Tooltip Categories: Site glossary

are the formal questions that a study is designed to (potentially) answer, and can be considered the focus of a study both reflecting the conceptualisation of the field (and any choice of theoretical perspective) and being the basis for designing the study

Visit web-page: Research questions

is a potential confound in an experiment. If participants in one treatment experience familiar conditions, but participants in another treatment experience conditions that are novel, that is quite different to what is accustomed, then differences in outcomes could be due to the novelty of the treatment rather than its inherent nature, and may be found to diminish if the treatment became implemented as normal practice

Visit web-page: Experiments

is a study where randomisation is used to assign units of analysis (learners, classes, teachers, schools, etc.) to different conditions

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is a study that resembles an experiment but is not a true experiment as the units of analysis (children, teachers, classes, schools…) are not randomly assigned to conditions

A quasi-experiment is not as rigorous as a true experiment, although some 'natural experiments' are considered to approach the rigour of a true experiment

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Visit web-page: Natural experiments

 

a journal which offers to publish academic research for money, but which does not meet the expected standards of peer review and editorial scrutiny: i.e., a journal prepared to publish substandard work for a fee.

Read about 'Conferences and poor academic practice'

Read about 'Predatory journals'

Folk knowledge refers to ideas that are in common currency, but which are naive when compared with the scientific accounts (urban myths, folk remedies, old wives tales, etc).

Folk knowledge is one source of learners' alternative conceptions that may act as learning impediments in science classes.

The natural attitude refers to things that are usually just taken for granted – rather than subject to critical analysis and doubt, that is 'common-sense' thinking.

This is a notion often used in (the theoretical perspective) phenomenology, and is associated with the notion of the 'lifeworld'.

a variable that could have an effect on the observed/measured outcome (dependent variable) that is not the variable being deliberately changed (independent variable)

Read about experiments

is presenting someone else's work as your own.

Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct. Deliberate plagiarism is considered dishonest: a kind of theft and cheating.

See: Plagiarism

See: Academic standards

 

metric, an indicator of the quality of a journal (although very sensitive to issues such as degree of specialism, field, etc.)

Usually (and generally understood to be) a measure of the extent to which the articles published in a journal tend to be cited across well-regarded journals

Read about Journal impact factor

the principle in scientific and academia affairs that the community regulates its own standards by work being subject to peer review, i.e., review by a member of the same academic community

Peer review is usually undertaken in relation to submissions to academic journals, applications for substantial funding support, and proposals for book contracts. It is also common for contribution to edited books, and sometimes for manuscripts submitted for books under contract.

See: Peer review

can be understood to suggest that certain responses are more desirable or sensible than others, and are not suitable for use in research

See: Question types