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What is the aim of educational research?

What is the aim of educational research? Correct Answer Searching for the new facts and principles underlying the process of education

Research is a systematic inquiry based on the scientific method and concerned with understanding, prediction and control of phenomena. Educational research applies the scientific method for the systematic study of educational situations. It seeks to help us solve educational problems (not merely identification of problem) and searching for the new facts and principles underlying the process of education. Studies in educational research are categorised under two broad heads:

Key Points

Quantitative Studies

  • Experimental Research: It is concerned with the investigation of cause-effect relationships in educational events. Variable(s) related to cause must precede those related to the effects. Since in terms of time, the cause variables occur first, they are also known as 'antecedents' while effect variables are called 'consequents'. 

  • Quasi-experimental Studies: The literal meaning of 'quasi' is "seemingly, but not really". Thus research studies that do not use a truly experimental design are called quasi-experimental studies.  This type of research investigates the same issues that experimental research does, the difference is only in terms of the manner in which an experiment is designed and conducted. 

  • Correlational Research: Correlation means 'going togetherness'; in other words, a correlation between two variables tells us about the relationship between them. For example, if we know how achievement in mathematics (x) is related with achievement in science (y), then on the basis of marks, in 'x' we can predict marks in 'y' and vice versa

Qualitative or Non-Quantitative Studies: Qualitative studies are also called 'descriptive' studies by some researchers. 

  • Descriptive Research: Below are part of descriptive research:
    • It investigates 'what exists'. If it is conducted on large samples through surveys, it is called a 'survey study'.
    • It may also be based on a detailed and comprehensive study of just one unit of population, i.e. just one case, thus resulting in a 'case study'.
    • Descriptive research may examine how various aspects of human development (e.g. intelligence, attitudes, social development, moral development) or skills (cognitive skills, social interaction skills etc;) develop in groups of persons of the same characteristics. Such studies are called 'developmental studies'.
    • Similarly analysis of documents related to a particular aspect/area of education (e.g. religious and moral instruction, value education etc;) is collectively known as 'documentary analysis studies'. 
  • Ethnographic Research: It is just the opposite of experimental research. In the latter, research is conducted through carefully controlled experiments but in ethnographic research, the emphasis is on naturalistic (i.e. totally without control) field studies. 
  • Historical studies: They are concerned with the study of 'what was'; they try to determine, evaluate and understand past events primarily for the purpose of gaining a clearer understanding of the present and a better prediction of the future. 
  • Philosophical Research: It studies in education can be taken up under historical research. ' These studies usually deal with philosophical aspects of education (e.g. related to knowledge and acquiring knowledge), metaphysical (i.e. related to reality aspects) or axiological (i.e. concerned with values) aspects of the education process. Philosophical research is basically interpretive in its approach and it involves a careful definition of the terms and processes. 

Hence, we conclude that searching for the new facts and principles underlying the process of education is the aim of educational research.

Related Questions

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