Key Concepts: Research Traditions

Connway & Powell

• Theory - A systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life.
• Hypothesis - There are several definitions of hypothesis.  One general definition is a tentative generalization concerning the relationship between two or more variables of critical interest in the solution of a problem under investigation.
• Variable - Any property of a person, thing, event, setting, and so on that is not fixed.
• Validity - Research is considered valid when its conclusions are true.
• Reliability - Research is considered reliable when its findings are repeatable.

 Eldrege

• Case study - A research tool that describes and analyzes the author's experiences with a process, group, innovation, technology, project, population, program, or organization. It is used to answer how or why events occurred as reported.
• Gap Analysis - A research tool that involves surveys that seek to detect discrepancies, or gaps, between customer expectations of an organization and that organization's ability to deliver on those expectations.

 Patten

• Experimental studies - Researchers give treatments to their subjects and observe to see if there are changes in their subjects' behavior.  
• Nonexperimental studies - Researchers do not give treatments to their subjects, instead they observe their subjects as they naturally exist without experimental intervention. 

Pyrczak

• Purposive sample - A sample in which the researcher has some special interest and is not representative of a larger population (used in qualitative research).
• Random sample - A sample akin to drawing names out of a hat; it is supposed to be representative of the population from which it is drawn (used in quantitative research).

Standards of Reporting

• Significance of Topic - The topic of the manuscript should be significant to the scholarly community in one or more of the following ways: is timely and important; addresses an issue that has been neglected; is intrinsically interesting or edifying; fills a gap in current knowledge; and/or raises significant questions about extant knowledge.
• Standard of Substantiation - This standard of reporting requires the careful selection of various materials (the scholarly literature, archival evidence and documentation, appropriate examples, empirical data collected by the author) for inclusion in the manuscript that support its proffered portrayal or argument. In all cases, the standard of substantiation requires the careful selection of various materials (the scholarly literature, archival evidence and documentation, appropriate examples,
  empirical data collected by the author) for inclusion in the manuscript that support its proffered portrayal or argument.Substantiation is achieved in two general ways, which are not necessarily exclusive: (1) by establishing that the knowledge claims and arguments pertaining to representations and explanations of educational phenomena are warranted, and/or (2) by providing interpretations and portrayals of educational phenomena that are credible, persuasive, and/or effectively interrogatory.

 Williams

• Empiricism - Knowledge can only be based on what can objectively be observed and experienced.
• Paradigm - A set of interrelated assumptions about the social world which provides a philosophical and conceptual framework for the systematic study of that world.
• Methods triangulation - Checking the consistency of findings by using different data-collection methods
• Source triangulation - The cross-checking for consistency of the information derived at different times and from different people.