Need and Scope of Education Research

 

What is the need and scope of education research?   

Course: Research Methods in Education

Course Code 8604    

Level: B.Ed Solved Assignment

 ANSWER

 Need of Research

The following points will justify the need for educational research.

1.  Rapid Expansion and Democratization of Education. 

The need for education research to improve educational policies and practices is being realized increasingly. Education research has assumed greater urgency because of the very rapid expansion and democratization of education throughout the world during the last decade.

2.  Technological Changes.

The rapid technological changes have brought an increase in educational problems and both laymen and educators have felt that they can no longer depend upon trial and error. No amount of experience gathered and no amount of wisdom collected in the form of casual observations, traditions, or recommendations of groups or individuals can ever promise rapid progress and improvement as is needed all over the world.  Therefore, educationists are constantly searching for effective methods of instruction, more satisfactory techniques of evaluation, richer learning materials, more efficient systems of administration, and better human relations. Just as the sociologists, the anthropologists, and economists are carrying on research, so is the case with the educationists.

3.  New Demands on Education. 

With educational research, it may not be possible to develop new curricula, new teaching methods, and new teaching materials to meet the new demands placed on the educational systems of the world. Robert M.W. Travers in 'An Introduction to Educational Research' has. stated that educational research forms an indispensable basis for any  “national organization of education, especially  as regards curricula, syllabuses, and methods as well as for financing education, for its planning, and for the building of schools.”

4.  Interdisciplinary Approach to  Education. 

Education is a growing science and its foundations are to be explored for a study of the subject as an interdisciplinary approach. It is, therefore, almost imperative to study education in its proper perspective. Philosophy is the cornerstone of the foundation of education and psychology provides the bricks and mortar for laying the foundation of education on a scientific basis. Educational research is thus an indispensable development for its growth. Thus we can hardly afford to think of education in isolation today.

5.  Knowledge Explosion and the  Need for Educational Research. 

The world has witnessed an unprecedented explosion of knowledge. Since education depends on a corpus of knowledge, the need for research arises to study the changes in various disciplines and to make necessary adjustments in educational philosophy, programs, and policies. The means, methods, and machinery of education need to change in the light of a progressive social milieu, and changing economic, political, and social set-up.

6.  Education and Productivity. 

Education and productivity are positively

correlated and education needs planning according to manpower needs which in turn is based on research.

7.  Scarce  Resources and Optimum Development. 

It is through research only that we come to know how best to utilize the available resources for achieving the best results.

8.  Spirit of Research is Needed Everywhere. 

A spirit of inquiry adds to the competence and scholarship of the researcher.

9.  Research is Needed to Keep out of Fixed track. 

Research enables an individual to change his conservative outlook. It keeps us out of fixed track by making us mentally alive.

 

Scope of Research in Education

The importance of educational research in national development is now being increasingly realized all over the world. This is apparent from the educational progress in developing countries, particularly from the fact that education has become more and more effective, dynamic, and purposeful in countries where research has flourished. It is based on research that the function of education has been broadened. Educational research has a great bearing on the role of education in introducing social and economic charges.

Six Major Possibilities of the Utilization of Research Towards National Development

Six major possibilities for the utilization of research toward national development can be identified. They are:

1.  Educational research throws up valuable background data from which the planner can make his own assessment of the prevailing situation, especially of the magnitude, complexity, and ramifications of the problem he has to handle.

2.  Carefully designed analytic studies can illuminate critical areas of policy. The overt and covert dimensions of a given problem emerging in such studies provide the planner with a measure of foresight to deal with them effectively and efficiently.

3.  These studies open up the possibility of testing the validity of the assumptions that must, of necessity, be made by the planner in setting his proximate and ultimate objectives.

4.  They enable the planner to estimate the possible consequences and cost of the different choices available to them in determining the path for the attainment of their goals.

5.  Diagnostic studies suggest where and why particular projects gearing.  Their unattended consequences are also brought to light.

6.  Wide dissemination of educational research findings increases general awareness concerning the situation to be met as well as the policy designed for this purpose. This may enhance the credibility of particular policies and prepare the people for them. It may also help towards building up popular pressures for the reformulation of particular policies or for weeding them out altogether.