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The Experimental Tradition

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Book cover International Handbook of Research in Medical Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE,volume 7))

Summary

This chapter examines the experimental tradition in educational research. With it an attempt is made to provide a sense of the background assumptions and everyday details that are involved in the process of experimental research. Of course a chapter cannot be comprehensive and this chapter is not intended to be prescriptive. Rather it is intended to be a guide an approach to thinking about experimental paradigms. Thus issues and examples are selected that are particularly relevant and helpful in the role of an experimental researcher and a teacher.

The chapter is divided into several sections. The first section will spend some time providing a historical and epistemological framework for understanding the tradition of experimental research. The second section will define experimental research in its formal sense but will also provide some feel for the ways in which the formal version of experimental research has been adapted and the implications of those adaptations for altering and limiting the conclusions that can be drawn from the research. The third section pays more attention to the specific steps associated with developing an experimental research study. It will provide a perspective on the development and refinement of a research question discuss the details of selecting (or creating) relevant outcome measures and conceptualizing appropriate comparison groups (control conditions). Then a discussion of the original question will be re-addressed to reflect on its evolution as we have been working on the details. The final section will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of some specific research designs which are commonly used in education.

Before beginning, however, a note on the philosophy of the chapter. The concept of an unbiased opinion is an oxymoron. This is as true in the domain of experimental research as it is anywhere else. Biases are inherent in every aspect of the experimental process including: what question is asked, the method of research used, the types of comparisons made, and the interpretations that arise. The point of this chapter is not to provide efforts to eliminate those biases. This is impossible and therefore a fool’s errand. Rather, the intent is to highlight some ofthe biases, to make them explicit, and to provide some framework for helping the researcher make his or her own decisions about what biases will be acceptable for the intended purpose. Similarly, it is important to realize that no experiment is ideal. There are compromises inherent in every design. Thus, this chapter is not a recipe for developing the “right” research design. Rather the discussion will describe the strengths and weaknesses ofeach design and leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine which combination of strengths and weakness is optimal for his or her currentpurposes. This perspective is not meant to sound cynical or to be discouraging. There is no doubt that experimental research is a powerful and useful tool for expanding and refining knowledge. But like any powerful tool, it must be used with caution, respect, and awareness. It is with this perspective in mind that the following sections are written.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Canada

    Glenn Regehr

Authors
  1. Glenn Regehr
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. McMaster University, Canada

    Geoff R. Norman

  2. University of Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Cees P. M. van der Vleuten  & Diana H. J. M. Dolmans  & 

  3. University of Sheffield, UK

    David I. Newble

  4. Dalhousie University, Canada

    Karen V. Mann

  5. University of Toronto, Canada

    Arthur Rothman

  6. CurryCorp, Canada

    Lynn Curry

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© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Regehr, G. (2002). The Experimental Tradition. In: Norman, G.R., et al. International Handbook of Research in Medical Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0462-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0462-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-3904-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0462-6

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