Acase

At ACASE, our work has been focused especially on building sound measures of learning outcomes. But we recognize that to use the most appropriate instruments effectively requires that special attention be given to questions such as those noted above. In his forty years at SUNY Albany, Professor Pruzek has helped to develop reasoned approaches to de... sign, data collection, display and analysis that connect naturally with our interests in goals and instruments for assessment. We envision more effective or useful educational studies that follow from a clear focus on goals and instruments at the outset, followed by more effective methods for design, data collection, display, analysis and interpretation. Our ultimate aim is to help advance the effectiveness of research directed to improving curriculum, instruction, learning and assessment. As noted, for several decades Professor Pruzek has focused on a number of concepts, processes and methods that appear to have special potential to facilitate better research design, data collection and analysis. These ideas, while in the mainstream of research thinking, often appear quite different from what has become conventional. These methods involve such things as the use of relevant (prior) information to form homogeneous subgroups (of students, or classrooms, etc.) and designs that account for subgrouping (or more generally, dependency in the data). Also, these methods entail analysis that follows visualization of data, possibly from different perspectives, where data summaries are employed only when sufficient thought has been given to individual data points, where these came from, and what they mean. When such modern methodological ideas are used to inform applied research it is not uncommon to learn that data for some students must be set aside or considered separately, with specific reference to the individual's background or skills or deficits, before summarizing results. Use of such refined ideas and methods sometimes can make it clear that initial research questions ...Read More