Introduction to Educational Research

Educational Research

• The systematic application of a family of methods that are employed to provide trustworthy information about educational problems.

• Research is usually an ongoing process, based on many accumulated understandings and explanations that, when taken together, lead to generalizations about educational issues and ultimately to the development of theories.

• A single research study will not produce the certainty needed to assume that the same results will apply in all or most settings.

• Personal experiences and generalizations provide us with much of understanding.

Understanding

• Often use inductive and deductive reasoning to come to an understanding of something.

Inductive Reasoning

• Develop generalizations from limited number of specific observations and experiences.

Inductive Reasoning

• Example: You examine the table of contents of four research books, all of which contain a chapter on sampling.– Therefore all research books contain a chapter

on sampling (generalization).

Deductive Reasoning

• Based on developing specific predictions from general principles, observations, or experiences.

Deductive Reasoning

• All research texts contain a chapter on sampling (generalization). This book is a research text. Therefore, this book contains a chapter on sampling (specific conclusion).

Limitations to Deductive and Inductive Reasoning.

• Relying on tradition stifles perspective.• Personal experience can be subject to idiosyncratic

(characteristics peculiar to a certain group) interpretations and prejudices.

• Even experts are not infallible.• Most people have relatively limited experience on

many of the issues we might seek to understand.

Quality of Inductive Reasoning (specifics to generalizations)

• Is highly dependent on the number and representativeness of the specific observations used to make the generalization.

• Inductive reasoning provides no guide for the number and quality of specific examples needed to make generalizations.

Quality of Deductive Reasoning (generalizations to specifics)

• Depends on the truth of the generalizations it uses as a basis for its logic.

• Example: If one accepts the generalization that all literature is boring, extending this generalization to specific literary works will not be accurate for at least a % of the literature.

• Inductive and deductive reasoning are of limited value when used individually, when combined they are very important.

• A scientific and disciplined inquiry approach to research is based on a systematic approach to examining educational issues and questions.

Systematic Approach

• Combines features of inductive and deductive reasoning with other characteristics to produce an approach to understanding that, though fallible, is generally more viable than tradition, experts, personal experience, or inductive or deductive reasoning alone.

Biases and Beliefs in Research

• Difficult to totally remove the biases and beliefs of the researcher in any research study.

• Can lessen but never eliminate errors.

Scientific and Disciplined Inquiry Approach

• Even the most extensive study cannot examine all the human and contextual factors that might affect a researcher’s findings.

Scientific and Disciplined Inquiry Approach

• Incorporates checks and balances to minimize impact of researcher’s emotions and biases.

Scientific and Disciplined Inquiry Approach (The Process)

• Recognize and identify a topic to be studied.

• Describe and execute procedures to collect information about the topic being studied.

• Analyze the collected data.

• State the results or implications based on analysis of the data.

Common Threads

• Although there are a number of different questions, methods, and analyses related to conducting research, the threads that unite these differences are the four basic steps in the scientific and disciplined inquiry approach.

Defining Purpose and Methods

• Topics can pose a variety of purposes

– e.g. comparing, describing, relating, describing the history or effects of something.

• Methods used to carry out research

• Approaches using an in-depth description analyses of cultures or social settings are called qualitative studies.

• Logically, if there are differences in the purposes of research topics, there also should be differences in the strategies and methods for investigating these topics.

• Procedures used to analyze collected data.

• Interpretations/conclusions of study.

Classifying Research

• Can be classified by the degree of direct applicability of the research to educational settings (basic or applied research).

• Or by the methods the researcher uses to conduct the study (quantitative or qualitative research).

Basic and Applied Research

• Continuum- difficult to discuss separately.

• Basic - conducted to develop or refine theory, not to solve immediate practical problems.

• Applied- conducted to find solutions to current practical problems.

• Example of basic research - Skinner’s reinforcement of birds.

• Years later was applied practical educational use.

• Disagreement among educators about which end of the basic-applied continuum should be emphasized.

Evaluation Research

• At the far end of applied research.

• Distinguished by decision making purpose.

• Evaluation research is concerned with making decisions about quality, effectiveness or value of educational programs, products or practices.

Different Types of Evaluation

• Formative evaluation: function is to form and improve what is being evaluated while it is being developed.

• Summative evaluation: function is to make a decision that sums up the overall quality or worth of the program or product.

Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Quantitative

• Methods based in the collection and analysis of numerical data, usually obtained from questionnaires, tests, checklists, and other formal paper and pencil instruments.

• But entails more than just the use of numerical data.

Quantitative

• It also involves– stating the hypothesis studied, and the research

procedures implemented prior to conducting the study,

– maintaining control over contextual factors that might interfere with the data collected,

– using large enough samples of participants to provide statistically meaningful data.

Quantitative

– Employing data analyses that rely on statistical procedures.

– Usually little personal interaction between the researcher and the people they study.

Quantitative

• Uses underlying belief that we inhabit a stable, and measurable world.

Quantitative

• Positivist Perspective- hold that the world and the laws that govern it are stable and can be understood by scientific observation.– Claims about the world are not meaningful

unless they can be verified through direct observation.

– This approach continues to be the dominant one in education.

Qualitative

• Based on the collection and analysis of nonnumerical data such as observations, interviews, and more discursive sources of information.

Qualitative

• Argues that meaning is situated in a particular perspective or context.

• Different people have different perspectives and contexts.

• There are many meanings in the world, none of which is necessarily more valid or true than another.

Qualitative

• Tends not to state hypotheses or research procedures before data is collected.

• Research problems and methods evolve as understanding of the research context deepens.

Qualitative

• Context is not controlled.

• Number of participants tends to be small because of time intensive methods like interviews.

• Researchers often act with participants during a study

Qualitative and Quantitative

• Should not be considered oppositional.

• Together - represent the full range of educational research methods.

• Both may be administered in some studies.– E.g. administration of a questionaire

(quantitative) may be followed up by a small number of detailed interviews (qualitative).

Types of Quantitative research

• Review-Intended to describe current conditions, investigate relationships, and study cause-effect phenomena.

Descriptive Research

• Also called survey research, collects numerical data to answer questions about the current status of the subject of study.

• Most obtain information about the preferences, attitudes, practices, concerns, or interests of some group.

• Data collected by self administered instruments or telephone polls.

Descriptive Research

• Important to construct clear and consistent descriptive instruments.

• Major problem- failure of participants to return questionaires or cooperate in telephone interviews.

Descriptive Research

• Examples:

• How do second-grade teachers spend their teaching time?

• How will the citizens of Yourtown vote in the next presidential election?

• How do parents feel about a twelve-month school year.

Correlational Research

• Examines the degree of relationship between two or more variables.

• A correlation is a quantitative measure (of the degree of correspondence between two or more variables).– E.g. SAT scores and freshman college grades.

Correlational Research

• Degree of relationship is measured by correlation coefficient.– Plus/minus 1.00 indicating highly related– .00 indicating no relationship between the

variables.

Correlational Research

• If two variable are highly related, it does not mean that one is the cause of the other; there may be a third factor that “causes” both the related variables

Correlational Research

• Examples:

• The correlation between intelligence and self-esteem.

• The relationship between anxiety and achievement.

• Use of aptitude test to predict success in an algebra course.

Causal-Comparative Research

• Seeks to investigate cause and effect relationships.

• Activity thought to make a difference is called the causal factor, treatment or independent variable.

• The effect is called the dependent variable.

Causal-Comparative Research

• In most studies the researcher does not have control over the causal factor because it has already occurred or cannot be manipulated.

• Useful when it is impossible or unethical to manipulate the causal factor.

Causal-Comparative Research

• The effect of preschool attendance on social maturity at the end of the first grade.

• The effect of having a working mother on school absenteeism.

• The effect of gender on algebra achievement.

Experimental Research

• Also seeks to investigate cause-effect relationships.

• Experimental researcher controls the selection of participants by choosing them from a single pool and assigning them at random to different causal treatments.

Experimental Research

• Research also controls the contextual variables that might interfere with the study.

• Because it randomly selects and assigns participants into different treatments, experimental research permits true cause-effect statements to be made.

Experimental Research

• The comparative effectiveness of personalized instruction from a teacher versus computer instruction on computational skills.

• The effect of self-paced instruction on self-concept.

• The effect of positive reinforcement on attitude toward school.

Qualitative Research Methods

• Historical Research Methods

Historical Research Methods

• Involves interpreting past events.

• Most focus on individuals, important social issues, links between old and new, and reinterpretations of prior historical work.

Historical Research Methods

• Historians work with data already available in a variety of forms.

• *Primary sources - provided by first person eyewitnesses or authors.

• Secondary Sources - non first person accounts

– *preferred by historians.

Historical Research Methods

• Historians use external criticism to access the authenticity of their data and use internal criticism to assess the truthfulness of their data.

Historical Research Methods

• Examples

• Factors leading to the development and growth of cooperative learning.

• Trends in elementary school reading instruction, 1940-1995.

Qualitative Research Methods

• Focus is on deep description of aspects of people’s everyday perspectives and context.

• Provide filed-focused, interpretive, detailed descriptions and interpretations of participants and their settings.

Qualitative Research Methods

• Usually involves long term immersion in setting.

• Common methods of data collection include:– observation, interviewing, tape and video

recording, examining artifacts, and participant observation (researcher becomes part of the group being studied)

Qualitative Research Methods

• Data analysis – based on categorizing and interpreting the

observations, conversations with participants, documents, tape recordings, and interviews collected to provide a description and explanation

Qualitative Research Methods

• Qualitative researcher writes from the perspective of the participants, not from the researcher’s own perspective.

Qualitative Research Methods

• Examples:

• The problems, successes, and understandings of Jack, during his first year of teaching.

• Study of the Hispanic culture in an urban community college.

Guidelines for Classification

• Type of method needed depends on the problem being studied.

• Same general problem can be investigated using many types of research.

Guidelines for Classification

• Knowing the type of research applied helps one identify the important aspects to examine in evaluating the study.

Guidelines for Classification

• The more information available, the easier it is to classify.

Guidelines for Classification

• Method for classifying

– determine whether qualitative or quantitative.– If quantitative, identify purpose to determine

whether it is description, correlational, causal comparative, or experimental.

Guidelines for Classification

• If qualitative, determine whether it is historical or qualitative– look for key words in the title of the study:

survey, description, relationship, historical, culture, and the like.

Limitations of the Scientific and Discipline and Inquiry Approach• Four factors

– inability to answer “should” questions.– inability to capture complexity of research site

and participants.– limitations of measuring instruments.– Need to address participants’ ethical needs and

responsibilities.