Education Research and Evaluation: For Policy and Practice?

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Identification of the Research Question
Confirming that Research Design Matches the Research Question
Examining How the Study Was Conducted
Selecting Dual Explanations for the Study
References

Identification of the Research Question

In this article, the researcher was interested in investigating the relevance of high-quality professional development among teachers in improving their teaching capabilities in the modern century. The researcher developed a clear question that guided the entire process of collecting and evaluating data. The following is the research question used in this study.

What does the research say about the kind of professional learning opportunities that improve instruction and student achievement?

The research question not only brings out the primary objective of this research, but it also demonstrates the nature of the study and the sources of data to be used. The researcher has chosen a cause and effect question. It will be looking at how professional learning opportunities for teachers to help in improving instruction and student achievements. The question is descriptive. It focuses on describing how teacher learning can help in improving instruction delivery in a classroom setting.

One can easily understand that the study will rely on existing works of literature instead of relying on primary data from the respondents. The question asks about what research says about this issue. It shows that the mode of study will be a critical analysis of the existing literature to get to know what other scholars have found out about the relationship between professional development of teachers and how they deliver instructions to their students.

Confirming that Research Design Matches the Research Question

According to Burgess (2014), research can only be valid if the research design matches the research question. As demonstrated in the section above, the research question was descriptive. The question seeks for a detailed description of how professional learning among teachers can help them deliver instructions to their students in a better way. In this study, the researcher has chosen descriptive statistics as a way of analyzing data. The design was chosen matches the research questions set.

The design for the study allows the researcher to collect data from secondary sources and provide a descriptive analysis of the phenomenon. According to Lichtman (2011), descriptive statistics helps in explaining why a phenomenon happened the way it did, and what should be done to ensure that negative factors are all eliminated. As shown in the research question, the study seeks to explain this phenomenon using data collected from secondary sources. As Lichtman (2011) says, descriptive statistics are often appropriate in cases where the researcher wants to explain how a phenomenon can lead to a series of events.

In this case, the study will explain how enhancing the knowledge of the teachers will help in improving their delivery of instructions to the clients. It is also clear that in the design chosen, the researcher used a case study. Case studies often help in validating the explanatory data provided (Lichtman, 2011). It helps in demonstrating how a given phenomenon occurred and how it affected a given population. In this article, the researcher used two case studies, one explaining a process that led to failure, and the other a process that led to success. These two extremes provided in the case studies help in understanding how an event can lead to a given outcome.

Examining How the Study Was Conducted

Examining how this study was conducted would help in determining its validity in sporting the claims it makes. Looking at the four key components of the research method may help in understanding how effective the study was. The four components include the participants, the treatment, data collection, and data analysis. As mentioned above, the researcher wholly relied on existing literature. Primary data was not used hence the researcher did not sample any participants. When data has been collected from various sources, the next important step is data treatment.

Data collection was done by gathering information from books, articles, and relevant websites that talk about the issue being investigated in this research project. The author of this article uses case studies to support the information provided in the existing literature. After reviewing other secondary sources and gathering their views about the research topic, the researcher identified two contrasting case studies. Using the same descriptive method, he was able to explain the relevance of teacher training in modern society. In the analysis section, the researcher gave two examples of schools struggling to bring change to their system.

In the first example, the study shows how a school failed to achieve the objective of improving the approach used in teaching algebra (Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009). The issue, as shown in the case, was that the school was trying to implement a new method based on old systems. The curriculum had not been changed, but the team was trying to find a way of teaching algebra differently. They failed. In the second case, the performance of the students improved after the principal and his team decided to have a complete transformation of the teaching method used. The two cases of failure and success help the researcher to answer the research question.

Selecting Dual Explanations for the Study

The research suggests that “providing intensive, content-rich, and collegial learning opportunities for teachers can improve both teaching and student learning,” (Darling-Hammond & Richardson, 2009). It is true that when teachers are offered learning opportunities, then teaching and student learning is improved. Case studies are provided to confirm the claim. It has been demonstrated, through the case study, that Pine Hills Elementary School was improved when the teachers were taken through training and the curriculum changed to be suitable to the new structures.

However, in selecting a dual explanation for the study, it is necessary to determine if other factors could have led to success besides the teacher training. A possible alternative explanation for the success at Pine Hills Elementary School can be the motivation that the teachers get from the principal. As Burgess (2014) notes, one of the reasons why some schools have very poor performance is having a teaching staff that lacks motivation. When the staff lacks motivation, they will not get determined to deliver instructions in the best way possible.

Some will only focus on completing their syllabus without focusing on the quality they offer. The willingness of the lecturer to listen to the demands of the teachers might motivate them to work harder than they were before. The new positive that these teachers have may be reflected in their teaching, resulting in improved performance of the students. The learners may also be possibly pleased by the new spirit of their teachers. They find learning more engaging and effective in the current environment than in the previous environment. That is the possible alternative explanation for the good performance in the school.

References

Burgess, R. (2014). Education Research and Evaluation: For Policy and Practice? New York, NY: Springer.

Darling-Hammond, L., & Richardson, R. (2009). Teacher Learning. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 5(11), 46-53.

Lichtman, M. (2011). Understanding and evaluating qualitative educational research. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

Click Here To Order Now!

Education Research and Evaluation: For Policy and Practice?

Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?

We have qualified writers to help you.

We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.

You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)