Design Research: Its characteristics, when it is appropriate and when it is not.

1. Academic Forum 2
Group 4
Student: Aura Villa
Teacher: Msc. Miguel Ponce.
Second Term 2018

2. When is Design Research
appropriate?

3. Introduction
 Different textbooks place different meanings on research design. Some authors consider
research design as the choice between qualitative and quantitative research methods. Others
argue that research design refers to the choice of specific methods of data collection and
analysis.
 According to Bannan - Ritland (2003) there is a portfolio of research activities using these
categories:
 Informed Exploration
 Enactment
 Evaluation: Local impact
 Evaluation: Broader impact
 Adoption, adaption, acceptance, rejection.
 And there are different research methods:
Surveys, case study, experiments, action research, ethnography, correlational research, evaluation
research.

4. When is design research inappropriate?
 Design research is inappropriate if the educational problem is fairly simple.
For example: If the problem has a known or standard solution, and there is
general agreement on when to apply the solution, and the solution has been
regularly successfully applied in various settings, design research is probably a
poor use of resources.
Generally, design research is probably not recommended for closed problems
(e.g., improving mathematics calculation fluency).

5. When is design research appropriate?
 Design research is recommended when the problem facing learning or
teaching is substantial and daunting how-to-do guidelines available for
addressing the problem are unavailable.
 Design research is further suggested if prior training or interventions have
consistently proven unsuccessful-
 Design research is most appropriate for open, or more appropriately,
wicked problems.
 One of the broad goals of design research is to dynamically clarify the
initial and goal states and the operators, and to illuminate the nature of
the problem

6. Examples of when applying design research:
1. Introducing Existing
Science or Mathematics
at Earlier Grade Levels:
the teaching of algebra
in earlier
grades
Design
Research
5. Reading and Inquiry Science:
when developing creative or
innovative
educational products, blueprints or
designs that are directed at chronic
educational
problems.
2. Learning new or
emerging science
content (e.g., genetics)
3, Uncovering the
Potential
of Neuroscience for
Mathematics Learning
4. Cyber-infrastructure:
computing systems,
data, information
resources, networking,
digitally enabled-
sensors, Instruments.

7. The growing need for design assessment
research.
1.
• Design research differs from formative assessment with regard to the student’s
knowledge end state and how feedback loops are enacted.
2.
• In design research, assessment may be used formatively in order to dynamically
determine progress toward mastery of disciplinary knowledge (e.g., Cobb &
Gravemeijer, [Kelly, Lesh & Baek, 2008])
3.
• Design researchers are challenging the assumptions about learning, teaching, and
knowing that underlie available assessment techniques, not only in terms of the
psychometric assumptions (like item response theory), but also the function of
assessment itself within and across the stages of design research (see Sloane &
Kelly, [Kelly, Lesh & Baek, 2008]).

8. Design research in general practices
 Design research cycles unfold within a larger framework of research, using cognitive
science, cognitive psychology and other social science methods such as surveys,
case studies, clinical interviews, ethnography:
Identify or characterize the initial states. Clarify the initial knowledge
and goal knowledge states using the interventions.
Identify or characterize the goal states. Design formative
assessments to monitor progress toward the goal state.
Identify or characterize the operators.
Inform re-design cycles or iterations using data gathered from
unfolding, and parallel work in design assessment.
Work toward developing a mature prototype that can be subject to a
more definitive test.

9. One final note: prototyping and theory
building.
 Design research involves not only the use of different methods, but
combines the fruits of each method, over time, to specify theory and
models related to learning, teaching and assessing the target knowledge
(see Cobb & Gravemeijer, 2008).
 Design research goes beyond simple development of an intervention and
goes beyond standard cognitive analyses and allows theory and modeling
that accounts for the content, the cognition, and the enactment by real
people in real and rich contexts with real limits on resources (see Zaritsky
et al., 2003).