Basic research methods in pedagogy

Pedagogical reality requires constant study. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of pedagogy for modern society. This is a science that deals with the upbringing and education of future generations of those who become direct members of society, those who will participate in the governance of the country, etc. Therefore, it is important to find effective teaching methods.

As in any science, research is constantly carried out in pedagogy, which includes experiments, observations, etc. Their goal is to obtain new knowledge, confirm the theories or refute them. In particular, research is carried out, which new methods of research in pedagogy.

Getting knowledge of the surrounding pedagogical reality is always subject to certain rules. Often these rules were formed over time, they required the hard work of many well-known teachers. But since then, they have become divided into several main groups.

Separation of methods into main groups

  There are several main groups to which the methods of research in pedagogy share. All of them are aimed at knowing the objective reality. Each science operates its own research methods, they help to extract new knowledge and move forward. In pedagogy there are also such methods, but only they are classified in a different way.

The first group includes traditional pedagogical methods of research in pedagogy. As the name implies, all methods that have been studied for a long time and which have passed into modern science by inheritance are included here. Some of these methods can take hundreds of years, and the period of their origin can relate to the time of Plato, Comenius or Pestelozzi.

What traditional methods of scientific research in pedagogy can be distinguished? Of course, these are observations used in ancient times. Only it has nothing to do with ordinary observation, it is a much more subtle scientific process, before which specific tasks are set, and all the data obtained are subjected to a profound analysis. Other methods are studying the experience and products of student creativity. They will help answer many of the questions facing educators and researchers.

An important method of research, no doubt, is a pedagogical experiment. This is a kind of experience that can be put in pedagogical research. Its main feature and difference from other methods is that it can create and simulate a specific situation that confronts the researcher, while other methods help to only fix the data.

At the heart of any experiment should be a specific theory or hypothesis. This experience is aimed at obtaining information that will help confirm or disprove the theory. This is often deprived of other methods of research in professional pedagogy.

The experiment helps create conditions that are sometimes impossible to obtain in a natural environment. This can lead to some desired result, or vice versa, the results may be negative, but on the basis of this, one can already draw conclusions.

Relatively new are various tests, which also include research methods in pedagogy. Testing began to be used to obtain information in the 80-90 years of the twentieth century. After receiving positive results, they began to spread around the world and are widely used in pedagogy.

Testing helps to make a statistical presentation of changes in the student's performance, about what he achieved and how it affects a particular system. They help express qualitative changes in figures, which helps to better understand how effective even those or other methods of research in pedagogy.