Educational Research Methods
A site to support teaching and learning...
Exploring Understanding
One area of educational research is in exploring how people (such as students) understand particular topics.
Someone setting out on research in this area would need to consider issues of
What is the nature of the ‘understanding’ (and ‘ideas’, ‘thinking’, ‘personal knowledge’, ‘conceptions’...)
This raises questions about how we can know about another’s understanding:
To what extent can we know the ideas of another?
What would we count as reliable evidence?
How do we do this type of research?
A range of research approaches may be employed in this area of research
Link to types of interview
Observed group activities are similar in form to focus groups
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.)
2016-2018
