Conducting Educational Research

CHAPTER 1
Will it improve student understanding and achievement? What do teachers in
schools who have adopted that curriculum have to say about it? What kind of
inservice will be provided to you and the other teachers? Do you have a choice?
Or taking it down a notch, let’s say you’re taking a course at the local university
and the professor is espousing a particular teaching methodology that you have not
tried. Don’t you think of similar questions? Is this new method really better than
your current method? On what is the answer to that question based?
Or making it even more personal, let’s say you do try that new method with
your students and you are pleased with the results. How do you convince other
colleagues in your building to try it?
2
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
So, what does buying a car have to do with buying into a new curriculum or
instructional methodology? In order for us to make an informed decision about any
of these, we need to have relevant data. It is more convincing to base a decision on
information than on gut instinct.
That is what the processes of educational research are all about (see Figure 1-1).
They provide us with information and tools that have been tested, they provide us
with a way to know if the testing done was appropriate and the results can be
trusted, and they provide us with a way to share our own practices and discoveries
with others. We sometimes know what we are doing in our classroom is great, but
we often know it because it seems to feel right or our students seem to be engaged.
We don’t always have convincing data that we can use to persuade someone else
that what we are doing is more effective than an alternative methodology. Think of
educational research as a way to provide substance to the feelings. Educational
research is not just a way to come up with new ideas about teaching and learning,
but most often it is a way to convince us that the ideas we already have are worth
exploring—that they are worth buying into.
Educational research is important in:
• Proposing theories
• Testing theories
• Increasing our understanding
• Improving teaching and learning
Figure 1-1. The importance of educational research.
Educational research helps us by improving our understanding of how students
learn and how best to teach. New articles are continually being published. Learning