What is Educational Research?

What is research?

• Research is problem solving by coming up with problems and following rules.
• Problems are ideas that make questions that lead to solutions.
  • Not every idea becomes a problem.

3 kinds of knowledge

• Knowledge that is known to be known
• Knowledge that is known to be unknown
• Knowledge that is unknown to be unknown

5 sources of knowledge

• Experience: knowledge from what people actually do or act
• Authority: knowledge from people who have power or dignity
• Deduction: General premises to specific conclusion
  • mostly from experience or authority
  • no new knowledge/know what we know by premises
• Induction: Outcome prediction (Observation) to conclusion
  • based on sampling
• Scientific Inquiry: Combining induction, deduction, and hypothesis
  • start with observation from literature
  • hypothesizing
  • deduction

5 steps of Scientific Inquiry (Approach)

• Identification of the problem: the realization of a problem exists
• Statement of the problem: the clarification of the problem
• Formulation of hypotheses: the investigator formulates hypotheses about possible solutions of the problem
• Prediction of consequences: the prediction of the consequences of each hypothesis
• Testing of hypotheses: the gathering of objective data to evaluate the adequacy of each hypothesis formulated

2 kinds of research

• Quantitative research: Numerical outcome, Quantify the result
  • Experimental: To determine the effect of the systematic manipulation of  independent variables on dependent variables
  • Non-experimental
    • Descriptive survey: Describe variables as they exist
    • Ex post facto research: Compare groups differences on the pre-existing independent variables to determine any relationship to the dependent variables
    • Correlational research: Compare relationship between 2 or more variables
• Qualitative research: Narrative data, Describe things (Description)

Other aspects of science

• Assumptions by scientists
  • the events they investigate are lawful or ordered-no event is capricious
  • reliable knowledge can ultimately derive only from direct and objective observation
• Attitudes of scientists
  • scientists are essentially doubters, who maintain a highly skeptical attitude toward the data of science
  • scientists are objective and impartial
  • scientists deal with facts, not values
  • scientists are not satisfied with isolated facts but seek to integrate and systematize their findings
• Formulation of scientific theory
  • scientific approach is the construction of theory
• Purposes of theories
  • to organize empirical findings and explain phenomena
  • to predict phenomena
  • to stimulate new research
• Criteria for theories
  • a theory should be able to explain the observed facts relating to a particular problem
  • a theory should be consistent with observed facts and with the already established body of knowledge
  • a theory should provide means for its verification
  • a theory should stimulate new discoveries and indicate further areas in need of investigation
• Theories serve to summarize existing knowledge, to explain observed events and relationships, and to predict the occurrence of unobserved events and relationships.

Limitations of the scientific approach in the social sciences

• Complexity of subject matter
  • natural scientists deal with physical and biological phenomena, on the other hand, social scientists cope with the human subject
• Difficulties in observation
  • observation in the social sciences is often less objective because it more frequently involves interpretation of the part of the observers
  • motives, values, and attitudes are not open to inspection
• Difficulties in replication
  • social phenomena are singular events and can't be totally repeated for purposes of observations
• Interaction of observer and subjects
  • investigators are human beings, and their presence as observers in a situation may change the behavior of their human subjects
  • the use of hidden video cameras and audio cassettes may help minimize this interaction in some cases
• Difficulties in control
  • the range of possibilities for controlled experiments on human subjects is much more limited than in the natural sciences
• Problems of measurement
  • the tools for measurement in the social sciences are much less perfect and precise than the tools of the natural sciences

Educational Research (starting from J. M. Rice, a pioneer in educational research, in 1897)

• Educational research is the application of the scientific approach to the study of educational problems.
• Educational research is the way in which people acquire dependable and useful information about the educative process.
• The ultimate goal of educational research is to discover general principles or interpretations of behavior that people can use to explain, predict, and control events in educational situations.