This essay presents the reflections of four Education Doctorate (EdD) students on the pilot testing strategies used during an online research methods course. Rigorous questionnaire and interview development skills are challenging to acquire. Pilot testing is an under-researched stage of instrument design, yet it is crucial to ensure validity and…

Scale construction is a common technique in the behavioral and social sciences. There are various techniques researchers use to construct a scale such as the use of focus groups or modifying existing scales. These techniques are not without their challenges. One technique that is not as well discussed in the social science literature is the use of…

Project-based innovation and entrepreneurship curricula encourage learners to approach challenges in an agile, iterative way, allowing for flexibility to respond to new information throughout the research and idea development process. This approach often clashes with traditional ethical approval processes designed for a more predictable set of…

The abundance of student records housed in K-12 schools across the country represents a largely untapped resource in the study of behavioral phenomena among children. Careful review of these existing records affords educational researchers an alternative to the heavily used survey method of data collection. While record review studies are common…

Design Thinking (DT) is not merely a well-known design methodology but also an entire mindset towards solving complex societal problems in an innovative way. Its popularity in diverse disciplines beyond design, is due to its relation with the development of key 21st-century skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and…

The demand for marketing researchers is at an all-time high and continues to grow. Yet a disconnect exists between marketing research in industry and in academia; qualitative research is standard in the former, but often is overlooked in the latter's curricula. I argue that qualitative marketing research is an ideal topic for applying experiential…

Traditional classroom assessment practice often leaves students out of the conversation, exacerbating the unequal power distribution in the classroom. Viewing classrooms as autonomy-inhibiting is known to influence students' psychosocial wellbeing as well as their academic achievement. This is especially relevant in STEM fields where marginalized…

Momentary time sampling (MTS), whole interval recording (WIR), and partial interval recording (PIR) are commonly used in applied research. We discuss potential difficulties with analyzing data when these systems are used and present results from a pilot simulation study designed to determine the extent to which these issues are likely to be…

Conducting qualitative research in any discipline warrants two actions: accessing participants and eliciting their ideas. In chemistry education research (CER), survey techniques have been used to increase access to participants and diversify samples. Interview tasks (such as card sorting, using demonstrations, and using simulations) have been…

Introduction: This pilot study examined how current information behaviour research addresses the implications and potential impacts of its findings. The goal was to understand what implications and contributions the field has made and how effectively authors communicate implications of their findings. Methods: We conducted a content analysis of 30…

Assessing student learning in university courses is commonly done using a rubric that arranges the assessment criteria and standards descriptors in a matrix style or grid format. This paper introduces an alternative style of grading tool known as the continua model of a guide to making judgements, which arranges assessment criteria based on a…

Critical thinking is frequently proposed as one of the most important learning outcomes of a university education. However, to date, it has been difficult to ascertain whether university students in low-income contexts are improving in their critical thinking skills, because the limited studies in this domain have relied on instruments developed…

An exploratory study of a middle school curriculum directly aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards was conducted with a focus on how the curriculum addresses the instructional needs of students with learning disabilities. A descriptive analysis of a lesson on speed and velocity was conducted and implications discussed for students with…

Pair programming is a collaborative programming practice that places participants in dyads, working in tandem at one computer to complete programming assignments. Pair programming studies with Computer Science (CS) and Software Engineering (SE) majors have identified benefits such as technical productivity, program/design quality, academic…

This paper reports on the design of a pilot doctoral study into the online support of pre-service teachers. It highlights the significance of a consequential, rather than deontological, perspective in guiding the development of a study's design. The study initially aimed to explore pre-service teachers' perceptions and use of social media on their…