Educational Research:

1
Chapter 1

• Educational Research
• Its Nature And Characteristics

2
The Big Decision . . .
What will I really BE ABLE to do for my study?
What would I really LIKE to do for my study?
3
The Big Answer . . .

• Confer with your advisor and your committee

4
Educational Research

• is empirical
• should be systematic
• should be valid
• should be reliable
• takes a variety of forms

5
Systematic Process of Research
Identify the problem
Review the information
Collect the data
Analyze the data
Draw conclusions
6
Validity Reliability
7
Basic vs. Applied Research

• BASIC
• Conducted to add to the existing body of
  knowledge in the discipline
• Misconceptions
• complex design
• abstract impractical
• thinkers
• precise exacting
• no practical value

• APPLIED
• Conducted to solve an immediate and/or practical
  problem
• Misconceptions
• simple design
• unsophisticated
• practitioners
• sloppy haphazard
• great practical value

8
Qualitative vs. Quantitative

• understand social phenomena
• inductive
• context-specific
• facts values intrinsically mixed
• researcher takes active role in the situation

• determine effects, causes, relationships
• deductive
• context-free
• separate facts from values
• researcher acts as passive observer in the
  situation

9
Qualitative vs. Quantitative (cont.)

• relies upon holistic interpretation
• human behavior dependent upon physical social
  environment
• employs more descriptive and interpretive
• methodology

• focus on individual variables and factors
• human behavior independent of physical
• social environment
• employs standardized research and statistical
  methodology

10
Qualitative Methodology

• Conducted for the purpose of understanding social
  phenomena
• Historical studying a problem in the past that
  requires collecting information and artifacts
  about past events
• Ethnographic describing and understanding a
  cultural or social group
• Case Study developing an in-depth analysis or a
  single or multiple cases
• Phenomenology understanding the essence of
  experiences about a phenomenon
• Grounded Theory developing a theory grounded in
  data from the field

11
Quantitative Methodology

• Conducted to determine relationships, effects,
  and causes
• Experimental manipulating a variable
  (experimental variable) to determine the effects
  of the variation
• Quasi-experimental similar to experimental
  research but utilizing intact (rather than
  randomly assigned) groups
• Causal-comparative establishing
  cause-and-effect relationships between groups
  using pre-existing data
• Correlational identifying the degree to which a
  relationship exists between groups
• Survey research dealing with the incidence,
  distribution, and relationships of educational,
  psychological, and sociological variables

12
Qualitative Quantitative Continuum
Historical
Grounded Theory
Case Study
Phenomenology
Ethnography
Survey Research
Correlational
Causal-Comparative
Quasi-Experimental
Experimental
13
Purposes for Research

• Educational research is directed toward
• the extension of knowledge
• and/or
• the solution of a problem