Introduction to Research Scientific Inquiry

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Introduction to Research (Scientific Inquiry)
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What is Research?

• research is an unusually stubborn and persisting
  effort to think straight which involves the
  gathering and the intelligent use of relevant
  data

H. M. Hamlin, What is Research? American
Vocational Journal, September 1966.
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What is Educational Research?

• The ability to answer a question or concern
  facing many of us in the area of Education.
• Teachers, counselors, administrators, parents,
  and students continually need to seek information
  in order to perform their jobs.

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Origin of the Word Research

• From the French word "recherche" which means to
  travel through or survey

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How do we know what we know and why do we do
what we do?

• Personal Experience (Sensory Experience)
• Our personal experiences are limited
• We may be mistaken in our observations
• We may fail to see things clearly because of our
  biases

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The Fallacy of Personal Experience

• You might have eaten some type of food and got
  sick. Therefore, you never eat this food again
  because it makes you sick.

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The Case Against Bread

• More than 98 of convicted felons are bread
  users.
• Fully half of all children who grow up in bread
  consuming households score below average on
  standardized tests.
• In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was
  baked in the home, the average life expectancy
  was less than 50 years.
• More than 90 of all violent crimes are committed
  within 24 hours of eating bread.
• Primitive tribal societies that have no bread
  exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's,
  and Parkinson's disease.

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Is it True?

• Do women make nicer bosses?
• Most of have seen the movie 9-5!

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How do we know what we know and why do we do
what we do?

• Tradition (Agreement with Others)
• Advice, rules, and approaches to handling
  problems are passed from year to year and
  accepted as truth
• Reliance on tradition eliminates the need to
  search for knowledge, makes accepting new
  knowledge difficult, and mitigates our desire to
  question existing practice.

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The Fallacy of Tradition

• Trees for building purposes should be felled in
  December.
• When transplanting a tree, be careful to have the
  same side facing the south.
• Wood from a tree struck by lightning should never
  be used in the construction of a house, or barn,
  or they in turn may also be struck by lightning.
• Rain drops on a child under a year will cause
  freckles.

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How do we know what we know and why do we do
what we do?

• Authority (Expert Opinion)
• Authorities can be wrong, and the public has a
  tendency to accept as fact what are actually
  opinions.

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The Fallacy of Authority

• In 1992 the Catholic Church reversed their
  decision charging Galileo with heresy. He had
  claimed the earth was round and revolved around
  the sun, which went against the teachings of
  the church.

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Logic

• All human beings are mortal
• Sally is a human being
• Therefore, Sally is mortal

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Research (The Scientific Method)

• In contrast to sources of knowledge that are
  primarily idiosyncratic, informal, and influenced
  heavily by subjective interpretations, research
  involves a systematic process of gathering,
  interpreting, and reporting information.

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The Scientific Method

• Testing ideas in the public arena by formulating
  a hypothesis (a tentative, testable assertion
  about certain behaviors, phenomena, or events)
  within a rigorous format.
• Must be reproducible and described in sufficient
  detail through 5 distinct steps
• State the problem
• Define the purpose of the study
• How to gather the information
• How to organize and analyze the information
  obtained
• How the information is interpreted

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Ways of Knowing
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Two Approaches to Research

• Quantitative
• Emphasizes numbers, measurements, control, and
  experimentation
• This is the traditional approach in AEE research

• Qualitative
• Emphasizes natural settings, observations, verbal
  narratives, and interpretations
• Emerged in the mid-1970s as an approach to
  educational research

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Goals

• Quantitative
• Test theory
• Establish facts
• Show relationships
• Predict
• Statistically describe

• Qualitative
• Understand theory
• Develop understanding
• Describe multiple realities
• Capture naturally occurring behavior

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Design

• Quantitative
• Structured
• Predetermined
• Formal
• Specific

• Qualitative
• Evolving
• Flexible
• General

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Sample

• Quantitative
• Large
• Representative
• Random Selection
• Control Groups
• Stratified

• Qualitative
• Small
• Nonrepresentative
• Purposeful

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Data

• Quantitative
• Quantities
• Counts
• Measures
• Instruments
• Numbers
• Statistics

• Qualitative
• Verbal descriptions
• Field Notes
• Observations
• Documents
• Photographs
• Peoples own words
• Narrative

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Methods

• Quantitative
• Experiments
• Quasi-experiments
• Surveys
• Structured Interviews
• Structured Observations

• Qualitative
• Observation
• Open-ended interviewing
• Review of documents and artifacts

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Which Approach is Best?

• The problem you are studying determines which
  approach to take.
• One is not better than the other.
• However, some researchers tend to look down their
  nose at the qualitative researcher!

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Which Would You Select?

• Job turnover is a major problem in extension and
  teaching!
• Get with a partner and quickly design a study to
  investigate this problem.
• Decide whether to approach this problem
  quantitatively or qualitatively
• Tell What you would do and Why
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of your
  approach

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Mixed Methods

• Some researchers used both qualitative and
  quantitative methods in a single study. This is
  known as a mixed method approach.

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Categories of Research

• Basic
• Applied
• Action

The process used in the 3 types of research is
the same the setting and outcomes are different
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Basic Research

• Also called pure or fundamental research
• The goal is to understand and explain, to provide
  broad generalizations about how phenomena are
  related.
• Not concerned with immediate application of the
  results to practical situations
• Most educational research does not fall into this
  category!

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Examples of Basic Research in Education

• How does the memory system work
• How are language skills developed
• How does one learn psychomotor skills

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Applied Research

• The purpose is to test theories and other ideas
  in the context of naturally occurring educational
  settings.
• Usually focused on a problem that needs to be
  solved to improve educational practice.

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Examples of Applied Research

• Does computer aided instruction improve student
  learning?
• What is the effect of immediate feedback and
  delayed feedback on student achievement?

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Action Research

• Typically done in a school setting
• Is designed and conducted by practitioners who
  analyze the data to improve their own practice.
  Action research can be done by individuals or by
  teams of colleagues.

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Action Research
It has been said, "Teachers often leave a mark on
their students, but they seldom leave a mark on
their profession" (Wolfe, 1989). Through the
process and products of action research teachers
can do both.
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Examples of Action Research

• Does flash cards of horticultural plants with
  scientific names improve student learning?
• Do leaf collections really help students learn
  tree identification?
• Do classes with assigned seats have less
  discipline problems than classes without assigned
  seating?

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Action Research

• Get back with your partner and identify three
  examples of action research a teacher or
  extension agent could conduct in their local
  setting.

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Types of Research

• There is no general agreement on the types of
  educational research which exist. The list that
  follows is fairly comprehensive.

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Types of Research

• Historical - What was
• Descriptive (sometimes called Survey) What is
• Ethnographic
• Correlational
• Ex Post Facto (also known as Causel-Comparative)
• Experimental What can be

Some researchers classify Historical research as
Descriptive research
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Types of Research

• Historical - descriptive research that involves
  describing and interpreting events, conditions,
  or situations of the past. As with all history,
  the purpose is to study the past in order to
  understand the present, and maybe to plan for the
  future.
• It generally relies on qualitative data such as
  written documents and oral histories.

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Historical Research

• It is possibly the least popular form of
  educational research in terms of the number of
  studies produced on an annual basis.
• Grant and other types of educational research
  funding tend to favor current issues and
  conditions.

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Historical Research

• Historical research also can be difficult if the
  period is far enough back in time that records
  are not readily available and individuals
  associated with the event are no longer alive.
• However, if done well, historical research can be
  most interesting particularly if a connection is
  made to a present issue or situation.

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Historical Research Examples

• What was the predecessor of the Cooperative
  Extension Service?
• What does John Dewey say about the integration of
  academic and vocational education?
• What did 4-H members read in the past and what
  are the implications for the present?
• How did Farm Life Schools differ from regular
  high schools?

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Historical Research

• Basic characteristics of historical research are
• rich descriptive narrative.
• mostly qualitative data presented.
• broad research questions are frequently used
  rather than narrowly defined hypotheses.

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Historical Research

• Data Sources
• Persons such as former teachers, students,
  parents.
• Historical Documents such as policy statements,
  curricular guidelines, etc.
• Records such as student transcripts.
• Relics such as desks, writing instruments,
  equipment.

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Historical Research

• Research Tools
• Structured interviews.
• Visits to historical sites and buildings.
• Archives
• Libraries

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Types of Research

• Descriptive - attempts to describe and explain
  conditions of the present. It relies on
  qualitative and quantitative data gathered from
  written documents, personal interviews, test
  results, surveys, etc. Often people will call
  this type of research Survey Research

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Descriptive Research

• Because of its flexibility and the fact that it
  deals with current topics, descriptive research
  is probably the most popular form of research in
  education today.
• It is also popular because data can be collected
  from a wide variety of sources.

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Descriptive Research

• Basic characteristics of descriptive research
  are
• It provides a descriptive analysis of a given
  population or sample. Any inferences are left to
  the readers.
• Qualitative, quantitative or a combination of
  both types of data can be presented.
• Hypotheses or broad research questions are used .

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Descriptive Research

• Data Sources
• Persons such as teachers, students, parents,
  administrators, etc.
• Documents such as policy statements, curricular
  guidelines.
• Records such as student transcripts.

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Descriptive Research

• Research Tools
• Structured interviews.
• Structured questionnaires and surveys
• Standardized tests.

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Descriptive Research Examples

• What are the characteristics of agricultural
  education students?
• What is the level of job satisfaction of
  extension agents?
• Why do teachers leave teaching?

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Types of Research

• Ethnographic - attempts to describe group
  behavior and interactions in social settings. It
  relies on qualitative techniques especially
  observation and careful recording of events and
  social interactions.

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Ethnographic Research

• Ethnography is from the Greek "ethnos" for
  people, tribes, or nations and "graphy" for
  writing.
• Ethnographic research is the writing about people
  in their natural setting.
• It comes from the social sciences and was made
  popular by the likes of Margaret Mead, the noted
  anthropologist.

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Ethnographic Research

• It is a form of descriptive research and is also
  referred to as "observational research" and
  "naturalistic inquiry."
• Ethnography is well-suited for educational
  research because so much of what we do in
  education is based on human interaction in social
  settings.

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Ethnographic Research

• The major benefit of ethnographic research is
  that it provides rich descriptions of human
  behavior in natural settings not in artificially
  constructed, experimental settings.
• In addition to the question of subjectivity, the
  major drawback of ethnography is that the
  researcher cannot infer from a small sample to
  larger populations.
• Any inferences made in an ethnographic study are
  left to the readers to accept or reject.

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Ethnographic Research

• Data Sources
• Persons associated with the subject of study.
• Observations.
• Research Tools
• Structured Interviews.
• Careful recording of events.

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Ethnographic Research

• Examples
• What is the impact of peer pressure on student
  behavior?
• Does the gender of the teacher affect class
  participation?
• Does teacher movement in the classroom contribute
  to desirable student behavior?

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Types of Research

• Correlational - attempts to explore relationships
  or make predictions. It relies on quantitative
  data such as test scores, grade point averages,
  attitudinal instruments, etc. which can be
  correlated and shown that some relationship
  exists between or among them.

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Correlational Research

• A caution has to be advised when considering
  correlational research and cause and effect.
• Establishing cause and effect is very difficult
  and may be impossible due to the myriad
  interactions of many variables in social science
  research.

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Correlational Research

• Data Sources
• Raw scores such as standardized test scores.
• Measures such as grade point averages.
• Dichotomous data , data which has two
  possibilities such as male/female or pass/fail.

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Correlational Research

• Research Tools
• Standardized tests are the most common tools for
  doing correlational studies.

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Correlational Research

• Correlation is the relationship between two or
  more variables or sets of data.
• It is expressed in the form of a coefficient with
  1.00 indicating a perfect positive correlation
  -1.00 indicating a perfect inverse correlation
  0.00 indicating a complete lack of a
  relationship.
• You can start getting excited if the correlation
  is .40 or higher.

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Correlational Research

• Commonly used statistics to calculate
  correlations
• Pearsons Product Moment Correlation
• Spearmans Rank Order Correlation
• Kendalls Tau
• Point Biserial
• Phi Correlation Coefficient

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Correlational Research Examples

• Is there a relationship between family income and
  grade point average?
• Is there a relationship between part time
  employment and grade point average?
• Is there a relationship between years of teaching
  experience and VoCATS scores?
• Is there a relationship between education and
  income?

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Types of Research

• Causal Comparative (Ex Post Facto) - attempts to
  explore cause and effect relationships where
  causes already exist and cannot be manipulated.
  It relies on both qualitative and quantitative
  data such as written documents, interviews, test
  scores, etc.

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Ex Post Facto Research

• In educational research there are some things we
  can not manipulate, but we can study the effects
  after they have occurred
• Malnutrition
• Twins
• 4-H or FFA member
• Growing up on a farm
• Sexual abuse
• Race, gender

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Ex Post Facto Research

• In experimental research
• If X, then Y
• In ex post facto research
• Y is observed, X, Q or Z may have caused it

The researchers job is to discover if it is X, Q
or Z.
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Ex Post Facto Research

• Examples
• Are former 4-H members more likely to hold
  community leadership positions?
• Do malnourished children have lower grades in
  school?
• Do agriculture teachers who were state FFA
  officers have more active FFA chapters?
• Do people who were reared on a farm have a
  stronger work ethic?

The treatment has already occurred!
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Types of Research

• Experimental - attempts to explore cause and
  effect relationships where causes can be
  manipulated to produce different kinds of
  effects. It relies mostly on quantitative data
  such as test scores and measures of performance.

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Two Types of Experimental Research

• Quasi-Experimental
• Specific Hypothesis
• Researcher manipulates at least 1 variable
• Assigns treatment at random to each group
• Has a control group
• CANNOT RANDOMLY ASSIGN SUBJECTS TO GROUPS

• True Experimental
• Specific Hypothesis
• Researcher manipulates at least 1 variable
• Assigns treatment at random to each group
• Has a control group
• Randomly assigns subjects to groups

Typically uses intact classes
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Experimental Research Examples

• Is teaching method A better in bringing about
  student learning than method B?
• Does a teaching unit on Race Relationships
  improve students racial tolerance?

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The Research Process

• Selecting and defining the problem
• Accumulating pertinent knowledge and information
• Developing specific objectives
• Designing the study, collecting and analyzing
  data
• Interpreting data
• Preparing the research report

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Why Conduct Research?

• To better understand various phenomena
• To disprove fraudulent claims
• To improve education, agriculture or your
  discipline
• To obtain grants
• To get promoted (if you teach at the university)

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Types of research
Descriptive Research
Correlational/Ex Post Facto
Survey Research
Exp./Quasi-Exp.
Independent Variables
Independent Var. (X) controlled by investigator
Independent variables (X) not controlled by
investigator