Tuesday, August 17 Chapter 13 Educational Research
Vocabulary
1. Population validity: (text pg. 353) generalizability to other individuals.
When researchers look for the population validity of their research, the often must generalize based on characterisitics like race and gender.
2. Ecological validity: (text pg. 355) generalizability to other settings, times, treatments, and measures.
Ecological validity is strong when the results can be generalized to different settings.
3. Hawthorne effect: (text pg. 356) individuals’ realization that they are subjects in a study.
The Hawthorne effect can limit results because the subjects know they are in a study and thus their answers change.
Reflection
After today’s class and completing the article critiques, I gained a new perspective on evaluating research studies. Our class discussed the phrase “research says” or “research believes” a lot over the course of the last four weeks. I agreed with many who said that they don’t really buy into that phrase, but I didn’t really know why. Now I understand after examining the discussion and results section of a few journal articles. In one of my articles, the authors essentially excused away all limitations and conflicting evidence. It made me very skeptical. Yet another article explained very clearly and with supporting evidence why a relationship existed. The difference between the two was astounding. I feel that one of my “take-aways” from this class is that I can help administrators and other teachers interpret data and best practices. When we are making a decision at our school on a policy or something that involves educational research, I feel that I can help make informed decisions and interpret the data.
