Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Role of Educational Research
The research undertaken in educational profession is more than a set of a skills and way of thinking: examining critically the various aspect of your day to day professional work; understanding and formulating, guiding principle that governs a particular procedure; and developing and testing new theory for the enhancement of your practices. “It is a habit of questioning what you do and systematic examination of the observed information to find answer, with the view to instituting appropriate changes for more effective professional services” Kumar, R. (2005). The educational research looks into the matter such as teaching, learning, infrastructure, environment, teachers, students and management within the context of education system. The research in education has been playing many vital role out of which three most important are; add to our knowledge, improve the practices and inform policy debate.
It is difficult for many of the researchers to locate exact sources of information and find authentic data to write literature review.  I am not being reckless to this point either, but thorough understanding of the research finding, is biggest challenges to the researcher, they needs to devote greater portion of time, effort and money looking for valid details from multi resources. Nonetheless “the research add to our knowledge, it need innumerable finding, careful study and in depth exploration on the issues. In the process we need to locate many of the resources like library, internet, interviewing etc… to accumulate data. As a result of encountering many information and series of inner learning through different resources, expand the knowledge of researcher as well as those concern, through presentation, conference etc… on top of that the knowledge on the aspect of our day to day professional work increases its boundary” (Creswell, 2009.). Research can allow us to extend what we know in ways we never conceived. It gives us wide hope and area to explore on new things practically and manually. Research address gaps in knowledge, it can address areas in which little is known, like perhaps the effects of online versus traditional classroom learning.
The influence of research into practicality should undergo long process. It needs lots of sacrifices and hard work to really influence and gains the attention of policy maker and administration. The researchers need to produce valid testimony and legitimate explanation to pursue the authority which would bring beneficiary in the right place, through policies. To do that, are the complications, when researcher cannot cover the depth, breath and length of the problems, as a result they are questioned and even possibly reject their proposal. But on the other side,  the research improves practices and in this sentences I would understand in two ways, research would improve the older practices with new practices and researcher improve the practices over researching skills and methods. Research is done with the problem being raised at high. The problem can be very much related within the context of the education environment. To resolve, researcher come up with multi skills and method to proof necessary evidence and institute appropriate changes for more effective services. Through the data analysis and interpretation, ingredient with necessary reason and proof, I belief they can entice greater influences in improving the earlier practice, which have been monotonous and ineffective, meaning they act as a test to verify previous findings and accordingly illustrate the proposed solution. Since action research start with every day experience and is concern with the development of living knowledge in many ways the process of enquiry is important as specific outcome. Good action research emerges over time in an individual develop skills of inquiry and communities of enquiry develop within community of practices. Research is more than a set of skill, it demand thinking, analyzing, understanding and formulating. It is designed to solve particular existing problems so there is a much larger audience eager to support research that is likely to be profitable or solve problems of immediate concern.  We also must understand how research impacts our decision making.  Most people make decisions without gathered information to back them up.  Only few do.  The problem is most people aren't patient enough to put in the effort.  Research requires time, effort, and sometimes money to have the evidence you need to make a sound decision that's why many avoid it.  The research you do and evidence you gathered will have impact on your future. For that researcher must be equipped with all essential skill and tools to go about successful and productive research.
As the greater authority holds in the hand of policy maker, the researcher should target to convince them and have their faith in our proposal. In doing so, the research base and conclusion needs to be very strong and influential indeed, where upon it is another challenge for researcher. Despite this difficulty, researchers inform policy, “if the research piece is advertised to higher level, with all the appropriate reasons, prove and argument, research in turn will get political commitment and support” (Creswell, 2009.). It adds an important perspective for different learning types and helps revise theory and practice to reflect different student’s needs. With authority in their palm, they raise their voice to debate on the issue. As product of debate and discussion the problem is brought down to the solution. So “Political can influence the practice” by rephrasing, reshaping, reformulating the policy and in turn their policy will influence the practices. These are only a few of the many reasons research is important, particularly to educators. In an increasingly data-driven society, it is vital that educators know how to locate, find, and interpret research on their own. Further, educators need to be able to conduct quality research to examine issues within their own contexts.
Other important roles of educational research, would be obviously understood through the answer for the question why, collectively, do we perform educational research? At first glance the answers seem clear. We want to learn about effective programs and teaching methods to help students learn. We want to discover relationships between variables in educational settings to plan interventions. We want to understand cultural contexts of schools to create schools that embody justice and reduce prejudice and inequality to children.
From the individual researcher’s perspective we investigate topics about which we are curious or passionate; as well, we do research because it is an integral part of the academic role and a central factor in academic promotion. We may sometimes be paid or co-opted to do research in a setting that we did not choose out of personal-professional interest. Individually and collectively, we do educational research as part of a quest for meaning and necessary solution for the problem. Research also allows you to pursue your interests, to learn something new, to hone your problem-solving skills and to challenge yourself in new ways. Working on a faculty-initiated research project gives you the opportunity work closely with a mentor–a faculty member or other experienced researcher.
In conclusion research is very vital to our everyday decision making. Research Papers in Education is not only a vital source of pertinent information for educational researchers, but also required reading for educational policy-makers and planners. It arms you from wrong information and save time and money.  It is important to your success as you take on life's challenges and career decisions making. The research plays vital role in adding, to our knowledge through innumerable finding, careful study and in depth exploration on the issues. It improves older practices with the new practices and researcher improves the practices over researching skills and methods too. On top of that, a researcher informs policy, once research piece is advertised to higher level, with all the appropriate reasons, prove and argument. So the research has become indispensable part, to cater the positive changes in educational field.
 

Reference
Biddix, Patrick,  J. (n.d.). What is Educational Research? Retrieved on 11th April, 2012 from, http://researchrundowns.wordpress.com/intro/whatisedresearch/
Creswell, John, W. (2009, 3rd ed.). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed       methods approach. SAGE Publication ltd: California.
Kumar. (2011). Research Methodology: A Step By Step Guide for Beginners. Retrieved on 11th April, 2012 from, http://books.google.com/books?id=Fn77k1mAl2IC&pg=PA20&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
The Quest for Meaning in Educational Research. (2004). Retrieved on 11th April, 2012 from, http://www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/cho27244j.htm.

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