SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION PROCEEDS BY STAGES

Becoming more aware of how the scientific process manifests itself every day in both
research and teaching can enhance a teacher’s effectiveness, depth of expertise, and
ability to justify the choice of instructional methods to parents, peers, and administrators.
As in  evaluations of educational programs, the tenets and themes of scientific
research have relevance and application in the classroom. But because there are different
stages of scientific investigation, teachers should take care to use data generated at
each stage in appropriate ways.
For example, some teachers rely on their own observations to make judgments about
the success of educational strategies. A collection of observations leads to some
understanding of the world, but observations have limited value. Scientific observations
must be structured in order to support or reject theories about the causes that underlie
events. Scientists—and teachers—make predictions about causes based on their
structured observations and then use other techniques to test specific outcomes.
In the early stages of investigation, case studies—highly detailed descriptions of
individuals or small groups and the context surrounding them—can be useful. Case studies provide descriptive information about how an educational program operates in a
classroom, for example, descriptions of instructional strategies, amount of time, and
types of materials used in a new vocabulary program. This qualitative design uses a
variety of data collection methods from multiple sources to study a single entity in depth,
over a period of time, and in its context. Case studies lack the comparative information
needed to determine cause-effect relationships, but they can point researchers to
variables that deserve further study and help generate hypotheses. They can be helpful in
developing theories about what is or is not working instructionally.