Process of steps used to collect and analyze information to increase our understanding of a topic or issue.

In general it has 3 steps:  poses a question, collect data to answer the questions, and present an answer to the question

1.  Adds to our knowledge

2.  Improves practice

3.  Informs policy debates

• Id a problem that defines the goal of research
• Make a prediction that, if confirmed, resolves the problem
• Gather data relevant to this prediction
• Analyze and interpret data to see if it supports the orediction and resolves the question

Identify a research problem:

• Specify a problem
• Justify it
• Identify who the potential audience of the study is

Reviewing the Literature

• Locating resources
• Selecting resources
• Summarizing resources

Specifying a Purpose for the Research

• Identify the purpose statement
• Narrow the purpose to research questions or hypotheses

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

• Breaking down the data
• Representing the data
• Explaining the data

• Emphasis on collecting and analyzing data in the form of numbers
• Emphasis on collecting scores that measure distinct  attributes of individuals and organizations
• Emphasis on the procedures of comparing groups or relating factors about individuals or groups in experiments, correlational studies and surveys

• listen to the views of participants
• ask general, open questions and collect data in places where people live and work
• acknowledge that research has a role in advocating for change and bettering the life of individuals

• intervention studies or group studies
• offer intervention to one and withhold from another

• measure the degree of relation between two or more variables using statistical procedure of correlational analysis
• Study a single group

• Administer a survey or questionnaire
• Survey or question a sample group to compare trends in a large population

• systematic qualitative procedures that researchers use to generate a general explanation that explains a process, action, or interaction among people
• collecting interview data
• developing themes
• and then composing a visual model
• "grounded" in the data from the participants

• qualitative procedures for describing, analyzing, and interpreting a cultural group's shared patterns of behavior, beliefs, and language
• "from the perspective" of the group or person/s

• qualitative procedures in which researchers describe the lives of individuals

• both qualitative and quantitative in nature

• Usually both quantitative and qualitative in nature
• focuses more on procedures useful in addressing practical problems in school and the classrooms