Complete thesis - Murdoch University

This view of education requires a different form of research than traditionally adopted ineducational research, in the shape of the design experiment.IT researchWithin the Information Technology domain, a similar tension between research strategiescan be seen. In each of the main subdisciplines, CS, IS and SE, research is undertaken eitherto tackle technological/scientific issues or issues focussed on organisational/communicationsproblems. What are considered the appropriate philosophical and epistemological bases forresearch into these areas is the prime area of contention.Computer Science researchWegner (1976) attributed this tension, in Computer Science, to differing definitions of thediscipline: the study of phenomena related to computers, reflecting an empirical traditionsince it asserts that CS is concerned with the study of a class of phenomena; the studyof algorithms or information structures reflecting a mathematical tradition since algorithmsand information structures are two abstractions from the phenomena of CS; the study andmanagement of complexity, reflecting an engineering approach. He continues by arguing thatComputer Science has been dominated by empirical research paradigms in the 1950s, bymathematical research paradigms in the 1960s and by engineering-oriented paradigms fromthe 1970s. Although the rapidity of this evolution in CS research has led to divergencesof opinion regarding its nature, he concludes that each of the paradigms has played animportant role in the development of the discipline as a whole. In Wegner (1976, p 322)’sview, the ‘educated’ computer scientist should have the enquiring mind of the empiricalscientist, the modelling and abstraction ability of the mathematician, and the tool buildlingand implementation ability of the engineer.In the same vein, the Computing Research Association (Patterson et al, 1999) acknowledgesthat academic research in CS (and Engineering, but this is discussed later) applies one of twobasic research paradigms: theory or experimentation. Generalising, it suggests theoreticianstend to conduct research that resembles mathematics: the phenomena are abstract, andthe intellectual contribution is usually expressed in the form of theorems with proofs. Asa second generalisation, experimentalists tend to conduct research that involves creatingcomputational artifacts, assessing them and evaluating their effectiveness at solving the targetproblem.Clarke (2000) suggests that CS research is concerned with the conceptualisation, prototyping,construction, demonstration and application of new technology. The research strategies of179