EDUC8631
Approaches to Research
Professor Helen Wildy
Dean, Faculty of Education
Session 1 Introduction
Session outline
• What is research?
• Why do educational research at all?
• Where do research questions come from?
• What makes a good research question?
• Your research proposal
What is Research?
• Creative work undertaken systematically to increase
the stock of knowledge (of humanity, culture and
society), and the use of this knowledge to devise
new applications (OECD)
What is research?
• activity classified as research is characterised
by originality
• investigation is a primary aim
• results are sufficiently general for humanity's
stock of knowledge (theoretical and/or
practical) to be recognisably increased
• includes empirical and non-empirical work
Educational Research
Small group discussions
Groups: Why read educational research?
Groups: Why do educational research?
Prepare to report 2 or more reasons
• Why read educational research?
– Notions of evidence-based practice
• Why do educational research?
– Add to the stock of knowledge in the discipline
Where do research questions come
from?
• Three main sources of research questions
– Previous empirical and theoretical literature
– Professional experience
– Everyday life
• Example: school restructuring – theorising,
evidence of impact, school principals WA
• What makes a good research question?
FINER framework
• In selecting your research question consider
whether or not it is:
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Feasible
Interesting
Novel
Ethical
Relevant
Activity
• Select one of the FINER topics
• Prepare a research question that does NOT
meet that requirement
• Share in pairs
• Discuss which requirements are easy to meet,
and which are easy to break?
Assessment: a research proposal
• The main assessment for this unit is the
preparation of a research proposal
• This MAY be a proposal for later research
(Major paper or thesis)
• We believe the best way to learn about
preparing for research is to practise preparing
for research
Your Research Proposal
• The What and Why section (Conceptualisation)
– What you intend to achieve
– Why this is important
• The How section (Design)
– How you will address your aims/questions
Stages of conducting research:
Conceptualisation
and Design
Data Collection
Analysis,
Interpretation,
Reporting
• Write some notes about your field of research
interest
• Be ready to share
Overview of the unit
• Day 1 Building blocks
• Day 2 Quantitative research
• Day 3 Qualitative research
• Day 4 Quantitative and qualitative research
Session 2 Key concepts
Session 2 outline
• Variables
• Data
• Relationships
• Measures of variables
• Hypotheses
• Quality
• Sampling
• Some concepts used more in quantitative
research than in qualitative research
• Good starting place
Variables
• Variables are phenomena that can vary
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Height
Age
Students’ reading ability
Attitude to learning
Number of fire trucks attending a fire
Shoe size
• Distinguish between variables and their
attributes
– Variable: sex; attribute: Male
– Variable: temperature; attribute: 11 degrees
Variables can be measured
• If a phenomenon varies then we can observe
that variation and develop an instrument to
measure the variation
• What instruments do we use to measure:
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Height
Age
Distance
Students’ reading ability
Attitude to learning
....
Data
• The instruments used to measure the variation
of variables give use data
• The data are numerical (how much, how
many, how long, to what extent .....)
• These data are quantitative data, or hard data
• So we talk about quantitative research
• Later we will talk about research that involves
soft data: qualitative research
Relationships
• The aim of quantitative research is to find
relationships between variables
• What do we know about the relationship
between
– height and age?
– age and reading ability?
– reading ability and attitude to learning?
• Identify a relationship that is of particular
interest to you in your work
Correlation
Co – relationships can be
– Strong or weak
– Positive or negative
Strongest (perfect) positive correlation is +1
Strongest (perfect) negative correlation is -1
No correlation (unrelated variables) is 0
A weak positive relations is 0.2
A weak negative relationship is -0.2
• But does a relationship mean that one variable
causes the other?
• This is a big issue in research
– Does change in height cause change in age?
– Does change in age cause change in reading
ability?
– Does change in reading ability cause change in
attitude to learning?
– Does change in shoe size cause change in
reading ability?
Correlation and causation
• Correlation (co-relation) does not always imply
causation
• When variables vary together (co-vary, corelate) they may not have a causal relationship
Consider direction
– A causes B, eg smoking and lung cancer
– B causes A, eg height and age
Spurious relationships
• When a relationship exists due to both being
correlated to a third variable
– shoe size and reading ability (age)
– ice creams sold and use of air conditioners
(temperature)
– source of news (TV, print) and level of
knowledge (cognitive skill)
– marital status and suicide (sense of belonging)
Or no relationship at all, eg income and street
number
Causal and non-causal relationships
between variables
David Hume’s criteria for causality :
1. Contiguity - nearness or contact between the 2
variables
2. Temporal precedence – the cause variable happens
before the effect variable
3. Constant conjunction – the 2 variables always happen
at the same time
• Check these with examples
• Independent variable – the predictor variable
• Dependent variable – the outcome variable
Independent variable
Dependent variable
Age
Reading ability
Reading scores at age 7
Reading scores at age 10
Rainfall
Number of umbrellas used
Measure of variables
• Types of measure
– categorical (eg colours)
– ordinal (can be ordered, eg never, rarely,
sometimes, frequently)
– interval (difference between eg 2 and 3 has the
same meaning as the difference between 26
and 27)
– Ratio (has a zero value)
• Most statistics need interval level data
Hypotheses
• Hypotheses are statements of causal relationships
between two variables
• The Null hypthesis states that no relationship
between the two variables exists
• Researchers accept or reject the null hypothesis
(there either is or is not NO relationship)
• Alternative hypotheses are then explored.
• Researchers NEVER prove hypotheses;
researchers are cautious
How good is my research?
• The main idea is validity
• Two kinds of validity
– Internal validity
– External validity
Internal validity
• How well can a cause-and-effect relationship
between two variables be inferred?
• Depends on the strength of the research
design
External validity
• To what extent can my cause-effect
relationship be generalised to other
populations - persons, places, times
• Depends on the sampling methods used
Sampling
Two different approaches:
Probability-based
Non - Probability-based
Probability-based
– Each person from the population has the
same chance of being included in the
sample
– Simple random sampling procedures
(random number generation)
– Stratified random sampling (identify
subpopulations of interest)
Non-probability-based
– Convenience sampling (grab anyone willing)
– Snowball sampling (ask respondents to nominate
others to participate)
• What variables or constructs are relevant to
your research?
• How would you operationalise them?
Session 3 Paradigms
• This session deals with how we know what we
know
• Activity: In pairs, identify 3 things related to
education that we know for certain
Session 3 outline
• Ontology
• Epistemology
• Methodology
Ontology
• The nature of reality: what is its form and
nature?
• Ontology –the nature and structure of the world
• The study of the nature of existence, the
science of being
Epistemology
• The nature of knowledge claims: what counts
as valid knowledge? What is the relationship
between the knower and the known?
• Epistemology - the nature of human knowledge
Methodology
• How we inquire into the world to build
knowledge about the world: how does the
inquirer go about finding knowledge?
• Methodology – the principles and procedures of
inquiry
Alignment
• Ontology, epistemology, methodology must
align with research aim and research questions
• Paradigm – net of epistemological, ontological, and
methodological premises that guide research actions
• Examples, a belief that there are multiples versions of
reality (ontology) is aligned to believing that researchers
can ask people to talk about their version of reality and
that there are many different ways this can be
interpreted. Unstructured interviews are appropriate
ways of obtaining this information
Quantitative Research
• Ontological
– Existence of objective, absolute truths
– Focus on operational definitions and rational explanations
• Epistemological
– Researcher (knower) and object of study (known)
independent – focus on objectivity
– Assumption that inquiry can approximate objectivity
(value-free); disagreements between observers due to
errors and/or observer biases
• Methodological
– Replicability as a means for testing truth
– Focus on generalization
– Criteria – notions of internal/external validity
Qualitative Research
• Ontological
– Reality is local and specific
– Constructions cannot be absolutely true or correct (but can
be less sophisticated/informed)
– Reality actively constructed rather than discovered
• Epistemological
– Researcher and object of study inherently dependent
– Inquiry inherently value-bound
– Multiple interpretations can be equally valid
• Methodological
– Focus on induction
– Relative lack of emphasis on generality – use purposive
samples
– Criteria – trustworthiness, credibility, transferability,
confirmability
Types of Research Questions
• Empirical and non-empirical
• “Quantitative” and “qualitative” questions
Class Exercise: Classifying Research
Questions
• What is the effect of cooperative learning methods
on mathematics achievement in sixth graders?
• What are the perspectives of primary level teachers
on using suspension as a behaviour management
strategy?
• What is the relationship between severe behaviour
problems and academic performance?
• How do English teachers deal with students with
disabilities in the secondary level classroom?
Session 4 Your research
interest
• Take a few moments to reflect on your
research interest. Write two good paragraphs to
indicate
– Your general area
– A particular problem, question
– Your inclination towards a paradigm
• Prepare to share your ideas
• Ask for feedback: To what extent is your writing
– Convincing
– Coherent
– Concise
Small group task
• In turn, report to your group on your initial
research idea