Research Methods in Education: An Exploratory Study on ELT Pre-service Teacher Training

Year 2007, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 38 - 58, 01.01.2007

Simla İçmez

Abstract

This study explores the reasons behind the teacher trainees’ choices of research designs for their research projects. More specifically, this study aims at identifying the underlying reasons for the English Language Teaching (ELT) teacher trainees’ tendency to choose experimental design for their research projects from among a diversity of available research designs. To this end, this study was conducted with ELT final year research methods students. The findings point out that L2 teacher trainees find positivistic paradigm, experimental design in particular, more reliable and objective to an extent that the risk of disregarding the classroom context and participants in the research process arises. The findings also point out that quantitative inquiry provides a sense of safety to both the students and the lecturers of the research course. Thus, this research suggests that it is imperative for the teacher training programmes to find ways to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative inquiry, raising student awareness to the value of both methods in educational research to help students become well-prepared teachers-researchers in their professional lives

Keywords

Research methods, educational research, research paradigms

Eğitimde Araştırma Yöntemleri: İngilizce Öğretmenliği Hizmet Öncesi Eğitim Üzerine Bir Çalışma

Abstract

Bu çalışma İngilizce öğretmenliği öğrencilerinin araştırma yöntemleri dersleri için seçtikleri araştırma yöntemlerini neden seçtiklerini araştırmaktadır. Temelde bu çalışma, öğretmen adaylarının , mevcut pek çok araştırma yöntemi arasından, ağırlıklı olarak deney yöntemini seçmelerinin nedenlerini araştırmaktadır. Bu amaçla, araştırma İngilizce öğretmenliği son sınıf araştırma yöntemleri öğrencileri ile yapılmıştır. Bulgular bu öğrencilerin deneysel yöntemi ve pozitif bilim yaklaşımını, sınıf ortamı ve araştırmaya katılan öğrenci ve öğretmenlerin göz ardı edilme riski taşıyacak kadar, nesnel ve geçerli bulduklarını göstermektedir. Bulgular ayrıca, niceliksel araştırma yöntemlerinin hem öğrencilere hem de dersi veren öğretim görevlilerine daha güvenli geldiğini ortaya çıkarmaktadır. Bu nedenle, bu araştırma, meslek yaşamlarında öğretmen ve araştırmacı olarak başarılı olabilmeleri için, eğitim fakültelerinde ve öğretmen yetiştiren programlarda, hem niceliksel hem de niteliksel araştırma yöntemlerinin eğitim alanında yapılan ve yapılacak olan araştırmalar için vazgeçilmez olduğunu araştırma yöntemleri öğrencilerine aktarmanın gerekli olduğunu öne sürmektedir

Keywords

Araştırma yöntemleri, eğitim bilimlerinde araştırma, araştırma paradigmaları

References

• Allwright, D. and Bailey, K. M. 1991. Focus on the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Baker, T. L. 1994. Doing Social Research. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
• Chaudron, C. 1998. Second Language Classrooms: Research on Teaching and Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. 2003. Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research. in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds) The Landscape of Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications. pp. 1-45
• Foucault, M. 1969. Archaeology of Knowledge. Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith. London and New York. Routledge.
• Freire, P. 1974. Education for Critical Consciousness. London: Sheed and Ward
• Freire, P. 1985. The Politics of Education: Culture, Power and Liberation. London: Macmillan.
• Gadamer, 2004. Truth and Method. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
• Greenwood, D. and Levin, M. 2000. Reconstructing the Relationships between Universities and Society through Action Research. in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research. (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications. pp. 85-106.
• Grotjahn, R. 1987. On the methodological basis of introspective methods. in Faerch, C. and Kasper, G. (eds) Introspection in Second Language Research. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. pp.54-81
• Guba, E. G. and Lincoln, Y. S. 2005. Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. (3rd ed.) Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications. pp. 191-213.
• Kincheloe, J. L. and McLaren P. 2003. Rethinking Qualitative Theory and Qualitative Research. in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds) The Landscape of Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications. pp. 433-488.
• Lincoln, Y. S. and Guba, E. G. 2003. Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences. in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds) The Landscape of Qualitative Research: Theories and Issues. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications. pp. 245-291
• Macintyre, C. 2000. The Art of Action Research in the Classroom. London: David Fulton Publishers.
• Merriam, S. B. 1998 Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
• Mertens, D. 2005. (2nd ed.) Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications
• Nunan, D. 1992. Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Peters, M. and Lankshear, C. 1996. Postmodern Counternarratives in Giroux, H. A., Lankshear, C., McLaren, P. and Peters M. (eds.) Counternarratives: Cultural Studies and Cultural Pedagogies in Postmodern Spaces. New York and London: Routledge. pp. 1-40
• Reason, P. and Bradbury, H. (eds.) 2001. Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
• Taylor, S. J. and Bogdan, R. 1998. (3rd ed) Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: A Guidebook and Resource. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
• Torfing, J. 1999. New Theories of Discourse: Laclau, Mouffe, and Žižek. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers
• Van Lier, L. 1988. The Classroom and the Language Learner: Ethnography and Second-Language Classroom Research. London and New York: Longman
• Wallace, M. J. 1998. Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press