Theory and history, questions and methodology: current and future issues in research into ICT in education

Abstract

Serious criticisms of research in information and communications technology (ICT) in education have been published recently in both the UK and the USA. This paper addresses several issues raised in these commentaries: a lack of sound theoretical underpinnings to our research, persistent neglect of the history of our sub‐discipline, the choice of research questions to be studied, and the use of appropriate methodologies for investigating them. The paper argues that the major role for ICT research in education should be an important contribution to the understanding of the processes of learning, with a view to informing teaching strategies and approaches to developing educational software. This implies that the theoretical work on learning on which wider educational research is based should be used to underpin research in ICT in education as well. In addition, specific theoretical frameworks have been developed for research into the use of ICT in education; however, associated with an almost complete neglect of the history of the area, the most powerful of these, developed in the early years of the sub‐discipline, are now generally ignored. Consistent with this, the authors argue that questions for investigation in this area should focus more on contributing to knowledge about learning and teaching, and less on the seemingly widespread concern for demonstrating benefits of ICT use in education to justify its cost. The types of research studies the authors advocate are generally more complex, difficult and time‐consuming to undertake than these quantitative surveys and evaluations, and they describe a methodological approach developed to undertake such complex work.