Students will explore what it means to take an 'inquiry stance' as a framework for posing, investigating and addressing practice issues. They will investigate a range of practitioner research approaches, develop an understanding of practitioner research methods and design a well justified research question and proposal for an ethical investigation of a professional practice setting.

Teaching as inquiry and inquiry spirals are commonly used terms in education.

This popular research methods course is for those intending to research anything in a practice setting, particularly those who intend to conduct research into the organisation where they work.

Completing this course will prepare you to carry out research in your professional practice setting.

You will build your knowledge and understanding to carry out inquiry and research in a practice setting, investigate a range of practitioner research approaches and develop your understanding of practitioner research methods.

Most critically, on completion of this course you will have designed a well-justified research question and proposal for an ethical research investigation in your own practice setting.

Research methods courses in education, social work or counselling prepare you for exploring answers to questions or testing theories about what works. They help students to develop expertise in disciplined inquiry. A range of courses are offered by the Faculty of Education and Social Work to prepare students for effectively researching and evaluating a programme or problem of practice in the most appropriate way. Research methods courses are organised under four major themes:

• Educational research
  Diverse methods spanning experimental/scientific to interpretive/post-modern approaches that focus on policy, teachers and teaching, students and learning, from pre-school to higher education.
• Practitioner research
  Methods that examine how best to conduct research with and by practitioners in their professional contexts.
• Kaupapa Māori research
  Methods that respect and utilise Māori perspectives on knowledge and knowing focused on research with, by, and for Māori.
• Social Work and Counselling research
  Methods used in applied and theoretical research within social work and counselling professional practices that inform social and community research.

At completion of this course, students will be able to: Describe, discuss and critique a range of approaches to practitioner inquiry. Drawing from an appropriate practitioner inquiry approach, frame a substantive research question and discuss appropriate analytical frameworks and suitable research methods for investigating the question. Identify ethical issues inherent in research and draw on understanding of ethical principles and actions to develop and explain an ethically defensible resolution to these issues.

2020 Online (Semester 2): Online offering

This course can be taken as a taught course in the following programmes:

• Postgraduate Diploma in Education
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education
• Bachelor of Education (Teaching) (Honours)
• Master of Education
• Master of Professional Studies in Education
• Master of Professional Studies in Teaching Chinese in Schools
• Master of Educational Leadership
• Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Leadership

Primary and Intermediate teachers may be eligible for a Ministry of Education fees subsidy for this course. Click here for more information.