Educational research involves a variety of practical methods in which teachers are required to undertake various activities, including student training and learning, and classroom dynamics. Consequently, educational research can be applied in different fields including sociology, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology. To ensure that the findings of an educational study are valid, they need to be interpreted within the context of the research that is carried out (Mertler & Charles, 2011, p. 29).
Educational research mainly comprises experimentation, which is intended to assist the researcher to gain more knowledge regarding a particular topic. This implies that educational research mostly benefits students. It empowers students with the necessary information and helps them solve the problems and challenges they encounter in and out of the classroom. As a result, educational research plays a significant role in the student of the decision making when undertaking their day-to-day learning activities. Educational research also provides students with tangible evidence that they can use to back the arguments they bring forth regarding various issues (Mertler & Charles, 2011, p. 337).
In the future, more applied research studies will need to be conducted in the field of education to improve it further. Applied research involves a systematic inquiry that uses practical scientific applications. Unlike action studies and other forms of research, applied investigations use the most reliable knowledge, theories, techniques, and methods to achieve a specific purpose. This type of research is, consequently, more applicable than the theoretical one as its findings are based on real things and not mere assumptions.
My research will have a significant impact on education in the next ten years. The research is expected to offer a deeper insight into exploration, prediction, and explanation of educational problems through the application of systematic data collection methods and analytical procedures. The research will also bring forth effective procedures for data gathering and analysis.
There is a high probability that the proposed agenda will help to ease the conflicting perspectives currently experienced in educational research. Firstly, the proposed research agenda will assist in finding more effective practices that can be incorporated into educational studies. Effective practices have been found out to help a lot in easing any conflicts that may arise in a research study (Collins, 2010, p. 5). Secondly, the proposed agenda may bring in incentives for various educational innovations; this could encourage researchers to perform studies using research methods that give reliable and valid results, which are less prone to conflicts. Lastly, the agenda proposes the formulation of policies that directly support educational research. This encourages researchers to conduct their research studies in a proper environment to avoid obtaining results that may be refuted by other scholars (Collins, 2010, p. 6).
Several items can be added to the proposed research agenda to encourage constructive research in the field of education. Firstly, the researchers need to be encouraged to obtain their data by conducting quasi-experiments. Quasi-experiments are considered the most rigorous data collection method, which can provide reliable evidence that is less prone to disputes. This experimental design can also help to improve the knowledge of the researchers regarding the impact of their studies on the field of developmental education (Collins, 2010, p. 4). Secondly, the researchers should be trained to use both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods in every study. By using the two methods simultaneously, the researchers can handle easily, experiments involving both numeric and qualitative data.
References
Collins, M. L. (2010). Bridging the evidence gap in the developmental education. Journal of Developmental Education, 34(1), 1-6.
Mertler, C. & Charles, C. (2011). Introduction to educational research (7th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Allyn and Bacon.