This article reviews the origins and use of the terms quasi-experiment and natural experiment. It demonstrates how the terms conflate whether variation in the independent variable of interest falls short of random with whether researchers find, rather than intervene to create, that variation. Using the lens of assignment--the process driving…

Until now, the conventional approach using two distinct groups, experimental and control, continues to dominate research, especially education research. Researchers, particularly those who are active in this domain, readily recognise this pattern when surveying literature. This article explores the use of the Solomon four-group design as a…

Scholarly efforts to identify core design features for effective teacher professional development have grown rapidly in the last 25 years. Many concise lists of design principles have emerged, most of which converge on a consensus of 5-7 presumably 'effective' features (e.g. collaborative tasks, active learning, focus on content). The…

Medical education may lack experiential training on authentic community engagement (CE). Employing a human-centered design approach with medical faculty and students to identify goals, opportunities, needs, and barriers to implementing CE research, we developed an Experiential Community Engagement Learning Series (EXCELS) pilot program. EXCELS…

Multiple reviews point out that immersive virtual reality (IVR) educational studies often lack the consideration of learning theories in research design and IVR application development to promote students' learning. In response to the lack of theoretical foundations in educational research of IVR applications, an increased number of scholarly…

One of the educational resources that Indonesia has produced extensively is e-modules. It is still necessary to investigate and assess e-module development research. Analysis of e-module development publications in Indonesian biology education journals is the goal of this assessment of the literature. Only the JPBI (Jurnal Pendidikan Biologi…

The randomized control trial (RCT) is the primary experimental design in education research due to its strong internal validity for causal inference. However, in situations where RCTs are not feasible or ethical, quasi-experiments are alternatives to establish causal inference. This paper serves as an introduction to several quasi-experimental…

Single-case research design is a useful methodology to investigate counseling treatment effects through a time-series graph. A systematic review of 42 counseling journals was conducted, yielding 50 studies, including 272 graphs. Most graphs did not meet recommended guidelines. How graphs impact visual analysis and suggestions to enhance…

GAM, combining games and agent-based models, shows potential for investigating complex social phenomena. Games offer engaging environments generating insights into social dynamics, perceptions, and behaviours, while agent-based models support the analysis of complexity. Games and agent-based models share the important ability both to input and…

Given the recent call to strengthen collaboration between researchers and relevant practitioners, we consider participatory design as a way to advance Cognitive Science. Building on examples from the Learning Sciences and Human-Computer Interaction, we (a) explore "what," "why," "who," "when," and…

Purpose: This study reports on changes made within the study, plan, teach and reflect steps of lesson study with pre-service teachers who were learning to teach within a disciplinary literacy course. Design/methodology/approach: Using methods associated with formative experiments and design-based research, this study gathered data over four…

Within physics education research (PER), resource theory has proven to be a useful framework for investigating knowledge and learning and informing instructional design. To analyze learning over longer timescales and across cases, PER scholars must first identify and describe the resources activated within and across physics contexts and domains.…

This paper considers notions of spaces and relations in research design for critical education researchers, based on Freirean principles of empowerment education. Three reflective 'narratives of praxis' from community-based research are explored. The first narrative takes a community arts approach to research and is situated in an urban…

Active learning approaches to biology teaching, including simulation-based activities, are known to enhance student learning, especially of higher-order skills; nonetheless, there are still many open questions about what features of an activity promote optimal learning. Here we designed three versions of a simulation-based tutorial called…

Purpose: Recent reports by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have ignited a new wave of discourse regarding the future of education research and reinvigorated calls for education research to be more relevant to practice. An emerging research paradigm, continuous improvement research (CIR), responds to that debate by…