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