Purpose: The study assesses pre-service teachers' attitudes, confidence in research and intentions to use research by comparing the effectiveness of practical versus theoretical training in research methods courses. Design/methodology/approach: This natural experiment examines the impact of the adaptations made to a research methods course for 848…

People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have experienced involuntary and inhumane research practices. Consequently, researchers have shifted towards "excluding" those with IDs; caregivers, teachers, or peers compose study samples, dominating a space they "indirectly" experience. Researcher bias regarding intellectual…

Evaluation theories can be tested in various ways. One approach, the experimental analogue study, is described and illustrated in this article. The approach is presented as a method worthy to use in the pursuit of what Alkin and others have called descriptive evaluation theory. Drawing on analogue studies conducted by the first author, we…

This chapter presents an introduction to design-based implementation research (DBIR). We describe the need for DBIR as a research approach that challenges educational researchers and practitioners to transcend traditional research/practice barriers to facilitate the design of educational interventions that are effective, sustainable, and scalable.…

This article describes formative and design experiments and how they can advance research and instructional practices in early childhood education. We argue that this relatively new approach to education research closes the gap between research and practice, and it addresses limitations that have been identified in early childhood research. We…

One of the major story lines of the growth of civilization is the advance of the experiment. From the food we eat to the diseases we conquer to our understanding of how we think and behave, we have profited enormously from an approach that marries our models of the world with tests of their validity through systematic variation to determine cause…

There is renewed interest in what can be called an "experimentist" approach to education research. The claim is that if researchers would focus on experiments and "evidence-based" policies and practices, irreversible progress in education can be achieved. This experimentist approach cannot provide the understanding of knowledge and human beings…

Interactions between conceptual and procedural knowledge influence the development of mathematical competencies. However, after decades of research, these interrelations are still under debate, and empirical results are inconclusive. The authors point out a source of these problems. Different kinds of knowledge and competencies only show up…

This article introduces a practice-centred inquiry method called an "ethno-experiment". The method is built on a social constructionist understanding of practice as a social performance rather than as an individual's act. Additionally, it draws on Garfinkel's early ethnomethodological work and Marshall's self-reflective inquiry to construct a…

Responds to Eisner's discussion of the nature of research and the place of qualitative research. Advocates increased emphasis on the true experiment in educational research to provide evidence of the usefulness of educational practices. (SLD)

Explores the nature of educational research, replying to Knapp's comments on the role of qualitative research. Suggests that the "true" experiment is very hard to conduct in educational research and discusses what validity means in the educational research context. (SLD)

This article uses a parable to compare qualitative (interpretive) and quantitative (experimental) methods in child language research. Two hypothetical young researchers both investigate question-asking behavior of children with autism. Five different possible endings to the parable illustrate various relationships among research approaches and…

In this article, the authors trace the emergence of an institutional discourse of ethical research and interrogate its effects in constituting what ethical research is taken to be and how ethical researchers are configured. They illuminate the dissonance between this regime of truth and research practice and the implications for the injunction to…