Educational Research

Educational research, sometimes called the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning or SoTL, is the systematic analysis of aspects of instruction and their effect on student learning. This can be descriptive or can be hypothesis-driven. This research also can be quantitative or qualitative. Streveler and Smith suggest that as teachers evolve, they should grow toward this scholarship of teaching as a means of improving their own teaching and providing information to guide other teachers; see information from these authors below.

Moving from the “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning” to “Educational Research:” An Example from Engineering

The Evolution of Teaching

When considering educational research, as with any research project, the first step is to clearly define your research question. This best permits design of a study to capture necessary quantitative data (for example, student grades) and qualitative data (for example, survey of student to determine attitudes). Quantitative studies are descriptive and explanatory; they explain phenomena from an objective perspective and provide data as numbers, statistics, charts and tables. Qualitative studies are descriptive and interpretive; they explain a particular setting or phenomenon from the point of view of the people experiencing it and use words and images to describe and communicate their findings. With any kind of study, attention should be paid to collection of baseline data before changes are implemented and evaluated. Examples of databases that can be searched for literature review to support educational research include ERIC (Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse), Academic Search Complete, and Pubmed and educational databases available through the University library system. Interesting information and some obscure materials can sometimes be found through Google Scholar.