Introduction to Educational Research

A Critical Thinking Approach

W. Newton Suter

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781412995733
• eBook ISBN: 9781483342450
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Research in Education

Engaging, informative, and nontechnical, Introduction to Educational Research: A Critical Thinking Approach, Second Edition was written and organized specifically for students intending to conduct future educational research. It enables students to think clearly and critically about the process of research and illustrates how easily research can be misinterpreted. The author empowers educators and makes research truly accessible by equipping readers with the reasoning and thinking skills needed to understand and critically evaluate empirical studies across all areas of education. Students are guided through the stages of the research process: thinking about research, formulating hypotheses, selecting appropriate research designs, collecting and analyzing statistical and qualitative data, and completing research analyses and critiques. As a result, students will better understand research as an integrated process, as well as show how and why researchers think like they do.

PART I

Foundations

CHAPTER 1. Educators as Critical Thinkers

CHAPTER 2. Thinking About Research

CHAPTER 3. Diversity of Educational Research

Every structure needs a solid foundation for support, including the metaphorical structure of educational research. Part I provides a foundation to bolster the powerful ideas and critical thinking that enhance your understanding of the process of educational research. The foundation, which supports your thinking about central topics in research, includes problems in and questions about research, major concepts embedded within the specialized language of research, how theory is related to practice, issues related to data collection (such as control, sampling, and measurement), common designs used by researchers, and how researchers analyze and interpret educational data ranging from standardized test scores to naturalistic observations or interactive interviews. Your clear thinking about the entire structure and process of educational research enables you to critically evaluate research and, ultimately, to construct educational studies by completing a proposal (blueprint) that answers your own researchable questions.

Never has so much attention been focused on the findings of educational research, and never has the need for critical evaluation of that research been so strong. The three chapters in Part I form an underpinning by introducing ways of thinking about research in education and honoring the creative variations in approaches to research that exist across the educational landscape. Chapter 1 describes the value of research in education, the need for astute judgments about problems in education, and the importance of educators’ taking on the role of reflective practitioners. In addition to providing an understanding and appreciation of critical thinking, this chapter also makes clear why the art and science of teaching and learning often yield inconsistent research findings.

Chapter 2 introduces more powerful foundational ideas to sharpen concept formation in research. Many of these ideas, such as those related to interpreting data, establishing control, and assessing relationships, support objectives in later chapters. Chapter 2 also reinforces the notion that thinking like a researcher is an acquired skill enhanced by practice.

Chapter 3 lays more foundation by revealing how research questions in education can be answered by many different approaches and perspectives rather than by just one approach. Contemporary research in education is often described by its “mixed methods.” Chapter 3 reveals that a wide selection of research designs and ways of thinking about them create very useful mixes. All these different approaches to research in education have in common an elegance that can be fully appreciated by exploring the ideas and principles described in the remaining 12 chapters.

1	Educators as Critical Thinkers

OUTLINE

Overview

The Value of Evidenced-Based Research in Education

The Value of Critical Thinking Applied to Educational Research

Recognizing Bias: The Hallmark of Critical Thinking

Bountiful Opportunity

The Value of Educators as Reflective Practitioners

Teacher Researchers as Critical Thinkers

Understanding Inconsistencies in Research

Charter Schools

Definitions

Summary

Research Improves Education: Educational Data Mining

Data Mining in the Classroom

Data Mining Beyond the Classroom

Qualitative Research and Data Mining

Avoid Being Snookered

Claims With No Data

Selectivity in Choice of Data

Noncomparable Comparison Groups

Simple Explanations

Rates Confused With Numbers or Scores

Statistical Versus Practical Importance

Causal Interpretations From Correlational Findings

Rising Scores Interpreted as Rising Achievement

Summary

Key Terms

Application Exercises

Student Study Site

References

OVERVIEW

Many students are surprised to learn that the study of research methods in many fields of inquiry, particularly education, is far more conceptual than technical. Learning about research involves new ways of thinking, and students of research could easily believe they are studying within a department of philosophy. These new ways of thinking are indeed intriguing to students. Some find them counterintuitive; others find them downright fascinating. Most would agree that thinking like a researcher is elegant, in a sense, and ultimately a very comfortable experience.

Astute thinking about research will enable you to understand published educational research and communicate effectively with other educational practitioners. Sharing your ideas about research findings is one step toward improving learning for others. Your ability to understand research in education is enhanced by critical thinking skills. A thinking-skills approach to educational research views educators as critical, reflective practitioners.

THE VALUE OF EVIDENCE-BASED RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

Educational researchers are committed to improving the quality of education by increasing their knowledge of the art and science of teaching and the process of learning. Educational practitioners, such as teachers, counselors, administrators, and curriculum specialists, become most effective when their skills and classroom wisdom are combined with their knowledge of educational research. The National Research Council (2002) emphasized the value of research in education: “No one would think of getting to the Moon or of wiping out a disease without research. Likewise, one cannot expect reform efforts in education to have significant effects without research-based knowledge to guide them” (p. 1). But research by itself is not sufficient. We must constantly remind ourselves about the challenges we face when interpreting research. Davis (2007) notes that people “tend to pay greater attention to research studies that confirm their deeply held beliefs and assumptions than to studies that challenge their sensibilities” (p. 570). It is too easy to ignore research that doesn’t fit our way of understanding the world, and we must constantly guard against that mistake.

The goal of this book is to make educational research accessible to practicing educational professionals, those ultimately responsible for improving learning in classrooms. Making research accessible requires the ability to read and critique published educational research—and to think clearly about the entire process. Clearly, the effect of research on teaching and learning—a potentially profound influence—is dependent on our ability to understand, critique, and apply findings from high-quality published studies.

Each chapter of this book is concerned with an important facet of educational research, one that enables you to read research reports with greater comprehension and critical appraisal. By the time you reach the end of this book, you will understand the most important principles and concepts of educational research, those that enable you to read and evaluate research reports. This positions you to make sound decisions about applying educational research in your practice. The final chapter will introduce you to the next level: preparing to conduct your own research. Learning how to think critically about the research process and how to evaluate published research will enable you to prepare a clearly written research proposal in any area of education.

Practitioners’ ability to understand the process of educational research—and to evaluate it—became especially important with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. That is because the Act placed great emphasis on using scientific research to determine what works best in our schools. The idea that science can contribute to our understanding of teaching and learning is decades old (see Gage’s 1978 classic, The Scientific Basis of the Art of Teaching). Scientific research applied to education is a national priority, evidenced by the What Works Clearinghouse (http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/) established by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, shifting educators’ focus to scientific research for help in determining best practices in our schools. The scientific emphasis highlights the value of empirical, systematic, rigorous, objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge about teaching and learning. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) favors intervention research for guidance (e.g., evaluating one treatment against a comparison), the type of research best suited for uncovering cause-and-effect relationships. Yet, as you will see, there are many other scientific approaches to research that are valuable for practicing educators.

Educators who are in a position to evaluate scientific research in education are in the best place to understand the challenges of educational reform. Conducting research is the most reliable method of acquiring new knowledge about teaching and learning. Alternative “ways of knowing” (common sense, intuition, authority, tradition, etc.) have proven less useful for advancing our understanding of the complex process of learning. Educational research in recent years has revealed information that is quietly changing the way we teach. Research by Howard Gardner (2006), for example, supports our asking, “How are you smart?” instead of “How smart are you?” His notion is that multiple intelligences applied in classrooms engage students who benefit from alternatives to the traditional verbal (lecture) approach to teaching. Such classrooms, with the backing of research, capitalize on abilities aligned with music, movement, social interaction, introspection, and spatial (visual) relations, among others. Further, Gardner (2009) builds a strong case for a future mind that will “demand capabilities that until now have been mere options” (p. 2). The “synthesizing” mind of the future “takes information from disparate sources, understands and evaluates that information objectively, and puts it together in ways that make sense” (p. 3). This requires critical thinking about research—the focus of this book.

HIGHLIGHT AND LEARNING CHECK 1.1 SCIENCE AND WISDOM

Studying the art and science of teaching and learning can be viewed as a melding of scientific principles, critical thinking, and personal craft knowledge. Explain how both science and experiential w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Brief Contents
• Detailed Contents
• Preface
• List of Features
• List of Tables and Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Part I: Foundations
• Part II: Research as Process
• Part III: Data Collection
• Part IV: Design and Analysis
• Part V: Consumer to Producer
• Glossary
• Index
• About the Author