This book is about scientific inquiry. Designed for early and mid-career researchers, it is a practical manual for conducting and communicating high-quality research in (mathematics) education. Based on the authors’ extensive experience as researchers, as mentors, and as members of the editorial team for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME), this book directly speaks to researchers and their communities about each phase of the process for conceptualizing, conducting, and communicating high-quality research in (mathematics) education. In the late 2010s, both JRME and Educational Studies in Mathematics celebrated 50 years of publishing high-quality research in mathematics education. Many advances in the field have occurred since the establishment of these journals, and these anniversaries marked a milestone in research in mathematics education. Indeed, fifty years represents a small step for human history but a giant leap for mathematics education. The educational research community in general (and the mathematics education community in particular) has strongly advocated for original research, placing great emphasis on building knowledge and capacity in the field. Because it is an interdisciplinary field, mathematics education has integrated means and methods for scientific inquiry from multiple disciplines. Now that the field is gaining maturity, it is a good time to take a step back and systematically consider how mathematics education researchers can engage in significant, impactful scientific inquiry.
Author(s): James Hiebert, Jinfa Cai, Stephen Hwang, Anne K Morris, Charles Hohensee
Series: Research In Mathematics Education
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2023
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 147
Tags: Research Methods In Education; Research Skills; Mathematics Education
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1: What Is Research, and Why Do People Do It?
Part I. What Is Research?
Creating an Image of Scientific Inquiry
Descriptor 1. Experience Carefully Planned in Advance
Descriptor 2. Observing Something and Trying to Explain Why It Is the Way It Is
Descriptor 3. Updating Everyone’s Thinking in Response to More and Better Information
Doing Scientific Inquiry
Unpacking the Terms Formulating, Testing, and Revising Hypotheses
Learning from Doing Scientific Inquiry
Part II. Why Do Educators Do Research?
Part III. Conducting Research as a Practice of Failing Productively
Part IV. Preview of Chap. 2
Chapter 2: How Do You Formulate (Important) Hypotheses?
Part I. Getting Started
Part II. Paths from a General Interest to an Informed Hypothesis
Beginning with a Prediction If You Have One
Developing a Rationale for Your Predictions
Imagining Testing Your Hypotheses
Cycles of Building Rationales and Planning to Test Your Predictions
Beginning by Asking Questions to Clarify Your Interests
Imagining Answers to Your Questions
Shifting to the Hypothesis Formulation and Testing Path
Cycles of Refining Questions and Predicting Answers
Beginning with a Research Problem
Part III. One Researcher’s Experience Launching a Scientific Inquiry
Part IV. An Illustrative Dialogue
Part V. Is It Always Possible to Formulate Hypotheses?
Can You Always Predict What You Will Find?
The Benefits of Making Predictions Even When They Are Wrong: An Example from the 1970s
Suggestions for What to Do When You Do Not Have Predictions
Should You Always Try to Predict What You Will Find?
Making Your Predictions Explicit Increases Your Chances of Productive Observations
Making Your Predictions Explicit Allows You to Guard Against Biases
Making Your Predictions Explicit Can Help You See What You Did Not Predict
Making Your Predictions Explicit Allows You to Plan in Advance
Making Your Predictions Explicit Allows You to Put Your Rationales in Harm’s Way
Making Your Predictions Explicit Forces You to Organize and Extend Your (and the Field’s) Thinking
The Costs of Not Making Predictions
Part VI. How Do You Formulate Important Hypotheses?
Part VII. Beginning to Write the Research Paper for Your Study
Part VIII. The Heart of Scientific Inquiry
Chapter 3: Building and Using Theoretical Frameworks
Part I. What Are Theoretical Frameworks?
Definitions of Theories
Theoretical Frameworks Are Local Theories
Part II. Why Do You Need Theoretical Frameworks?
Supporting Your Predictions
Crafting Appropriate Methods
Guiding Interpretations of the Data
Showing the Contribution of Your Study
Showing How Your Study Extends What Is Known
Setting the Parameters for Your Contribution
Anchoring the Coherence of Your Study (and Your Evolving Research Paper)
Part III. How Do You Construct a Theoretical Framework for Your Study?
Building a Theoretical Framework in Phases
One Researcher’s Experience Constructing a Theoretical Framework: The Continuing Case of Martha
Constantly Improving Your Framework
Reviewing Published Empirical Evidence
Examining Theories
Focusing on Variables and Mechanisms
How Do You Know When You Have Finished Building Your Theoretical Framework?
Part IV. Refining a Theoretical Framework: A Scholarly Dialogue
Part V. Distinctions Between Rationales, Theoretical Frameworks, and Literature Reviews
Thinking Through a Study
Writing the Evolving Research Paper
Part VI. Moving to Methods
Chapter 4: Crafting the Methods to Test Hypotheses
Part I. What Does It Mean to Test Your Hypotheses?
Part II. What Are the Best Methods for Your Study?
Choosing the Design for Your Study
Experiment
Correlation
Description
Developing Measures and Procedures for Gathering Data
Craft Measures That Produce Data at an Appropriate Grain Size
Develop Your Own Measures or Borrow from Others?
Using Data that Already Exist
Choosing Methods to Analyze Data and Compare with Predictions
Create Coding Rubrics
Determine Intercoder Reliability
Beyond the Three Phases
Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Defining a Unit of Analysis
Ensuring Your Methods Are Fair to All Students
Part III. Crafting the Most Appropriate Methods
Write Out Your Methods
Ask Others
Conduct Pilot Studies
Help Specify Your Predictions
Improve Your Predictions
Refine Your Measures
Test Your Analytic Procedures
Other Purposes of Pilot Studies
Part IV. Writing Your Evolving Research Paper and Revisiting Alignment
Advantages of Writing Your Research Paper While Planning Your Study
Journal Reviewers’ Common Concerns
Chapter 5: Significance of a Study: Revisiting the “So What” Question
Part I. Setting the Groundwork
Part II. Clarifying Importance by Revisiting the Definitions of Key Terms
Significance
Contributions
Contributions Emerge from Revisions to your Hypotheses
Contributions Answer the Question of Generalizability
Contributions Are Assured When Hypotheses Are Significant and Methods Are Appropriate and Aligned
Implications
Implications for Future Research
Implications for Practice
Part III. The Role of Methods in Determining Contributions
Coherence Across the Phases of Scientific Inquiry
Methods Enable Significance to Yield Contributions
Part IV. Special Considerations that Affect a Study’s Contributions
Limitations of a Study
Limitations Due to Unfortunate Choices
Limitations Due to Missing Variables
Dealing with Unexpected Findings
Part V. A Few Suggestions for Structuring Your Discussion Section
Epilogue
Reflecting Back on the Three Phases of Scientific Inquiry
Formulating Hypotheses—Making Predictions and Explaining Why
Testing Hypotheses
Revising Hypotheses
The Challenging Life of an Educational Researcher
References
Index
