Educational Research Methods
A site to support teaching and learning...
Knowledge claims
Academic research leads to knowledge claims, that is claims that the research has produced new ‘public knowledge’. The claims need to the outcome of an argument (sometimes referred to as a thesis) based on some kind of evidence. In empirical studies this evidence is based on the interpretation of data.
Yet, it is not obvious exactly how we should define knowledge or what we should count as knowledge.
Thus one of the metaphors for writing up research (Taber, 2013) is a legal one: the researcher as an advocate: making a case.
“Throughout the paper there appears to be a lack of rigor of argumentation.”
Critical comment from a peer review report of an article submitted for publication
It is sometimes suggested that context-directed research such as action research, does not seek to make public knowledge claims as in theory-directed research. Rather, “in all of these variations of teacher/action research... the account becomes a laying out of our personal understanding (Newman, 2000)”
Newman, J. M. (2000). Action research: A brief overview. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(1). Retrieved from http://qualitative-research.net/fqs
This is a personal site of Keith S. Taber to support teaching of educational research methods.
(Dr Keith Taber is Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.)
Taber, K. S. (2013). Classroom-based Research and Evidence-based Practice: An introduction (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
