Master of Education Degree in Curriculum & Instruction EDFR 6300

Master of Education Degree in Curriculum & Instruction
Key Assessment #6 – Final Exam
EDFR 6300
Brief Description of the Assessment and Use in the Program
EDCI 6300, Foundation of Research Methods in Education, is one of fundamental and
core course series in the masters’ degree programs and curriculum across the program
Education in Curriculum and Instruction, in Bilingual Education, in Counselling and
Guidance, in Educational Technology and in Spedical Education, and the program of
Early Child Education in the College of Education at The University of Texax at
Brownsivlle. The course is an introduction to research methods and focuses on the
relationship between research problems, questions, designs, and data analysis. It provides
masters’ students with research study knowledge and problem solving techniques and
skills for collecting and analyzing data.
Other than homework, assignments, and literature review, two examinations will be
conducted both midterm and at the end of the semester. The purposes of two tests are to
measure student’s mastery of basic concepts, theories, design and basic data analysis and
application of these knowledge. The tests are considered based on criteria of content
sampling, difficulty and curriculum. In other words, the text items are the best samples of
this conceptual knowledge, the difficulty level are appropriate, and these items should
attain to the curriculum and instruction standards.
The Foundation of Research Methods is comprehensive course that integrate research
study knowledge, skills, expertise and problem solving strategies. From content aspect
we will cover seven modules of content knowledge; from curriculum and instruction
standard the assessment should be satisfied with relevant standards; and from learning
science perspective, the assessment should follow a meaningful cognitive framework.
Although there are several assessment tasks such as developing research problem, article
analysis, literature review and learning presentation, a comprehensive assessment tools
should be used to measure students’ performance and progress objectively. Stated
differently there should be objective measures of students’ progresses in research method
learning because this course are across all of the master’s education program in The
College of Education. Thus, objective assessment tasks such as multiple choice questions
as major assessment tools are used to measure students’ progress.