RESEARCH METHODS IN EDUCATION (RME 580/581 S)

Wellington)

STUDY GUIDE - 2025

COURSE: B.Ed (Hons) General Teaching and Learning

SUBJECT: Research Methods in Education
SUBJECT CODE: RME 580/581 S
NQF LEVEL: 8

LECTURERS: Prof Candice Livingston, Prof Pieter Boer, Dr Felix and Mr Kgopong

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 1. INTRODUCTION

A hearty welcome to this module on educational research! Research plays an important role in
finding valid answers to the questions that may arise within the educational context. It is therefore
important to improve your knowledge of research and to develop your research skills to enable you
to experiment in school with, for example, instructional strategies to improve your instruction/
teaching, which, in turn, will improve the learning efficiency of your students.

With this module (RME 580/581 S) we are taking the first step on the way to train you as a
researcher. Whether you are to remain a teacher of a specific subject throughout the remainder of
your teaching career, or will be promoted to a managerial position at some time in the future, or
are to become an educational researcher, research will make an important contribution to the
quality of the work you will be doing. As a teacher you may want to compare two teaching
methods or determine why some students fail while others pass. As a school principal you may
want to determine how the students, teachers and/ or parents experience your management style.
As an educational researcher you may be assigned the task to determine whether an AIDS
awareness campaign or the COLTS project indeed has any effect and meets its goal. In all three
cases research plays an important role in finding an answer to the questions you may have.
Whether it is to merely satisfy your own curiosity or to complete a research assignment assigned to
you by your supervisor, this module will satisfy such curiosity or enable you to complete the
assignment with distinction.

Thus, one of the major goals of this module is to train you in educational research. With this module
in educational research many of you are going to tread on unfamiliar ground. If you study this
study guide and texts provided, you will get a good idea of what educational research entails.

2. SUBJECT PURPOSE:

This compulsory, fundamental (generic) module is one of the core components of the qualification.
It is on an advanced level as it builds on basic knowledge and skills of educational research
students should have acquired in undergraduate studies, as well as in the module Introduction to
Research.

This module equips students with fundamental, generic knowledge and skills which, combined with
the disciplinary pedagogical and content knowledge acquired from their specialization, should
enable them to conduct an independent research project of 30 credits in their specialization, under
the supervision of a specialization expert.

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As such, this module will enable students to:
 Understand the paradigms within which educational research is situated
 Understand the research process and can apply it to develop a research project in their
specialization
 Understand the difference between ordinary knowledge and scientific knowledge
 Can critically engage with educational research literature
 Understand educational research methodology (quantitative, qualitative and mixed
methods) and the range of research methods utilized, and can implement them
 Can design and implement suitable data collection instruments, can analyze (qualitative and
quantitative) data collected by collection instruments, can interpret and discuss results
 Understand the principles and obligations of ethics in research, and are able to adhere to
these

3. GENERAL CONTACT INFORMATION

Name Building Telephone E-mail address

and room number
number

Subject Prof Candice D3A 021 [email protected]

Co- Livingston 8645254 a

ordinator

4. YEAR PROGRAM AND TIMETABLE FOR 2025:

DATE STUDY UNITS FOCUS PREPARATION LECTURER

18/2 1 Orientation  Welcome Orientation Livingston
booklet
PowerPoint
presentation
4/3 2 Ethics  Steps in the research process Chapter 6 and 7 Kriel
 Ethics in research Livingston to
 How to apply for CPUT ethical do Ethics
clearance assignment
preparation
8/4 3 Research  Afrocentricity as a research Chapter 1 and 2 Kgopong
paradigms, philosophy Felix
traditions and  Positivism and Interpretivism
theory in research  Research Onion

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 HAND IN ETHICS ASSIGNMENT 22nd April 2025
22/4 4 Literature review  Review of literature and Chapter 8 and 11 Livingston
concept definition Chapter 20
 Uses of secondary data
6/5 5 Selection of a  Three types of designs Chapter 10 Kgopong
research design  Introduction to quantitative Felix
research
 Introduction to qualitative
research
 Introduction to mixed methods
research
20/5 6 Construction of  Critical research and Chapter 3, 4 and Livingston
meaning in indigenous knowledge 5
research
3/6 7 TEST First semester work Livingston to
administer
17/6 8 Assignment Livingston
preparation
22/7 9 Sampling  Types of sampling Chapter 13 Boer

5/8 10 Quantitative  Survey design Chapter 14 and Boer

research designs  Experimental designs 15
6/8 11 Quantitative  Questionnaire approach Chapter 18 Boer
research designs
19/8 12 Quantitative  Analysis – descriptive statistics Chapter 22 Boer
analysis
2/9 13 Qualitative  Observations, interviews and Chapters 16, 17 Kgopong
methods focus groups and 19 Felix
23/9 14 Quantitative  Observation, interviews and Chapters 16, 17 Kgopong
methods focus groups and 19 Felix
14/10 15 Qualitative  Analysis Chapter 25 Kgopong
analysis Felix
28/10 16 Mixed Methods  Overview Articles Livingston
PowerPoint
presentation
Hand in Qualitative Assignment on the 14th of October 2025
11/11 17 TEST Second semester work Livingston

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 5. SUBJECT/MODULE SPECIFICATIONS

 To complete this module you:

 either need to have your own personal computer or you need to know someone with a
computer to type your assignments; and

 must have access to the Internet to obtain the information you require to complete
your assignments for this module, and also for all the other modules you have to complete
during the course of completing the BEd Honours degree.

6. ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES

Weighting 25% Weighting 25% Weighting 25% Weighting 25%

Assignment Test Assignment Test
22/3 3/6 14/10 11/11

Assessment 1: Assignment Due date - 22 April 2025

This assignment is a critical essay.

This assignment is in two parts: the first part requires you to write an essay of 1000 words. The
second part of the assignment requires that you write an essay of 600 words on the Ethics
processes involved in applying for Ethics at the Faculty of Education at CPUT. All the documentation
and articles needed for this assignment can be found on Blackboard.

Part 1
1. Choose one of the following topics and write an academic essay of 1000 words on it. Your
essay must contain an introduction, a problem statement and a research question that will
be answered. Your essay must address the ethical issues apparent in the topic. This means
that you will need to understand the ethical issues in the topic of your choice as related to
Chapter 6 and 7 in your textbook. Your essay must follow all the conventions of a research
paper and must contain at least 10 different journal articles as references. These are the
topics you may choose from. Remember to choose just one:

 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was ethically immoral. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why
not?
 The Milgram Experiment was ethically immoral. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?

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 The Hofling Hospital experiment was ethically immoral. Do you agree or disagree? Why or
why not?

Part 2

2. Read the following documents and describe the processes a researcher needs to follow
when applying for ethics clearance at CPUT:
a. Education Faculty Ethics Committee flow chart of ethical clearance procedures
b. Cape Peninsula University of Technology - Faculty OF Education research ethics
guidelines for researchers
c. Research ethics application form

CRITERIA MARKS COMMENTS

Easy to read – logically 10%
organized, concise,
proofread for grammar,
spelling and punctuation
errors.

Demonstrates 35%
understanding of ethics
and is able to analyse a
problem and provide
solutions to ethical
dilemmas – is able to
define, summarize and
analyse key elements in
the discussion.

Referencing: Uses correct 20%

in-text and end-of-text
reference techniques.

Total: /65

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 Assignment 2: Qualitative assignment Due Date: 14th of October (25%) Individual

Assignment 2 is based on Chapters 17, 19, 25 and 27 and will require you to conduct a qualitative
investigation on your Service-Learning project.

Guidelines for the assignment

1. Identify 3-4 novice teachers at your school. Novice teachers are those with less than 5 years’
experience in the teaching profession.
2. Conduct the interview/focus group discussions as per the guidelines in the textbook.
3. Ask only the questions that will be given to you.
4. Remember to record the interviews/focus group discussion.
5. Transcribe the interviews/focus group discussion.
6. Analyse the interviews/focus group discussion thematically (as per chapter 25)
7. Compile a report of what you have found.

The report should follow the following outline:

1. Introduction
2. Two-page review of literature of your chosen variable
3. Research design
a. Qualitative design chosen
b. Population and sampling
c. Analysis of the data and findings
4. Conclusions and recommendations
5. Bibliography

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 CRITERIA MARK COMMENTS
S
1. Introduction: 10
- background and context
- research question and sub-questions
or research problem and sub-
problems
- aims of the research
2. Literature review: 20
- evidence of rigorous and
comprehensive reading
- theoretical framework – relevant
theories and theorists discussed in a
logical manner linking to your
research question/problem
- writing techniques – coherence in the
writing – each paragraph to be about
one issue, links between paragraphs,
all writing needs to be linked to the
topic and research questions. Your
argument(s) must be logically
organised and concise
3. Methodology: 10
- site and sample
- data collection instruments
- validity and reliability

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 - data analysis
- ethical considerations – letter of
permission
Data analysis and findings 50

4. References: 10
– variety of sources
- number and quality
- in-text references
- end-of-text references
Total: /100

7. LECTURING METHODOLOGY 2025

 Presentations (PowerPoint) by the lecturer

 Group discussions
 Individual inputs from the students
 Debates regarding educational research matters

8. PRESCRIBED TEXTBOOKS

Okeke, C. & van Wyk, M. 2018. Educational Research: An African approach. Cape Town: Oxford
University Press (ISBN 978 0 19 040913 5)

9. ADDITIONAL READINGS:

Available in the library at CPUT at shelf 001.42 and 370.72 and 370.78

 Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. 2003. Research methods in education. London: Croon
Helm.
 Creswell, J.W. 2015. A concise introduction to mixed methods research. Los Angeles: Sage.
 Girden, E. 2001. Evaluating research articles: from start to finish. 2nd ed. London: Sage
Publications.
 Ivankova, N., Creswell, J.W., & Plano Clark, V.L. 2007. Foundations and approaches to mixed
methods research. In Maree, K (Ed). 2007. First steps in research. Van Schaik: Pretoria.

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  Leedy, P. & Ormrod J. 2005. Practical research: planning and design. 8th ed. New Jersey:
Pearson Education International.
 Mc Millan, J.H. 2000. Educational research: Fundamentals for the consumer (Third Edition).
Longman: New York.
 Mc Millan, J.H., & Schumacher, S. 2014. Research in education: evidence-based inquiry
(Seventh edition). Pearson: Boston.
 Mouton, J. 2002. Understanding social research. Cape Town: Van Schaik Publishers.
 Salkind, N. 2006. Exploring research. 6th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education International.

Library guides:
A number of valuable library guides and research resources are available at the following web
adProfess:

http://libguides.library.cput.ac.za/research

10. LEARNER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) – E-LEARNING

This subject will make use of the e-learning LMS (Blackboard) – in other words; electronic forms of
learning that are available on the intranet. Remember that computers are available in the library,
and the institutional facilities offer access to computer laboratories.

How to log into the LMS

Run Microsoft Explorer (click on the big blue e).
Enter the CPUT home page: HtmlResAnchor www.cput.ac.za
Click on e-learning on the right-hand side of the screen. Then click on Cape Peninsula UoT e-
classroom.

To Login, enter your student number in the ID box, and your date of birth in YY-MM-DD format as
the password. For example, if your date of birth is 13 October 1985, your password will be 851013.
Click on the subject code.
You will reach a home page with block Content.

How to access study material

After you have completed the six steps above, click on Chapters.
You will find the Subject Guide, info lit Block, interviews and Presentations, and other chapters of
course material.

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These documents are all Microsoft Word documents. Click on the chapter title, and it will pop up on
your screen as a Microsoft Word document. You can then print it, or save it onto flash Profive by
clicking on File Save As, and then pointing to the applicable Profive in the Save in box, or just
read it onscreen.

How to get your mail on Blackboard

Go through the first six steps. In the subject home page, click on Discussion, and then click on
Mail.

If there is any mail, click on the title of the mail and it will open on your screen.
To write a message, click on Compose. Bear in mind that this is a discussion tool and not a
private email channel.

How to open an attachment in your email

You can send files such as documents and spreadsheets in your mail. If your email has an
attachment, it will show a note saying See Attached, together with a paper clip icon. If there is
such an attachment, click on See Attached.

Thereafter, click on the name of the attachment, and the information will appear on your screen.

11. FINAL WORD

It is essential that you plan ahead of time as time and manage your work accordingly. This is a
challenging course but with hard work and dedication, you can make a success of this. Good luck!

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