1. Research is the process of trying to answer a question empirically.
Review the main ideas
Research is the process of trying to answer a question empirically.

2. Lines of Research What lines of Research help Research You? Lines
What does
the Research Say?
What do you
Want to do?

3. Reading a Research Report
In reading a research report, the first thing we need to know is what the research question was. In most reports the researcher also explains why this question was asked – why the answer to this question is worth knowing.

4. My Research ???
Suppose I tell you that I conducted research to answer the question, do most children like school?
I tell you that the answer I got is yes. Do you now believe that most children like school?
Of course not.
Whether you believe my answer depend on whether you think I did a good job of conducting my research:
Whether you believe that my research process was a valid one for answering this question.

5. Validity???
In fact, this term validity is a critical one in research. Scientists talk about the validity of research at length and in detail. There are even named kinds of validity, which you will learn about later in this course.
Validity refers to the research process in this way: Was the process a valid one for answering the question that the research posed?

6. My Research
To return to the example of whether most children like school
What kinds of things will you want to evaluate my research process and, ultimately, my answer?
You will want to know almost everything there is to know about what my process was.
Suppose I tell you that I asked children. Now do you believe my answer? Not necessarily.
How I asked them is important – such things as who did the asking,
How the question was phrased, and where the children were at the time.

7. My Research (cont.) Now do you believe that my answer is valid?
Suppose I tell you that I had teachers ask the children in their classes to raise their hands if they like school.
Now do you believe that my answer is valid?
Probably not.

8. My Research (cont.)
You realize that children may not give honest answers to such question in such a situation;
they may slant their answers to what they think the teacher wants to hear or
what they think will be acceptable to other children.

9. Evaluating My Research Process
In evaluating my research process, you will want to know who these children were.
Were they elementary-school children,
high-school children, “normal” children, gifted children, learning-disable children?
Were they dominant-culture or culturally diverse children? Were they in public or private schools? And so forth.

10. What did the researcher do to try to answer the questions?
Researchers describe what they did to try to answer the research question. Readers need to know a great deal about the research process in order to decide whether they believe the research results.

11. What did the researcher do to try to answer the questions? (Cont.)
In response to my study to whether children like school, you may decide to believe that these kinds of children, when asked in this kind of situation, say they like school,
but not to believe that most children really like school?

12. What answer did the researcher get?
Research questions are often complex. The answer is usually not as simple as yes or no.
Also, our research processes are never perfect; limitations in the process have to be discussed in terms of how limit the answer.

13. What answer did the researcher get? (Cont.)
In this section researchers discuss:
The conclusions they think are defensible from the data they collected.
Reservations they have about the process and the answers it yielded.
Under what conditions they think the answers apply.
What they think the answers mean: such things as how results fit into the bigger picture,

14. What answer did the researcher get? (Cont.)
What new questions were raised, and
what directions future research might take to deal with the problems encountered in this research or
to check or expand on the findings of this study

15. Research Questions
Research is often conceptualized as either applied or basic.
Applied research has potential for meeting an immediate, perceived need of some groups of practitioners (e.g., teachers, principals, or school counselors).
Practicing educators have immediate needs:
How can gifted children be identified? How can administration be improved?
Practicing educators look to educational research for answers to some of their questions.

16. Research Questions
Basic research has the potential for contributing to basic knowledge in some areas of scientific interest (learning, social interaction, or creativity).
Although basic knowledge can and often does ultimately lead to applied finding, this is not its immediate goal.

17. The Importance of Theory
One of the higher goals of science is the understanding of cause and effect relationships.
One of the best tools in pursuing such understanding is theory

18. Comprehensive Causal Explanation.
A theory is a fairly comprehensive, causal explanation.
Theory differs from lower-level, noncomprehensive explanations. To say that my child learned not to touch the stove by getting burned is a causal explanation; however, it is not a theory because it is not comprehensive.

19. Comprehensive Causal Explanation.
Reinforcement learning theory is a comprehensive causal explanation.
It explains the causes of learning in terms of the consequences of behavior:

20. The Importance of Theory (cont.)
These are comprehensive explanations because each applies to many kinds of learning, in many kinds of contexts, by many kinds of organisms.

21. The Importance of Theory (cont.)
The word theory is usually reserved for comprehensive causal explanations that go beyond what is already widely accepted to be true.
Theories are thus, in one sense, merely proposed explanations that must be tested in order to be accepted or rejected.

22. Theory Building
In actual practice, important theories are seldom definitely accepted or rejected.
Instead, tests of a theory provide knowledge that is used to revise the theory.
The revised theory then undergoes further testing and revision..
Scientists often use the term theory building to describe their work, reflecting this ongoing process of testing, revision, and retesting

23. Pursuing Causal Understanding
Theory is a useful tool for pursuing causal understanding because it has these two properties:
1)It is comprehensive, and
2) it has the potential for extending knowledge beyond what is already known.

24. Empirical Observation
One way to define research (some scientists argue that it is the only way) is to say that research is the empirical part of theory building. Theory comes, in part, from research: Scientists pose theories based on empirical observation.
And research is used to test theory: Scientists observe empirical events to see whether they confirm to theory.

25. Theory Building
Theory building typically begins with observation and pattern recognition.
In observing events, scientists detect patterns in the events:
When X happens, Y also tends to happen..
For example, when an organism is hurt, it tends to avoid the source of discomfort, and
when an organism is rewarded, it tends to seek the source of reward.

26. Induce Causal Explanations:
From such observation and pattern recognition, scientists induce causal explanations:
for example, learning is caused by the consequences of behavior
The word induce in the previous sentence is an important one.

27. Inductive Reasoning
The word induce in the previous sentence is an important one. Philosophers use the term induction to describe one kind of reasoning: from the particular to the general. Causal explanation that is based on observation and pattern recognition is inductive.

28. induction
When induction results in a theory, the theory is considered to have been proposed, not proved.
Scientists must then test theory in further observation that is independent of the observations that generated the theory.
This is because induction is not foolproof.
The observed patterns may or may not reflect the operation of the general principle.
Some apparent patterns are simply the result of coincidence.

29. Induction
Philosophers use the term induction to describe one kind of reasoning: from the particular to the general.
Causal explanation that is based on observation and pattern recognition is inductive reasoning

30. Induction is reasoning
When research results in the generation of new theory, the relationship between the research and theory is inductive;
� Inductive, theories resulting from induction have to be tested on independent bodies of data.

31. Induction
Induction is reasoning from the particular to the general :

32. Deductive, theory-testing research
� Deductive, theory-testing research is usually part of an ongoing process of modification and re-testing of existing theories.

33. Deduction..
When research is done to test existing theory, the relationship between the theories and research is deductive.
Deduction is reasoning from the general to the particular.
With deduction, we begin with a general principle and deduce particular examples from it.

34. Deduction..
If I begin with the general principle that learning is caused by the consequences of behavior,
then I can deduce that my puppy should learn to come when I call her if I give her a treat.

35. Deductive Reasoning
Using deductive reasoning to test theory involves an if-then kind of reasoning:
If this general principle is true, then this particular case should be true.
If this learning is caused by the consequences of behavior, then giving my puppy a treat should teach her to come when I call her.

36. Theory building
Theory building thus involves two kinds of research: Inductive research, from which scientist hope to generate theory;
and deductive research, from which scientists test theory.

37. Deductive Tests
Typically, deductive tests do not definitively confirm or disconfirm theory; rather they suggest ways to modify theory.
The modified theory is then subjected to further testing, further revision, and so forth.
Over time, some theories come to be generally accepted.
Reinforcement learning theory is an example.

38. LITERATURE REVIEWS Most research reports begin with two related parts:
1) A description of the question the researcher was trying to answer when he did the research;
and an explanation of why this question was chosen —
2) Why it is important and worthwhile to pursue. This explanation involves what is usually called a review of the literature.

39. LITERATURE REVIEWS (cont.)
Students often consider literature reviews to be unimportant.
In fact, a good literature review can be the most important part of a research report.
It places the research question in the context of scientific thought:
What is already known about this issues and
what avenues of further investigation look promising to the scientific community.

40. LITERATURE REVIEWS (cont.)
If the research question is an applied one, with no theoretical claims, the researcher will usually review literature that documents a need for the kind of answer the researcher has tried to find.
More often, however, researchers do make theoretical claims; they attempt to link the research being reported on with theory building.

41. LITERATURE REVIEWS (cont.)
Occasionally such links seem tenuous, and it is tempting to conclude that the researcher has “invented” a theoretical rationale after the fact, in order to get his research funded or published

42. Chapter 4 Selecting a Sample
Educational Research
Chapter 4
Selecting a Sample

43. Key Ideas Obtaining permissions for data collection
Selecting participants for data collection
Identifying data options
Recording and administering data collection

44. Procedures for Collecting Quantitative Data
Obtain permissions
identify the unit of analysis
secure permissions
obtain informed consent from participants

45. Procedures for Collecting Quantitative Data
Select participants
specify a population and sample
use probability and non-probability sampling
choose a sample size

46. Obtaining Permission: Obtaining Permissions
Institutional or organizational (e.g. school district)
Site-specific (e.g. secondary school)
Individual participants or parents
Campus approval (e.g. university or college)

47. Sampling

48. Select Participants: Specify a Population and Sample
A population is a group of individuals that comprise the same characteristics
A sample is a sub-group of the target population that the researcher plans to study for the purpose about making generalizations about the target population.
Samples are only estimates
The difference between the sample estimate and the true population is the “sampling error.”

49. Populations and Samples
Target
Population
Sample
Sample
Sample
Population
-All teachers in high schools in one city
-College students in all community
colleges
-Adult educators n all schools
of education
-All high school biology teachers
-Students in one community
college
-Adult educators in 5 schools of
education in the Midwest

50. Types of Quantitative Sampling
Quantitative Sampling Strategies
Probability Sampling
Non-Probability Sampling
Simple Stratified Multi-Stage
Random Sampling Cluster
Sampling Sampling
Convenience Snowball
Sampling Sampling

51. Select Participants: Use Probability and Non-Probability Sampling
Probability sampling is the selection of individuals from the population so that they are representative of the population
Non-probability sampling is the selection of participants because they are available, convent, or represent some characteristic the investigator wants to study.

52. Types of Probability Samples
Simple Random: selecting a sample from the population so all in the population have an equal chance of being selected
Systematic: choosing every “nth” individual or site in the population until the desired sample size is achieved

53. Random Sampling Methods

54. Part of a Table of Random Numbers

55. Nonrandom Sampling Method

56. Representative vs. Non-representative Samples

57. Types of Probability Samples
Stratified sampling: stratifying the population on a characteristic (e.g. gender) than sampling from each stratum.
Multi-Stage Cluster Sampling: a sample chosen in one or two stages because the population is not easily identified or is large

58. Types of Non-Probability Samples
Convenience Sampling: participants are selected because they are willing and available to be studied
Snowball Sampling: the researcher asks participants to identify other participants to become members of the sample.

59. Proportional Stratification Sampling Approach
Population
(N=9000)
Boys
N=6000
.66 of pop.
200
Girls
N=3000
.33 of pop
100
Sample = 300

60. 6
Sampling

61. Selecting a Stratified Sample

62. Population as Opposed to Ecological Generalizing

63. Ecological Generalizability
Results of a study can be extend to other settings or conditions
The setting under which a study takes place
Research results from urban school environments may not apply to suburban or rural school environments

64. Select Participants: Choose a Sample Size
Select a sample size as large as possible from the individuals available
Select a sufficient number of participants for the statistical tests you will use (e.g. 15 per group for experiments)
Calculate the sample size using a sample size formula

65. Collecting Qualitative Data

66. Key Ideas Gaining site permission Purposive sampling
Types of qualitative data
Protocols and Issues regarding administering and recording qualitative

67. Gaining Permission Gain permission from Institutional Review Board
Gain permission from “gatekeepers” at the research site
Gatekeeper: individual at the site who provides site access, helps researcher locate people and identifies places to study
The gatekeeper may require written permission about the project

68. Information for the gatekeeper
Why their site was chosen
What time and resources are required
What will be accomplished at the site
What potential there is for your presence to be disruptive
What individuals at the site will gain from the study
How will use use and report the results

69. Qualitative Sampling Unique characteristics of qualitative research
In-depth inquiry
Immersion in the setting
Importance of context
Appreciation of participant’s perspectives
Description of a single setting
The need for alternative sampling strategies

70. Qualitative Sampling
Purposive techniques – relying on the experience and insight of the researcher to select participants
Intensity – compare differences of two or more levels of the topics
Students with extremely positive and extremely negative attitudes
Effective and ineffective teachers

71. Qualitative Sampling Purposive techniques (continued)
Homogeneous – small groups of participants who fit a narrow homogeneous topic
Criterion – all participants who meet a defined criteria
Snowball – initial participants lead to other participants

72. Qualitative Sampling Purposive techniques (continued)
Random purposive – given a pool of participants, random selection of a small sample
Combinations of techniques
Inherent concerns related to generalizability and representation

73. Differences Between Random and Purposeful Sampling
Random “Quantitative” Sampling
Select Representative individuals
To generalize from sample to population
To make claims about the population
To build/test “theories” that explain the population
Purposeful “Qualitative” Sampling
Select people/sites who can best help us understand our
phenomenon
To develop detailed understanding
That might be “useful: information
That might help people “learn” about the phenomenon
That might give voice to “silenced” people

74. Types of Purposeful Sampling
When Does Sampling Occur?
Before Data Collection
After Data Collection
has started
What is the intent?
To develop
many
perspectives
What is the intent?
To describe what
is “typical” to
those unfamiliar
with the case
To describe some
sub-group in depth
To take advantage
of whatever case
unfolds
To explore
confirming or
disconfirming
cases
Maximal
Variation
Sampling
Homogenous
Sampling
Typical
Sampling
To describe a
case that illustrates “dramatically” the situation
To describe
particularly
troublesome
or enlightening
cases
Opportunistic
Sampling
Confirming/
Disconfirming
Sampling
To generate a theory
or concept
To locate
people or
sites to study
Extreme
Case
Sampling
Theory or Concept
Sampling
Theory or Concept
Sampling
Snowball
Sampling

75. Convenience Sampling