Final Analysis

During my class this semester, I feel like I have gained an understanding of and appreciation for Educational Design Research (EDR). while I still find it similar to action research, it is clearly much more involved and rigorous. As I preview educational programs in my role as site administrator, I will be keeping EDR in mind, and looking for evidence that the program I’m reviewing has gone through an iterative process that used a variety of data to inform the final product.

I’m unlikely to use EDR for my dissertation. As an administrator in a school district, I’m in an awkward power position with practitioners. In addition to the time commitment that I think EDR takes to “do it right”, there is an element of embedded access that I find problematic when looking at my personal goals for a dissertation completion schedule. Conducting multiple iterations during a single school year requires one to be very closely linked to the research situation, and it’s both impractical and unethical to conduct this sort of research at my school site with teachers that I evaluate! While I have an appreciation for EDR/DBR as a research methodology, I don’t see it as being a practical choice for my dissertation.

 I believe that peer review is a very powerful tool. As a recipient of peer feedback, I tend to quickly scan for things I agree with or recognize as easy corrections. I then go back and think through the revisions suggested by reviewers, and either keep them if I think they require more thought, or delete them if I feel like the suggestion is misguided or answered elsewhere. For the most part, I find that the comments are thoughtful and fairly accurate, and I very much appreciate having another set of eyes on my work. When I provide peer feedback, first and foremost I enjoy reading what other students are learning. I am picky about whose work to review, looking for those that match my background or work situation, at least in some way. There have been few peer review activities that haven’t taught me something of value, often outside of the topic of the class! When adding comments, I think carefully about my choice of words, since I know and respect the others in my cohort and don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. But I’m honest as well, again because I respect my colleagues and want my feedback to be meaningful. I also tend to double check my technical suggestions - I’m more likely to verify in the APA style manual when correcting someone else than when I’m doing my own writing!

Peer review does require a bit of trust, and a bit of knowing each others' style. In a class that contains a majority of students who have been together for 3 years, mixed with 2 newcomers who do not have the same history and are not at the same point in their educational career, there were some challenges. I suspect all of us tried to be inclusive, but it was more difficult to relate in some ways. It's a lesson I will keep in mind with my own students.