Education research concerns the problems in management, teaching practices, curriculum design, and assessment of academic outcomes. It helps educators and institution administrators identify problems within the educational process and find relative solutions.
Researchers also can conduct comparative education studies to analyze foreign practices and to implement the elements in the native education system.
In addition, education research is divided into small-scale and large-scale studies. Small-scale investigation analyzes teaching forms and methods in a particular institution. And large-scale studies deal with the description of regional or state education systems.
All education science research can be divided into two methodologies - qualitative and quantitative.
The purpose of quantitative research is to study the relationship between education phenomena or categories and to identify cause and effect. It applies an objective approach to seek practice measurement numerically.
Qualitative research is used to examine a phenomenon as it is in detail. As a rule, qualitative research requires a subjective approach to provide an in-depth description in narrative form.
All of this implies that qualitative and quantitative research use different methods to carry out the study. Here they are:
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Methods of qualitative research in education |
Methods of quantitative research in education |
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Study of official international and national documents in the sphere of education. They can be documents and materials of non-governmental organizations or professional communities; materials and guidelines of central government; documents or reports released by an international organization like UN, NATO, UNESCO, UNICEF, or ASEAN; proceedings of international conferences on education issues; documents of educational institutions that demonstrate the content, management, and outcomes of the educational process. |
Analysis of statistical data to characterize the existing features of education like quantity and types of institutions, number of students, percentage of males and females among teaching staff, and level of professional competency of scientific fellows and teachers. Also, the method is used to analyze economic indicators of the education system, including the salary of teachers, financing of educational institutions, government procurement, number of nominal grants, etc.). |
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Study of documentary or scientific and pedagogical sources, review of scientific and methodical literature deals with grey literature analysis. |
Mathematical and statistical data processing includes data collection, analysis of data, perception, and organization or summarization of data. |
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Observation and institutional visits regard monitoring of educational events and the behaviour of educational process participants. |
The structural method means synchronous analysis of components of the educational process, or it can be defined as a division of pedagogical phenomenon into structural parts. |
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Interviewing of a certain category of an educational process like teachers, students, teaching assistants, as well as managers, administrators, and representatives of public organizations related to education. |
Constructive-genetic method concerns the analysis of changes within the phenomenon being studied in general and its components in space and time. Simultaneously, the researcher divides the process into stages and explains its evidence-based periodization. |
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Scientific description explains something that a researcher sees in the natural world. The scientific description matches the evidence and makes the study logical as possible. |
Additional data analysis is repeated verification of information that requires considering a number of factors, in a particular understanding of intentions and theoretical perspective of original research; establishment of correspondence between data and research; harmonization of data with validity and reliability criteria. |
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Comparative analysis aims to the examination of the sources, workings, and outcomes of various education systems or certain education issues from comprehensive, multidisciplinary, cross-national, and cross-cultural perspectives. |
«Juxtaposition» is related to contrasting data collected according to a certain criterion. |
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Holistic analysis deals with the study of education system regarding its logical link with society. |
Study of certain objects/phenomena concerns the detailed analysis of an object/event/process within the education system. |
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Social and anthropological analysis involves the systematic study of social and cultural aspects of education in order to understand its causes and consequences as well as its significance for individuals.
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Sampling is selecting the group that one will actually collect data from in the research. |
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Historical and political analysis deals with the study of education phenomenon/objects in the context of historical or political perspectives.
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Collection of initial data is the systematic process of gathering measurements in education research. |
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Descriptive method includes three main types: case study, survey, and naturalistic observation. As a rule, the data in descriptive research are based on only a small set of participants. However, sometimes only one person or a single small group is involved.
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«Safari» means the formulation of the problem or scientific hypothesis and its introduction as an experimental plan to collect and analyze the data. |
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Inductive method or inductive reasoning is a method of drawing conclusions by going from the specific to the general. |
Additional mathematical and sociological methods are used to formulate outcomes and make the evidence more expressive by means of the application of an analytical approach to data processing. |
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Deductive method is used when a researcher studies what others have done, read existing theories of the phenomenon he/she is studying, and then tests hypotheses that emerge from those theories.
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Discourse analysis in the classroom is a method to analyze communication in the classroom or in written exchanges to understand the pedagogical phenomenon in detail and to elaborate on the scientific outcomes.
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Demonstration experiment explains the process that is illustrated through an example. The method serves as evidence of the scientific principles within the educational process.
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Actualization and forecasting are the scientifically grounded activities to investigate possible transformations, development trends, and prospects of objects in pedagogy and education. |
If any questions about qualitative and quantitative research in education are left, you will get more detailed information in the following books:
- Coe, R. Waring, M., Hedges, L. V. & Arthur, J. (2017). Research Methods and Methodologies in Education. SAGE Publications.
- Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2017). Research Methods in Education. Routledge.
- Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (2017). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. SAGE Publications.
- Flick, U. (2015). Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner′s Guide to Doing a Research Project. SAGE Publications.
- Mertens, D. M. (1998). Research Methods in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity with Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. SAGE Publications.
- O’Leary, Z. (2013). The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. SAGE Publications.
