This document provides an overview and review of key aspects of educational research. It discusses what educational research is and the main types of research. It outlines the typical steps in conducting research, including identifying a research problem, conducting a literature review, developing research questions and hypotheses, identifying needed data, data collection methods, data analysis, findings, discussion, and conclusions. Good research is defined as having a sound rationale, clear aims, a relevant theoretical basis, well-defined research questions, an appropriate methodology, contributions to the field, and consistency between all steps. Typical mistakes include having too much background and too little on the specific current research, as well as weaknesses in feasibility or scope.

1. Research Seminar for
Educational Sciences
Prof. Dr. Chang Zhu
Department of Educational Sciences

2. Review
A short review
What we’ve learned in the 1st
semester
2

3. Review
What is educational research?
What are the main types of research?
How to identify a research problem?
How to conduct literature review?
What is APA writing style?
How to develop questionnaires and interview
questions?
How to collect data?
What are the components of a research
proposal?

4. Idea
Research
question(s)
Conceptual model
& hypotheses
Data needs
Data collection
Methodologies
Theory should
inform all stages.
Review

5. # Step How
1 The problem area; the research
idea
What’s important? What is relevant?
2 Identify a researchable
problem, specify the research
questions
Researchable, Manageable, Significant
3 Conceptual basis (theory) &
develop hypotheses
Literature, state-of-art, present
knowledge What can the proposed
research add to the present
knowledge? What can be predicted?
4 Identify data needed to ‘test
hypotheses’ or to answer your
research questions
What are dependent and independent
variables?
5 How to collect data? Sampling, data collection methods
6 How to analyze your data? Statistical methods, thematic coding,
etc
Review

6. # Step How
7 What are your findings? Organization of results and
interpretation
8 What can the findings
inform us?
Discussion of results. Can you compare
the results with your expectations, the
theoretical hypothesis, and previous
studies?
9
Conclusions Summary of main findings,
significance
10 Writing the
thesis/research paper
Including step 1-9
Review

7. Reflection
• What you have gained/improved?
• Strong points?
• Weak points?
• Problems?

8. Good research
What makes a good research?
Contains information about the above steps
Has consistency between the steps

9. Good research
• Each research is different but the following
factors are common to all good pieces of
research:
• Sound rational
• Clear aims
• Relevant and clear theoretical basis
• Well-defined research questions

10. A good research idea
• Choose something you are interested in, think it
fascinating, relevant for your future work,…
– You’ll need that personal motivation to pursue the studies.
• Relevant, and in need:
– useful to someone, such as policy makers
– more motivating to work on
– help in a broader research project
– other sources

11. Good research questions
Choose/formulate right type of questions:
• Description
• Relationship
• Descriptive-Comparative
• Causality/impact or affect
• Causality-Comparative
• ………

12. Good research
• Clear structure
• Appropriate and well-defined methodology
• Good research can often use a combination of
methodologies, which complement one another.
• Contributions to the topic/significance (Social
and practical relevance)

13. Good research
• Good education research is a matter not only of sound
procedures but also of beneficial aims and results;
our ultimate aim as researchers and educators is to
serve people’s well-being.
• For their research to be deemed good in a strong
sense, education researchers must be able to articulate
some sound connection between their work and a
robust and justifiable conception of human well-being
(Hostetler, 2005)

14. Typical mistakes/weaknesses:
• Too much on:
– background
– other studies
• Too little on what the current research is about:
– Specific objectives of the current study
– Research questions (not specified or not clear enough)
– Methodologies (not specific, e.g. missing info about
specific methods, instruments, samples, procedures…..)
• Weakness regarding feasibility or scope of research:
– Research questions and hypotheses not specific enough
– Covers too much – “is this feasible?”

15. • Quantitative vs. qualitative research
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddx9PshVWXI

16. Examples
• Examples quantitative research articles
• Examples qualitative research articles

17. Group discussions
Work with example research articles:
Which research methodologies are used?
How the research questions are formulated?
…..

18. Questions
• Questions about your assignment of 1st
semester?