Educational Research What Do You

Educational Research

What do you think are some likely outcomes of this conflict?

According to Berliner, the methods of science and the process of science are different topics. Confusing the two is detrimental to educational research. Berliner cites the power of contexts, the ubiquity of interactions, and the problem of decade by findings interactions as culprits in the conflict. Berliner attempts to clarify the definitions of science to determine root causes of the conflict. One definition that Berliner offers as fundamental to the character of science is that science by nature questions all authority: science always searches.

However, the National Research Council has latched onto an insufficient, narrow-minded definition of science as only that which conforms to a rigid scientific method. Berliner notes that what is classified as scientific methodology does not necessarily imply that the process of science is being honored. The scientific method can yield a wealth of quantitative data but that data is meaningless without a full understanding of the assumptions and paradigms on which it was based. Berliner cites the No Child Left Behind Act as proof that the NRC definition of science falls woefully short of what science can do for educational research. However, the author admits that research in education as in many other social sciences is difficult because of the extraneous variables involved.

Local context is one of the most important constraining variables in scientific educational research. Studies that do not take into account the complexities of geographic differences fail to offer meaningful data. Two schools in the same city have different needs. Context cannot be adequately controlled for in quantitative research. Therefore, qualitative research is more appropriate to the science of education. One of the most likely outcomes of the current upheaval in educational policy is for the NRC and other important research and policy councils to embrace qualitative research. Policy assessments must be based on the most appropriate data sets. Qualitative data is the most appropriate data set in educational research.

Interactions abound in education. Those interactions create a complex matrix of issues affecting education effectiveness: class, gender, and learning style all impact learning but those variables also interact with classroom environment and peer group issues. Education is a process of communication, communication between the learner and his or her environment. The teacher is only one part of that student's environment. Qualitative research allows the ubiquity of interactions to be examined in a scientific framework.

As the accepted processes of educational science change, educational policy will too. The next generation of educators need to pressure their coworkers and community activists to lobby for wholesale changes in the government. Parents must also begin expressing their discontent with No Child Left Behind more vehemently. Until then, scholars of education need to work harder to reintroduce qualitative research into the accepted rubric of scientific methodology.