the nature of science education research

7/25/2019 The Nature of Science Education Research

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SchoolScienceReview, December 2002,84(307) 35

Ratcliffe et al. The nature ofscience educationresearch

The nature ofscienceeducationresearch

Mary Ratcliffe, HannahBartholomew, Vicky Hames, Andy

Hind, JohnLeach, RobinMillar andJonathanOsborne

What is science educationresearch? Arange of potentialusers of itsfindings demonstrate differingviews.

ABSTRACTAstudy by theEvidence-basedPractice inScienceEducation (EPSE)ResearchNetwork,explored practitionersviews onthe nature,useand potential ofscience educationresearch.This articlereports on oneaspect ofthis:howteachers and other science educationpractitioners characteriseresearch.Datawerecollectedby individual interview and focusgroups from62 people.Results indicatethatthere is no onecommon or even dominant viewofwhat constitutes science educationresearch

thougha clear purposeandanappropriatemethodology areseenas important criteria.It ishopedthese findings willcontributetothedevelopment of models of effective involvementofteachers inshapingandusingresearch.

As part of the EPSE (Evidence-based Practice in

Science Education) Research Network,we have beenexploring practitionersviews onthe nature,use and

potential ofscience educationresearch. Herewereport

on one aspect ofthis: how teachers and other science

education practitioners characteriseresearch.

These aresomeviews from interviewees in our

study (using pseudonyms throughout):

Ithinktobe honest Im not clear in my own

mindwhat research is.Andthis is why Istarted

tothink,is researchsimply to find facts? ...

theres pureresearch,which is finding facts,almost.Andthentheres appliedresearch, I

suppose,which is tryingto findanswers and

applyingtheanswers tosomesituation,perhaps

witha commercial point.(Peter, examiner)

Researchto me is wherethey sort of havea

hypothesis in mindandthentheyreconsidering

evidenceto either prove or disprove or to find

reasons why.(Ursula, primary teacher)

Investigative feedback.Its got tobean

investigationthat involves feedbackto influencepractice.And ifthats what its for,then its

researchand its educationalresearch, and its

ofuseand not just anacademicprocess.(Ken,

secondary teacher withresearch experience)

How doyou react tothese opinions about the nature

ofscience educationresearch? How, ifat all, doyou

use research evidence? What is the reality and

potential ofresearch evidence in influencingscience

education policy and practice?

Evidence-based practice whatcounts as evidence?

Robin Millars article (pages 1920 inthis SSR), gives

the backgroundtothe EPSE Network and an overview

ofthe idea of evidence-based education. Teachers use

a lot of tacit professional knowledge in day-to-day

routines. This contrasts with knowledge generated by

ed uca tio nal research whi ch is supp ort ed by

documented evidence available inthe public domain.We may draw on awidevariety of knowledge and

evidence in our day-to-day practice as education

practitioners. Teachers, policy makers, curriculum

developers, textbook authors and teacher educators

are all potential influences on others practice and

potential users of research evidence. We set out to

sample perceptions of the researchpolicypractice

interface amongst each of these groups within the

science education community.

The researchpolicypractice relationship is a

complex one and it is not assisted by competing

priorities. Educationresearchers in general have been

perceived as determiningtheir ownresearch agendas,

under pressuretoreport in international journals and


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but morethereasons for their choices.

To augment this interview data, andto probe issues

arising from it in greater detail,wealsoset upthree

focus groups of primary teachers, and three of

secondary teachers. Each group had68 members.

In astructured focus groupsession lasting around 90

minutes,we elicitedtheir views onresearch and its

relevancetotheir practice. In order to accomplishthis

effectively we constructed eight vignettes of real

examples of scien ce education research. These

contained examples ofvarious types including: a c ase

study of motivation al effects based within one

classroom; an exploration of pupils conceptions of

human bodies in a non-educational setting; an

intervention showing differences in GCSE results

between test and control groups. The discussion,

whi ch was audio-recorded, explored teachers

perceptions ofthe extent towhichresearch can hopeto provide general guidelines for practice (cantellus

what works), and their views onwhat counts as

evidence inrelationtotheir everyday practice.

Data analysis

Thework producedthree datasets: aset oftranscripts

of 42 interviews with a range of potentialusers of

research; a set of transcripts of interviews with 20

teachers who had been involvedwithresearch; and a

set of transcripts of6 focus group interviews. As a

teamwe analysed and coded allthetranscripts usinga codingschemethat relatedtothe key issues explored

and allowed for codes emerging fromthe data.

Outcomes

At a general level, in distinguishing between activities

they had classified as research and non-research,

interviewees arguedthat research:

q was donewith a purpose in mind;

q was carried out in a systematic manner (oftenusing controls or comparisons);

q would beusedto inform action;

q may be largescale.

Box 1Interview schedule

1 Doyou thinkthat anythingyou do inyour teaching either intheclassroom or inyour preparation isinfluencedby research?[or for other practitioners,e.g.INSETproviders your practiceas anINSETprovider]

2 You mentionedthings like ...orIsupposeteaching is influencedby things like ...theNationalCurriculum,thetextbooks/schemes ofworkthat you use,the examinationsyllabuses you follow as themain influences on how you teach.Doyou thinkthat theseare influencedby research?

CardSort task

3 We havebeentalkingabout research.It might beusefultoclarify exactly what wearecountingasresearch.Couldyou lookat thesecards, andsay for each ofthemwhether the kind ofthingthat isdescribed onthecard is,inyour view, research.

Canyou say inasentencewhat is thecommon feature ofthe ones you regardas research?What isthecharacteristicthat makes themresearch?What is it about the ones you dont regardas researchthat puts them inthe not researchcategory?

4 Ifyou want to improveyour scienceteaching[practiceas anINSET provider,etc.]insomeway,wherewouldyou goto for ideas or guidance?

Wouldresearch havearoleto play inthis?

Wouldthis bea major role,or arelatively minor one?

5 We havebeentalkingabout improvingscienceteaching.Ifyou or a colleague makea change insomethingyou do, how doyou decide if it is an improvement?

6 What contribution,if any, couldresearch maketo improvingthe overall quality ofschoolscienceeducation?Im not thinking here just ofyour ownteaching, but ofthewholebusiness ofschoolscienceeducation.

7 Where does your knowledge ofresearchcome from?


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The nature ofscience educationresearch Ratcliffe et al.

38 SchoolScienceReview, December 2002,84(307)

For individuals, often just one or two ofthese features

were dominant intheir thinking. In contrast, examples

ofnon-researchwereseen as:q just collecting information;

q part of normal practice;

q usually smallscale.

In general,thoseteachers without research experience

professed limitednotions ofwhat constitutes research,

even given the general comments they made on

purpose and methodology. These generalisations

across all interviews hide interesting and contrasting

perspectives onthese perceived attributes ofresearch.

Thevast majority of interviewees consideredthat

the purpose ofan activity was a major determinant in

deciding whether the activity was research (as

implied in the responses given at the beginning of

this article). Going beyond fact-finding and giving

a focus to the use of collected data were seen as

important inresearch. However,therewere distinct

perspectives as to what the purpose might be. For

most,the expectationthat therewas clear purpose, of

whatever nature,was sufficient; for example:

My understanding ofresearch is that it is

collected or it is undertaken for areason.There

has tobesome kind of focus for it andthere

must beareason for it being done,whether it is

to,you know,to find out what,which flavour of

ice lolly is goingtosellbest intheshops or

whether it is towork out whichteachingmethod,whether oneteaching method is

superior toanother inyou know teaching a

particular group ofchildren or whatever.

(William,teacher withresearch experience)

Its about collecting data and interpretingthat

data andusing it for apurpose.(Anna, INSET

provider)

Im looking for a clear sense of purposeand

that leads to knowing not only why theyre

doing it, but what usearethey goingto make of

the datathat theyve produced.(Ruth, INSET

provider)

However, for some a clear focus on improving

teaching or learningwas important, for example:

Ithink ifthey usethe informationtotry and

improvethesituation,thenIwouldclass it as

research.Ifthey use it try and improvethe

quality ofthetest,or to improvethe quality of

theteaching,to ensurethat pupils learnbetter,

thentheyveusedthe informationtheyve found

out to improvethesituationand it willbe

classedas research.(Michael,secondary

teacher)

Box 2 Activities used inCardSort task

1 Aresearcher is testinga new thinkingskills course. Thecourse is beingtaught toseveralclasses.Thechildrens performance onatest ofthinkingskills is beingcomparedtothat ofseveralcontrolclasses whicharesimilar tothe others, but who have not beentaught thecourse.

2 Agroup ofOFSTEDinspectors is observingteachingand documentation inaschool, andwritinganinspectionreport.

3 QCA arereporting ona KS2 test paper for science/An examinationboard is reporting ona GCSEscience paper,discussingthe performance ofthe pupils on each question.

4 Ateacher is administeringand markingan end-of-topictest, andusingthe datato produceaspreadsheet showing pupil marks on each question,to discuss withcolleagues intheschool/sciencedepartment.

5 AnLEAscienceadviser/inspector is carrying out asurvey to find out about thecomputer facilities andresources inschools/science departments intheauthority.

6 Aresearcher is visitinga classroomtocarry out adetailedstudy oftheactions and discussions oftwogroups of pupils as they carry out ascience investigation,leadingtoa fully-documentedreport on howeach groupwent about thetask.

7 Ateacher is usingaset of questions to evaluate pupilsunderstanding of electric circuits beforeteachingthetopic, andthenusingthesame questions afterwards tosee how they have progressed.


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Well, Iwouldsay that allthese,the ones that

Ivesaidyes to,its for apurpose,i.e.youre

tryingto establishsome good practice or other.

Youretryingtosay,either tryingto improve

your teaching or youretryingto improveyour

resources.(Nancy,teacher withresearchexperience)

I cant seethe purpose ofany researchthat

doesnt actually engagewith enhancing

childrens learning,not educationalresearch,

canyou? (Keith,textbook author)

Some interviewees saw research as requiring a prior

hypothesis:

WhenI amconsideringabout researchI am

looking for somesort of hypothesis that the

researcher is going inwithbut they have got

some ideaofwheretheir research is goingand

that they aretestingthat and in order to

validate it Iwould expect themto haveasimilar

group of pupils ofthesamesort ofagethat they

arecomparingagainst.(Fran,teacher with

research experience)

Others, in contrast, saw research as purposefully

exploringtheunknown:

For meresearch is whenyou havea question

andyou dont know what theanswer is andyou

are going looking for ananswer.But you might

endup finding out that your initial questionwas

wrong. But you certainly dont know whenyou

start out whats goingto happenat the end of it.

(Carol,teacher withresearch experience)

Allthe activities discussed inthe Card Sort involved

gatheringand analysis of data. However,the nature

ofthe data collection and analysis was important for

many in decidingwhether an activity could be classed

as research. Methodological issues were commentedupon by moreteachers with experience ofresearch

and science education practitioners than teachers

without research experience. In many responses there

was an implication that data should be collected

systematically but without a clear discussion ofwhat

constitutes validity andreliability.

Specific methodological attributes alludedto in

decidingwhether an activity was research included:

q Theuse ofcontrols,withcontrols beingseenas

important in giving a scientific basis to theresearch:

It helps ifthere is somesort ofcontrol.It

depends what youre doing ofcourse, but it

helps iftheres somesort ofcontrolto measure

against.Thats not always possible,it depends

onwhat youre doing.(Valerie, curriculum

developer)

q Ma king comparisons betw e en d i ff eren t

populations,treatments, etc.,withthe expectationthat researchundertaken inthis way can provide

evidence for improving practice:

Well,my ownview is that if its research it

shouldcompareasituation,evaluatesome

actiontowhat effect has it had.I canappreciate

that it doesnt havetobethat way, but thats my

own personalview.(Luke,teacher withresearch

experience)

q Thescale andscopeofthe activity,withstudies

with large or multiple populations beingseenas

providing better evidence for transfer of findings:

Ithinkwhy Iwas puttingsome inthecategory

for researchandsome less is because if its

smallscaleand focused on one classroom or

one institutionIsupposeIwas thinking of it

beingtoo localisedto necessarily havean

applicationwhichwhen publishedwould nec-

essarily beusefultoanother school. (George)

q C

ritica

lanalysis as a feature ofrigorous research:

Well, Ithink,its,they are investigativethings in

thetruesense oftheword.Inthat, although

youre going inwith perhaps amodel or a

question,or ahypothesis,or an idea,you are

lookingat whatever it is youre finding,

critically.Andyoure lookingat what it is

youveset out to do, critically.Soyour

presentation,your methodology may,you know,

maybewrong,sothat you may not be

generatingvalidandreliable information,sothat needs tobesomethingthat you areableto

do,willingto do.(James,teacher withresearch

experience)

q Objectivity as a feature ofrigorous research:

Ivealsobeenaware ofthe fact that inwritinga

...report myself, Imay then havebeenrather

moresubjectivethanIwould likeandIwould

never want to hold it upandsay this is a

research paper.Ifwecould,however, beginto

characterisetheir responses andthen putnumericalvalues tothese insomeway or other,

if it became more objectivethenIwouldsay yes

it couldberesearch.(Lawrence, INSET provider)


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In ensuringthat researchwas objective, a few said or

implied that trained educational researchers were

essential for example:

Ifyou just rely onthesort ofstandard question-

naires and interviews giving feedback from

teachers,teachers haveaview about what goes

on intheir classrooms, but its often not the

studentsview and its often not theview ofan

impartial observer andtherefore,ifyou are

tryingto gainaview ofwhat the impact ofsome

new teaching approach,ofsome new

curriculum material,some new resource of one

sort or another,what is happening,whether or

not it is leadingto higher motivation, changed

attitudes, better learning,you know,youve got

to havesomesystematicway ofansweringthatquestion.Andthats research.Andthe people

whoaretrainedto dothat are in higher

education.(Chris, curriculum developer)

However, several, particularly science education

practitioners andteachers withresearch experience,

recognised the potential of small-scale individual

studies as systematicresearch:

It couldbea littlebit ofactionresearch in

schoolandthe extent towhichIwas goingto

placereliance onthese findings would dependvery much on exactly how Idcarried out the

exerciseand how objectiveIreally thought it

was.Imeanthevirtue ofthis ofcourse is that

you couldactually begintocompareyour

methodology andyour findings with national

findings from ....Um,soyep.It couldwellbe

characterisedas research.(Lawrence, INSET

provider)

Iftherewere differences betweenteachers with and

without research experience, it was that thosewith

research experience were more likely to articulate

clear views onthe nature ofresearch and, interestingly,

more preparedto envisageresearchtaking avariety

of forms ranging from individual action-researchto

large-scale studies. However, collection of data,

particularly by a lone individual, was not seen to

constituteresearch by any interviewee. Thus thescope

and purpose ofan activity was important to many.

Of interest are possiblefeatures ofresearchwhich

are notable by their absence. No explicit mentionwas

made of the need for a theoretical framework indiscussing the distinctive features of research. The

closest comment was Jamess (above) inrelationto

critical analysis.

Summary

The interviews gave perceptions ofwhat constitutes

research evidence,resulting, as seen, insome common

concerns about purpose and methodology but with

interesting, and perhaps unresolvable, individualviews and nuances. There appears no one common or

even dominant view of science educationresearch.

Rather different activities are seen as constituting

research providedthey fulfilthe important criteria of

having a clear purpose and an appropriate method-

ology.

Science education practitioners become familiar

with the research methods in science, often during

their undergraduatestudy. Unless they have engaged

in educational research, they may have far lessfamiliarity withsocialscienceresearch methods. We

detected insome interviewees a scientific,that is,

experimental model of research as dominant in

respondingto interview questions. More discussion

with practitioners in professionalsettings about the

variety and purpose ofsocialscienceresearch methods

may assist teacher evaluation ofresearch evidence.

We might ask at this point whether there is a

difference betweenwhat is seen as research andwhat

is seen as goodresearch. The extent towhichreported

research evidence is seen as convincingwas onetopic

explored inthe focus groups.Insummary,for focus

group participants, the research presented in the

vignettes was seen as convincing if it hadresonance

withteachers experience,was viewed as transferable

across different contexts and came fromstudies where

therewas seen to be a clear methodology (usually

involving large samples). More detailed discussion

of the criteria used to judge research evidence as

convincing, andworthy of influencing practice and

policy, is inthe fullreport ofthis project. We hopethat the complete analysis from the EPSE projects

will allow the development of models of effective

involvement ofteachers inshaping andusingresearch.


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Acknowledgements

We arevery gratefulto allthe interviewees for participating. Theworkreported is part of one project (of four)

being carried out by theEvidence-basedPractice inScienceEducation (EPSE)ResearchNetwork,which is

funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the Teaching and Learning

Research Programme (TLRP) (award no. L13925 1003). We are gratefulto ESRC andtothe TLRPsteering

committee for their support.

References

Cordingley, P. (1999) Constructing and critiquingreflective

practice.EducationalActionResearch, 7(2), 183190.

Elliott, J. (2001) Making evidence-based practice

educational.BritishEducationalResearchJournal, 27(5),

555574.

EPSEwebsite:www.york.ac.uk/depts/educ/projs/EPSE

Fitz-Gibbon, C. (2000) Education:realisingthe potential.

InWhat works?Evidence-based policy and practice in

publicservices, ed. Davies, H. T. O., Nutley, S. M. and

Smith, P. C. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Sebba, J. (2000) Astrategic approachtoresearch and

development InWhat works?Evidence-based policy and

practice in publicservices, ed. Davies, H. T. O., Nutley,

S. M. and Smith, P. C. Bristol: The Policy Press.

TTA (1999)www.canteach.gov.uk/community/research/

consortia/annrev99.htm (Accessed22.10.02)

Mary Ratcliffe, University of Southampton, Hannah Bartholomew and Jonathan Osborne, Kings CollegeLondon, Vicky Hames and Robin Millar, University of York, Andy Hind and John Leach, University of Leeds,areall members oftheEPSE ResearchNetwork.

Apiece ofresearchthat influenced me

was oneby MickNott andJerry Wellington (1993)that exploredthe ideaof a nature ofscienceprofile. Although originally written for teachers,this articlesuggestedasimpleway of getting myAccess students toreflect ontheir opinions and experiences of science.I havesinceusedthisquestionnairewith Access students at apoint towards the end oftheir one-year,intensivecourse,

just beforethey leave further educationand progress to higher education.My aims areto encouragethestudents toconsider their image ofscienceseriously,tothink,learnandreflect onthis image, aswellas to providean enjoyablebut thought-provoking experience.Whenused,it always provokesdiscussion,reflectionandthe positive feelingthat they want to go on!

Nott, M.andWellington, J. (1993)Your nature ofscience profile: anactivity for scienceteachers.SSR, 75(270),109112.

DavePickersgill, SheffieldCollege


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the nature of science education research

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