Papers by Ayse Gul Kara Aydemir
VIII th Internatıonal Eurasian Educational Research Congress, Jul 30, 2021
British Journal of Educational Technology, Mar 27, 2019
The first aim of this study is to explore the current research trends in the context of graduate ... more The first aim of this study is to explore the current research trends in the context of graduate programs in the field of Educational Technology in Turkey, and uncover the possible factors that influence these research trends from the perspective of faculty members working at Educational Technology graduate programs. Secondly, this study aims to understand faculty members' expectations for the future of the field, and their suggestions on how to make Educational Technology field better than as it is today. This study is informed by critical theory. To achieve the aims of the study critical inquiry method is used. Two different data gathering techniques were used sequentially. In the first phase, content analysis technique is used to explore current research methods and topics trend in theses and dissertations completed in Educational Technology graduate programs in Turkey. In this phase, 705 theses and dissertations were analyzed from 1996 to 2016. In the second phase of the stu...
British Journal of Educational Technology, May 2019
The aim of this study is to explore the research trends in the context of postgraduate programmes... more The aim of this study is to explore the research trends in the context of postgraduate programmes in the field of Educational Technology (ET) in Turkey between 1996 and 2016, and to uncover the possible factors that influence these trends from the perspective of ET faculty members. This study was informed by critical theory and employed the critical inquiry method. In the first phase, content analysis technique was used in order to explore trends in research methods and topics in theses completed in ET postgraduate programmes in Turkey. In the second phase, in‐depth interviews were conducted with 11 faculty members regarding the possible influential factors. The findings of the content analysis indicated that ET research was dominated by quantitative research designs in the examined theses. Critical methods were overlooked and social, cultural, and political issues were largely silenced. The findings of the interviews showed that the factors that have been influential on ET research trends were the social impact of the research, personal interests and skills, disciplinary and departmental culture, and feasibility concerns. This study presents implications for better ET research by addressing blind spots of the field and providing suggestions for ET postgraduate students, ET scholars, policymakers and practitioners in a global context and other developing countries since the resulting trends in Turkey were found similar to international trends in the field.
Conference Presentations by Ayse Gul Kara Aydemir
ICES UEBK - 28th International Conference on Educational Sciences, 2019
The first aim of this study is to explore the current research trends in the context of graduate ... more The first aim of this study is to explore the current research trends in the context of graduate programs in the field of Educational Technology (ET) in Turkey, and uncover the possible factors that influence these research trends from the perspective of faculty members working at ET graduate programs. Secondly, this study aims to understand faculty members’ expectations for the future of the field, and their suggestions on how to make ET field better than as it is today. Trend studies in ET literature descriptively reported the most frequently studied research topics and methods in the field and failed to focus on silenced issues. Furthermore, these studies rarely explored the possible factors related to these trends using Critical Theory. However, for socially responsible ET research, critical issues need to be addressed. Therefore, the present study is informed by Critical Theory. To achieve the aims of the study, Critical Inquiry method was used. Two research questions of this study were: “What are the major trends in Educational Technology graduate programs in Turkey in terms of research topics and methods in graduate theses?” and “What are the possible factors that have influenced these trends, based on the opinions of faculty members in the ET field?”. Two different data gathering techniques were used sequentially. In the first phase, Constant Comparative Analysis was used to explore current research methods and topics trend in theses and dissertations completed in ET graduate programs in Turkey. In this phase, 705 theses and dissertations were analyzed from 1996 to 2016. In the second phase of the study, in-depth interviewing technique was used to uncover factors that have been influential on ET research trends, and to understand faculty members’ expectations for the future of the field. Using a semi-structured interview schedule, interviews were conducted with 11 faculty members working in ET graduate programs. The informants were selected purposefully. Open and axial coding were conducted for data analysis. The inter-coder reliability was 88%. The study showed that critical methods in the examined theses and dissertations were overlooked. The most preferred research topics were identified as ‘learning environment’, ‘emerging technologies / acceptance of emerging technologies’, ‘Pedagogy, theory of learning/ instruction/ teaching’, and ‘Teacher / Instructor’. The least studied topics were ‘Social/cultural/political issues’, ‘The field’, ‘Change management/ Implications’ and ‘Human performance technology’. The findings of the content analysis also indicated that ET research is dominated by quantitative research designs. However, qualitative research designs have gained the attention of researchers in the last ten years. The most popular methods were Experimental, Survey, Case Study, Mixed, Correlational, and Descriptive. On the other hand, the least popular methods were DBR/Developmental, Qualitative, Action Research, Phenomenological, Causal Comparative, Content Analysis, Literature, Formative, and Meta- 89 Analysis. The results also showed that social, cultural, and political issues have been largely silenced in the examined theses and dissertations. The main factors that have been influential on ET research trends were ‘the social impact and usefulness of research’, ‘researchers’ personal interests and skills’, ‘disciplinary and departmental culture’, and ‘feasibility, publication, funding, and degree completion concerns’. The popularity of ‘learning environment’, and ‘emerging technologies / acceptance of emerging technologies’ among research topics shows a congruent patterns with earlier studies. This could be due to long tradition of ET field which features studies concerning application of digital technologies for learning and instruction. Setting from this point, we could argue that ET research becomes, intentionally or unintentionally, advocator of new technologies. Instead of asking ‘what works’ questions in a narrow way, ET researchers need to address social, political, and cultural complexity of technology and education for better and socially responsible ET research. In addition, the current study revealed that positivist paradigm has an ongoing influence over ET field when we examine research method trends and the possible reasons behind them. As ET field took its roots from psychology, we could argue that the field has adopted the way of producing knowledge of psychology. Nonetheless, ET researchers need to ask wider questions to address the complexity of learning and technology. Based on proposed research questions, method of inquiry would alter. Therefore, the researchers argue that ET researchers need to embrace alternative ways of knowing and enrich their research method repertoire to help them address complex questions. The results of this study presents implications for research as well as Educational Technology graduate students, Educational Technology scholars, policy makers and practitioners for better Educational Technology research by addressing blind spots of the field and provides suggestions on how it could be better than it is today.
Keywords: Critical Theory, Educational Technology Research Trends, Critical Research
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Papers by Ayse Gul Kara Aydemir
Conference Presentations by Ayse Gul Kara Aydemir
Keywords: Critical Theory, Educational Technology Research Trends, Critical Research
Keywords: Critical Theory, Educational Technology Research Trends, Critical Research