How Do Researchers Study Education? Research Designs and Experiments

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How Do Researchers Study Education? Research Designs and Experiments

Educational Psychology · Chapter 10: Research Methods and Evidence in EducationSection 10.1 · lesson 92 of 1009 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

Experiments, quasi-experiments, and what random assignment actually buys you.

  • Describe the major educational research designs
  • Explain what random assignment guarantees
  • Identify independent, dependent and control variables
  • Recognize confounding in naturalistic school settings

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,111 words). Read along, or search it.

Research Methods and Evidence in Education

How Do Researchers Study Education?

Every teaching method you will ever be sold comes with a claim attached. This program raises reading scores. This approach improves engagement. Whether you should believe any of it depends on how it was studied. This section is about how educational research is designed. We start with why design determines what you can conclude. Then the true experiment, and random assignment. Then quasi-experiments, which is what schools usually permit. Then single-subject designs, common in special education. Then variables, and the confounds that ruin studies. One idea does most of the work in this section. Random assignment handles the variables you never thought of.

Why It Matters

The Backbone of Evidence-Based Practice

Educational research is the backbone of evidence-based teaching. The alternative is relying on tradition, or on intuition. Researchers systematically investigate what influences learning. And what influences motivation, and academic achievement. By applying rigorous scientific methods, they can answer three questions. Which instructional strategies are actually effective. Under what conditions those strategies work best. And for which student populations they produce the greatest benefit. Notice that the second and third questions are often skipped. And this matters beyond the people conducting research. Practitioners must evaluate findings and apply them. In their own classrooms, and in their own schools.

Three Questions

The Design Follows the Question

Educational research answers three broad kinds of question. Questions about cause and effect, and about patterns of association. And questions about descriptive characteristics of what exists. The design follows from which kind of question you are asking. But two other things constrain the choice as well. The resources available to the researcher. And the ethical constraints of studying human participants. Particularly when those participants are children and adolescents. That is why the field has so many different methods. From laboratory-style experiments to large-scale survey studies. The diversity reflects the complexity of the educational environment.

True Experiment

The Gold Standard for Causality

The true experiment is the gold standard for establishing causality. Its structure is simple to describe. Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups. A control group, or an experimental group. The experimental group receives the treatment, such as a new program. The control group receives the standard condition. It serves as the comparison baseline. Now here is what the random assignment actually guarantees. It ensures the two groups are equivalent at baseline. Which means any difference in outcomes belongs to the treatment. Rather than to pre-existing differences between the groups.

Key Idea

Known and Unknown Characteristics Alike

Random assignment is the defining feature of a true experiment. And it is worth stating exactly what it does. It distributes participant characteristics equally across groups. Both known characteristics and unknown ones. That second half is where the power lives. You do not have to think of every relevant variable in advance. Chance handles the ones you never anticipated. Which eliminates systematic bias from the comparison. And allows researchers to draw causal conclusions from the data. Consider a study of collaborative learning in mathematics. The researcher randomly assigns classrooms to two conditions. Collaborative instruction, or traditional lecture-based teaching. Then compares post-test scores between them.

When You Cannot

Quasi-Experiments and Single-Subject Designs

In real schools, random assignment is often impossible. So quasi-experimental designs are used instead. A researcher might compare two existing classrooms. One using a new literacy intervention, and one not. These lack the control of a true experiment. But they can still provide valuable evidence. Provided researchers account for pre-existing differences. One common approach is using pre-test scores as covariates. That statistically adjusts for where each group started. There is a third approach worth knowing about too. Single-subject designs observe one student or a small group. Observed across multiple conditions over time. Which makes them particularly useful in special education research.

The Spectrum

Ordered by How Much Causal Control You Have

It helps to lay these designs out along a single spectrum. Ordered by how much causal control the researcher has. At one end sits descriptive research. No manipulation, no random assignment. It describes what exists. Next comes correlational research. Still no manipulation, but it measures association between variables. It cannot show cause, and that limitation is structural. Then quasi-experiments, which do involve manipulation. But without random assignment, so they support probable cause. And at the far end, the true experiment. Random assignment plus manipulation, supporting causal claims. Read left to right and one thing becomes clear. What you may conclude is fixed by what you were able to control.

Variables

What You Change, and What You Measure

Every experiment involves at least two variables. The independent variable is what the researcher manipulates. For instance, the type of instructional strategy being used. The dependent variable is the outcome being measured. Student test scores, perhaps, or reading fluency rates. A well-designed experiment holds all other variables constant. So that changes in the dependent variable can be attributed confidently. Attributed to the independent variable, and nothing else. Sometimes researchers study more than one factor at once. They then use what are called factorial designs. Those examine main effects for each variable. And interaction effects between the variables as well.

Confounds

The Hardest Part of School-Based Research

Then there are the variables nobody wanted in the study. Control variables are those held constant, or statistically adjusted for. The purpose is to prevent confounding. In educational research, four control variables come up constantly. Student age, socioeconomic status, prior achievement, and teacher experience. Identifying and managing potential confounds is genuinely hard. It is one of the most challenging aspects of rigorous research. And it is hardest in naturalistic school settings. Because researchers have limited control over the environment there. A school is not a laboratory, and it should not be. Which is exactly why the design work matters so much.

Six Designs

What Each One Can and Cannot Claim

Six designs, compared on what each one can legitimately claim. A true experiment has random assignment and manipulation. It supports causal claims, in lab or controlled settings. A quasi-experiment has manipulation but no random assignment. It supports probable cause, in existing classrooms. Correlational research has neither, and reports association from surveys and records. Descriptive research also has neither, describing observations and surveys. Single-subject designs have manipulation without random assignment. They report individual patterns, mostly in special education. And mixed methods vary on both, aiming to be comprehensive. That last one is chosen for genuinely complex questions.

Classroom Example

Forty Classrooms and One Reading Program

Here is a true experiment running in a real district. The district wants to evaluate a new phonics-based reading program. Specifically, whether it improves literacy outcomes for first graders. A researcher randomly assigns twenty classrooms to the new program. And twenty to continue with the existing curriculum. Pre-test and post-test reading scores are collected from both. Now notice what the random assignment licenses at the end. Any significant difference in post-test scores belongs to the program. Not to differences in teacher quality, or in student demographics. And this is why design is not a technicality. A poorly designed study may say a method works when it does not. Wasting school resources, and potentially harming students.

About Educational Psychology at UPI Study

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Educational Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About How Do Researchers Study Education? Research Designs and Experiments

What is random assignment and why does it matter in experiments?
Random assignment means placing participants into the experimental or control group by chance, and it matters because it makes the groups equivalent at baseline. It spreads both known and unknown characteristics evenly across groups, removing systematic bias. Any difference in outcomes can then be attributed to the treatment rather than to pre-existing differences, which is why it defines a true experiment.
What is the difference between a true experiment and a quasi-experiment?
A true experiment randomly assigns participants to conditions and manipulates a variable, so it supports causal claims, while a quasi-experiment manipulates a variable without random assignment, so it supports only probable cause. Quasi-experiments are common in schools, such as comparing two existing classrooms. Researchers strengthen them by accounting for pre-existing differences, for example by using pre-test scores as covariates.
What are independent, dependent and control variables?
The independent variable is what a researcher manipulates, such as the instructional strategy; the dependent variable is the outcome measured, such as test scores or reading fluency; and control variables are held constant or statistically adjusted to prevent confounding. In educational research, common control variables include student age, socioeconomic status, prior achievement and teacher experience.
What is a single-subject research design?
A single-subject design observes one student or a small group across multiple conditions over time, with the researcher manipulating conditions but not randomly assigning participants. Instead of comparing group averages, it reports individual patterns of change. This makes it particularly useful in special education research, where interventions are often tailored to individual students and large comparable groups are hard to form.

About the Educational Psychology course

How many college credits is Educational Psychology?
Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
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$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 100 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
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How long does Educational Psychology take?
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