Without research, no one would think of getting to the Moon or wiping out a
disease. Likewise, one cannot expect reform efforts in education to have significant effects without research-based knowledge to guide them. Scientific research in education can shed light on the increasingly complex and performance-driven U.S. education system. Such research covers a wide range of issues, including teaching second-language learners, measuring achievement and self-concept, the biological and psychological basis of language and cognition, public school finance, and postsecondary and life-long learning outcomes.
· close coordinationbetween researchers and practitioners, interdisciplinary work, and the inter -play between varying forms of education research. It also means a fargreater emphasis on taking stock of the inherent diversity of the educationexperience and its results for different populations of students. In short, itrequires specific attention to the contexts of research more frequently andmore systematically than has been the case for much of the work in edu -cation to date (National Research Council, 1999c).FEATURES OF EDUCATION RESEARCHIn addition to the features of education that influence research, thereare also aspects of education research as a field that help clarify the natureof scientific inquiry in education. A perspective of education research asan enterprise points to some of the infrastructure supports that sustain it,a topic we take up in our consideration of the federal role in supportingeducation research (Chapter 6). Three of these education research charac -teristics
id: f0b3ecea809e819188edaca0780968bf - page: 109
Multiple Disciplinary PerspectivesThe variability and complexity of education are the grist for theacademics disciplinary mill. Multiple scientific disciplines study education
id: a7e3b44756676488f35b8c67314060eb - page: 109
Scientific Research in Education Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
id: f766b89598db5bfa4623aa039ac5f0d8 - page: 109
Economists study the incentive struc-tures of schooling to understand the relationship between interventionsdesigned to change behavior and educational outcomes. Developmentalpsychologists and subject-matter specialists study fundamental processes ofcognition, language, and socialization. Physicists, chemists, and biologistsstudy science curriculum, teaching, and assessment. Organizationalsociologists study systems that are organized to meet education goals.Cultural anthropologists study the character and form of social interactionsthat characterize students formal and informal educational experiences.Political scientists study the implementation of large-scale institutionalchange, like charter schools.The presence of many disciplinary perspectives in education researchhas at least three implications. First, since several disciplinary perspectivesfocus on different parts of the system, there are many legitimate researchframeworks and methods (Howe and
id: 4e996ffed1da0693ec711a9f38e0ef02 - page: 110