Educational Design Research

Jan Van den Akker, Koeno Gravemeijer, Susan McKenney, Nienke Nieveen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134155644
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The field of design research has been gaining momentum over the last five years, particularly in educational studies. As papers and articles have grown in number, definition of the domain is now beginning to standardise. This book fulfils a growing need by providing a synthesised assessment of the use of development research in education. It looks at four main elements:

• background information including origins, definitions of development research, description of applications and benefits and risks associated with studies of this kind
• how the approach can serve the design of learning environments and educational technology
• quality assurance - how to safeguard academic rigor while conducting design and development studies
• a synthesis and overview of the topic along with relevant reflections.

Part 1
What and why

Chapter 1
Introducing educational design research

Jan van den Akker, Koeno Gravemeijer, Susan McKenney and Nienke Nieveen

Origins of this book

Design research has been gaining momentum in recent years, particularly in the field of educational studies. This has been evidenced by prominent journal articles (Burkhardt and Schoenfeld 2003), book chapters (Richey et al. 2004), as well as books (van den Akker et al. 1999) and special issues of journals dedicated specifically to the topic (Educational Researcher 32(1), 2003; Journal of the Learning Sciences 13(1), 2004), or to the more general need to revisit research approaches, including design research (Journal of Computing in Higher Education 16(2), 2005).

Definition of the approach is now beginning to solidify, but also to differentiate. As methodological guidelines and promising examples begin to surface with abundance, pruning becomes necessary (Kelly 2004). Dede (2004) as well as Gorard et al. (2004) call for the educational research community to seriously reflect on setting standards that improve the quality of this approach.

This book offers such a reflection. Most of its chapters are revised, updated, and elaborated versions of presentations given at a seminar held in Amsterdam, organized by the Dutch Program Council for Educational Research from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO/PROO). As a funding agency, NWO/PROO is interested in the clarification of what design research entails as well as articulation of quality standards and criteria to judge proposals and evaluate the outcomes of such research. The presentations and discussions during the seminar were very fruitful and stimulating. They provided the impetus to produce this book, which makes the findings available to a wider audience.

Motives for design research

The first and most compelling argument for initiating design research stems from the desire to increase the relevance of research for educational policy and practice. Educational research has long been criticized for its weak link with practice. Those who view educational research as a vehicle to inform improvement tend to take such criticism more seriously than those who argue that studies in the field of education should strive for knowledge in and of itself. Design research can contribute to more practical relevance. By carefully studying progressive approximations of ideal interventions in their target settings, researchers and practitioners construct increasingly workable and effective interventions, with improved articulation of principles that underpin their impact (Collins et al. 2004; van den Akker 1999). If successful in generating findings that are more widely perceived to be relevant and usable, the chances for improving policy are also increased.

A second motive for design research relates to scientific ambitions. Alongside directly practical applications and policy implications, design research aims at developing empirically grounded theories through combined study of both the process of learning and the means that support that process (diSessa and Cobb 2004; Gravemeijer 1994, 1998). Much of the current debate on design research concerns the question of how to justify such theories on the basis of design experiments. As the thrust to better understand learning and instruction in context grows, research must move from simulated or highly favorable settings toward more naturally occurring test beds (Barab and Squire 2004; Brown 1992).

A third motive relates to the aspiration of increasing the robustness of design practice. Many educational designers energetically approach the construction of innovative solutions to emerging educational problems, yet their understanding oftentimes remains implicit in the decisions made and the resulting design. From this perspective, there is a need to extract more explicit learning that can advance subsequent design efforts (Richey and Nelson 1996; Richey et al. 2004; Visscher-Voerman and Gustafson 2004).

About design research

In this book, we use Design research as a common label for a family of related research approaches with internal variations in aims and characteristics. It should be noted, however, that there are also many other labels to be found in literature, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Design studies, Design experiments

• Development/Developmental research

• Formative research, Formative evaluation

• Engineering research.

Clearly, we are dealing with an emerging trend, characterized by a proliferation of terminology and a lack of consensus on definitions (see van den Akker (1999) for a more elaborate overview). While the terminology has yet to become established, it is possible to outline a number of characteristics that apply to most design studies. Building on previous works (Cobb et al. 2003; Kelly 2003; Design-Based Research Collective 2003; Reeves et al. 2005; van den Akker 1999) design research may be characterized as:

• Interventionist: the research aims at designing an intervention in the real world;

• Iterative: the research incorporates a cyclic approach of design, evaluation, and revision;

• Process oriented: a black box model of input–output measurement is avoided, the focus is on understanding and improving interventions;

• Utility oriented: the merit of a design is measured, in part, by its practicality for users in real contexts; and

• Theory oriented: the design is (at least partly) based upon theoretical propositions, and field testing of the design contributes to theory building.

The following broad definition of Barab and Squire (2004) seems to be a generic one that encompasses most variations of educational design research: “a series of approaches, with the intent of producing new theories, artifacts, and practices that account for and potentially impact learning and teaching in naturalistic settings.”

Further clarification of the nature of design research may be helped by a specification of what it is not. The most noteworthy aspect is probably that design researchers do not emphasize isolated variables. While design researchers do focus on specific objects and processes in specific contexts, they try to study those as integral and meaningful phenomena. The context-bound nature of much design research also explains why it usually does not strive toward context-free generalizations.

Inside this book

This book was created to appeal to the rapidly growing international audience of educational researchers who situate their studies in practice. The publication contains four main parts, plus supplemental materials available on the publisher’s website. First, a mixture of substantive information is presented for those interested in learning about the essence of design research. This includes: its origins, applications for this approach, and discussion of benefits and risks associated with studies of this nature. The second part of the book features domain-specific perspectives on design research. Here, examples are given in terms of how this approach can serve the design of learning environments, educational technology, and curriculum. The third part of the book speaks to the issue of quality assurance. Three researchers express their thoughts on how to guard academic rigor while conducting design studies. In the last part of the book, policy implications are offered in broad terms, and specifically in terms of understanding and evaluating design research work. While the book’s supplemental website contains additional information, its primary goal is to provide in-depth examples of high-quality design research. Together, the four book components and website provide an informative and instructive platform for considering the domain of design research in education.

References

Barab, S. and Squire, K. (2004). Design-based research: Putting a stake in the ground. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 1–14.

Brown, A. L. (1992). Design experiments: Theoretical and methodological challenges in creating complex interventions in classroom settings. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2(22), 141–78.

Burkhardt, H. and Schoenfeld, A. (2003). Improving educational research: Toward a more useful, more influential and better-funded enterprise. Educational Researcher, 32(9), 3–14.

Cobb, P., Confrey, J., diSessa, A., Lehrer, R., and Schauble, L. (2003). Design experiments in educational research. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 9–13.

Collins, A., Joseph, D., and Bielaczyc, K. (2004). Design research: Theoretical and methodological issues. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 15–42.

Dede, C. (2004). If design-based research is the answer, what is the question? Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 105–14.

Design-Based Research Collective (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 5–8.

diSessa, A. A. and Cobb, P. (2004). Ontological innovation and the role of theory in design experiments. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 77–103.

Gorard, S., Roberts, K., and Taylor, C. (2004). What kind of creature is a design experiment? British Educational Research Journal, 30(4), 577–90.

Gravemeijer, K. (1994) Developing Realistic Mathematics Education. Utrecht: Cdß Press.

Gravemeijer, K. (1998). Developmental research as a research method. In J. Kilpatrick and A. Sierpinska (eds), Mathematics Education as a Research Dom...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Part 1 What and why
• Part 2 Examples from the field
• Part 3 Quality
• Part 4 Moving ahead
• Index