Educational Research

Three types of definition are relevant to scientific inquiry. First, an ostensive definition is any process by which a person is taught to understand a word other than by the use of other words. Ostensive definitions are particularly useful in exploratory research, when concepts are being developed. Second, verbal definitions are used in scientific inquiry to explain concepts in terms of other concepts (Emory, 1993, p. 30). Such definitions involve the use of words of approximately the same level of abstraction to assure that verbal definitions will aid in the understanding of the concept being explained. Third, operational definitions extend the level of abstraction, by defining a concept "in terms of specific testing criteria or operations" (Emory, 1993, p. 31). Such criteria must have empirical referents. Operational definitions also must state what phenomena will be observed and how such observation will be performed.

In scientific inquiry, a proposition is a statement "about concepts which may be judged as true or false if it refers to observable phenomena. When a proposition is formulated for empirical testing we call it a hypothesis" (Emory, 1993, pp. 32-33).

. . .
that the philosophical orientation of historical research is seated in the past. An understanding of past events provides the investigator with the basis for developing a perspective from which to consider current practices and future developments. Strictly speaking, historical research systematically and objectively locates evidence, evaluates that evidence for relevance with respect to the problem at hand, and synthesizes the relevant evidence into factual findings, from which, in turn, are drawn conclusions relative to past performance. These conclusions drawn from the findings of historical research provide the investigator with an enhanced understanding of a problem, procedure, or process. This enhanced understanding forms a basis from which the investigator can both evaluate current events, and plan future actions. Historical research tends to tie together the past, present, and future. The philosophical orientation of historical research, thus, is not solely in the past, present, or the future. It is, rather, directed to the past to develop conclusions, as a means of being better able to understand the present, and of being better prepared to plan for the future. Philosophically, historical research determines wha
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pfaffenberger Patterson, Causal Subjective, Bureau Standards, Straits McAllister, Principles Research, Cohen Manion, Action Limited, Action Available, Hypotheses Formal, Research Design, scholarly research, historical research, research design, formal scholarly, formal scholarly research, 1993 pp, hypothesis testing, feet inches, action scholarly research, quantitative methods, action scholarly, validity reliability, causal scholarly research, bartz 1993 pp, calibrated feet inches,
Approximate Word count = 3338
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Educational Research