CHAPTER 1
USING RESEARCH EVIDENCE TO IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE
TEACHING ACTIVITIES FOR CHAPTER 1
Activity 1. The nature of research.
Students will enter your class with pre-existing ideas about what research is. You can have students share their
ideas about the characteristics of research in small groups, with one student serving as a reporter. Ask questions
like, “How would you define research?” or “When you hear the word “research,” what comes to your mind?” You
can have each reporter state aloud the group’s ideas about research, noting overlap across groups. Then you can
compare these ideas with the list of four fundamental characteristics of research described on pages 12–13 of the
textbook.
Activity 2. How research is relevant to problems of practice.
It’s important for students to realize that (1) education has many problems and that (2) research can contribute to
their solution. As a classroom activity, you can have students think of problems in education that they are aware of.
Then give students time to think of research studies that could be done to shed light on these problems.
As a homework assignment, you can have students look through newspapers and educational newsletters, such
as the ASCD SmartBrief, for an example of a report of a research study (in education or perhaps another profession)
that yielded findings relevant to educational practice. Students can describe the report, its findings, and its
implications for practice in a brief paper.
Activity 3. What are the four purposes of research?
In Chapter 1, we describe the four purposes of research as description, prediction, identification of the effects of an
intervention, and explanation. To help students understand these purposes and how they differ, you can give them a
problem of practice and ask them to think how research studies serving each purpose can shed light on it. If you use
small groups, each small group (or several small groups) can generate ideas about a study that has one of these
purposes. Then have group reporters share these ideas with the total class.
MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST ITEMS FOR CHAPTER 1
1. Research findings increasingly are
a. directly influencing educators to improve their practices.
b. shaping decision-making at the school-district level.
c. shaping national legislation about education.
d. so promising that educators are pressing for much more federal funding for educational
research.
2. The Cochrane Collaboration reviews research on
a. interventions to improve educational practice.
b. interventions to improve medical practice.
c. interventions to help educators improve their instruction.
d. relationships between personality factors and teaching styles.
3. Research traditionally has had little influence on educational practice because
a. teachers do not enter the profession primarily to put research into practice.
b. educators typically do not receive intensive training in research.
c. teacher expertise is not systemically recorded and submitted to empirical tests.
d. All of the above.
4. Evidence-based practice in education involves solving problems of practice by
a. integrating research with clinical expertise and value judgments.
b. relying only on published research findings.
c. relying only on research findings validated through personal experience.
d. conducting research in the situation where the problem is located.
5. The No Child Left Behind Act requires that educators
a. review the research literature in their area of practice each school year.
b. teach directly to the content covered in their classroom tests.
c. use research evidence in selecting instructional programs to help students improve their
achievement.
d. use only instructional programs from a list of programs validated by researchers.
6. The What Works Clearinghouse
a. is a collaborative effort of publishers and researchers working together to improve education.
b. primarily collects and disseminates information about research methodologies appropriate to
problems of practice.
c. publishes original research studies on most problems of practice.
d. provides educators with reviews of research evidence about the effectiveness of
replicable programs to improve student achievement.
7. The primary purpose of basic research in education is to study
a. brain structures and processes.
b. brain-based interventions that can improve student learning
c. structures or processes that underlie the surface manifestations of a problem of practice.
d. whether interventions in other professions can be applied to education.
8. Educators can collaborate with researchers by
a. volunteering as participants in research studies.
b. participating in program evaluations.
c. working together to create sound educational policies.
d. All of the above.
9. All of the following are characteristics of educational research, except for
a. the goal of developing knowledge that is valid.
b. the goal of knowledge that is consistent with current educational practice.
c. the goal of developing knowledge that is generalizable.
d. reliance on empirical data.
10. Descriptive research is particularly good for
a. discovering problems of practice.
b. identifying educators’ actions that lead to positive student outcomes.
c. predicting the effects of a particular intervention.
d. All of the above.
11. Experiments are particularly useful in education because
a. reports of experimental research are easily comprehended.
b. they focus on the effects of interventions.
c. the general public accepts their validity.
d. they can be completed quickly and inexpensively.
12. Theories consist of
a. detailed observations of behavior.
b. principles.
c. constructs and principles that relate the constructs to each other.
d. constructs and principles that do not require inferences from observed behavior.
13. Improvements in the treatment of cardiovascular and pulmonary disease
a. relied almost entirely on applied research.
b. relied heavily on basic research.
c. resulted primarily from descriptive research.
d. resulted primarily from trial-and-error by highly trained physicians.
14. Postmodernists
a. value personal reflection over social science.
b. value social science over personal reflection.
c. believe that research is the best approach for understanding education.
d. believe that research is not better than any other method for understanding education.
15. All of the following are characteristics of scientific research except
a. postmodernism.
b. progressive discourse
c. reliance on replication studies.
d. controls for researcher biases.
16. Match each of the following examples of a research procedure with the characteristic of research that it
illustrates.
___ 1. After conducting classroom observations of students’ competitive behaviors, the two
researchers calculated the percentage of agreement between their behavioral ratings.
___ 2. A researcher who read a report of an experiment on the effectiveness of mentoring for new
teachers now is conducting the same experiment in a different group of school districts.
___ 3. Reviewers of a prospective journal article receive copies of the article from which the names
or other identifying information of the article authors have been removed.
___ 4. The data obtained in the research study failed to support the hypothesis that female students would
have more positive attitudes toward a class designed to decrease math anxiety than male students. The
researchers concluded that the hypothesis had not been supported.
___ 5. Researchers planning to study students’ self-esteem carefully define this concept and how
they will measure it.
a. Creation of concepts and procedures that are shared and publicly accessible
b. Replicability of findings
c. Refutability of knowledge claims
d. Control for researcher errors and biases
17. The belief that reality can be studied objectively is a key feature of
a. postmodernism.
b. interpretivism.
c. positivism.
d. qualitative research.
18. The belief that a unique social reality is constructed by each individual is a key feature of
a. interpretivism.
b. quantitative research.
c. all social science research.
d. basic research.
19. Reflexivity is a process in which researchers
a. engage colleagues in joint reflection about the meaning of their research findings.
b. ask research participants to reflect on the meaning of their research findings.
c. change their methodology as conditions change in the setting that they are studying.
d. focus on themselves as constructors of the social reality that they are studying.
SHORT-ANSWER TEST ITEMS FOR CHAPTER 1
1. Explain the purpose of (a) basic research and (b) applied research, and give an actual or hypothetical example
of how each might contribute to educational practice.
2. Why is personal opinion usually not a sufficient basis for an important educational decision?
3. Describe one way in which (a) researchers and (b) educators differ with respect to their orientation to the quest
for knowledge.
4. What are three key elements of evidence-based practice in education?
5. How do postmodernists view research on human behavior?
CHAPTER 1
USING RESEARCH EVIDENCE TO IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE
Multiple-Choice Test Items
Short-Answer Test Items
