Theoretical perspectives

A topic in research methodology

A research project often adopts a specific theoretical perspective from which to understand the research focus and analyse the data collected.

"Educational phenomena, teaching and learning and the social institutions intended support teaching, can…be very complex, and there are often alternative ways of approaching the conceptualisation of a particular research focus….

Discussions of educational research often make references to the 'theoretical perspective' informing a study, as something other than the 'conceptual framework' underpinning the study. Theoretical perspectives can be thought of as well-developed theoretical positions about some aspects of a social or educational phenomenon that can act as starting points for making sense of research topics. An important point is that in … education, there is no 1:1 correspondence between theoretical perspective and specific topics. Rather there will often be several theoretical perspectives that might be relevant to a topic. These might sometimes be seen as based on competing theories, but often they might be better thought of as each illuminating some of the facets of a complex phenomenon."

Taber, 2014: 1854-1855

One example of a theoretical perspective that might be drawn upon or adopted in work exploring how people understand their experiences would be 'constructive alternativism', deriving from personal construct theory.

A theoretical perspective that might inform studies of teaching and learning is constructivism (or one of its variants). [Read more about Constructivism]

Sometimes a theoretical perspective leads to a particular methodology being developed. So the construct repertory test and repertory grid were developed from personal construct theory. Phenomenology is a term that can be used both to refer to a theoretical perspective and the associated methodology.

Research questions should be framed in accordance with any selected theoretical perspective

Where researchers adopt a particular theoretical perspective for a study, then the research questions should be framed accordingly. The examples in the slide reproduced above were used as a quick fun activity in lectures: which of the theoretical ideas on the left might be the basis of a theoretical perspective that might motivate each question on the right. (If you do not know about these different examples of theories often met in education, bear in mind that the slide was used in a large teaching group with a wide range of academic backgrounds – who were able to compare notes and pool their background knowledge.)

A key notion in research design is coherence across a study. For example, if a study adopted 'multiple intelligence' (as in Howard Gardner's ideas) as a perspective to think about student aptitudes and achievements it would not be sensible to ask 'who are the most intelligent students in the class?' as that suggests intelligence is something that can be quantified on a single dimension or scale. (Instead it might be useful to ask something about the profiles of intelligences shown by different students.)

Similarly, if one adopted 'constructive alternativism' as a theoretical perspective to examine learners' conceptions of gravity, then it would not make sense to ask 'which of the students understand gravity?' as it would be assumed that students generally have ways of understanding gravity (if not always ways that would help them score marks in a physics examination). That is, if understanding is seen as something that can exist at different levels, and with various degrees of match to canonical accounts, then it does not make sense to frame a research question as if understanding is a simple binary (understand vs. do not understand). Rather, it would make more sense to ask something like 'how do learners in the class understand gravity?'

Source cited:

Taber, K. S. (2014). Methodological issues in science education research: a perspective from the philosophy of science. In M. R. Matthews (Ed.), International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching (Vol. 3, pp. 1839-1893). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.