Epistemology and Educational Research
Epistemology and Educational Research
Epistemology and Educational Research
Educational Research
Ouda Teda Ena
Epistemology
based on authority
People rely on experts to gain understanding and
guide their behavior.
The only utility of this approach to the researcher is
that it sometimes poses questions which bear
researching: Does vitamin C really cure colds?
Traditional Approaches to Knowledge 3
insightful observation
Insightful observation is used by intelligent people who
are capable of gathering information from their
experience then drawing useful generalizations and
conclusions from these observations.
Unlike the former method, this incorporates some
observational basis, albeit unsystematic.
Traditional Approaches to Knowledge 5
two dominant research paradigms: the positivist paradigm and the post-
positive paradigm.
logical positivism: It asserts that things are only meaningful if they are
observable and verifiable.
The so-called scientific method formulates a hypothesis from theory and
then collects data about the observable consequences of the hypothesis
to test its validity in the real world.
This method originated in the physical sciences and then was adopted by
educational psychologists who dominated the field of educational
research for most of this century.
The approach is inherently quantitative, emphasizing measurement of
behavior and prediction of future measurements.
positivist criticism
There are essentially four levels at which educational research takes place:
descriptive, explanatory, generalization and basic or theoretical
Level I II III IV
Research Descriptive Explanatory Generalization Basic
Type (Internal (External (Theoretical)
Validity) Validity)
Major What is What is Will the Is there
Questions happening? causing it to same thing some
What happened happen? happen underlying
in the past? Why did it under principle at
happen? different work?
circumstances?
Methods/
Approaches
Level I II III IV
Research Descriptive Explanatory Generalization Basic
Type (Internal Validity) (External (Theoretical)
Validity)
Methods/ Case study Case study Casualcomparative ABAB designs
Approach Content analysis Comparative Experimental Experimental
es Ethnography Correlational Meta analysis Meta analysis
Historiography Ethnography Multiple case Study Policy research
Needs assessment Ex-post facto Predictive Time-series analysis
Observation Historiography Quasiexperimental
Policy research Observation
Polling Sociometry
Program evaluation Time-series analysis
Sociometry Tracer studies
Survey research
Tracer studies
Research Ethics