ETR 520
Introduction to Educational Research
Dr. M C. Smith
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Blackboard
http://webcourses.niu.edu
Z-number and Z-ID password
(815) 752-7738
or
http://www.niu.edu/directory.html
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Blackboard
• You will find:
– ETR 520 syllabus
• course requirements and optional project(s) with
complete instructions
• due dates for assignments
• on-line lecture notes and PP overheads
• Weekly/daily schedule of topics
• Assigned readings
• Grading criteria
• External links (useful resources)
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ETR 520 Core Assignments
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(1) Educational research problem paper
(2) Library database search and paper
(3) Critique of research study paper
(4) Research methods and design paper +
IRB application
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Final Project & Paper
Attend, participate in, and evaluate American
Educational Research Association (AERA)
annual meeting in Chicago, April 21-25:
-attend 1 or more days of the conference;
-write an evaluation paper.
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Optional Professional Development
Activities (PDAs)
• PDA options:
– attend & evaluate a graduate research colloquium or
doctoral dissertation defense
– interview an educational researcher
– Internet web site search and evaluation paper
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Other course-relevant information
• Individual vs. paired or team collaboration
• In- and out-of-class participation
• Blackboard for course announcements,
research labs (i.e., discussions), and other
materials
• APA (5th ed.) required for papers
• Revising and resubmitting papers
• Final course grades
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REsearchMentor
™
An intelligent tutoring system (CBT) that
assists students in developing research
designs that are appropriate to their
research questions.
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Learning about educational
research
• What is educational research?
• Can anybody do educational research?
• What are the activities of educational
researchers?
• Is educational research like other forms of
social science research?
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Some activities of classroom teachers that parallel formal
research activities:
-planning activities (for teaching, research)
-maintaining records of activities and students
-gathering information about students
observing students
interviewing students
-developing, administering, and scoring classroom
(student) assessments (e.g., tests and other paper-andpencil measures
-identifying teaching, learning, and assessment problems
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Activities of Classroom Teachers that Parallel
Formal Research
• asking questions and forming hypotheses
• monitoring and evaluating changes in
teaching and learning
• collaborating and sharing information with
others
• professional development practices (e.g.,
conferences, workshops)
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Some Benefits of Educational Research
• Helps teachers to:
– grow professionally
– engage in self-analysis
– learn new solutions to old, persistent
problems
– communicate more effectively with other
teachers, administrators, and parents.
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Increasing attention given to
quality of educational research:
Education Sciences Reform Act of
2002 (P.L. 107-279)
To advance education research, making it more
rigorous in support of evidence-based education.
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Evidence-based education:
“the integration of professional wisdom
with the best available empirical evidence
in making decisions about how to deliver
instruction”
(relies upon scientifically valid research)
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SCIENTIFICALLY VALID
RESEARCH:
applied research, basic research, and fieldinitiated research in which the rationale,
design, and interpretation are soundly
developed in accordance with scientificallybased research standards.
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SCIENTIFICALLY BASED
RESEARCH STANDARDS
• apply rigorous, systematic, and objective
methodology to obtain reliable and valid
knowledge relevant to education activities and
programs
• present findings and make claims that are
appropriate to and supported by the methods
that have been employed
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Characteristics of scientifically
based research (1)
• employs systematic, empirical methods that draw
on observation or experiment;
• data analyses are adequate to support the findings;
• measurements or observational methods used that
provide reliable data;
• claims of causal relationships made only in
random assignment experiments or designs that
eliminate competing explanations for the results;
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Characteristics of scientifically
based research (2)
• methods are presented in sufficient detail to
allow for replication;
• acceptance by a peer-reviewed journal or
approval by independent experts through
rigorous, scientific review; and
• designs and methods appropriate to the
research question posed.
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Education needs empirical
evidence in order to advance.
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Without empirical evidence,
education cannot:
• resolve competing approaches to
curriculum and instruction
• generate cumulative knowledge about
teaching and learning
• avoid fads, flights of fancy, and personal
biases
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What is empirical evidence?
• Scientifically based research findings from
fields such as psychology, sociology,
economics, and neuroscience, and from
applied research in educational settings.
• Objective measures of performance used to
compare, evaluate, and monitor progress in
education.
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Some research evidence is
better than is other evidence!
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Levels of evidence
• Randomized trials (true experimental designs)
• Quasi-experiments, including pre- and post-testing
• Correlational studies with statistical controls of
confounding variables
• Correlational studies w/out statistical controls
• Descriptions and case studies of schools,
classrooms, teachers, and students
• Anecdotes, stories, and idiosyncratic experiences
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RESEARCH METHODS:
the systematic, purposeful ways
in which the scientist obtains and
analyzes information for some
purpose--usually to discover new
knowledge.
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Educational research…
is concerned with a variety of
educational problems, including
human learning and the conditions
under which learning can best be
accomplished across settings and for
many different kinds of tasks.
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Is Educational Research Scientific?
Scientific inquiry: the ultimate aim of any science is
to generate and verify theory.
Scientific inquiry can be defined as the search for
knowledge by using recognized methods in:
-data collection
-data analysis
-data interpretation
Education research is sometimes scientific.
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PURPOSES of SCIENCE
• describe phenomena (e.g., aspects of student
learning)
• predict phenomena (e.g., student achievement)
• control phenomena (e.g., aspects of instruction)
• explain phenomena (e.g., instruction-learning
relationship)
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Theory: predicts and explains
natural phenomena (including
human behavior).
Although there are many theories
of human learning, and of good
instruction, much educational
research is atheoretical.
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Using the scientific method
• 1. Researcher moves inductively from observations of
specific phenomena (e.g., student behavior) to
formulating a hypothesis (an educated guess) about
the general situation (e.g, how students best learn);
• 2. tests the hypothesis via research method;
• 3. proceeds deductively from the logical implications
of the hypothesis, that is, from the general situation to
the specific case.
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Steps in the Scientific Method
• 1. Formulate a hypothesis.
• 2. Test the hypothesis.
• 3. Accept or reject the hypothesis.
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Sources of knowledge
(for decision-making in education)
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Authorities and experts
Customs and traditions
Our own lived experiences
Inductive reasoning (specific to general)
Deductive reasoning (general to specific)
The scientific method
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Educational research cannot
produce definitive answers!
• It can provide working concepts, language
for understanding these concepts, data, and
hypotheses that allow for the investigation
of various possibilities:
• (e.g., “How does reduction in class size
affect teacher-student interaction and,
subsequently, student achievement?”)
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Educational research can be used
to rule out certain approaches or
methods as ineffective and can
suggest plausible hypotheses
about promising new methods.
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Avoid the temptation to say that a single piece
of research has “proven” X to be true!
• No single study is ever definitive
• Science progresses gradually, on the basis
of multiple confirming/disconfirming
evidence from many studies
• Remember that not all educational or social
research is “scientific”
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Misconceptions About Scientific
Research
• 1. There is one right, best, or scientifically sound
method for conducting true research.
• 2. All methods or research techniques are equally
sound or appropriate.
• 3. Research is too difficult for the layperson to
understand or to carry out.
• 4. Conducting and interpreting research is easy;
it’s just common sense.
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Misconceptions (Cont’d):
5. If a study is published in a scholarly journal,
it must be good and the findings true.
6. If a study is flawed in some way, it is not of
any value.
7. If the research is truly scientific, it must be
totally objective and value free.
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Skepticism
• (1) An attitude of doubt or a predisposition
to incredulity in general or toward a
particular object;
• (2) the doctrine that true knowledge or
knowledge in a particular area is uncertain;
• (3) the method of suspended judgment,
systematic doubt or criticism characteristic
of skeptics.
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A critical consumer of
educational research
• Does not reject every research study and
research findings out of hand.
• Approach to criticism is an appraisal: there
are positive and negative aspects.
– Do the positives outweigh the negatives?
– What can be learned? What is of value?
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Basic research concepts
• Ethical practices in conducting research
• Reviewing the scientific literature
• Methods and research design
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Operationalizing/defining variables
Hypotheses or predictions
Populations and sampling procedures
Measurement
Data analysis (statistics etc.)
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