Educational Research

I've learned the pros and cons of each of these types of educational research: descriptive, experimental, correlative, and action. Descriptive seems to be the most common form, and the least conclusive as to actually how it can be applied. Experimental is possibly the most interesting to me, and probably the most expensive to conduct. Correlative research is important when making comparisons, but is limited as to explaining direct causes. Finally, action research can be very applicable, but must always be taken with a grain of salt because of its limitations of overall experimental control.

What has struck me the most while learning about these types are that not all research can be taken at face value. It is very important to understand how the research was conducted and for what purpose. It is necessary to question results and understand how the limitations of the different forms of research.

It's interesting to me when I look back at so many different studies and I can now see the differences in their research processes simply by paying attention to the results. This was demonstrated in the quizes we took, that we were able to match the types of research by the result. I would still like to understand better the difference between quantitative and qualitative. It seems to me that results are often both quantitative and qualitative and that they become muddled. Maybe that demonstrates flaws in the method of research.

I will need to keep an optimistic attitude about educational research. Otherwise, it will be hard for me to trust any results and actually apply it to my teaching. I want to understand that research is valuable, even though it is constantly changing.