexts
are looked at
holistically and in their
entirety.
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
Ethnographies are
where you focus on
how people behave
and interact on a
sociocultural level.
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
Action research tends
to be done by teachers
themselves, and
focuses on how to
improve their own
individual practice.
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
CHAT, or Activity
Theory, looks at the
relationships between
all the various people
and institutions that
interact in educational
contexts.
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
These frames arent
mutually exclusive or
anything. Often they
can work together
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
So these definitions
have an element of
fuzziness and fluidity
to them.
Experimental
Design
Experimental design is a bit like classis
scientific research.
Control Group
Experimental Group
...but keep the
control group the
same
Experimental
Design
Control Group
Experimental Group
That way, if the
experimental group
come out different,
Ill know its because
of whatever I did to
them.
Experimental design is a bit like classis
scientific research.
Longitudinal
studies
But what makes it longitudinal is that it
focuses on the temporal;
Whats the
difference
between now and
later?
Now Later
Case Studies
Okay, this is a tricky one to define
succinctly
Teacher
Students
Case Studies
But a case could be anything that could be
conceived of as a situation or context
Teacher
Students
The case
Case Studies
In doing a case study, a researcher would be
interested in many aspects of the situation.
Teacher
Students
How much is the
teacher getting
paid? What are
the students
ethnic
backgrounds?
What is the
weather like? Etc
Ethnography
Ethnography (or, perhaps more
appropriately, ethnographic inquiry)
Ethnography
focuses on the social and cultural
identities, relationships and practices of the
subjects being investigated.
Who are they? How do
they relate to one
another? How do they
get on? How do they
communicate? How do
they work together?
Action
Research
Action research is (normally) where a
teacher jumps in and adapts their own
practice in the spirit of research
Teacher
Students
Action
Research
and improved practice.
Teacher
Students
Im going to start
teaching with hand-
puppets and see
what happens
CHAT
Cultural Historical Activity Theory, CHAT, or
Activity Theory is a weird one
CHAT
While at first glance it may resemble a
satanic mad-hatters tea-party, actually its a
lot more straightforward than all the
CHAT
vague references to dead Russians might
lead you to believe.
When youre working with
design frames, youll use
different methods (or are
they methodologies?) to
actually get data. Part 3
gives four ways of doing
this:
Observation
Questionnaires
Interviews
Documentation
Review
Im a non-participant
observer. These guys
are doing their thing,
and I am staying out of
it
Observation
When youre observing, you have to think
about how much you affect the things you
are looking at
I, on the other hand, am a
participant observer in that I
am getting stuck in and am a
part of the action.
Observation
When youre observing, you have to think
about how much you affect the things you
are looking at
Questionnaires
Questionnaires are handy for asking lots of
people the same thing
Interviews
Anyway! Interviews are cool.
How do you feel about
your mother?
Interviews
But you do have to consider the
relationship between the interviewer and
the interviewee.
My mother? Let me tell
you about my mother
Interviews
Again, its possible that the researchers
position might cause the interviewee to
respond in a certain (pre)conditioned way.
My mother? Let me tell
you about my mother
Design Frames
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory
They are about how
you actually do stuff,
as opposed to how you
philosophically view it.
Reviewing
documentation
(that means: Read Things)
asking participants to write a diary/journal
asking participants to write a biography (or to
contribute to this orally)
asking young children to draw pictures of key
events, places or people in their lives
giving older children and adults an audio
recorder, camera, camcorder or other device to
record situations or events that are relevant to
the research.
Reviewing
documentation
Just because things have been written
down doesnt make them necessarily more
reliable.
asking participants to write a diary/journal
asking participants to write a biography (or to
contribute to this orally)
asking young children to draw pictures of key
events, places or people in their lives
giving older children and adults an audio
recorder, camera, camcorder or other device to
record situations or events that are relevant to
the research.
Frames Methods
Experimental design
Longitudinal studies and
surveys
Case study
Ethnography
Action research
Activity theory

Observation
Questionnaires
Interviews
Documentation Review

.and so..
Whilst Lees slides are a great way of
understanding the key theories, these
slides are not official Open University
documents, so please do not use these for
direct references!!
See other examples of Lees work some
slides already postedmore to follow!!