Introduction
When one encounters the word “research”, it would essentially mean something that would yield information. As Cooper and Schindler (2006) aptly defined it, “research is any organized inquiry carried out to provide information for solving problems”. Thus, research is a guided quest that someone undertakes in order to gather data and translate it to become more meaningful in any field of study. In the field of education, research is a very essential aspect in determining, analyzing and interpreting data that has to do with the improvement of student performance, teacher performance and other valuable things that can ultimately change our educational system to become more effective and efficient in the future.
As we all know, the teaching profession is a composed of teaching and learning processes, which means teachers also learn as they do their profession. Educational research comprises a large chunk of the learning aspect because teachers can apply research to solve practical, classroom-based problems. Teachers validate the accuracy and usefulness of educational research by identifying appropriate areas to investigate. As consumers of educational research, teachers can improve their teaching, contribute to educational reform and enhance the professional status of teaching. In education, research can be undertaken using two distinct perspectives on how knowledge should be acquired. Research using quantitative methods rests on the belief that individuals, groups, organizations, and the environments in which they operate have an objective reality that is relatively constant across time and settings. For example, a teacher might want to know if her storytelling method would increase his or her student’s test scores in mathematics. The teacher will use the test scores as a basis for determining the effectiveness of a new method and use statistical tests to compare and analyze the results. Higher test scores would mean the new method is effective, while lower or no change would mean the new method has no significant effect to the learning of his or her students. In contrast, qualitative research methods are rooted in the conviction that “features of the social environment are constructed as interpretations by individuals and that these interpretations tend to be transitory and situational” (Gall, Borg, and Gall 1966, p. 28). It is only through intensive study of specific cases in natural settings that these meanings and interpretations can be revealed and common themes deduced. For example, a teacher can use a qualitative method if he or she wants to determine if the new seating arrangement will change the behavior of her students. In this case, the teacher will record his or her observations about the attitude changes in students and use this in analyzing if there are significant changes or not. Although debate over which perspective is “right” continues, qualitative and quantitative research share a common feature–data are at the center of all forms of inquiry.
Action research
In the recent years, the term “action research” became widespread and was defined as a “classroom-based study by teachers, individually or collaboratively, of how to improve instruction”. Fischer (1996) explained that “action research is … a natural part of teaching” because “to be a teacher means to observe students and study classroom interactions, to explore a variety of effective ways of teaching and learning, and to build conceptual frameworks that can guide one’s work” (p. 33). Mills (2003) averred that the obvious condition for doing action research and effecting educational change is that the outcome of any change effort must benefit students if it is to be continued. Mills (2003) thought that “action research can provide a method for recording, measuring, and analyzing the results of an educational practice or intervention”. For example, Mills (2003) cited a teacher named James Rockford gathered data in his study of the effectiveness of keyboarding software on the class word processing rate provided conclusive evidence that the keyboarding software being tested was very effective and that time spent on computers at schools was critical. This persuasive data gave James confidence in the benefits of this educational intervention and supported his recommendation that teachers take students to the computer lab every day, monitor keyboarding habits, and see that each student received a minimum of ten minutes of practice per day.
New technologies
With the advent of the Internet and new technologies, the education sector is faced with greater challenges that teachers would need to face. For example, Li (2008) would want to know if the effects of bullying and cyberbullying are the same for middle school children. The data she gathered concluded that the high percentage of students involved in cyberbullying in Canada and China suggests that cyberbullying may become a serious global problem in the future. It is expected that more and more opportunities and threats can be drawn upon the new technologies that appear each day. It is the duty of educational researchers and teachers to explore these new possibilities and emphasize more on the opportunities that are brought by these new technologies. Aside from new technologies and Internet, teachers face more challenges professionally like lack of resources; resistance to change; reluctance to interfere with others’ professional practices; reluctance to admit difficult truths; difficulty of finding a forum to share what you have learned; and lack of time for action research endeavors. As the future looms, the role of the teacher in the classroom widens and he or she is exposed to gargantuan stresses that might make their lives less easy. Despite that, teachers must make positive educational changes and push for reforms in and out of the classroom. Ultimately, educational research holds the key to make these changes possible for the betterment of the profession, the society and the future of students and teachers who will benefit from the improvement of the educational system as a whole.
References
Cooper, D.R. & Schindler, P.S. (2006). Business Research Methods, 9th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Fischer, J.A. (1996). Open to ideas: Developing a framework for your research. In Burnaford, G., Fischer, J. & Hobson, D. (Eds.), Teachers Doing Research: Practical Possibilities. New Jersey, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Gall, M. D., Borg, W.R. & Gall, J.P. (1966). Educational Research: An Introduction, 6th ed. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Li, Q. (2008). A cross-cultural comparison of adolescents’ experience related to cyberbullying, Educational Research 50(3): 223-234.
Mills, G.E. (2003). Introduction to Education Research, 1st ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.