Educational Research

What you have to learn… The execution and reporting of research follows patterns. The understand what others have done you need to know what those patterns are. To add your own work to the research base it must follow the prescribed patterns. Before doing research you need to understand the patterns.

Understanding Patterns All types of research use different patterns. Thinking about picking the right type of research design based on what you want to know. Some new terms.

Designing and Reporting Educational Research What do you want to know? What do others know already? How will you gather information? What data were gathered? What does it mean? Chpt 1 Chpt 2 Chpt 3 Chpt 4 Chpt 5

Chapter 1: Introduction What do you want to know? What is the research question precisely? What is the context in which the question arose? What major constructs relate to the question? Why should this question be asked?

Theoretical Construct Sufficient evidence exists that a theory is defensible. Usually attributable to a single author or group. Outlines the parameters of the issue. Outlines how the topic is usually investigated.

Chapter 2: Literature Review What do others already know? What is known currently? On what work is this knowledge based? How can you summarize this literature?

Chapter 3: Methods What is the context of the study? Who is to be studied? How were they selected? What tools will be used for data collection? How were those tools developed? What procedures will be used for data collection? How will the data be analyzed?

Chapter 4: Results What data were gathered? Quantitative—a dispassionate summary of the gathered data in text and graphic forms including how the data appears after the analysis procedures have been applied. Qualitative—summary of the data in the form of major themes based on examples from the data.

Chapter 5: Conclusions What do the results say? Comparison to the literature. How could the quality of the data be improved? What implications does this have for you and for education in general?

Why Do It This Way? Contributing to discipline knowledge Conforming to accepted norms Making it easier for your work to be used APA