Assignment 3 - Lauer Chpaters 3 & 4

Explain the key differences between descriptive and experimental research.

Descriptive research and experimental research are two types of education research; however, they both collect data, but use different designs to obtain their desirable outcomes.

A descriptive research design is simple description, which is collecting data to describe organizations, persons, settings, or phenomena. Comparative descriptive- gives a description and compares two or more groups of participants. Correlational is used to describe the statistical association between two or more variables.

Explain correlational research.

Correlational research is a descriptive research design and is used to describe statistical association between variables. An example would be two different classrooms, teaching the same curriculum, but using two different teaching techniques. The researcher would use the data to predict what technique is more effective, if there is a difference.

Explain the key difference between quantitative and qualitative research.

Quantitative research uses numbers and measurements. Quantitative research the data are narrative descriptions and observations. This type of research uses a more natural and uncontrolled setting. Special methods such as case study and ethnography are use in this research as well.

What is action research?

Action research is different from other education research in its goals and features. This type of research data is collected about current education practice or program and the resulting outcomes. It has a action plan that develops and implements an improvement plan, collects data after changes have been made and ultimately develops the conclusion about the results of the improvement plan.