First, observation.
1. observation: in order to know the truth, we can find the essence and law of a phenomenon.
2. Steps of observation method: the implementation of observation method is divided into the following three steps, one of which is the design of observation research, which can be divided into the following aspects:
(1) Make a general investigation and tentative observation.
The purpose of this step is not to collect materials, but to grasp the basic situation so as to plan the whole observation process correctly. For example, to observe a teacher's teaching work, we should go to school in advance to learn about the teacher's work, students' situation, relevant environment and conditions, and so on. This can be done by talking with teachers and schools and consulting some related materials, such as teaching plans, teaching diaries, students' homework and lectures.
(2) Determine the purpose and center of observation.
According to the characteristics of the research task and research object, what problems should be considered, what materials and conditions are needed, and then make clear provisions. If this provision is not clear, observation cannot be concentrated and the result cannot be in-depth. Don't have a few observation centers, and don't have a wide range. All observations should be made around a center. If you have to observe several centers, then observe them in groups and cooperate with each other.
(3) Determine the observation object
First, determine the overall scope to be observed;
The second is to determine the case object to be observed;
The third is to determine the specific items to be observed. For example, in our spare time, we want to study the business and culture of the graduates of secondary normal schools or junior colleges newly assigned to teach in primary schools, so the overall observation is the new teachers who have worked for one or two years. Within this overall scope, we will decide which primary schools to observe and which teachers in which teaching and research groups to observe. After the specific observation list is determined, the time, place and specific observation items to be observed shall be determined.
(4) make an observation plan
In addition to defining the purpose, center and scope of observation, as well as what problems to understand and what data to collect, the observation plan should also arrange the observation process: observation times, density, duration of each observation, and how to ensure the normality of observation phenomena.
(5) Planning and preparing observation means
Observation means generally include two kinds:
The first is the means to obtain observation data; The first is the means to save observation data.
The main means to obtain observation data is human sensory organs, but sometimes some specially set instruments are needed to help observation, such as observation screens, computer terminal equipment, and more advanced ones such as action reactors. These instruments mainly play two roles: ensuring the objectivity of observation and improving the accuracy of observation.
The human brain is a natural organ for storing data. However, this kind of preservation method, which is related to the observation subject, lacks accuracy and persistence, and cannot realize the objectification of data. Therefore, people first use characters, graphics and other symbols, and then use photography, audio recording, video recording and other technical means to accurately and comprehensively record the instantaneous events, events and feelings in the observation process in a permanent way for repeated observation and analysis of data.
Either way, preparations should be made before the observation, and the functions of the instruments used in the observation should be checked in advance to ensure that there are no obstacles in the use process. For observers, it is necessary to master the basic methods of using instruments and know what to do in observation. A camera is not enough to shoot a class in detail and comprehensively. Observers should prepare several cameras and divide their work in advance. Even the observation records should be designed in advance. Print the items that must be recorded on the recording paper according to a certain format, or agree on some recording symbols to minimize the time of writing words when recording on site.
We take middle school students' classroom behavior records as an example, as shown in Table 5- 1. In the following table, according to the research needs, the researcher lists the behaviors that he thinks students may have in class. However, it is estimated that the list will not be complete, so some space is reserved for observers to use when necessary. If researchers want to ask others to help them observe, they must clearly explain the specific meaning of each project and the handling methods in case of emergencies in advance, and ask them to be familiar with the location of each project. To be on the safe side, you can also do several observation exercises before formal observation to help observers get familiar with the contents of the table; If defects are found in the table, they can be adjusted before formal observation.
(6) stipulate unified standards
In order to increase the objectivity of observation, facilitate the measurement and evaluation of various phenomena, facilitate the quantitative representation of observed phenomena, and enable the observation results to be checked, compared, counted and integrated, it is necessary to consider various factors that may be involved in one's own observation in advance and set a unified standard for each factor. Every time we observe or observe the same phenomenon, different observers should adhere to a unified standard to measure it. This is mainly because different research projects often involve different standards. For example, some involve unit problems, such as how to measure the knowledge quality of students' grades; Some involve definition issues, such as how to identify it as a violation of discipline; Some involve calculation methods, such as how to register and express the frequency of conflicts between students and so on. For similar problems, unified regulations should be made in advance.
(7) Put forward the observation outline paragraph by paragraph.
On the basis of the observation plan, a specific outline should be put forward for each observation or each paragraph (several observations with the same nature and content make up a paragraph), so that the observer can be very clear about the purpose, task and materials to be obtained for each observation. The observation outline can include specific problems to be solved in this observation, and should be put forward after careful consideration on the basis of previous observation. Tables can also be used to help classify statistics.
Observe the actual process, analyze and study, and draw some conclusions. Maybe it can form a research topic.
Second, the survey method:
The same purpose is to know the facts, analyze the facts, draw a conclusion and confirm a problem, so as to improve the work (including improving the research methods) or form a new research topic.
Including questionnaires, interviews, etc. Understand the facts, analyze the situation, study it carefully, draw a conclusion, and find a solution or a plan for further research.
Illustrate the operation process of investigation method with examples:
Main steps of sampling survey
In actual sampling operation, the whole process can be roughly divided into the following steps:
1. Determine the purpose of the investigation (determine the problem and form a hypothesis; Verify the hypothesis through investigation, clarify the problem and draw a conclusion).
2. Determine the sampling population. The sampled population should be consistent with the population (target population) who obtained the information. The conclusion drawn from the sample is applicable to the sample population, and the applicability beyond this range depends on the difference between the sample population and the target population.
3. Determine the data to be collected. Generally, only data related to the purpose of the survey are collected, and long questionnaires will reduce the quality of answers.
4. Select the sampling method. At this time, which unit in the population can basically be decided as an individual.
5. Prepare the sampling box. Such as school directory, student roster, etc.
6. Determine the required accuracy. Because the sampling survey infers the population from the sample, there will be some uncertainty. Generally, relative error or absolute error is required at the probability level.
7. Estimate the sample size and cost.
8. Sampling test, fill in the questionnaire as small as possible, and make some necessary improvements.
9. Organize field investigation. Investigate according to the sampling plan. Check the quality of the questionnaire in time. There should be a solution to the table that does not answer.
10. Analyze the data according to the sampling method used.
1 1. Other analysis methods can be used to compare the same data.
12. Write the investigation report. Preserve population information, which may guide future sampling surveys.
For educational phenomena, it is sometimes difficult to carry out strict probability sampling. The following sampling methods can be considered: select some representative large units (groups) from the population and conduct probability sampling within the groups; Select individuals from small groups who are close to the researcher's impression of the average level of the group; The sample is limited to the accessible part of the population; The samples are randomly selected; The sample consists of people who voluntarily accept the investigation; Wait a minute. However, for the samples obtained in this way, we should choose appropriate data analysis methods, be cautious about the conclusions, and make full use of other information for verification and confirmation. In the study of educational phenomena, the organic combination of researchers' wisdom, experience and sampling technology is the key to obtain good samples.
Third, the test method:
It is to describe or infer some behaviors (including: ability and achievement, personality, interest, motivation, attitude, concept, psychological needs, etc.). ); So as to consider the reconstruction strategy or scheme, or further form a new research topic.
In pedagogy and psychology, measurement is an important method of quantitative research. Its main functions are assessment, diagnosis and prediction. (For example, the "Student Self-study Ability Test (Experiment)" made by teacher XXX is to understand the degree of self-study ability of middle and senior primary school students.
The so-called measurement is the process of expressing the attributes or characteristics of an object or phenomenon with numbers or symbols according to certain laws. Test method is the main content and form of educational psychological measurement.
The objectivity of testing is the index of testing system process quality. The control of testing should have the same meaning for the same object at different times or for different objects at the same time. In order to keep the objectivity of stimulus, we must follow certain procedures to control it. (For example, before taking this test, Mr. Zhou invited me to give a speech at their parents' meeting, in order to eliminate and avoid the influence of human factors, eliminate the randomness and unreality of the test, and realize the identity of evaluation criteria).
The objectivity of inference means that different people's inferences about the same result should be consistent, and the same person should explain the same result at different times.
Fourth, the experience summary method:
This is a common method that teachers can use. Based on the facts provided by educational practice, educational experience summary method is an educational scientific research method, which analyzes and summarizes educational phenomena, excavates existing empirical materials, and raises them to the height of educational theory, so as to better guide new educational practice activities. The key is to be able to see the essence through the phenomenon and find the law in practical experience; So as to improve their teaching better and more reasonably. Summing up educational experience should follow the following basic requirements:
1. Pay attention to the advance of experience (the concept must be updated)
2. It is necessary to comprehensively investigate and summarize the objects and fully occupy the original factual materials; And do have "points" and "faces", and combine points and faces to prevent one-sidedness from generalizing.
3. Be based on educational practice, don't take it for granted, it's worthless.
4. Be good at theoretical analysis
Five, literature method:
Classified reading related literature (including words, graphics, symbols, audio, video and other materials with certain historical value, theoretical value and data value), drawing general conclusions or finding problems and looking for new ideas.
According to the content and nature, there are No.0, No.1, No.2 and No.3. The zero-order literature is the most original material, which has not been published and has been consciously processed. Literature refers to books, papers, investigation reports and other documents that directly record events, research results, new knowledge and new technologies. Secondary literature refers to the processing and sorting of primary literature, including recording its characteristics, extracting its content points, and sorting it into systematic and easy-to-find literature according to certain methods. The three documents are comprehensive research results based on two documents, reference books and many documents.
Six, case study method:
Case study method is an in-depth and concrete research method for a single research object.
The object of a case study can be an individual, a group or an institution. The former is a case study of one or several gifted or poor students, while the latter is a case study of an advanced class or school. Case studies generally make a comprehensive and in-depth investigation and analysis of some typical characteristics of the research object, which is the so-called "dissecting sparrow" method.
In case study, the accumulation of raw data is very important. At the same time, case study not only stays at the level of case study and understanding, but also needs to understand the causal relationship between education and development, put forward some positive educational countermeasures and reform education and teaching methods. You can also form a hypothesis through the study of a case, and then produce a new research topic or teaching reform experiment.
The process of observing or tracking a person, several people, a group, a class, etc. Can be long or short, according to the needs, analysis and summary, through the phenomenon to see the essence, draw regular conclusions, find out the solution to the problem. (The number of case studies is small and the research scale is small; At the same time, case studies are generally conducted in an uncontrolled natural state and should not be completed in a short time. Therefore, case study is especially suitable for teachers' research. Teachers can seize one or two typical students or a class of students and conduct research in combination with teaching and educational practice. For every educator, the research object can always be found in the class, without any special treatment, and will not affect the normal educational activities.
Seven, case study method:
What is a "case"? Chinese and foreign scholars do not have a recognized authoritative definition. It is generally believed that a case is an objective description of a specific phenomenon in real life. Educational cases are typical in educational activities. They can describe, summarize and analyze specific teaching events that reflect some internal laws of education or some teaching ideas and principles. They are usually true stories in class and true records of puzzles encountered in teaching practice. Analyze and study these "real records" to find out the roots of laws or problems, and then seek ways to solve problems or improve work, or form new research topics. In the study of case law, the researcher's own insight is the key.
Basic views on the meaning of the case;
First, all cases are incidents, but not all incidents can be cases. A case in education is first manifested as an event. But an event that can be used as a case must meet the following two basic conditions; First, there must be one or more problems in the incident, and there may be ways to solve these problems. In other words, an event without problems cannot be called a case; Second, this incident should be typical, which can bring people a lot of thinking and bring reference and value to how to deal with the same or similar incidents.
Second, all cases are stories, but not all stories can become cases. The case must tell a story, which is often an interesting story, with some vivid plots and vivid characters. A story as a case should have at least two conditions: first, the story must be a real case, not made up by the writer himself, and a story without real occurrence cannot be used as a case; Second, the story must have a complete plot from beginning to end. The so-called story, which is fragmented and can't give people a sense of wholeness, can't be an example.
Third, all cases are descriptions of a case, but not all case descriptions can become cases.
In addition to meeting the requirements of the above two aspects, the case description should also meet the following conditions:
First, the description of the case should contain certain conflicts; Second, the description of the case should be specific and clear, not a general description of things, nor an abstract summary of the overall characteristics of things; Thirdly, in the description, the case should be placed in a time-space framework, that is, the time and place of the story should be explained; Fourthly, the description of cases should reflect the complexity of education and teaching, and reveal the inner world of characters, such as attitudes, motivations and needs. Fifth, the case description should reflect the specific background of the story. From the above analysis, we can see that an exercise, a difficult problem, an article or other similar case materials can also arouse students' enthusiasm in class, but they cannot be called cases. Since the basis of any case is the fact that an individual or unit faces in the actual situation, if virtual materials and materials without any problems or problems are also included in the camp of the case, the main features of the case will hardly exist.
Structure of the chassis (each complete chassis generally includes the following four parts):
(1) theme and background-each case extracts a distinct theme, which is usually related to the core ideas, common problems and disturbing events in classroom teaching, and should be contemporary and reflect modern educational thoughts and reform spirit.
② Situation description —— The case description should be a literary work or fragment, not a classroom record. No matter how profound the theme is and how complicated the story is, it should be told in an interesting and fascinating way. Case description can't be fabricated, but comes from teachers' real experiences (situational stories, teaching events) and problems they face; Of course, the specific plot should be appropriately adjusted and adapted, because only in this way can we closely focus on the theme and highlight the focus of discussion.
③ Problem discussion —— First, you can design a case discussion worksheet, including the main points of subject knowledge, teaching methods and situational characteristics, as well as the explanation and precautions of the case. Then, some suggestions are put forward for discussion, such as subject knowledge, evaluation of students' learning effect, teaching methods and situations, and expansion.
Interpretation and research-A multi-angle interpretation of the case may include technical analysis of classroom teaching behavior and teachers' after-class reflection. The conclusion of the case study can be developed in this part. The analysis here should return to the discussion of the basic principles of classroom teaching to show the value of the case. Finally, cases can be single or multiple, such as horizontal difference comparison, vertical change and progress, and each case has different functions.
Eight, experimental methods:
1. What is "experimental method"
Generally speaking, this is a research method of thinking before doing (relatively speaking)-"thinking": from the existing theory and experience, some educational ideas and theoretical concepts are formed, that is, "hypothesis" (also known as "hypothesis"); -"Doing": testing the formed hypothesis in active, planned and controlled educational practice. By observing the changes and development of experimental objects, the causal relationship between independent variables and dependent variables is established, and the hypothesis is effectively verified and improved.
2. Characteristics of experimental methods: "test hypothesis" and "control conditions" are common to all experimental methods. However, educational experiments also have the characteristics of ethical principles, limited control and controlled formation (the process is very valuable).
Several meanings of educational experiment: First, the causal relationship between independent variables and dependent variables must be established in educational experiment. Secondly, the research object must be selected scientifically in education and teaching experiments. Thirdly, experimental conditions must be controlled and manipulated in education and teaching experiments. The experiment should be repeatable, that is, not only effective but also reliable (that is, the experimental results obtained after repeated experiments should be roughly the same).
3. What is a "hypothesis"?
The so-called "hypothesis" is to study the causality and regularity of the studied problem in advance according to the factual materials and certain scientific theories.
Make a speculative judgment and hypothetical explanation in advance. The formation of hypothesis is a process of theoretical conception. Generally, it goes through three stages: finding the problem-preliminary hypothesis-forming hypothesis.
4. "Variables" in educational experiments
① Independent variables (also called experimental factors or experimental factors). It is manipulated by the experimenter, and other variables are independently changed by the experimenter. For example, examine the influence of different teaching materials on students' learning. Here, the textbook is the experimental independent variable. Another example is the experiment of building a basic model of "being happy and able to learn" in our school. An experimental factor must have at least two levels (such as two groups, two classes, etc. ) to compare (as mentioned above, there must be at least two textbooks). Otherwise, it cannot constitute an experimental factor.
② Dependent variable. The dependent variable is a hypothetical result variable, a response variable to the independent variable, or "output". It is the effect variable after the experimental variable acts on the experimental object. The experimental dependent variable must be measurable.
③ Irrelevant variables (also called "control variables"). Except for independent variables and dependent variables, all variables that do not need to be studied in an experiment are collectively referred to as irrelevant variables in experimental research, also known as non-experimental factors or irrelevant factors. For example, in the comparative experiment of different teaching materials, all factors that may affect the teaching effect, such as teachers' level, students' original foundation, family education, study time and so on, are irrelevant variables in the experiment.
The control of independent variables is very important: in order to explore the causal relationship and ensure that the change of dependent variables is caused by the change of independent variables, we must exclude the influence of other independent factors, control the independent factors, and keep the other conditions of the experiment consistent except the independent variables to ensure the effectiveness of the experimental research, otherwise the experiment will fail.
5. Experimental operation (it is very important to strictly control the experimental process):-Form hypotheses.
—— To study and formulate a rigorous and scientific experimental scheme (selecting subjects, determining the control group, designing experimental methods and processes, selecting experimental materials and tools, studying irrelevant variables and their control measures, dividing experimental stages, accumulating original program data, and determining the form of results, etc.). ).
-Carry out the experiment as planned.
-Form the periodic report and summary report of the experiment.
-Evaluate and demonstrate experiments.
Of course, the methods of education and scientific research are not just the above. However, the above methods can also be easily used by ordinary teachers.