Method in context experiments

Question 1

What are experiments used to investigate?

Answer 1

Labelling theory, classroom interaction, Pupil self concept

Question 2

Practical issues

Answer 2

• Difficult to isolate one variable- Using experiments in a educational setting such as schools may be practically difficult to isolate the independent variable and to control all the other unwanted variables to see if the independent variable. The is because under achievement are often the result of many range of causes- not just one.
• Educational issues not suitable under experimental conditions: Another practical issue when using experiment in education is that some method therefore has limited application.

-Gaining permission- Another further practical issue when using experiments in educational in some schools that the researcher may not be given permission to carry out experiments

Question 3

Ethical issues

Answer 3

Young children- In an educational context such as schools, an experiment may raise ethical problems. For example it may be difficult to obtain consent from young children or children with learning difficulties who may not understand the nature of the experiment.

Psychological harm- There is also the possibility of psychological harm. For example if the labelling process is investigate teachers may experience low self esteem or embarrassment if they are deemed to be prejudiced against certain ethnic or social groups.

Use of deception- One way to avoid the Hawthorne effect is not to tell the teachers or students that they are taking part in an experiment. However, teachers or students may object to taking part and if deception way used , this would mean the researcher is not acting ethically.

Question 4

Theoretical issues

Answer 4

Interpretivists are opposed to laboratory experiments when studying human behaviour such as teachers and students. This is because human behaviour cannot be studied in an artificial setting

Use of deception: One way to avoid the Hawthorn effect is not to tell the teacher or students that they are taking part in an experiment. However, teachers or students may object taking part and if deception was used this would mean the researcher is not acting ethically.

Validity issues- In an educational setting this means the using made up artificial setting would tell us very little about what really goes on in a normal real educational setting. Also it is very unlikely that teacher or students for example would behave as they would normally under experimental conditions which mean the findings will be low in validity.

Reliability issue- In an educational setting it may be difficult to replicate lab and field exactly as the original study because not all school and children are the same. However, it could be argued that schools and students generally have similar features so experiments can to some extent be repeated and yield the same results.