Scientific Research in Education (2002) / Chapter Skim
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3 Guiding Principles for Scientific Inquiry
3 Guiding Principles for Scientific Inquiry
Pages 50-79
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From page 50... ...
3 Guiding Principles for Scientific Inquiry In Chapter 2 we present evidence that scientific research in education accumulates just as it does in the physical, life, and social sciences. Consequently, we believe that such research would be worthwhile to pursue to build further knowledge about education, and about education policy and practice.
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From page 51... ...
Nevertheless, what unites scientific inquiry is the primacy of empirical test of conjectures and formal hypotheses using well-codified observation methods and rigorous designs, and subjecting findings to peer review. It is, in John Dewey's expression,"competent inquiry" that produces what philosophers call "knowledge claims" that are justified or"warranted" by pertinent, empirical evidence (or in mathematics, deductive proof)
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Although there is no universally accepted description of the elements of scientific inquiry, we have found it convenient to describe the scientific process in terms of six interrelated, but not necessarily ordered, principles of inquiry: . Pose significant questions that can be investigated empirically.
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Skilled investigators usually learn to conduct rigorous scientific investigations only after acquiring the values of the scientific community, gaining expertise in several related subfields, and mastering diverse investigative techniques through years of practice. The culture of science fosters objectivity through enforcement of the rules of its "form of life" such as the need for replicability, the unfettered flow of constructive critique, the desirability of blind refereeing as well as through concerted efforts to train new scientists in certain habits of mind.
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These principles have evolved over time from lessons learned by generations of scientists and scholars of science who have continually refined their theories and methods. SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLE 1 Pose Significant Questions That Can Be Investigated Empirically This principle has two parts.
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For example, political scientist Robert Putnam challenged the accepted wisdom that increased modernity led to decreased civic involvement (see Box 3-1) and his work has been challenged in turn.
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In Pasteur's Quadrant, he provided evidence that the conception of research-based knowledge as moving in a linear progression from fundamental science to applied science does not reflect how science has historically advanced. He provided several examples demonstrating that, instead, many advancements in science occurred as a result of"use-inspired research," which simultaneously draws on both basic and applied research.
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Stokes' model clearly applies to research in education, where problems of practice and policy provide a rich source for important and often highly fundamental in character research questions. Empirically Based Put simply, the term"empirical" means based on experience through the senses, which in turn is covered by the generic term observation.
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, and the Tennessee state legislature could empirically assess whether reducing class size improves students' achievement in early grades (Box 3-3) because achievement data could be collected on students in classes of varying sizes.
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These theories are representations or abstractions of some aspect of reality that one can only approximate by such models. Molecules, fields, or black holes are classic explanatory models in physics; the genetic code and the contractile filament model of muscle are two in biology.
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. Theory enters the research process in two important ways.
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have led to several efforts to devise theoretical understandings of how class size reduction may lead to better student achievement. Scientists are developing models to understand differences in classroom behavior between large and small classes that may ultimately explain and predict changes in achievement (Grissmer and Flannagan, 2000~.
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Particular methods are better suited to address some questions rather than others. The rare choice in the mid 1980s in Tennessee to conduct a randomized field trial, for example, enabled stronger inferences about the effects of class size reduction on student achievement (see Box 3-3)
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provides an example in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in a longitudinal design (e.g., interview, survey, statistical estimate of institutional performance, analysis of legislative docu64 ~ SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN EDUCATION
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New theories about the periodicity of the ice ages, similarly, were informed by multiple methods (e.g., astronomical observations of cosmic dust, measurements of oxygen isotopes)
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. SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLE 4 Provide Coherent, Explicit Chain of Reasoning The extent to which the inferences that are made in the course of scientific work are warranted depends on rigorous reasoning that systematically and logically links empirical observations with the underlying theory and the degree to which both the theory and the observations are linked to the question or problem that lies at the root of the investigation.
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Putnam used multiple methods to subject to rigorous testing his hypotheses about what affects the success or failure of democratic institutions as they develop in diverse social environments to rigorous testing, and found the weight of the evidence favored GUIDING PRINCIPEES FOR SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 67
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compared three competing theories and used randomized experiments to conclude that a"psychic energy" hypothesis best explained the important psychological characteristic of"will power" (see "Application of the Principles". This principle has several features worthy of elaboration.
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To illustrate, in studying the effects of class-size reduction, credentialed teachers are more likely to be found in wealthy school districts that have the resources to reduce class size than in poor districts. This fact raises the possibility that higher achievement will be observed in the smaller classes due to factors other than class size (e.g..
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The Tennessee class-size study was designed primarily to eliminate all possible known explanations, except for reduced class size, in comparing the achievement of children in regular classrooms against achievement in reduced size classrooms. It did this.
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For example, since the Tennessee experiment, additional studies of the effects of class size reduction on student learning have been launched in settings other than Tennessee to assess the extent to which the findings generalize (e.g., Hruz, 2000~. In the social sciences and education, many generalizations are limited to particular times and particular places (Cronbach, 1975~.
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Scientific studies usually are elements of a larger corpus of work; furthermore, the scientists carrying out a particular study always are part of a larger community of scholars. Reporting and reviewing research results are essential to enable wide and meaningful peer review.
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and debate, for example, Putnam's work has stimulated a series of articles, commentary, and controversy in research and policy circles about the role of"social capital" in political and other social phenomena (Winter, 2000~. And the Tennessee class size study has been the subject of much scholarly debate, leading to a number of follow-on analyses and launching new work that attempts to understand the process by which classroom behavior may shift in small classes to facilitate learning.
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. To show how our principles help differentiate science from other forms of scholarship, we briefly consider two genres of education inquiry published in refereed journals and books.
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is a qualitative research method that aims to "record and interpret the perspectives and experience of the people they tthe researchers] are studying, documenting their tthe research participants']
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15~. Some scholars, then, deem portraiture as "scientific" because it relies on the use of social science theory and a form of empiricism (e.g., interview)
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reported on an educational intervention carried out on three nonrandomly selected individuals who were suffering severe behavioral disorders and who were either residing in group-home settings or with their parents. Since earlier work had established remedial procedures involving "simulations and analogs of the natural environment" (p.
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The third theory, anticipated by Freud's notion of the ego exerting energy to control the id and superego, posits that will power is a depletable resource—it requires the use of"psychic energy" so that performance from trial 1 to trial 2 would decrease if a great deal of will power was called for on trial 1. In one experiment, 67 introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to a condition in which either no food was present or both radishes and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies were present, and the participants were instructed either to eat two or three radishes (resisting the cookies)
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The second study, unlike the first, used randomized experiments to address counterclaims to the inference of psychic energy, such as selectivity bias or different history during experimental sessions. Finally, in the second study, the series of experiments replicated and extended the effects hypothesized by the energy theory.
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