Education Research - Facilitation

We know that research in education is done in a very different way from research in exact sciences, and practical engineering. I don't expect education to become an exact science any time soon. But it would be nice to allow education research to become a bit closer to the more rigorous disciplines, and to become a bit more practical - potentially leading to action. I propose that it is possible to create an institution that will systematically address most of the problems plaguing education research. The institution will provide such services and infrastructure to researchers, that will enable them to concentrate on their actual research subject, and not on the logistics around it.

An initial set of such services and infrastructure may contain the following:

Pooling of research-related materials, for easy access

• Pooling research questions
• Pooling existing validated research
• Pooling research requiring validation
• Pooling already-validated questionnaires
• Pooling annotated qualitative research, as a basis for proposing more research

Providing common resources

• Access to lab
• Video recording and transliteration equipment and services
• Translation services, to and from foreign languages

Academic support

• Questionnaire validation service
• Peer review service
• Support in designing the research
• Support in publication
• Matching academic mentors

Logistic support

• Financial support for research deemed “interesting” or useful
• Manpower support - e.g., students or school-kids as research assistants

Matching service

• Match researches with industry players for possible cooperation. For example, if a commercial company is looking into methods of teaching using a certain type of computer software, and a student is interested in research in the same area, a cooperation could be beneficial for both the student and the company, as well as for society in general
• Match researchers with relevant respected figures that will facilitate access to research subjects. For example, an anonymous student may have a hard time convincing a school-master to allow time-consuming interviews of pupils at the school regarding their physics studies. But if the anonymous student came hand-in-hand with a Nobel laureate in physics who is genuinely interested in the research... One might expect a more enthusiastic response from the school-master

Raw data collection

A previous blog entry mentioned difficulties in obtaining data about pupils and their environment: Grades, socioeconomic status, etc. The institute can solve much of that problem by maintaining a database with information about students along many years, to facilitate both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, saving the researchers the bother of collecting the data and the normally prohibitive problem of legal/privacy/ethics issues. These issues will not just go away as soon as the institute addresses them, but the institute will have the focus and resources to resolve each of these problems even before collecting the sensitive information, so by the time a researcher needs such information, it will already be available.

General Public Relations

• Creating an atmosphere among schools, parents, and the media, that is conducive to such research. To maximize the tendency to cooperate
• Encouraging the academia to promote actionable educational research as an important part of an academic career
• Creating an atmosphere where it is ok - and worthy - to research anything, without fear of political incorrectness issues
• Encourage the public to develop an expectation from the education system to function based on research. Brand education as a scientific endeavor

An institution providing such services and infrastructure can be created and supported by many players in society, each with its own advantages and limitations.

The state is a natural source of support for such an initiative, and indeed the US government initiated a body named What Works Clearinghouse, which aims at being "A central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education." That's a very good start and a good source for learning about what works in creating an Education Research Facilitation Institute.

Academia is best positioned to provide an understanding of what difficulties stand in the way of education research. But academia is not very sensitive to how actionable a social-sciences study is. It would take an uncommon cooperation between academics from social sciences and from exact sciences to take a hard look at how education research can be moved towards a more exact culture.

Commercial companies know best the difference between actionable information and merely interesting information. They also have an interest in conducting research and proving their product or service to be great. This, of course can be an incentive for companies to put money into the institute. But it also puts another agenda on the table in addition to finding the scientific truth, which is a disadvantage from the point of view of the institute.

Philanthropists are great potential contributors, since their agenda is more general than that of other players. One can find philanthropic donors who would be interested in advancing a research cause without worrying too much about political implications, academic prestige, or financial implications of the results of a research.

One more, semi-related thought: An interesting effect of involving commercial companies in such an institution, is that these companies work with a different type of time-concept than academia and the state. Commercial companies need results pretty soon after they decided they need them, not next school year, not after a certain publication, and not just before the next elections. This could lead the institute to become more quickly responsive, which can provide an opening for a sense of pedagogic urgency. A very happy side effect.