This paper reports on an integrative literature review of published articles that used either quantitative or qualitative observation methods to research creativity in learning contexts. Observation is an empirical research method used in quantitative and qualitative naturalistic studies focused on understanding behavior and interactions as they…

Background: Approaches to conducting research with children afford them varying degrees of participatory power. Despite children's varying roles within research, more needs to be understood about the influences of unintentional power plays and, in particular, interactions between participant and non-participants on children's participation in…

This research explores the difficulties faced by many migrant, refugee, and immigrant adults confronted with technological ubiquity in economically developed countries. Preparing migrant adult learners for the digital world by building digital literacy skills can help to maintain home language proficiency, support English language learning, and…

With increasing accessibility to quality video recording technology, researchers and trainers can create data sets that are rich in content and application. Practical and ethical aspects of videotaping children and staff for research and teaching purposes are critical to successful use of videotaping. Taping and equipment strategies for achieving…

The "Handbook of Research Methods in Early Childhood Education" brings together in one source research techniques that researchers can use to collect data for studies that contribute to the knowledge in early childhood education. To conduct valid and reliable studies, researchers need to be knowledgeable about numerous research…

This paper is about examining life in classrooms. Authentic recording and interpretation of the complexities of classroom life have long been both fascinating and challenging for researchers. Typically, such research has been expensive, time-consuming and susceptible to claims that its intrusiveness pollutes the authenticity of the very context…

This paper provides an account of the methodological approach of a study designed to address some fundamental questions relating to formative assessment. The paper reports on the use of a critically quasi-ethnographic approach and describes the practicalities of adopting such an approach. The validity of the study is also considered, reflecting on…

An educational researcher describes absurdities and paradoxes encountered in the research process, arising from the nature of natural science, subjectivity, education, the profession, the naturalistic paradigm, and ethnography. (SK)

Some of the procedures and processes of naturalistic research are introduced. These include (1) determining the need for the study, (2) designing it, (3) doing fieldwork, (4) analyzing evidence, and (5) writing a report. (CH)

If the education profession is to improve, the gap between educational research and the classroom teacher must be narrowed. Most educational theory is based on empirical research generated by logical deduction, but naturalistic research provides more innovative and flexible methods for collecting explanations of learning behavior. (MT)

From its inception, the Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education (TLC) project included an explicit intention to identify some principles for the enhancement of learning cultures in order to improve student and teacher learning, and a wish to see how effective different strategies could be in this endeavour. The project showed that both…

The research needs in special education are so great that a range of scientific inquiry (including technical and naturalistic ethnographic research) is needed to better understand how to meet those needs through acquired technical, communicative, and self-reflective knowledge. While effective, neither technical nor naturalistic ethnographic…

A response to a previous article discounting the effectiveness and contributions of the natural science model in special education research points out flaws in the article's premises and rationale and emphasizes the need for pluralism in research methodology, including correlational, ethnographic, group-contrast, historiographic, qualitative, and…

Presents an heuristic approach to qualitative educational research. Practical theories of research are viewed as personal. They need to be examined to gain a better understanding of the research self and to understand the perspective of others. Exercises designed to generate this understanding are thus a prerequisite for research. (MMU)

This paper outlines current theories of teacher practice that seek to promote equity from critical perspectives, and contributes to the empirical research on critical mathematics equity practice. Part of a larger study of equity and mathematics teacher practice in an urban public school, this paper reports specifically on the involvement and…