TYPES OF RESEARCH

Types of Research
How do we know something exists? There are a numbers of ways of knowing…

 -Sensory Experience
 -Agreement with others
 -Expert Opinion
 -Logic
 -Scientific Method (we’re using this one)

The Scientific Process (replicable)

1. Identify a problem
2. Clarify the problem
3. Determine what data would help solve the problem
4. Organize the data
5. Interpret the results

General Types of Educational Research

 Descriptive — survey, historical, content analysis, qualitative (ethnographic,

narrative, phenomenological, grounded theory, and case study)
 Associational — correlational, causal-comparative
 Intervention — experimental, quasi-experimental, action research (sort of)
Researchers Sometimes Have a Category Called Group Comparison

 Ex Post Facto (Causal-Comparative): GROUPS ARE ALREADY FORMED

 Experimental: RANDOM ASSIGNMENT OF INDIVIDUALS
 Quasi-Experimental: RANDOM ASSIGNMENT OF GROUPS (oversimplified, but
fine for now)

General Format of a Research Publication

 Background of the Problem (ending with a problem statement) — Why is this

important to study? What is the problem being investigated?
 Review of Literature — What do we already know about this problem or
situation?
 Methodology (participants, instruments, procedures) — How was the study
conducted? Who were the participants? What data were collected and how?
 Analysis — What are the results? What did the data indicate?
 Results — What are the implications of these results? How do they agree or
disagree with previous research? What do we still need to learn? What are the
limitations of this study?

 
Del Siegle, PhD
del.siegle@uconn.edu
Types of Educational Research

We discuss three major types of educational research in EdPsych

Descriptive

Descriptive studies attempt to describe things as they currently are. For example, a
teacher might observe a student who is not doing well in his class and keep a record of
his daily patterns. Another teacher might interview members of her class to find out their
interests. A third teacher may survey his class for talents they are willing to share. A
final teacher may ask students to use a reading program so that she can understand
their current literacy level. Notice the following two important things:

 None of the teachers in these scenarios change anything in their classroom (they

don't use a new technique, for example)
 None of the teachers in these scenarios are trying to prove that one thing causes
another

Correlational

Correlational studies attempt to identify a relationship between two or more things. For
example, a teacher might observe a student who seems to get up a lot to determine if
he gets up at the same time, during the same subject, etc., each day. Another teacher
might discover that members of her class who take music lessons tend to do better in
math. The following two important notes apply here: the teacher is not changing
anything and the teacher is not tyring to prove that one thing causes another.

Experimental

Experimental studies attempt to demonstrate a causal relationship between two or more

things. They typically involve two or more groups (control group and experimental
group) that are randomly assigned (people are picked at random to be in each group).
For example, a teacher may implement a new computerized math program with half of
her class and have the other class stick to methods she used before. Then she might
use pre- and post-tests to determine if the math program made a difference in
achievement. Notice that the teacher in this scenario made a change and is trying to
prove causation.

Now, this example is not a true experimental study because it takes place in the
classroom and does not have all of the controls that a true experiment would have.
However, it's as close as we can get in the classroom. We call this, or any research that
is directed by the teacher in the classroom, action research. Notice that there may be
ethical issues to consider with action research, such as, "Is it fair for one group to get a
type of instruction that may be more effective than another?"