There are five basic types of educational research used today. The following provides a brief summary of these methodologies.
Sometimes called ethnographic research. It involves collection of narrative data in a natural setting in order to gain insights into phenomena of interest. This research studies many variables over an extensive period of time in order to find out the way things are, how and why they came to be that way, and what it all means. Qualitative researchers do not want to intervene or control anything. The most common method of data collection involves participant observation.
Descriptive research tells "what is." No manipulations of variables are attempted, only descriptions of variables and their relationships as they naturally occur. Descriptive research answers questions like "what do entry level bank tellers know about customer satisfaction?" As with causal-comparative studies, there is no control of variables as in experimental research. Descriptive research methods range from the survey, which describes the status quo of variables, to the correlational study, which investigates the relationship between variables.
Correlational research determines the whether, and to what degree, a relationship exists between two or more quantifiable variables. You collect data on at least two variables for the same group of subjects and then calculate a correlation coefficient between the variables. This correlation coefficient (indicated as r ) may have a value between 0.00 to 1.00. A value of 0.00 would indicate no correlation, while a value of 1.00 would represent perfect correlation between variables. Use caution in trying to conclude that correlation means causation; there may be a third factor which ÒcausesÓ both of the related values.
Causal-comparative research is used when you cannot test a hypothesis by manipulating a variable. This type of research allows you to investigate relationships in which variables like intelligence, creativity, socioeconomic status, and instructor personality cannot be manipulated. For example, suppose you wanted to test the hypothesis that students from lower socioeconomic groups benefit more from on-line virtual libraries as compared to those in higher socioeconomic groups; because you can not assign students to a particular socioeconomic group you would use causal-comparative research methods.
In its simplest form it has three characteristics: an independent variable is manipulated, other variables except the independent variable are held constant (the idea of experimental control), and effect of the manipulation of the independent variable on the dependent variable is observed.
You can think of the independent variable as the cause and the dependent variable as the effect. We hypothesize that the value of the dependent variable depends upon, and varies with the value of the independent variable.
For example, to examine the effect of different font size on reading speed, you might randomly select 30 people and time how long it takes to read a passage of text in 10 point font size, while another group of 30 reads the same passage in 12 point font. You manipulated font size, the independent variable, and measured the effect upon reading speed, the dependent variable.
The essence of experimentation is control.
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