Analysis of Research
Terms
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- progressive discourse
- The view that anyone at any time can offer a criticism about a particular research study or research methodology, and if it proves to have merit, it will be listened to and accommodated.
- educational research
- The systematic collection and analysis of information (data) in order to develop valid, generalizable descriptions, predictions, interventions, and explanations relating to various aspects of education.
- interpretivism
- An epistemological position that regards aspects of the human environment as constructed by the individuals who paticipate in that environment, and thus asserts the aspects of social reality have no existence apart from the meaning that indviduals construct for them.
- theory
- An explanation of particular phenomena in terms of a set of underlying constructs and a set of principles that relates the constructs to each other.
- quantitative research
- Inquiry that is grounded in the assumption that features of the social environment constitute an objective reality that is relatively constant across time and settings; the dominant methodology for studying these features is to collect numerical data on the observable behavior of samples and subject them to statistical analysis.
- qualitative research
- Inquiry that is grounded in the assumption that individuals construct social reality in the form of meanings and interpretations, and that these constructions are transitory and situational; the dominant methodology is to discover these meanings and interpretations by studying cases intensively in natural settings and by reflecting the researachers' own experiences in what they report.
- positivism
- An epistemological position that asserts that there is a social reality "out there" that it is available for study through scientific means similar to those that were developed in the physical sciences.
- descriptive research
- Research that focuses on making careful, highly detailed observations or measurments of educational phenomena.
- action research
- A type of systematic investigation conducted by practitioners that involves the use of scientific techniques in order to improve their own practice.
- basic research
- Research designed to advance the understanding of the basic processes and structures that underlie observed behavior.
- replication
- The process of repeating a research study with different research participants under similar conditions in order to increase confidence in the orignal study's findings.
- triangulation
- The use of multiple data-collection methods, data sources, analysts, or theories to increase the soundness of qualitative research findings.
- applied research
- Research designed to develop and test predictions and interventions that can be used directly to improve practice.
- reflexivity
- In qualitative research, the researchers' act of focusing on themselves as constructors and interpreters of the social reality that they study.
- construct
- A concept that is inferred from commonalties among observed phenomena and that can be used to explain those phenomena.
- postmodernism
- A broad social and philosophical movement that questions assumptions about the rationality of human action, the use of positivist epistemology, and any human endeavor (e.g., science) that claims a privileged position with respect to the search for truth.
- refutation
- The process of submitting the knowledge claims of science to empirical tests that allow them to be challenged and disproved.
- epistemology
- The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge and the process by which knowledge is acquired and validated.
- predictive research
- Research that involves the use of data collected at one point in time to predict future behavior or events.