1. 1
USING RESEARCH TO BETTER EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES

2. 2
Outline
1. Nature of research in education
1. Nature of research in education
2. Benefits of research in education
3. Characteristics of research in education
4. Types of research in education
5. Stages of a research study

3. 3
1. NATURE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

4. 4
What is research in education?
Systematic collection and anlaysis of data in order to develop valid, genarilizable descriptions, interventions and explanations relating too various aspects of education.
(Gall, Gall & Borg, 2010)

5. 5
Inside the black box
In terms of systems engineering, present policies in the U.S. and in many other countries seem to treat the classroom as a black box. Certain inputs from the outside -- pupils, teachers, other resources, management rules and requirements, parental anxieties, standards, tests with high stakes, and so on -- are fed into the box. Some outputs are supposed to follow: pupils who are more knowledgeable and competent, better test results, teachers who are reasonably satisfied, and so on. But what is happening inside the box?(Black & William, 1998)

6. What is happening inside the black box?
6
Students with more knowledge and more competence.
Better results in tests.
Teachers that are reasonably satisfied.
Students
Teachers
Resources
Black box
What the research tries to find out?
Inputs
Outputs

7. 7
Goal in educational research
Description
Prediction
Explanation
Goal
Intervention
Text

8. 8
Purpose in educational research
Descriptive
Prediction
Explanatory
Purpose
Experimental
Text

9. 9
Exploratory research
What is there?

• A researcher who wants to understand a phenomenon, but does not yet know anything about its dynamics (no previous research in the field, no literature).
• 10. Researcher hasa focus of interest but does not know which variables are of interest and what are the important questions.
• 11. Used more often in qualitative research than in quantitative research.