Topics Covered in this Session

• Definition and Characteristics of Historical Research
• Appropriateness/Limitations

Descriptive Research

Descriptive research can take many forms. Ethnographic and historical research for example are frequently considered variations of descriptive research. Descriptive research involves describing and interpreting events, conditions, or situations of the present. Generally, findings and conclusions only apply to the sample or population studied.

Descriptive research can use qualitative or quantitative methods to describe or interpret a current event, condition, or situation. A case study on the process used by a school district to select a new superintendent can be conducted and would be considered a good example of qualitative descriptive research. On the other hand, many current topics can be approached quantitatively. Data collected via surveys, questionnaires, or test results can be analyzed using statistical techniques and would also be considered quantitative descriptive research. In some cases, qualitative and quantitative research methods are combined or blended. Because of its flexibility and the fact that it deals with current topics, descriptive research is probably the most popular form of research in education today. It is also popular because data can be collected from a wide variety of sources.

Basic characteristics of historical research are:

• It provides a descriptive analysis of a given population or sample. Any inferences are left to the readers.
• Qualitative, quantitative or a combination of both types of data can be presented.
• Hypotheses or broad research questions are used.

Data Sources

• Persons such as teachers, students, parents, administrators, etc.
• Documents such as policy statements, curricular guidelines.
• Records such as student transcripts.

Research Tools

• Structured interviews.
• Structured questionnaires and surveys
• Standardized tests.

Procedural Considerations

• Hypotheses generally not used
• Research questions/Sub-questions generally stated.
• Statistics used tend to be descriptive and show measures of central tendency or measures of spread (dispersion) such as: frequency distributions; mean, median, mode; standard deviation; Chi-square.

Report Presentation

• Reports can use on both qualitative and quantitative presentations.
• Statistical data, if used, is usually in simple descriptive form (i.e. frequencies, mean,
  standard deviations, etc.)