Research Methods in Education - Case Study Example

Introduction There are several methods of conducting a research. According to the book Research Methods in Education, there are several styles being used in conducting researches in education: naturalistic and ethnographic research; historical research; surveys, longitudinal, cross-sectional and trend studies; case studies; co-relational research; ex post facto research; experiments, quasi-experiments and single-case research, and; action research. Naturalistic and ethnographic research refer to the study of “people in naturally occurring settings or ‘fields’ by methods of data collection which capture their social meanings and ordinary activities, involving the researcher participating directly in the setting if not also in the activities, in order to collect data in a systematic manner but without meaning being imposed” (qtd. David & Sutton 103). The usual subjects of a naturalistic research or ethnography are the exploration of a specific group, culture, community, organization, organizations and the like. Historical research on the other hand, is the “systematic collection and objective evaluation of data related to past occurrences in order to [...] test hypotheses concerning causes, effects or trends of those events that may help explain present events and anticipate future events” (Verma & Malick 74). Surveys, longitudinal, cross-sectional and trend studies are also called descriptive methods of research. Whilst the historical focuses on the past the descriptive research is concerned with the present. The method goes beyond the collection of data through surveys and longitudinal, cross-sectional and trend studies but the method also a subsequent comparison and the discovery of their relationships among all the data collected (Verma & Malick 78). Case study as a research method is the employed when “the phenomenon under study is not readily distinguishable from its context.” The aforesaid phenomenon could either be a project or a program involved in an evaluation study. Situations which usually call for a case study are those in which a phenomenon (a program or project) has a problem with its context as in the implementation of computers in schools. The phenomenon here is the program of the implementation of computers and the context is the school (Yin 4). The phrase ex post facto is a Latin phrase which literally means “from what is done afterwards” and as a method or research, it refers to the collection of statistics and data of circumstances surrounding events, out of which the researcher draws a hypothesis. For instance, a researcher wants to study why car accident frequently happens in a specific part of the highway. Since it is impossible for the researcher to examine the cause of each and every road mishaps in that particular area, the method of study that a researcher can do is to examine the road accident statistics in that area, read through the testimony of witnesses of the accidents which happened in that area or examine the area itself (Cohen, Marion & Morrison 205). Experiments, quasi-experiments and single case research are research methods which allows cause and effect to be known through the manipulation of one variable (called independent variable) and observing the effects of this manipulation in another variable (called dependent variable). This is clearly manifested in scientific experiments both control and experimental groups are subjected to the same conditions except for one (Cave 92). Thus, a group of children, for example, may be subjected to certain conditions and so is other group. However, in the first group one of the conditions is withheld. This difference may be made the cause of the differences between the two groups (Cave 92). Finally, action research is defined as a “form of collective self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of these practices and the situations in which these practices are carried out... The approach is only action research when it is collaborative, though it is important to realize that the action research of the group is achieved through the critically examined action of individual group members” (Chen, Marrion & Morrison 227). The ultimate goal of action research is beyond interpretation and understanding of data but to improve, to reform and change the world. Two articles are being examined in this paper in connection with the employment of research methods. The first article is entitled Promising Yourself to do Better?: Target-Setting and Literacy by D. Wyse and the second is entitled The Changing Nature of Assessment in English Primary Classrooms: Findings from the PACE project 1989-1997. Both articles are examined with the objective of determining the kind of methodological approaches they used respectively as well as the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. The first article deals with target-setting, a current learning tool being employed by the English education system in primary schools whilst the second article tackles the implementation of the compulsory National Curriculum and its assessment procedures which was introduced by the Education Reform Act of 1988. Most research methods can be broadly classified as experimental, survey, archival analysis, history and case study. Table 1 shows the basic differences between these forms of strategies from their purpose or aim, their focus and the circumstances under which they are employed. STRATEGY Form of Research Requires Control of Focuses on Questions Behavioral Events Contemporary Events Experiment how, why? Yes Yes Survey who, what, where No Yes how many how much? Archival who, what, where No Yes/No Analysis how many how much History how, why? No No Case Study how, why? No Yes Table 1 Relevant Situations for Different Research Strategies Source: (Yin 5) Article 1: Promising Yourself To Do Better?: Target-Setting and Literacy The article under consideration tackles the subject of target-setting, a learning tool used in the English education system today. The objective of the article is the study of the impact of the aforesaid learning tool on the country’s education system. To pursue this objective, a research conducted by a group of education students in their final year in BA Primary Education assisted by QTS students is cited and made the focus of this article. The general objective of the students in their research is to study the impact of target-setting as a learning tool in the English primary education system. Specifically, the research wanted to work on the following areas: “explore and analyse the process of target-setting in one class; monitor a small group of children’s progress towards the targets; document the use of short-term and/or termly target-setting procedures, and; evaluate the use of assessment strategies” (Wyse 14). It is notable that the subject of the research involved a program, which is the target-setting being implemented by the Government under the guidance of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). The QCA identified three kinds of target-setting: quantitative performance target; curriculum target, and; learning targets. The objective of the research is to study the aforesaid program in the context of the primary grade schools where this program is being implemented. The necessary research approach being used here is the Case Study Method. This is because the study needs to establish how the target-setting learning tool has effected in the school environment, the children, the teachers who implemented it and if the three-pronged aims of the program are met, if at all. Since this calls for the exploration of the development of target-setting vis-à-vis the school children who benefited from the program, their mentors and the objectives of the program, a case study is obviously the most competent research method to use as was done in this case. In this case, it is important to know the “how” and the “why” because in examining the impact of target-setting in the English education system, there is a need to know how the program is exactly being employed by the school teachers and how the school children adapts to it. If the program is successful or not there is also a need to establish the reasons why. Thus, to explore all possibilities of the subject, the case study as a research tool is most appropriate to use. Other characteristics of the said research method are likewise observable in this particular study. First, despite the participation of the researchers to some extent, there was no need to manipulate the behavior events unlike in experiments where some conditions are intentionally manipulated or omitted to discover how such manipulation and omission differ from the situation where there is no manipulation or omission. Second, the research at hand does not focus on past events as historical or archival analysis does but rather on the present evens. The research was carried out by students in their final year taking up BA Primary Education assisted by QTS students on a small group of children in 22 Liverpool schools for a period of 10 weeks. Since there were a number of schools involved the methodology used was made flexible considering that target-setting as a learning tool were not of the same stage in every school. In particular, the extent and the kind of participation that the researchers were involved were made largely dependent on this aspect. Aside from the differences in the degree of the inception of the learning tool in each school, there was also the difference in socio-economic conditions in every school that the researchers had to contend with as the schools were scattered in predominantly inner-city and some suburban areas where economic conditions are wide ranging. Thus, the research involved the participation of the following: the researchers, because they were the ones who made the assessment and the record-keeping of the progress of the children, the school teachers, because they are the persons who implemented the target-setting as envisioned by the QCA, and; the school children as they are the primary subjects of the research upon whose progress the effect of the learning program was gauged against. The researchers specifically traced the progress of six school children in stage 2 classes by visiting them weekly for half of the day. The researchers began the study by discussing the research with the class teacher and then having the children agreed on their target. To monitor the progress, the researchers used different systems of record-keeping and assessment techniques. Some of the researchers participated in class activities although many acted only as plain observers. After the conduct of the research within the aforesaid number of weeks, the researchers came up with their findings on the study. First, the researchers discovered that it is important to make the children understand the concept of target-setting because many of them had no clear idea of the concept which can be done by making the language used friendlier to them. Also, there is a need to restructure the program originally set by the QCA to make them workable. There is a need for example, to make targets achievable by breaking them down to shorter term targets because an achievable target means greater impetus to the children. To illustrate this point is the case of the target-setting of writing in a formal style expressed in the following manner: “Adopt the appropriate formal tone in report or argumentative writing, by the use of grammatical constructions such as third person, passive voice, conditional clauses.” In their argumentative essays, the children used language that were more appropriate in spoken language rather than in formal writing until after it was explained to them how formal writing should be done. Thus, the original target was pared down to a more understandable and workable manner: “Adopt the appropriate formal tone in argumentative writing, by the use of grammatical constructions such as conditionals.” Secondly, the research revealed several difficulties with the management of the target-setting process with respect to the following: the time constraints, and; the assessment of the actual progress of the children. The school teachers felt that it was not possible to meet the objectives of the target-setting as a tool in the very limited span of time that was allotted for the program. In addition, there was difficulty in accurately assessing the actual progress of each child. An illustration given was one target-setting objective: “Use skimming, scanning and note-making to identify and present the gist or key points in texts.” The difficulty with this objective was that it is impossible to assess the children’s progress with respect to scanning and skimming techniques as these are mental processes. The advantage of using the case study method of research in this case is that it allowed the researchers to closely monitor the children and thus, identify the weaknesses of the learning tool as they were actually being implemented on school children. By focusing on selected children for a definite period of time, the researchers were able to pinpoint exactly the difficulties that the children encountered in applying the learning tool. For instance, it was discovered by the researchers that the language used by the QAS in the program was too broad and complicated that it hindered the progress of the children as many of them find it difficult not only to understand but apply them all at once. The researchers recommended making these objectives simpler and achievable by the children to give them more impetus. The disadvantage however of using case study in this case is that because of time constraints as well as sampling limitations, it is impossible to imagine that the six children in each 22 schools in the Liverpool area assessed in a mere span of ten weeks can be made representative of the school children of the entire country so that it can be fairly assumed that the impact of target-setting as a learning tool on the said schoolchildren is applicable to all the school children in the entire United Kingdom using target-setting as a learning tool. The sample area and the sample subjects were comparatively too minuscule to reach a conclusion that the difficulties and issues in the implementation of the learning tool as observed in six children of each of the 22 schools in Liverpool are likewise applicable to all of the schoolchildren in all schools of the country. This is significant considering that the aim here is to research on the impact of target-setting as a learning tool and confining the study to a small sample of the population benefiting from the same program will not justify a finding that can be made applicable as a rule. These same observations are echoed in the book Development Through Life. According to it, the strength of the case study as a research method lies in the fact it allows for the illustration of the complexity and uniqueness of the subject as the method involves a closer look and observation of the specifics of the subjects. Whilst studies carried out with larger samples provide general principles, case studies “provide concrete examples of how these principles play out in the lives of specific individuals or groups. Some cases give the details of an experience that is rare and might not be captured in a large-scale study. [...] Although case studies cannot provide the basis of broad generalizations, they can provide specific examples of instances where a broad generalization does not hold” (Newman & Newman 26). The primary objection against the same research method is that it is, according to some, unscientific. The basis for this charge is the fact that as can be gleaned by the research subject of this article, it is not representative of the entirety of the concerned population but rather a mere small sample of it. There is therefore, a built-in impediment against making generalizations which implies that the findings of the research could be accurately said to be confined only to the part of the population being studied. Furthermore, case studies can be very subjective and therefore tend to be unreliable. This is because a researcher or researchers who conducted a particular case study may have a different perspective from another person who will conduct a case study on the same subject. To this extent, a case study as a research method is weak. Article 2 The Changing Nature of Assessment in English Primary Classrooms: Findings from the PACE Project 1989-1997 The subject of this article is the impact of the compulsory National Curriculum and its assessment procedures, introduced by the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA) on head teachers, class teachers and pupils at all its stages as studied by the 1989 Primary Assessment, Curriculum and Experience (or PACE). The study undertaken by PACE was partially funded by the Economic and Social Research Fund and was divided into three categories: PACE 1 was implemented at Key Stage 1 (7 year olds), PACE 2 at Key Stage 2 (11nyear olds), and PACE 3 at Key Stage 3 (14 year olds). Involved in the research were 48 schools and the gathering and collection of data periodically from the head teachers and classroom teachers, done each week from 1990 to 1997, or in a span of seven years. Nine out of the 48 schools were also chosen to conduct a more extensive, detailed investigation. Interviews and questionnaires were used to gather information from the teachers in the 48 schools whilst observation and interviews were employed for both teachers and students in the nine schools. In the latter case, the researchers focused on a group of six children in each of the schools. It is obvious that the head and classroom teachers were included in the research because it is them who were tasked by law to make the assessments on the primary pupils. The importance here is to find out the teachers’ experience and difficulties in the application of the new assessment methods as well as the shift of the education focus in the level of testing from the standard internal testing to “high stakes external testing” involving the national assessment exam which is the SAT. On the other hand, the pupils are naturally involved because it is them who are the subject of the new curriculum and assessment procedures. Some of the questions that were aimed to be answer by the research were the following: the role of intuitive assessment after the implementation of the new method of assessment; teachers’ confidence in implementing the new assessment; change in curriculum priorities; SAT and issues of equity; pupils’ self-esteem and the overt implementation of new assessment; the role of the changes in the development of new partners, and; the unintended consequences of the new forms of assessment and testing. After the passage of about seven years, the research was concluded and the findings were consolidated. The first finding was that teachers initially find the implementation of new assessment procedure because they were used to the more internal, intuitive type of assessment where the teacher silently gauge the development of the pupils. The new assessment requires that there be a new formal and official way of recording and making assessments of student progress. There was a therefore a transition from the old intuitive way of assessment to the new method which the teachers initially resisted. The differences between the two methods are the old is covert and intuitive and was made by the teachers for the purpose of encouraging their students and were made constantly as the need arises whilst the new method of assessment is overt and explicit, and made because the education regulations require that the teachers make them periodically. The frequency in the new method is periodic and intermittent. And because the new assessments are required to be recorded, it eats up the teacher’s time which should have been used instead for teaching. The reception of the new assessment methods was the most negative to teachers with more experience in teaching. Another finding is that the teachers’ animosity with the new assessment methods waned as they became accustomed to it and had eventually began to develop the expertise and confidence to implement it. As the teachers began to develop to develop the expertise for it, they began to see and acknowledge the new assessment’s advantages and merits. In 1993 and 1994, for example, only 15.2 of the teachers found the new assessment generally positive, 10.9 were neutral, 44.6 were generally negative, and 29.3 had mixed reactions. This perspective greatly changed however in subsequent years. In 1995 and 1996, 34.4 found it generally positive, 14.8 were neutral, a lesser 21.1 found it generally negative, and 28.9 had mixed reactions. Anent the change in curriculum activities brought about by the national assessment exams SAT, the lessons naturally to some extent became SAT-oriented. On the other end of the spectrum are the students who have become exposed to national assessment high-profile exams which were brought in from outside the school and brought out again for marking, which can be a source of tension by both teachers and pupils. SAT testing is also perceived to be unfair for students who are weak but not weak enough to merit a special education. The tension that a SAT testing can bring may affect children of thios kind to perform badly in the assessment exams. As a result, teachers have to some extent make their lessons SAT-oriented and balancing between the standard school curriculum and a SAT-oriented classroom lessons can be axing to them taking into consideration the time constraints. For six years, the researchers asked the students the same question every year: their opinion about the assessment made on their work by their teachers. During the first year of the new assessment implementation, the children had a more positive view of it but as the years passed, the children became less and less positive and more and more positive. The implication is that these students became more aware of exactly what those periodic assessments may mean to their grades and naturally, became more anxious about them. The new assessment also impacted on the children’s self-esteem as statistics gathered by the researchers would show that there was a rise of children who became “worried” about the new assessment as the years passed, especially in years 5 and 6. Other expressions of their feelings were “nervous,” “scared,” “upset,” and the like. To discover the children’s feelings about the SAT testing, the researchers employed the use of comic strips with empty speech bubbles for the children to fill up. They were made to do this part of the research one week before the holding of the SAT and the findings showed that children who are high attainers enjoyed the national assessment exam whilst those low attainers had misgivings about them. The national assessment test also resulted in the marked differentiation between these two groups of students, as those who passed the exams are promoted to the next level and those who did not either stayed behind or demoted to the level below. The research done on this particular subject used different research methods and among them are surveys and questionnaires, and case study. In this case, the survey method was employed with respect to teachers’ views of the new assessment method, the children’s perspective of the said methods. The surveys were done yearly for a period of six years covering the same subjects. The purpose was to show the differences and the variances of the same sample of subjects from one year to the next. From these data collected, inferences are then made. The surveys employed in this study made use of both cross-sectional and longitudinal methods. The difference between them is that in the former the data were collected at the same given time whilst in the latter, the data were collected at different times over a specific span of time. The cross-sectional method was used when the researchers surveyed the opinions of the teachers and the students on the new assessments at the same given time and the longitudinal method was employed when the same students and teachers were questioned and survey for the same opinion at different times in a span of six years. The advantages of the survey method can be determined by the following criteria: “appropriateness of the method to the problem studied; accuracy of measurement; generalizability of the findings; administrative convenience, and; avoidance of ethical or political difficulties in the research process” (Marchall & Rossman 126). The primary advantage with surveys is that they are accurate with respect to the persons who were made subject of the survey and when the problem calls for the quantitative data on a certain problem. In this particular research, for example, the researchers wanted to find out the impact of the new curriculum and its assessment procedures on a given school population of teachers and students. What the researchers did was to conduct a survey which asked teachers from different schools to rate their views of the assessment procedures in 1993-1994. The same question was also asked of the same people the following year and every four years after that. The end result was that there was a double edged implication of the survey used. First, every survey was a cross-sectional one for every survey taken every year but taken all together, the surveys represented a longitudinal method from the first year up to the last year. The disadvantages of surveys are that they are accurate, generalizable, convenient, and easy to administer. There are however, disadvantages of survey as a research method. Surveys are worthless however when the research is aimed at making inquiries which are of complex nature and are not answerable by simple answers like ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Although accurate, they are only accurate with respect to the sample they represented and there is no guarantee that they represent others whose opinions were not included in the survey. What is important therefore before conducting the survey is to make certain that a representative sampling, if that is indeed possible, is taken and that the sample size is big enough. In the case at hand, the teachers subjected to the survey belonged only to one local authority and therefore located in practically the same area and there may not be sufficient drawing of sample. In addition, as to exactly how many teachers were interviewed is not clear but it can be fairly presumed that they were not that many. The same apply to the students as well. Another disadvantage of the method is that they are relatively expensive although they can be conveniently done. This is because of the sampling requirements which require adequate cross-sectioning of samples and a considerable quantity of the sample subjects, which implies the use of more time and effort to reach the subjects. The use of surveys also may pose as an invasion top the privacy of individuals or “produce questionable effects on the respondent or community.” Since the research also focused its attention on a specific group of teachers and students in a particular local authority for a specific period of time, the research methodology necessarily included case study as one of the research methods it used. This is because there are questions that the research wanted to answer which a survey cannot fulfill. These questions are in the nature which called for complicated answers and cannot be fulfilled by a survey. An issue, for example, in the research is the question as to “what are the unintended consequences of the new forms of assessment and testing” cannot be answered by a yes or no and requires an descriptive and exploratory answer which has no place in surveys. As was earlier discussed, the case law method has advantages as well as disadvantages. In this case, the advantage is that it enabled the researchers to answer their inquiries on complex matters whilst the disadvantage is primarily that it is inaccurate and the conclusion drawn from it cannot be made representative of the rest of the population within the same class and situation as the sample population. The difficulties for example, experienced in this research drawn from the answers of teachers in the 40 or so schools with respect to their opinion and experiences as to the unintended consequences of the new assessment method and testing cannot be said to be the same experiences and opinions that other teachers in other schools in other parts of the country have. Adopt the appropriate References Cave, Susan Published. 1999, “Therapeutic Approaches in Psychology.” Routledge, p 9. Cohen, Louis & Manion, Lawrence & Morrison, Keith. 2000, “Research Methods in Education. Routledge,” pp. David,Matthew & Sutton, Carole. 2004, “Social Research: The Basics.” SAGE, p 103. Marshall, Catherine & Rossman, Gretchen B. 2006, “Designing Qualitative Research”. SAGE, 2006, pp. 126-128 Newman, Barbara M. & Newman, Philip R., 2005, “Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach” Thomson Wadsworth, pp. Verma, Gajendra & Mallick, Kanka ebrary, Inc. 1999, “Researching education: perspectives and techniques.” Routledge, pp. Yin, Robert K. 2003, “APPLICATIONS OF CASE STUDY RESEARCH: Applications of Case Study (p 2/ed) Research.” SAGE, pp. 4-5 Walden, Graham R. 1996, Polling and Survey Research Methods, 1935-1979: An Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group, pp Read More