Drs. Feldon and Tofel-Grehl to Receive AERA Award
Drs. David Feldon and Colby Tofel-Grehl
Dr. David Feldon (ITLS Department) and Dr. Colby Tofel-Grehl (TEAL Department) will be awarded the Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology Award at the AERA Annual Meeting in Toronto this week. According to the American Educational Research Association’s website, “This annual award recognizes published research judged to represent a significant advancement in theory and practice of educational measurement and/or educational research methodology.” This is the first time this recognition will be awarded for an article about mixed methods research.
They will be receiving this award for their article titled, “Phenomenography as a Foundation for Mixed Models Research.” They were nominated by three different researchers, each from different institutions: Dr. Elizabeth G. Creamer (Virginia Tech), Dr. John Hitchcock (Abt Associates), and Dr. Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie (Sam Houston State University).
Dr. Onwuegbuzie said, “In my opinion, this article is one of the most original high-quality articles published this year on mixed methods research. The authors offer a clear, concisely written, and organized article that seeks to provide a meaningful contextualization of the use of phenomenography within mixed methods research.”
Phenomenography deals with the differing ways people perceive the world. As Dr. Hitchcock explains, “Phenomenography can be thought of as an approach for identifying different ways in which people conceptualize, perceive and experience phenomena. Learning is an important construct when it comes to understanding phenomenography because the framework holds that how people structure and make sense of phenomena is dynamic.”
The article was published in the American Behavioral Scientist. “The purpose of the special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist,” Dr. Creamer, an editor of the journal, said, “was to demonstrate the versatility of mixed methods approaches to empirical research by illustrating how they can be used in synergistic ways with a variety of methods traditionally housed with the family of qualitative traditions.”
The award will be received on Saturday April 6th at the Division D Business Meeting and Reception, which starts at 4:10 p.m. in the Imperial Room of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. According to the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting website, "The American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting is the world’s largest gathering of education researchers and a showcase for groundbreaking, innovative studies in an array of areas."