Value Of Educational Research Research Articles

Exploring how national educational organizations can promote educational research amongst members: a survey-based study

BackgroundEngagement of academic faculty in research remains low. While barriers to research have been explored, there are no data on how national organizations can help overcome these barriers. Our study explored faculty satisfaction and motivational drivers for engagement with research opportunities offered by the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP), an organization of pediatric medical educators, and characterize strategies perceived by faculty to promote the use of these opportunities.MethodsIn 2021, 5 survey questions were administered to faculty members of COMSEP to explore satisfaction with COMSEP’s research offerings, the perceived value of educational research, and the facilitators, barriers and potential opportunities for COMSEP to promote research. Clark’s Commitment and Necessary Effort model on motivation served as the theoretical framework for our study, which explores motivation, self-efficacy and contextual factors influencing an individual’s pursuit of goals. Chi-square analysis and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test were used to compare categorical and scaled variables among groups who did and did not avail of COMSEP’s research offerings.Results90 (25%) of 360 recipients responded. 61% expressed satisfaction with COMSEP’s research offerings. 68% indicated research was an expectation of their academic appointment, that education was their primary research focus (74%) and that they did not have other research opportunities that met their needs (58%). Of respondents, 75.7% of females had submitted a proposal compared to 60% of non-responders who were females. The comparison by gender was not statistically significant. Exploration by academic rank revealed that 35% of instructor/assistant professors had submitted a proposal compared to 65% of associate professors/professors (p =.05). Barriers leading to non-submission to any of the offerings included having too much other work, lack of enjoyment in writing and inability to find mentors. Respondents endorsed the importance of several strategies to promote engagement in research-skill building opportunities, personalized consultations and increased funding.ConclusionsFaculty educators value the importance of educational research and recognize that research opportunities offered by COMSEP address an unmet need, but express ambivalence in the enjoyment of writing (reflecting their mood), and endorse structural barriers, that are amenable to change, affecting their personal agency.

ARE SCIENCE TEACHERS REALLY AWARE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Teachers are expected to consider the implications of recommendations made in educational research. In-service teachers are primary actors who play a leading role in education, so their attitudes towards educational research and researchers are more important than those of pre-service or trainee teachers. This study aims to find out in-service science teachers’ attitudes towards education research and some the factors that affect them such as gender, teacher’s subject area, seniority, and postgraduate research area. The research data was obtained using a Likert-type scale developed by Ilhan, Sekerci, Sozbilir & Yildirim (2013). The study sample included 108 in-service high school science teachers from Turkey. The results show that in-service science teachers find educational research applicable and necessary but of limited value. Teachers who graduated from education faculties have more positive attitudes towards educational research and teachers who are newly appointed to the profession have a better understanding of the utilities and value of educational research. This study emphasizes and underlines that science teachers’ attitudes towards the value of educational research are under the targeted level. In order to adequately support science teachers and provide them with the intended competencies of their curricula, this study provides some implications for both teachers and researchers in science education. Article visualizations:

The value of educational research by Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke

The value of educational research by Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke

Teachers' views on educational research

Exploring teachers' attitudes toward educational research has been an important subject for researchers. This study aimed to determine teachers' views on educational research. A three-part survey questionnaire, the first part of which consists of demographic questions, the second part of which consists of statements aiming to determine teachers' views on the impact of educational research, and the third part of which consists of 18 items aiming to determine teachers' views on the value of educational research, was used to elicit responses from teachers. Results showed that 68% of the participating teachers had seriously considered educational research findings since first qualifying as teachers.

The yin and yang of education research

The yin and yang of education research

Evidence and Education: The Braided Roles of Research, Policy and Practice in New Zealand

Calls for educational policy and practice to be evidence-based have become insistent, yet there is ongoing contestation of the purpose and value of educational research. This paper addresses criticism of research from practitioners, politicians and policy makers and from within the research community itself. It examines the impact of the PBRF in New Zealand and the call for evidence-based practice here, in the UK and the US. It draws attention to research studies that are possible models for a principled and methodologically inclusive way forward and develops a set of principles for guiding future development in teacher education and educational research.

Making research matter more

Interest in strengthening the impact and value of education research has been growing around the world. Here I outline a view of the nature of “impact” and point to instances where research has had a positive impact in education, but always within a larger social and political framework. A three element “model” of research impact is developed and used as the basis to assess current situations and to suggest steps that could be taken to support a fuller contribution to education and learning from research.

Reshaping Graduate Preparation in Educational Research Methods: One School’s Experience

Questions about the proper preparation in research methodologies of doctoral students in education are again on the front burner, fed by deepening skepticism about the value of educational research as well as a revived “paradigms war” and broad criticism of the state of graduate education. Faculty struggle to decide whether or not to require all doctoral students to study both quantitative and qualitative research methods, regardless of students’ diverse talents, interests, and career aspirations. Should students be required to “appreciate” both methodologies or to be able to use both? How should research methodologies be taught, and what proportion of doctoral study should they occupy? This article describes the processes and circumstances in which the faculty in a school of education at a research university grappled with these questions and, in time, significantly redesigned its doctoral curriculum. Although the faculty’s experience is necessarily particular, their engagement in practical reasoning, local knowledge, and local politics may, as an instance of curriculum deliberation, inform reflections on graduate preparation in other schools of education.

Teachers' Perspectives on Educational Research: Knowledge and context

In recent years there has been considerable debate in the UK about the impact and value of educational research. At the same time, the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), the body with responsibility for funding teacher education in England, has been keen to promote the idea of teaching as an evidence-based profession. This paper analyses the findings of a TTA questionnaire, designed to investigate teachers' views on research (which projects had previously influenced them and which issues they would like to see researched in the future) and the value they attributed to it. The findings point to the need for the concerns of teachers to be given greater weight when research agendas are set and funding allocated, but they also suggest that if research is to influence classroom practice, then it is vital that teachers are again given extended opportunities for further professional study alongside those who are conducting research.

Pedagogical research and higher education: An illumination from the second Russian revolution 1986–1992

The value of educational research; its aims and most appropriate locations has been questioned in a number of countries. The issue may differ across countries with distinct traditions of worthwhile knowledge and the institutional setting for educational inquiry. With this proviso, the changes in educational research in the last years of the Soviet Union may be of wider interest. It could no longer serve as a branch of total planning in an engineered society. Its practitioners floundered when faced with the educational implications of new forms of political authority and social relations. But they took up new questions of teaching and learning with verve and success. This may suggest perhaps a more realistic definition of the function of educational research in countries beyond Eastern Europe.

Educational research: The source of better schools

Mr. Stiles, dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin, cites ongoing studies that demonstrate the value of research in education. He then outlines the basic requirements for strengthening research.

Specific contributions of research to education

The author demonstrates the value of basic research in education by tracing the evolution in methods of teaching reading over the past several decades. Mr. Tyler is director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California.

Value of Research in Education

Value of Research in Education