Review and analysis of Educational Research - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The topic of the study revolves around the access factors faced by different employees concerning the learning in the workplace. From the two topics, it is evident that the two studies are somewhat related but completely different. First, the two studies deal with education for mature education, but Swain and Hammond (2011) focus on students in institutions of higher learning while Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon (2009) focuses on individuals in the workplace. The other difference in the two articles is that Swain and Hammond (2011) try to focus on the individuals themselves and their motivations and benefits from the studies. Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon (2009) focuses on the external factors that affect the individual, not what the individual feels. According to Brannen, the scope and scale of research refers to the exact areas covered by a researcher, the information presented in the study, and the factors that limit the research. This means that the scope and scale of research includes the lower and upper bounds of a study. In Swain and Hammond (2011), the researchers specifically deal with mature students in Higher education. The authors deal with these students with the aim of identifying their motivations and outcomes for studying part0-time. ...
The study focuses on survey data to identify the extent and benefits of workplace learning in Scottish SMEs. The scope is further divided into information intensive organizations and traditional manufacturing and training organizations. Finally, this scope and scale is limited to workplace learning and the benefits derived by the employees for the companies being investigated. Contrary to the research by Swain and Hammond (2009), Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon (2009) focus on the employer and not the individual. Research in social science is usually different according to the paradigms or extent of research conducted (Oakley, 2007). This means that different researchers aim to achieve different results by focusing on different research methods, mainly choosing from qualitative and quantitative research methods. The two methods mentioned usually differentiate the paradigm used in research, where the scientific theory or positivist theory is used for quantitative research while the constructivist paradigm focuses on qualitative research. Riddell, Ahlgren and Weedon’s (2009) background literature is read as statistical based, with emphasis on policies and the Scottish Government objectives of getting adults up to a level of education to create an equal Scottish society. The researchers’ literature reports the European study of lifelong learning as its driver, hence a study on government objectives. It does nevertheless highlight, “driving national economic growth, whilst at the same time increasing social mobility for socially disadvantaged workers through workplace learning programmes” (p.794) does not justify the government objective. This could indicate the perspective of the researcher could fall into ...Download file to see next pagesRead More