Educational Research

Knowledge of Educational research methods is important because educators must be able to access, understand and evaluate the findings of research and the claims of researchers.

Research - formal, systematic application of the scientific and disciplined inquiry approach to the study of problems.

Educational Research: Scientific and Discipline Inquiry

Educational Research - is the systematic application of a family of methods employed to provide trustworthy information about educational problems, issues, and topics. Its primary goal is to explain or help understand educational issues, questions and processes.

• Rarely does any single study produce definitive answers to research questions. Cumulated studies are the basis for research progress and understanding.
• Compared to other methods of knowing, such as tradition, expert advice, personal experience, and inductive or deductive logic, a scientific and disciplined inquiry approach provides the most unbiased and verifiable understandings.
• This approach is made up of four main steps:

1. Identify a question or problem to be studied
2. Describe and execute procedures to collect information about the problem being studied.
3. Analyze the collected information
4. State results or implications based on the analysis.

Educational Research encompasses many types of topics, procedures, methods for analyzing data, and formats for reporting conclusions, implications, and findings.

Basic Research and Applied Research

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

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

Evaluation Research

Evaluation Research - its purpose is to help in decision making about educational programs and practices

Quantitative and Qualitative Research

• The purpose of quantitative research is to generalize about or control phenomena, while that of qualitative research is to provide in-depth descriptions of settings and people
• Because quantitative and qualitative researchers differ in their view of the world, they tend to utilize different methods to seek knowledge.
• Quantitative and qualitative approaches should be thought of as complementary methods that, when taken together, provide broader options for investigating a range of important educational topics.
• Quantitative methods involve collecting and analyzing numerical data from tests, questionnaires, checklist, and surveys.
• Key features...