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Design-Based Research Offers a Combined Approach to Understanding and Improving Learning
by Joe Savrock

University Park, Pa.—Traditional methods of experimentation in educational research do not always yield the most meaningful results, argue the authors of a newly published article. Design-based research, an innovative concept that combines two broad components—educational research and the implementation of design—addresses the need to better define the nature, methods, and outcomes of learning.

The concept of design-based research is described in an article titled "Design-Based Research: An Emerging Paradigm for Educational Inquiry," recently written by the Design-Based Research Collective and published in the journal Educational Researcher (vol. 32, no. 1). Christopher Hoadley, assistant professor of instructional systems and information sciences and technology at Penn State, was principal investigator for the group. The article questions the overwhelming use of traditional experimentation methods and discusses the advantages offered by the design-based research approach.

Christopher Hoadley

"It’s a basic question these days," said Hoadley, "because the No Child Left Behind Act specifically defines scientific research in education as traditional experimentation only. The article helps suggest methods—or ways—to do more meaningful educational research and questions the value of traditional experiments as the only, or best, way to do research."

In design-based research, the goals of designing learning environments and developing theories are intertwined. Development and research occur through continuous cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and redesign. Learning settings can be rapidly refined in response to ongoing research.

The concept calls for educators and researchers to work in collaboration. "The only ethical way for us to work effectively with teachers is to take the goal of educating their students as seriously as they do," continued Hoadley. "We believe the design-based approach allows us to work like medical practitioners where science doesn’t come at the expense of students—our ‘patients.’" As a result, goals and design constraints are drawn from both the local context and the researcher’s agenda. The researchers seek to refine the theories of learning by designing, studying, and refining rich, theory-based innovations in realistic classroom environments and carefully documenting outcomes.

"Our goal," said Hoadley, "is to rigorously examine not just if learning is happening, but how—and how we can make it happen elsewhere. The approach lets us build models that not only inform theory, but also helps instructional designers, teachers, and students."

The full article is available online at <http://www.aera.net/pubs/er/pdf/vol32_01/AERA320104.pdf>.

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