How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education

CONTROVERSIES IN RESEARCHShould Some Research MethodsBe Preferred over Others?Recently, several researchers* have expressed their concernthat the U.S. Department of Education is showingfavoritism toward the narrow view that experimental research*D. C. Berliner (2002). Educational research: The hardest scienceof all. Educational Researcher, 31 (8): 18–20; F. E. Erickson andK. Gutierrez (2002). Culture, rigor, and science in educationalresearch. Educational Researcher, 31 (8): 21–24.is, if not the only, at least the most respectable form of researchand the only one worthy of being called scientific. Sucha preference has implications for both the funding of schoolprograms and educational research. As one writer commented,“How scared should we be when the federal governmentendorses a particular view of science and rejects others?”††E. A. St. Pierre (2002). Science rejects postmodernism. EducationalResearcher, 31 (8): 25.represents a different tool for trying to understand whatgoes on, and what works, in schools. It is inappropriateto consider any one or two of these approaches as superiorto any of the others. The effectiveness of a particularmethodology depends in large part on the nature ofthe research question one wants to ask and the specificcontext within which the particular investigation is totake place. We need to gain insights into what goes on ineducation from as many perspectives as possible, andhence we need to construe research in broad rather thannarrow terms.As far as we are concerned, research in educationshould ask a variety of questions, move in a variety ofdirections, encompass a variety of methodologies, anduse a variety of tools. Different research orientations,perspectives, and goals should be not only allowed butencouraged. The intent of this book is to help you learnhow and when to use several of these methodologies.General Research TypesIt is useful to consider the various research methodologieswe have described as falling within one or moregeneral research categories: descriptive, associational,or intervention-type studies.Descriptive Studies. Descriptive studies describea given state of affairs as fully and carefully as possible.One of the best examples of descriptive research is foundin botany and zoology, where each variety of plant andanimal species is meticulously described and informationis organized into useful taxonomic categories.In educational research, the most common descriptivemethodology is the survey, as when researcherssummarize the characteristics (abilities, preferences,behaviors, and so on) of individuals or groups or (sometimes)physical environments (such as schools). Qualitativeapproaches, such as ethnographic and historicalmethodologies are also primarily descriptive in nature.Examples of descriptive studies in education includeidentifying the achievements of various groups of students;describing the behaviors of teachers, administrators,or counselors; describing the attitudes of parents;and describing the physical capabilities of schools. Thedescription of phenomena is the starting point for all researchendeavors.Descriptive research in and of itself, however, is notvery satisfying, since most researchers want to have amore complete understanding of people and things. Thisrequires a more detailed analysis of the various aspects ofphenomena and their interrelationships. Advances in biology,for example, have come about, in large part, as a resultof the categorization of descriptions and the subsequentdetermination of relationships among these categories.Associational Research. Educational researchersalso want to do more than simply describe situations orevents. They want to know how (or if), for example,differences in achievement are related to such thingsas teacher behavior, student diet, student interests, orparental attitudes. By investigating such possible relationships,researchers are able to understand phenomenamore completely. Furthermore, the identification of relationshipsenables one to make predictions. If researchersknow that student interest is related to achievement, forexample, they can predict that students who are moreinterested in a subject will demonstrate higher achievementin that subject than students who are less interested.Research that investigates relationships is often referred14