06 October 2010

What is an Educational Research?

Collins dictionary says "systematic investigation"to establish facts or collect information on subject.Investigation is an analysis given,examination,experimentation ,exploration ,explanation,facts,finding out , enquiring ,scrutiny ,probing ,studying.
Systematic implies:Extended in time or in-depth study and Structural/organised/methodical.
Investigation implies:To a critical ,analysis must involve some serious thinking the researcher should be discerning .perceptive and penetrative.
Problem solving in an investigation stands for percepation of a problem.
How Research is carried out? Analysis of finding ,review previous research conduct study (collect data),design study,report results,select are of investigation and identify problem.
In developing a Research Proposal:Select ,analysis and statement of research problem ,do literature review and formulating of objectives and hypothesis.Hypothesis is a scientific guess or assumption.
Research methodology,work plan, for project administration and utilisation of results and budget.Then proposal summary.
How to learn about doing Research?:By being told how to do it ,doing it (learning by doing) and looking at examples of research
A Research in Education according to Carter (1973) is a careful,critical ,disciplined enquiry,varying in technique and methods according to the nature and conditions of the problem. Identified ,directed towards the clarification or resolution of a problem.
Page and Thomas(1977)"systematic investigation to increase knowledge for understanding Education examples of Education.
Examples:Chingowore (1994)Factors and determinants of primary teacher effectiveness in Zimbabwe.
Windy and Fushai (1993)The effect of interspaced questions on understanding and retention for biology concepts by form three pupils in four rural secondary schools in Zimbabwe.
Zindi (1993)Difference in psychomotor performance between Zimbabwe and English people,journal of Education and Teaching volume 13 number 3 pages 257-266.
The Nature of the Single Research Project in Education based since the focus of formal Education .We only include informal and non-formal education when it impeanches in formal Education.
The project should not be content based ,that is not history, not Home Economics or theory of Education alone ,but it should try to incorporate:Subject content,methodology of subject, aspects of Theory of Education
Types of projects are:Deal with classroom activities either the teaching or learning process or both.
Deal with activities within the school itself ,that can be shown to impinch on either the teaching or learning process or both .or activities outside the school , for example in the community which can through project be shown to impinch on either teaching or learning process or both.
*All the above projects are Educational based projects
What necessitate to do project? First there should be a problem seeking a solution.Find that there are problems that affect Education .For example the family and society.You can also looking at problems like learners and teaching methods.
You know that there is a problem when there are complains .Statements that you make everyday are complains.Kohhar(1985)"... a problem refers to some difficulty which a reseacher experiences in the context of either a theoretical or practical situation and wants to obtain a solution of the same ."
To find a solution you must have a systematic way of finding it.
The research problem should be researchable.
The review of the related Literature: What is literature review?It is an attempt to answer the question."what information is already available?"
It involves exploration and critical analysis of studies already carried out inorder to discover their relationship with the proposed studies.
What is the purpose of related literature review?
It enable the researcher to:
Examine previous and related work in one proposed area of study and locate proposed study within context of what has been accomplished.
Utilize review of related literature as springboard work within the principles the more one knows about studies carried out in areas related to one's proposed study the clearer to the position to understand one's own study to gain new ideas and approaches which may not have occurred to the researcher and evaluate own work by comparing it with related work by others.
Basic Questions:
♦Who carried out that research study when ,how and what results?
What still remains to be known about the topic it should be?
♦What direction and what area will this research study contribute to the knowledge and consequently improve practice?
Sources of material (som):
♦Library books or author catalogue
♦write down key words and search through search engines
♦Government publications,reports ,year books ,magazines radios ,TVs and so on.Make up a summary of the items relate to the research problem.

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