This document discusses different research paradigms. It defines paradigm as a framework of beliefs and theories that guide research within a discipline. Three main paradigms are discussed: positivism, constructivism, and critical research. Positivism uses quantitative methods to test objective theories and discover generalizable laws. Constructivism takes a qualitative approach to understand perspectives from within different contexts. Critical research investigates power relationships and aims to expose and rectify injustices. Each paradigm makes different assumptions about the nature of knowledge and appropriate research methods. The document provides examples of research questions and studies within each paradigm. It also notes debate around which type of research most influences teaching practice.

1. Research Paradigms

2. Paradigm
• “a philosophical and theoretical framework
of a scientific school or discipline within
which theories, laws, and generalizations and
the experiments performed in support of
them are formulated” Merriam Webster
Dictionary, 2007)
• “the set of common beliefs and agreements
shared between scientists about how
problems should be understood and
addressed” (Kuhn, 1962)

3. • Ontology: ways of constructing reality,
“how things really are” and “how things
really work”.. Denzin and Lincoln, (1998; 201)
• Epistemology: different forms of
knowledge of that reality, what nature
of relationship exists between the
inquirer and the inquired? How do we
know?
• Methodology: What tools do we use to
know that reality?

4. Research Paradigm

5. Research
Paradigms
 Positivism - Quantitative ~ discovery
of the laws that govern behavior
 Constructivist - Qualitative ~
 understandings from an insider perspective
 Critical - Postmodern ~ Investigate and
expose the power relationships
 Pragmatic - interventions, interactions and
their effect in multiple contexts

6. Paradigm 1
Positivism - Quantitative
Research
• Ontology: There is an objective reality and we
can understand it and it through the laws by
which it is governed.
• Epistemology: employs a scientific discourse
derived from the epistemologies of positivism
and realism.
• Method: Experimental, Deduction,

7. • “those who are seeking the strict
way of truth should not trouble
themselves about any object
concerning which they cannot
have a certainty equal to
arithmetic or geometrical
demonstration”

8. Typical Positivist research
Question:• What?
• How much?
• Relationship between? Or Causes this
effect?
• Best answered with numerical precision
• Often formulated as hypotheses

9. • Reliability: Same results different times,
different researchers
• Validity: results accurately measure and
reliably answer research questions.
• “Without reliability, there is no validity.”
• Can you think of a positivist
measurement that is reliable, but not
valid?

10. Examples Positivist 1 – Community of
Inquiry- Content Analysis
•Garrison, Anderson, Archer 1997-2003
–http://communitiesofinquiry.com - 9 papers reviewing results focusing on
reliable , quantitative analysis
–Identified ways to measure teaching, social and cognitive ‘presence’
–Most reliable methods are beyond current time constraints of busy
teachers
–Questions of validity
–Serves as basic research as grounding for AI methods and major survey
work.
–Serves as qualitative heuristic for teachers and course designers

11. Quantitative – Meta-
Analysis• Aggregates many effect sizes creating large N’s &
more powerful results.
Ungerleider and Burns (2003)
Systematic review of effectiveness and efficiency of
Online education versus Face to face
The type of interventions studied were extraordinary
diverse –only criteria was a comparison group
“Only 10 of the 25 studies included in the in-depth
review were not seriously flawed, a sobering statistic
given the constraints that went into selecting them for
the review.”
•
•
•
•

12. Achievement in Online versus
Classroom

13. Is DE Better than Classroom
Instruction?
Project 1: 2000 – 2004• Question: How does distance education
compare to classroom instruction? (inclusive
dates 1985- 2002)
Total number of effect sizes: k = 232
Measures: Achievement, Attitudes and
Retention (opposite of drop-out)
Divided into Asynchronous and Synchronous DE
•
•
•
14
Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Lou, Y. Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L.,
Wallet, P.A., Fiset, M., & Huang, B. (2004). How does distance education
compare to classroom instruction? A meta-analysis of the empirical literature.
Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 379-439.

14. Equivalency: Are all types of
Interaction necessary?
Anderson,
2003
IRRODL

15. 15
Anderson’s Equivalency Theorem
(2003)Moore (1989) distinctions
are:
■Three types of interactiono
o
o
student-student interaction
student-teacher interaction
Student-content interaction
Anderson (2003) hypotheses state:
■High levels of one out of 3 interactions will produce
satisfying educational experience
■Increasing satisfaction through teacher and learner
interaction interaction may not be as time or cost-effective
as student-content interactive learning sequences

16. Do the three types of
interaction differ? Moore’s
distinctionsAchievement and Attitude Outcomes
Achievement AttitudesInteraction
Moore’s distinctions seem to apply for achievement (equal importance), but not for
attitudes (however, samples are low for SS and SC)
16
Categories k g+adj. k g+adj.
Student-Student 10 0.342 6 0.358
Student-Teacher 44 0.254 30 0.052
Student-Content 20 0.339 8 0.136
Total 74 0.291 44 0.090
Between-class 2.437 6.892*

17. Does strengthening interaction improve
achievement and attitudes? Anderson’s
hypotheses
Anderson’s second hypothesis about satisfaction (attitude) appears to be
supported, but only to an extent (i.e., only 5 studies in High Category)
Achievement and Attitude Outcomes
17
Anderson’s first hypothesis about achievement appears to be supported
Interaction Achievement Attitudes
Strength k g+adj. SE k g+adj. SE
Low Strength 30 0.163 0.043 21 0.071 0.042
Med Strength 29 0.418 0.044 18 0.170 0.043
High Strength 15 0.305 0.062 5 -0.173 0.091
Total 74 0.291 0.027 44 0.090 0.029
(Q) Between-class 17.582* 12.060*

18. Bernard, Abrami, Borokhovski, Wade, Tamin,
& Surkes, (2009). Examining Three Forms of
Interaction in Distance Education: A Meta-
Analysis of Between-DE Studies. Review of
Research in Education

19. Quantitative Research
Summary• Can be useful especially when fine tuning well
established practice
Provides incremental gains in knowledge, not
revolutionary ones
The need to “control” context often makes results
of little value to practicing professionals
In times of rapid change too early quantitative
testing may mask beneficial positive capacity
Will we ever be able to afford blind reviewed,
random assignment studies?
•
•
•
•

20. Types of Quantitative Research
 Descriptive (Survey)
 Correlation
 Causal Comparative Research/Ex Post Facto
 Experimental

21. Paradigm 2
Interpretivist or Constructivist
Paradigm
• Many different varieties
• Generally answer the question ‘why’ rather
then ‘what’, ‘when’ or ‘how much’?
• Presents special challenges in distributed
contexts due to distance between
participants and researchers
• Currently most common type of DE research
(Rourke & Szabo, 2002)

22. Interpretivist Paradigm
• Ontology: World and knowledge created by
social and contextual understanding.
• Epistemology: How do we come to
understand a unique person’s worldview
• Methodology: Qualitative methods –
narrative, interviews, observations,
ethnography, case study, phenomenology
etc.

23. Dora Maar by Picasso

24. Picasso: Mother with Dead Child II,
Postscript to Guernica

25. A phenomenological viewpoint diagram by Martin Parker

26. Typical Interpretive Research
Question• Why?
• How does subject understand ?
• What is the “lived experience”?
• What meaning does the artifact
or intervention have?

27. Qualitative Example
–Dearnley (2003) Student support in
open learning: Sustaining the Process
–Practicing Nurses, weekly F2F tutorial
sessions
–Phenomenological study using
grounded theory discourse

28. Core category to emerge was “Finding
the professional voice”
Dearnley and Matthew (2003 and 2004)

29. Qualitative example 2
• Mann, S. (2003) A personal inquiry into an experience of
adult learning on-line. Instructional Science 31
Conclusions:
–The need to facilitate the presentation of learner and teacher
identities in such a way that takes account of the loss of the normal
channel
–The need to make explicit the development of operating norms and
conventions
–reduced communicative media there is the potential for greater
misunderstanding
–The need to consider ways in which the developing learning
community can be open to the other of uncertainty, ambiguity and
difference
•

30. 3rd Paradigm
Critical Research
• Asks who gains in power?
• David Noble’s critique of ‘digital diploma
mills’ most prominent Canadian example
• Are profits generated from user generated
content exploitative?
• Confronting the “net changes everything”
mantra of many social software proponents.
• Who is being excluded from social software?
• Are MOOCs really free?

31. Critical Research Paradigm
• Ontology: Reality exists and has been
created by directed social bias.
• Epistemology: Understand oppressed view
by uncoveringthe “contradictory conditions
of action which are hidden or distorted by
everyday understanding” (Comstock) and
work to help change social conditions
• Methodology: Critical analysis, historic
review, participate in programs of action

32. Typical Critical Paradigm
Questions• How can this injustice be rectified?
• Can the exploited be helped to
understand the oppression that
undermines them?
• Who benefits from or exploits the current
situation?

33. See Norm Friesen’s
Friesen, N. (2009) Re-thinking e-learning
research: foundations, methods, and
practices. Peter Lang Publishers

34. Sample Critical Questions
• Why does Facebook own all the content that
we supply?
• Does the power of the net further
marginalize the non-connected?
• Who benefits from voluntary disclosure?
• Why did the One Laptop Per Child fail?
• Does learning Analytics exploit student
vulnerabilities and right to privacy?

35. Do Positivist, Interpretive or
Critical Research Meet the Real
Needs of Practicing Educators?

36. But what type of research has
most effect on practice?
– Kennedy (1999) - teachers rate relevance and
value of results from each of major
paradigms.
– No consistent results – teachers are not a
homogeneous group of consumers but they
do find research of value
– “The studies that teachers found to be most
persuasive, most relevant, and most
influential to their thinking were all studies
that addressed the relationship between
teaching and learning.”

37. But what type of research has
most effect on Practice?
– “The findings from this study cast doubt on
virtually every argument for the superiority
of any particular research genre, whether the
criterion for superiority is persuasiveness,
relevance, or ability to influence practitioners’
thinking.” Kennedy, (1999)

38. Paradigm
#4Pragmatism
•“To a pragmatist, the
mandate of science is not to
find truth or reality, the
existence of which are
perpetually in dispute, but to
facilitate human problem-
solving” (Powell, 2001, p.
884).

39. Pragmatic Paradigm
• Developed from frustration of the lack of
impact of educational research in
educational systems.
• Key features:
– An intervention
– Empirical research in a natural context
– Partnership between researchers and
practitioners
– Development of theory and ‘design principles”

40. Pragmatic Paradigm
• Ontology: Reality is the practical effects of
ideas.
• Epistemology: Any way of thinking/doing
that leads to pragmatic solutions is useful.
• Methodology: Mixed Methods, design-based
research, action research

41. Typical Pragmatic Research
Question• What can be done to increase literacy of
adult learners?
• Can collaborative Learning online, increase
student satisfaction and completion rates?
• Do blog activities increase student
satisfaction and learning outcomes?
• How can we encourage teachers to use more
web 2.0 tools in their classroom

42. Design Tradition
• “Learning and productivity are the
results of the designs (the
structures) of complex systems of
people, environments,
technology, beliefs and texts”
New London Group 2000
• Design Based Research opens
the door for teachers, researchers
an learners to become designers,
not merely consumers, bosses or
d

43. 4th Pragmatic Paradigm
Design Based Research Method
• Related to engineering and architectural
research
• Focuses on the design, construction,
implementation and adoption of a
learning initiative in an authentic context
• Related to ‘Development Research’
• Closest educators have to a “home
grown” research methodology

44. Design-Based Research Studies
–iterative,
–process focused,
–interventionist,
–collaborative,
–multileveled,
–utility oriented,
–theory driven and generative
• (Shavelson et al, 2003)

45. Critical characteristics of design
experiments• According to Reeves (2000:8), Ann Brown
(1992) and Alan Collins (1992):
– addressing complex problems in real contexts in
collaboration with practitioners,
– integrating known and hypothetical design
principles with technological affordances to
render plausible solutions to these complex
problems, and
– conducting rigorous and reflective inquiry to
test and refine innovative learning
environments as well as to define new design-

46. Integrative Learning
Design (Bannan-Ritland,
2003)

47. • “design-based research enables the creation
and study of learning conditions that are
presumed productive but are not well
understood in practice, and the generation
of findings often overlooked or obscured
when focusing exclusively on the summative
effects of an intervention” Wang & Hannafin,
2003

48. • Iterative because
• ‘Innovation is not restricted to the prior
design of an artifact, but continues as
artifacts are implemented and used”
• Implementations are “inevitably unfinished”
(Stewart and Williams (2005)
• intertwined goals of (1) designing learning
environments and (2) developing theories of
learning (DBRC, 2003)

49. Amiel, T., & Reeves, T. C. (2008).

50. Design Based research and the Science
of Complexity
•
Complexity theory studies the emergence of order in multifaceted,
changing and previously unordered contexts
• This emerging order becomes the focus
of iterate interventions and evaluations
• Order emerges at the “edge of chaos” in
response to rapid change, and failure of
previous organization models

51. DBR Examples
Call Centres At Athabasca:
 •
•
Answer 80% of student inquiries Savings of
over $100,000 /year
Anderson, T. (2005). Design-based research and its application to a call
center innovation in distance education. Canadian Journal of Learning

53. • Need to study usability, scalability and
innovation adoption within
bureaucratic systems
• Allow knowledge tools to evolve in natural
context through supportive nourishment
of staff
Conducting Educational Design Research by
Susan McKenney and Thomas C Reeves

54. SummaryParadigm Ontology Epistemology Question Method
Positivism Hidden rules Focus on reliable What works? Quantitative
govern teaching and valid tools
and learning to undercover
process rules
Interpretive/con Reality is Discover the Why do you act Qualitative
structivist created by underlying this way?
individuals in meaning of
groups events and
activities
Critical Society is rife Helping uncover How can I Ideological
with inequalities injustice and change this review,
and injustice empowering situation? Civil actions
citizens
Pragmatic Truth is what is The best Will this Mixed Methods,
useful method is one intervention Design-Based
that solves improve
problems learning?

55. Summary
• 4 educational research paradigms
• Choice for research based on
– Personal views
– Research questions
– Access, support and resources
– Supervisor(s) attitudes!
• There is no single, “best way” to do
research
• Arguing paradigm perspectives is not

56. Questions and Comments??