INVERTEBRADOS SINGULARES DE LA COSTA DE ULÍA

Educational design research methodology is a new and evolving methodology in applied settings (diSessa & Cobb, 2004; Kelly, 2006). This section presents a brief discussion of its origins and aims, and distinguishing characteristics. The relevance of the characteristics is then connected to the specific methodological needs of this study.

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3.4.1.1 Origins and aims.

The term educational design research is used consistently throughout this thesis to refer to the research methodology presented here. The use of educational design research reflects the term devised by McKenney and Reeves (2012) to denote design research in the field of education, as distinct from design research in other fields. Design-based research (Design-Based Research Collective, 2003) is one term among a range of methodological approaches broadly considered to be design research (van den Akker, Gravemeijer, McKenney, & Nieveen, 2006) that share common aims and characteristics (Wang & Hannafin, 2005). Other terms within this collective include “design research” (Cobb, Stephan, McClain, & Gravemeijer, 2001; Collins, Joseph, & Bielaczyc, 2004; Edelson, 2002), “design experiments”, (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992), and “development research” (van den Akker, 1999) (see further discussion in Herrington, McKenney, Reeves, & Oliver, 2007; van den Akker, Gravemeijer, McKenny, & Nieveen, 2006; Wang & Hannafin, 2005).

Educational design research is “a genre of inquiry” (McKenney & Reeves, 2012, p. 7) that move towards “a more intimate definition of learning” (Kelly, 2006, p. 114) where instructional design and research is interdependent (Cobb &

Gravemeijer, 2008). Theoretical research origins lie in multiple disciplines including psychology and sociology, and its design aspects originate in multiple fields such as computer science, engineering and curriculum theory (Sandoval & Bell, 2004). Educational design research in education has its historical roots in the work of Brown (1992) and Collins (1992) and arose from an impetus to study learning differently because there was a perceived need for research to consider both the theories and approaches to learning in context (Collins, Joseph, & Bielaczyc, 2004). The initial motivation was to move away from the “incomplete understanding” that was argued to occur when educational variables are studied in a laboratory or “impoverished” contexts (Brown, 1992, p. 1). Studies outside of the context in which learning takes place create a gap between theory so created and practice that takes place in “messy” classroom contexts (Brown, 1992).

Educational design research is an applied methodology (Barab & Squire, 2004, p. 2) used to explicitly exploit design as a means of understanding

76 between design and research is eliminated (Edelson, 2002). Educational design researchers are considered to be “applied researchers” (Barab & Squire, 2004, p.8) with a principal aim of increasing the relevancy between learning research and learning practice (Reimann, 2011). The aim of research generated outcomes is to either advance or generate learning theory and to develop applied design knowledge that is sharable and impacts on pedagogical practice (Design-Based Research Collective, 2003). The relevance of educational design research to pedagogical practice has led to it being described as socially responsible research (Reeves, 2000). Educational design research was a suitable methodological choice for this study due to the focus of inquiry to understanding the relationship between young children’s knowledge and reasoning and task design in statistical problem solving.

Educational design research focuses on the characteristics of a design that has a specific purpose within a context (McKenney & Reeves, 2012). Data are collected to inform how and why an intervention functioned in a particular context in order to produce theoretical and pedagogical knowledge that is useful to others (Kelly, 2007). Consequently, educational design research engineers an innovative educational environment around particular forms of learning and simultaneously conducts research on the learning (Wang & Hannafin, 2005). The engineered research design aims to facilitate developmental change and investigate the resulting construction of basic conceptual constructs that are occurring (Lesh & Kelly, 2000). For this study, educational design research was a methodology that facilitated the engineering of a classroom environment to stimulate statistical reasoning and enabled the function of the design to be examined.

3.4.1.2 Distinguishing characteristics.

Educational design research differs from most educational research as it does not examine what exists, but what could be in a modified context, and so has an

exploratory aim (Schwartz, Chang, & Martin, 2008). Educational design research

chooses to work in the ‘context of discovery’ rather than the ‘context of verification’ (Schickore & Steinle, 2002 in Kelly, 2006, p.114). As such, it is a valuable and appropriate research approach where a starting point is needed to address an

educational problem where little research or guidelines exist for how to structure and support activities to address the problem (Cobb & Gravemeijer, 2008; Plomp &

77 Nieveen, 2007) as is currently the situation with young children’s statistical

reasoning.

The grounding of the design and implementation of an instructional innovation or artefact in current, explicit theory is a pragmatic aim of educational design research (Burkhardt & Schoenfeld, 2003). The innovation or artefact must be workable, modifiable and transportable to other environments (Gorard & Taylor, 2004) and aim to improve teaching and learning outcomes. Prior research and literature, however, provide the basis for the initial development and design principles of an intervention for studying the phenomena of interest (McKenney & Reeves, 2012; Plomp & Nieveen, 2007). For this study, given existing available research and theoretical understanding, modeling activities using design principles from the Models and Modeling perspective were evaluated as viable instructional innovations for accessing children’s statistical reasoning.

Educational design research assumes that learning is situated in natural

settings and there is a need to understand learning as it occurs naturally (McKenney

& Reeves, 2012). The designed innovations or artefacts that engineer the

environment are a lever for studying contexts and learning in the setting in which they occur (Sandoval, 2004). Research is positioned as being done in rather than on, classrooms (English, 2003a) because context is “central to its conceptual terrain” (Kelly, 2006, p. 113). The aim for educational design research is to deal with messy contextual situations involving multiple variables (Kelly, 2006; Lamberg &

Middleton, 2009). This study’s concern was to research young children in the classroom setting, and educational design research supported this concern.

Educational design research monitors conditions of change, through the identification and scrutiny of the multiplicity and complexity of variables in the environment, some of which may emerge as the research progresses (McKenney & Reeves, 2012). Examining conditions of change provides an opportunity to better understand the systems in play in the context in which they are operating (Barab, 2006). Researchers initiate the design of the artefact or innovation through conjectures about how to support learning in the classroom context that are also based on theoretical conjectures on how learning occurs. Both design and theory are further developed as the iterative nature of the research continues to develop and test

78 the design (English, 2003a; Sandoval, 2004). This was a core area of consideration for this study where the research interest was in changes in learning and the

conditions that support these changes (Lehrer & Schauble, 2004).

Educational design research actively collaborates with practitioners in the activities and stages of the research process (Van den Akker, 1999). This approach requires commitment by the researcher to develop an effective, trusting, working relationship in order to understand the context and to be open to the influence and input of the practitioner in research decisions (McKenney & Reeves, 2012). Effective collaboration with the practitioner is considered to increase the chance of a

successful design and implementation of an intervention that will be relevant and useable but also engage the practitioner in professional development (Plomp, 2007). The importance of the practitioner-researcher relationship also impacted on the participant practitioner selection for the study (section 3.5.2.1, p. 81).

The distinguishing characteristics of educational design research presented in these sections influenced the choice of educational design research as the

methodology for this study. The alignment between educational design research and the study purpose is now addressed.

3.4.2 Educational Design Research and Young Children’s Statistical