Course Title: Mixed Methods in Educational Research
Course Number: EDRS 797
Reflection: Close on the heels of my gaming design class in the Fall of 2008, my passion for digital game-based learning (DGBL) carried me into this course on combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. Seeing as my focus had remained on studying an underserved (my opinion) population – the Federal government – I further honed my research interests to uncovering the key issues favoring and disfavoring DGBL in this population.
Through readings and class discussion, I realized mid-semester that I needed to take a major theoretical step backwards to a more foundational pursuit – that of legitimizing Adult Learning Theory (ALT). The reason behind this was to systematically walk through the premises I was beginning to hold: (a) ALT is an authoritative instructional/learning theory, (b) ALT should inform training and education activities of the Federal employee (who is, arguably, an adult by any definition), (c) DGBL encompasses the major tenets of ALT, and therefore (d) DGBL should be viewed as a valid methodology for training and educational activity for the Federal learner.
As this gelled in my mind, I had the good fortune to read (it was assigned) Obedience To Authority: An Experimental View by Stanley Milgram. This brilliant work recounted the landmark social experiment of Milgram in studying how images of authority could so affect the common man. I began to ponder how this legendary investigation might inform my own interests and came up with the following:
Assuming that using ALT in the design and development of Federal government training was considered the desirable thing to do, what would prevent learning leaders from exercising informing their practices with that foundation?
I posited a few “authority figures,” which, when encountered, might lead to the brave to shrink back to more pedagogic manners of conducting the business of developing the Federal employee: Core Values, Mission Focus, Tradition, Bureaucracy, Tenure, Politics – could these be the “authorities” in place which prevented learning leaders from, in my opinion, doing the right thing?
I pondered what factors might lead to a level of cognitive dissonance such that the “authorities” above could be overcome…I couldn’t think of (m)any.
So at the end, I was left with a greater desire to see why ALT was not, in my opinion again, more prevalent in the activities which I myself was subject to. DGBL would have to wait until post-doctoral work.
Professor: Dr. Joseph Maxwell
Grade: A-