Turning teaching development into research outcomes

Abstract

All research has common features, but research in different fields also has fundamental differences. Significant differences are in the ranges of research methodologies appropriate to be used, and in the nature of appropriate knowledge claims each field seeks to establish. Both of these differences essentially derive from the nature of the questions it is appropriate for the field to seek to answer. The focus of this paper is on, firstly, the nature of research in education and the ways in which it is similar to and different from research in the scientific disciplines, and, secondly, issues important in conducting educational research in ones’ own classroom. An appropriate subtitle would be ‘Conducting research of value in the teaching contexts in which you work’.