Kennon Smith's dissertation

I’ve been reading and re-reading Kennon Smith’s 2008 dissertation for the past few weeks. Most of us have read Smith & Boling (2009) in R711, which is a condensed version of this dissertation, so I’m not going to summarize the study (it’s about the meaning of design in the foundational texts of the instructional design and technology field). I’m going to share a couple of things that I found interesting and useful:

Kennon describes her experience in the field, and in her working life in general, in great detail. Part of this, I suppose, is that she is establishing her bona fides: She has experience in the field, so we can trust that she is capable of dealing with the subject matter. Another part might be (she’s not explicit about it) disclosure of potential sources of bias: Much of her professional experience is in architecture and landscape design, not instructional design. We can use that information to understand and evaluate what she chooses to focus on and her interpretation of her data. This description of experience and background was reflective in a way that I didn’t expect.

The dissertation’s research question is “What is design in instructional technology, as defined by foundational literature in the field.” She explains the question. Of course. She also states the assumptions behind the question. This seems like such an important thing to do. The research question is the keystone of any study, so you need to make sure that it’s strong enough to hold up.