1. Research Participants/subjects: the people or animals studied in
a research project.
 The process of systematically gathering
information for the purpose of answering one
or more questions.
This is the key. You can ask around your school and get a number of
different opinions about whether a new reading method works. One or two
complaining parents might make you think that your teaching is no good.
But you will get a better sense of what is going on if you systematically
gather information about it. In the case of the reading program, collect
assessment scores from all the students and formally interview
representatives from everyone affected by the reading method—teachers,
parents, children. In the case of your own teaching, do a survey of all
parents to find out what they like and what they don’t like.

2. Types of Research
 Descriptive
 Correlational
 Experimental
 Microgenetic
 Longitudinal
 Action/Teacher as researcher
There are several different ways to carry out a research project. Each research
structure has different advantages and disadvantages and each one focuses on
developing a different type of knowledge.

3. More on research
 A research report is more or less like a
recipe.

4. Recipe analogy
The structure of our cooking depends on
our goals. If we are hungry and just want
to fill our stomachs, we might microwave a
frozen dinner (or, a bag of popcorn). If we
are trying to impress a potential significant
other, we might cook a four course
gourmet dinner.
The structure of research also differs
based on the goals of the researcher.
Just as it is difficult to impress a
would-be girl/boyfriend with a nuked
frozen dinner, it is impossible to
answer some research questions with
certain structures.

5. Recipe analogy continued
The goal of a recipe writer is to write something that you
can replicate successfully in your own kitchen
Researchers want you to know exactly how they did their
work in case you want to try out the same research
procedure to see if you get the same results.

6. Recipes
When you want to cook something, you might
look up several recipes and compare the
ingredients. You might pick the one that is
best for you based on what ingredients you
have in your pantry and what ingredients you
actually like.
When you read research, you need to read it
as critically as you read a recipe. Do the
procedures make sense? How does this
situation compare with the situations you are
familiar with? Are the authors making
reasonable claims?

7. Still more on research
 No one piece of research defines a whole truth. For
example, for every reading method ever devised
under the sun, there is at least one piece of
research that says it is effective. Because of how
research is carried out, how questions get asked,
how people understand any given idea at a given
time, results are not necessarily consistent. When
several well-constructed pieces of research yield the
same set of results, then you can basically trust
those findings.

8. Types of research: Descriptive research
 Uses interviews, observations, and surveys to describe
opinions, attitudes, or events.
 May be ethnographic.
 May also use participant observation.
 May be a case study of a single person, such as a single child
working on some aspect of reading.
Ethnography: a descriptive approach to research that focuses on life
within a group and tries to understand the meaning of these events to the
people involved.
Participant observation: a method for conducting descriptive
research in which the researcher becomes a participant in the situation
in order to better understand life in that group.
Case study: intensive study of one person or one situation.
Education has borrowed research methods from anthropology.
Anthropologists often live in the tribes or communities they are studying in
order to understand the people.

9. Descriptive Research Examples
•What do parents •Interview four parents from •Qualitative data analysis:
learn from our report each class (systematic data categorize each statement a parent
card format? collection). makes. Count the number of similar
statements made about each aspect
of the report card.
•How do students •Observe classroom several •Qualitative data analysis:
respond to new times as strategy is categorize each aspect of the
teaching strategy? implemented. Use video tape observation. Count similar
to record, make notes during events/statements and report them.
observation.
•Which programs in •Create a survey that asks •Tally up responses and rankings.
our school do parents about each school
parents value the program on a scale of 1-5.
most? Then ask parents to rank
programs according to
importance.

10. Evaluating Descriptive Research
 Validity: if several research reports have
similar findings, then the information is
probably valid (true).
 Applicability: if the research is carried out on
college students, how applicable is that to a
third grade classroom?
 Predictability: descriptive studies do not
predict the future. Just because something
was found in one setting does not necessarily
mean that it will be found in another setting.

11. Correlational research
 A correlation is a relationship, either positive
or negative, between two or more variables.
 Correlational research is the process of
looking for relationships between two or more
variables.
Go slowly through the next few slides—this concept has some challenging moments.

12. Correlational research
Why do colleges use admissions tests such as ACT or SAT (or, in the case of
graduate school, the GRE)? The answer is because of correlational research.
These tests have been correlated with college grades. The theory is, if you do
well on the admissions tests, correlational research predicts that you will do well
in college. (In actuality, the correlation between SAT and college grades is
only .42, which means it really isn’t a good predictor of college grades).
A perfect correlation would be 1, where a high SAT is always followed by high grades.

13. Correlational research
The relationship between any two numerical
variables can be explored.
Variable 1 (Pick one) Variable 2
•Number of questions asked in class •Student achievement as
•Height of students measured on final exam
•Time spent studying
•Time spent on athletic pursuits AND
•Amount of calories consumed daily
•Time spent playing video games
•Length of second toe of right foot
•Time spent in music classroom
•Number of words written in daily notes
•Body mass index of students
Think about each possible pairing and what kind of correlation might exist.

14. Positive correlation: a relationship
Correlational research between two variables in which the two
increase or decrease together.
Some correlations will be positive, such as the relationship between amount of
questions asked and student achievement, time spent studying and student
achievement, and number of words written in notes and student achievement
(this is not an exclusive list; it’s likely that music students and athletes would
also do well in achievement).
Line that shows the overall
relationship between the two
Student who variables
didn’t study
but did well Student who spent a lot of
anyway time studying & did well on
Achievement
test
Student who spent a lot of
time studying and didn’t do
so well.
Number of hours spent studying
This type of graph is called a “scattergram.”

15. Negative correlation: a relationship
Correlational research between two variables in which a high
value on one is associated with a low
value on the other.
Some relationships are negative, such as the relationship between time spent
playing video games and achievement.
High achieving
student who didn’t Student who played a lot of
spend a lot of time video games and still did
playing video games well on the test
Student who played a lot of
video games and did poorly on
the test.
Achievement
Student who didn’t play video
games but still didn’t do well
on the test.
Line that shows the overall
relationship between the two
variables
Number of hours spent playing video games

16. Correlational research
Sometimes there is absolutely no relationship whatsoever.
High achievement, short toe
Low achievement, short toe
Achievement
High achievement, long toe
Low achievement, long toe
Length of second toe on right foot
There’s no red line because there is no mathematical relationship.

17. Correlational research
 A correlation DOES NOT MEAN CAUSE.
 A high SAT does not CAUSE good grades in
college.

18. BREAD IS DANGEROUS !
Research on bread indicates that:
1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users [there is a high
positive correlation between using bread and committing a crime].
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households
score below average on standardized tests.[…and the other HALF score
above average on standardized tests]
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the
average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were
unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as
typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations. [there was a
high positive correlation between cooking bread at home and serious
disease during the 18th century]
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of
eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as
little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average
American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of
cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
The danger of assigning causality to a correlational study…

19. More about bread!!
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of
bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little
as two days.
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder“
items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body
is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could
lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food
product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees
Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one
minute.
12. Most American bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish
between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical
babbling.

20. Conclusion about bread
In light of these frightening statistics, it has been proposed that the
following bread restrictions be made:
1. No sale of bread to minors.
2. A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete
celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal
ills we might associate with bread.
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may
appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
5. The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools
Moral of the story: Don’t assign CAUSATION to a
correlational study!!!!!!! Also beware of how statistics
get interpreted in the media.

21. Experimental Research
 Experimental research systematically
manipulates variables in attempts to
determine cause and effect.

22. Scientific method
Suppose you want to find out what bacteria grows
where? You take several identical petrie plates
(independent variable) with identical broth
(independent variable) and you expose them in
different places (dependent variable). You are careful
to avoid exposing one plate (control). You place all the
plates in the same incubator (independent variable) for
the same amount of time (independent variable) and at
the same amount of heat (independent variable).
Because there is only one thing that is different (where
the plates were exposed) you know that there is a
CAUSAL relationship about what you get on the plates
and where they were exposed. If the control plate
remains clean during the incubation process then you
know that any growth on the other plates was due to
their exposure and not due to a mistake on your part
(accidentally exposing the plates during incubation
instead of deliberately exposing them during the
experiment).

23. Scientific method
 This is all part of the process of developing a
hypothesis and then testing it systematically.
 The idea behind the manipulation of variables
is that you can only be sure of your results if
you have controlled all variables
(independent) except for one (dependent
variable).
Independent variables: the ones you control
Dependent variable: the results depend on the dependent variable… the
independent variables CAUSE the status of the dependent variable.

24. Experimental research in education
 Frequently, students are assigned to two different groups: a
control group and an experimental group. All conditions of the
groups are supposed to be identical, except that the
experimental group gets the experimental treatment (such as a
new type of instruction).
 Students are randomly assigned to the groups. Random
assignment means that an individual has an equal likelihood of
being assigned to either group.
 The idea is that if the groups are basically identical and the
treatments they get only differ in terms of one factor (the
experimental treatment), then any differences that result are
CAUSED by the treatment. (Remember, correlational research
does not reveal cause. Experimental research is designed to give
cause).
Random: without any definite pattern; following no rule.

25. An example
Question: does the use of manipulatives increase student achievement in
mathematics?
Correlational research: compare time spent using manipulatives with
achievement on a chapter test. Results give you an association, but NOT
a cause. You still don’t know if the manipulatives CAUSED the results.
Experimental research: choose a topic. Divide children randomly into two
groups (random assignment ensures both groups are identical). Both groups
will study the same topic (independent variable). Both will have the same test
(independent variable). Instruction (independent variable) will be identical in
both groups but the experimental group will have manipulatives (dependent
variable) to work with while the control group will not. Any differences in
scores will be known to be CAUSED by the experimental condition (use of
manipulatives).

26. Evaluating experimental research
 Comparability of experimental and control groups: were subjects
assigned randomly? Most research studies discuss the makeup
of both groups and show how they are comparable.
 Maximum control of extraneous variables: for instance, if the
same teacher taught both groups (control and experimental),
then that is better control than having two different teachers,
which introduces the possibility that one teacher is simply better
than the other.
 Sample size: remember in both educational research and
medical research that bigger is better. A study of several
thousand people in relation to the effectiveness of a drug is much
better than a study of 50 people. In a small study, one unusual
person can alter the statistics. In a larger study, a small group of
people with unusual reactions will be less likely to change the
overall results.
 Clearly described manipulation of the variables. What exactly
was done? How did the scientists ensure that conditions were
exactly alike except for the dependent variable?

27. Evaluating Experimental Research
 Statistical significance: if you read them
carefully, the statistics in a research report
should tell you how much of a chance that
the results could have happened by chance.
That would be something like this: p<.05,
which means less than 5 in 100 chance that
the results occurred randomly. The smaller p
is, the less likely results occurred by chance.
Statistically significant: not likely to be a chance occurrence.

28. Scientific method and human beings
 Of course, people are much more complicated than
the bacteria described above. Further, no one cares
if you manipulate the lives of microscopic beings but
it is unethical to manipulate the lives of people
beyond a certain point.
 For instance, we might find out a lot about raising
children if we set up certain types of parenting and
randomly placed children in these families, but this
would be completely unethical. (The Nazis did
unethical scientific research on people).
 Therefore, while experimental research potentially
yields the most dependable results, it is impossible
to use it to explore many aspects of human
psychology.

29. Scientific method and human beings,
continued
 Further, people are enormously complicated and the manipulation
of variables necessarily has to be simplistic—perhaps
oversimplified. For example, the naturalistic setting of a
classroom is enormously complex. Suppose two groups (an
experimental and a control) are taught in the same physical
classroom by the same teacher, but during one session,
something exciting begins to happen outside on the playground.
How comparable are the groups in that instance?
 To get around that sort of problem, scientists may do experiments
in a more highly controlled laboratory setting. Yet how
comparable are people’s reactions in the artificial setting of the
laboratory compared to the complexities of real life?
 You need to keep all of this in mind when you evaluate the
usefulness of research for your teaching practice.

30. Three other research models
 Single-subject
 Microgenetic
 Longitudinal

31. Single-subject experimental studies:
Single-subject Systematic interventions to study effects with
one person, often by applying and then
withdrawing a treatment.
 This design tests the effectiveness of
something on a single person or group. For
example, if you want to know how praise
affects a student’s performance, do a
baseline with no praise (count how many
times the student does the behavior with no
response from you), a time of praising a
specific behavior, another baseline of no
praise, and then another time of praise.

32. Single subject critique
 I actually watched this specific research project
being carried out in a classroom. The kids hated it
because they perceived the teacher as being
“mean” sometimes and “nice” sometimes
(depending on whether they were on baseline or in
one of the experimental phases of the research).
They would whisper to each other during class
changes about whether the teacher was nice today
or not. If you are going to do this sort of research
project with student, think through the effect it could
have on them.

33. Microgenetic studies: detailed
Microgenetic studies observation and analysis of
changes in a cognitive process as
the process unfolds over a several
day or week period of time.
 This research involves the close examination
of a change process that happens in an
individual or a small group of individuals. It
involves setting a task to learn and
intensively observing the learning process,
including videotaping, interviewing, and
transcribing (writing down) everything the
subjects say.

34. Longitudinal research
 This is research that takes place over time, such as
when researchers assess pre-schoolers and then
follow their progress through high school.
 This is expensive and difficult research to do but it
yields valuable results.
 Most often people substitute “cross-sectional”
research: studying pre-schoolers, grade schoolers,
high schoolers all at once in attempting to get at the
same type of information that might be yielded by a
longitudinal study of a single population.

35. Action research
 Action research is a form of applied research
designed to answer a specific school- or
classroom-related question.
 Action research is often undertaken by
teachers in order to improve their own
teaching practice. Many journals publish
action research done by teachers (something
nice to add to a resume).

36. Conducting Action Research
 Identify and diagnose a problem that is
important to you
 Systematically plan and conduct a research
study
 Implement the findings to solve or improve a
local problem
 Use the results of the study to generate
additional research
Action research may be descriptive, correlational, or experimental in design.

37. Examples of action research
 The effect of a new classroom management plan on
student behavior
 How a new teaching strategy affects student
achievement
 What students like best about their classroom and
what they wish were different
 How a new program affects attendance and
achievement of at-risk students
 The effect of a new procedure on the amount of
instructional time available in the classroom
 The effect of a behavioral contract on the outbursts
of a particular student
Can you imagine how you might carry out one or more of these research projects?

38. Research and the Development of Theory
 A principle summarizes results consistently
supported by large number of research studies
 A theory is a set of related principles derived from
observations that, in turn, are used to explain
additional observations.
 Theories allow us to explain and predict
Principle: established relationship between factors.
Theory: integrated statement of principles that attempts to explain a
phenomenon and make predictions.

39. An astronomical example
Using a telescope, Galileo observed the movements of stars and planets.
With repeated observations he discovered some basic principles of their
movements—this star moves this way, that planet moves that way. Using
these principles, he developed a theory: the earth moves around the sun (and
not the other way around, as was generally believed at the time). His theory
not only explained the movements of the stars that he observed, but it also
predicted (successfully) their future movements.

40. A psychological example
Principles (observed multiple times) Theory:
•People don’t immediately remember Information processing model. It
everything they learn explains all these principles and it
•People can be in an environment yet predicts future behaviors in relation
apparently not remember significant to learning information.
aspects of that environment
•When people practice something
they tend to remember it a long time
later
•People seem to become
overwhelmed and unable to
remember when a lot of information
is presented in a short period of time.

41. Research and Teacher Decision Making
 Critical decision making: The role of classroom
context. Teachers need to use professional
judgment and critical thinking in order to determine
how applicable a research study is to their own
classrooms and teaching practices.
 Practical decision making: how feasible is it to apply
a set of research results? Is it going to work in a
classroom of 25 students? Is it going to be do-able?
 Artistic decision making: You can be creative about
how you make teaching decisions and how you
apply research. Artistic decision making is one of
the most fun aspects of teaching.