Additional Topics – Research: a Practical Handbook

Iterative design

Why and how to use an iterative design for successful research projects.

Iteration is core feature of successful research project designs. This is true in education research as well as engineering, bench science, product design & testing, and software development. If you want to discover new things or develop new products, you iterate. However, many education researchers struggle with iterative project designs, especially if they are emerging education researchers or if they are stretching their research skills to more complex projects or new contexts and methodologies. In this article, I outline some core features in research project planning to build in iteration and increase research project success.

Evaluation and Research

What is the difference between evaluation and research?

Research and evaluation both generate new knowledge, and they can use overlapping methods and theories. However, the purposes of evaluation and research are different, and their outcomes are different as well. While not all education projects require research, all projects – education or otherwise – require evaluation. In this article, I outline some of the major similarities and differences between evaluation and research, and discuss some of the common elements of evaluation for education research projects.

Design Projects

Sometimes, you just want to fix things.

Research is about generating new knowledge for the scientific community, but sometimes you see a problem and you just want to fix it. Do you need to do research? Probably not. Consider a design project instead. In a design project, you start with noticing a problem that you want to solve, possibly in your course or department, gather information to better understand and articulate the problem, and then build and test an intervention to solve the problem.

Preparing Data for Analysis

How should you analyze your data? First you need to prepare it.

How will you analyze your data? “Methodology” covers both the actions you will take (like transcribing or performing statistical tests) and the reasons why those actions are meaningful. Broadly speaking, you want to work to prepare your data for analysis, then analyze your data to develop a narrative about what it tells you. Different data types conceptualize data preparation differently, and different methodological frameworks conceptualize the steps of how you develop your narrative differently. However, there are some broad similarities across many methodologies in education research.

Video-based research

How to conduct your first research project using videodata. Focuses on the process rather than specific software or methods.

This is the research process for video-based research that I have my students go through. It’s pretty flexible to a wide variety of research questions, and puts equal weight on your professional development and your scientific results. This post follows Writing as a Generative Process, and takes as given that you already write copiously and generatively.

Design-based research

What is design-based research (DBR), and how should you develop your first DBR project?

Design-based research (DBR) is a key method in the learning sciences, which is used to simultaneously develop both learning theory and the design of instructional interventions. This article is an exceptionally short introduction to design-based research; there’s tons of scholarship on this idea.

Interviews: a primer

How to do interviews in education research: a primer

So you want to design a research study that involves interviews? Here are some major ideas to consider. This is a really short primer; it’s not a thorough exploration of the hows and whys of interview-based research. There are huge literatures on why & how to conduct interviews for research in education.

Resources and Misconceptions

Resources and misconceptions are two major theoretical frameworks. How do they compare?

The Resources Framework and Misconceptions are both theoretical frameworks about individuals’ ideas. They’re both popular in discipline-based education research, particularly in physics education research, but they have different assumptions about the value of people’s ideas, how ideas come to be, and how we should help people learn. What’s the difference? In this article, I’ll outline both of these.

Generation, iteration, reflection

Core elements of successful research. An article which addresses explicitly some of the underlying themes in this series.

This article explores three core elements of successful research. They tie together many of the other articles, and they are foundational to my research practice. If you’ve read several handbook articles and you’re looking for deeper connections, you’re ready to read this one.