Educational Research and the

Solution of Practical Problems

STEPHEN M. COREY
What is the relationship between the practical decisions made every day
by school people and the more careful methodology dignified by the
name, "research"? This question is analyzed by Stephen M. Corey, ex
ecutive officer, Horace Mann-Lincoln Institute of School Experimenta
tion, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City.

A GREAT DEAL of educational re

search is conducted by investigators
who feel no personal responsibility for
the application of their findings to the
solution of practical problems. Someone
becomes intrigued with an hypothesis
which may or may not have impor
tant theoretical implications. He pro
ceeds to test the hypothesis, generalize
from his data, and publish a report.
The assumption is that the people who
are faced daily with practical educa
tional problems will study the results of
this research and, as a consequence,
make better decisions.
Because this has been the common
point of view regarding the use of
educational research, people who must
constantly deal with practical problems
have themselves not been disposed to
use a research approach to the solu
tion of their problems. They tend to
think of educational research as the
business of experts and hence beyond
their talents. They consider themselves
as qualified to consume research, but
not to engage in it.
This article attempts to show the
relationship between the way many of
us school people go about making prac
tical decisions and the more careful
478

methodology dignified by the name

"research." The term is usually reserved
to describe only those attempts at prob
lem solving or hypothesis testing which
result in findings in which great confi
dence can be placed. The point will be
made later in this article that there is
only a relative difference between this
"research" and the methodology we
usually employ to cope with our day by
day instructional or administrative
problems. In other words, our casual
and subjective methods of making prac
tical decisions differ from "research"
in degree of precision and eventually
in the degree of confidence we can have
in the actions we take. Any practicing
educator or group of educators can pro
gress, by degrees, from their customary
method of problem solving which
eventuates in actions in which relatively
little confidence should be placed, to a
methodology resulting in actions in
which a higher degree of confidence can
be placed. The assumption is that we
all want greater confidence in the conse
quences of our decisions.
FACULTY MFMBKRS CONDUCT
'A CASUAL INQUIRY
Let's sit in for a moment on a
Educational Leadership

meeting of seven members of a high

school social science department. They
are together lor the lirst time at the
beginning of the year, and the conver
sation goes something like this:
: 1 think we ought to do some
thing about the fact that pupils in
this high school lack dependability.
There were four members of my
American History class last year who
cheated on the final examination.
: I agree. They don't have their
assignments in on time either. When
the assignments do come in, they are
sloppy and irresponsible. Half of
them lie when they give reasons for
absence or handing papers in late.
-: Yes, and you should see some
of the notes I picked up last spring
that my pupils were writing to one
another. A lot of them were just
filthy.
The conversation went on in this
vein for some time. Three or four
members of the department were res
ponsible for most of the talk. There
seemed to be general agreement that the
boys and girls were lacking in depend
ability and in other character traits
that the members of the department
felt were important.
Let's pick up the conversation again.
: I'm sure that if we gave more
emphasis in American History to the
biography of great Americans who
were honest and dependable and
trustworthy, these boys and girls
would see how important these traits
are.
: I think so too. Take Lincoln,
for example. If we could show how
dependable Lincoln was, and the
price he paid to be honestlike the
time he walked a long distance to
May, 1952

correct a mistake he had made in

the storethese kids would learn
some good lessons.
: We ought to emphasize other
biographies too. Take Washington.
He was known for telling the truth.
If we were to emphasize the biog
raphy of great Americans and the
children were to see how important
these good character traits are, they
would act differently.
These commentsand there were
more like themimplied that several
members of the department were will
ing to hypothesize that if there were
more emphasis on the teaching of biog
raphy in American History, the boys
and girls would improve their char
acters. Of course, no one used the word
"hypothesize."
The conversation went on:
: I think we're in agreement about
this emphasis upon biography. Is
there anything specific we can do
about it?
: Well, let's just put more stress on
biography. Let's see if we can find
some biographical novels or use some
motion pictures that will emphasi/e
the dependability and honesty of
great Americans.
: I think I'll try that. Every chance
I get I'll talk about some of the in
timate biographical episodes in the
lives of Washington or Jefferson or
Lincoln or Theodore Roosevelt or
Woodrow Wilson to try to make the
importance of dependability and
honesty more vital.
: Let's be sure to spend some time
next spring taking a look at what
we've done to see whether or not this
emphasis on biography has had any
effect.
479

These final remarks represented the

i OIK lusimis the members of this de
partment leached regarding a test ot
their "hypothesis" that emphasis upon
the biography of famous Americans
would improve the character of the
boys and girls. Someone suggested that
.mother look be taken at the situation
in the spring to see what the conse
quences of this emphasis might be.
Let's assume that biography was
stressed by the teachers in various de
grees throughout a year, and now there
is a final departmental meeting. In this
meeting many things have been taken
care of, such as the quality of the ex
aminations used and the distribution of
grades, and then someone says:
: We've talked several times this
year about our emphasis upon the
biographical method. Does any one
have any opinion as to whether or
not this has had an effect upon the
dependability or honesty of the boys
and girls?
: I'm not sure, but a lot of them
did seem to be interested whenever
attention was paid to biography.
: I don't know whether it has made
any difference or not. My pupils
seemed interested, too, but I didn't
notice any difference really in their
dependability when it came to hand
ing in papers or to preparation for
examinations.
This conversation went on for a
while, and there seemed to be agree
ment that the method had worked
fairly well. The conversation was
summed up by the chairman of the de
partment:
: Well, let's try it again. I think
there's everything to gain and noth
ing to lose. Maybe we can get the
480

librarian to buy more good historical

novels that emphasi/e the fine char
acteristics ol outstanding Americans.
ANALYSIS 01- mi. INQUIRY
These discussions by the members of
this social science department are illus
trative of the way many educational
decisions are made and actions taken.
In the course of what they did these
teachers paid at least some attention to
all of the questions that must be con
sidered if the problem solving is to be
dignified by the name "research." The
quality of their consideration of these
questions, however, was of a subjective,
impressionistic, non-evidential nature,
as we will try to show.
Definition of the Problem
No specific p roblem was identified.
Members of the faculty talked about a
big problem area. They were worried
because the boys and girls did not come
up to standards that the teachers ex
pected in connection with dependabil
ity, conscientiousness, honesty, or gen
eral moral behavior. There was no at
tempt to delimit this broad problem
area. Many subjective impressions were
expressed about cheating and similar
matters, but no one suggested that facts
be procured to see how much cheating
took place and under what circum
stances. Nobody seemed to be interested
in establishing a bench mark that
would make it possible to find out
whether or not improvement in char
acter occurred as a result of emphasis
upon the biographical method.
Hypothesizing
The word "hypothesizing" is being
used to describe a prediction that if
Educational Leadership

something is done certain consequences

would follow. In this case, the "some
thing to be done" involved giving more
emphasis to the biographical method.
The predicted consequences were gen
eral improvement in the character and
dependability and honesty of the boys'
and girls. The hypothesis was in a
vague and general form. No considera
tion was given to alternative actions
that might represent even better ways
of improving character. NT o one seemed
to be familiar with attempts that had
been made elsewhere to teach social
studies so as to improve character,
Design of the Test
You will recall that somebody said,
"Well, let's put more emphasis upon
biographies this year." This in a sense
was the group's conception of an "ex
perimental design" to test its hypothesis.
It was a casual, unrigoi ous, offhand sort
of design. There was little discussion of
what the various teachers meant by "em
phasis upon the biographical method,"
or the amount of emphasis that each
would give to this method or the vari
ous ways in which emphasis upon the
biographical method might be effected.
There was no attempt to control this
treatment in respect to reading or
lecturing or looking at motion pic
tures. There was no agreement on the
biographies that would be used.
Evidence
At the autumn meeting, when the
decision was reached to ernphasi/e the
biographical method, someone said,
"Let's be sure to take another look at
this matter next spring to see what has
happened." This statement implied a
low degree of awareness of the iniMay, 1952

portance of objective evidence if the

consequences of an experiment are to
be examined to find out whether or not
the actions taken led to the conse
quences anticipated. No one suggested
that any methods be employed to find
out rather objectively whether or not
honesty or dependability or general
morality had been changed. Depend
ence was placed entirely upon casual
recollection and subjective opinion.
Generalizing

-,

At the spring meeting a few minutes

were devoted to taking a backward look
at what had been done, and what the
consequences seemed to be. Some teach
ers had one opinion, and some teachers
another. There seemed to be agreement
that the plan had worked rather well.
This generali/ation led to the decision
that, with a few modifications, the same
emphasis on biographies should be
tried again next year.
The "methodology" these social
studies teachers employed as they went
a lion t coping with a problem that con
cerned most of them was not unique.
They did what most operating groups
of teachers or other kinds of school peo
ple do when they attack practical, con
crete problems.
A MORK Snr.NTiFic APPROACH
TO A PROBLEM AREA
To provide some contrast, let's take
a look at another group of high school
social science teachers who were faced
with a similar problem. 1 They, however,
went about tackling it in a way that was
i Sec: Banks. Trcssa. Parley. Edgar S.. Powers,
Osc;ir. Vandcniiecr. Floyd, \Valdorf. Robert,
and Corey. Stephen M. "We Tested Some Be
liefs about tbc Biographical Method," The
Sc/iool Review, M arch, 1951, p. 157-163.
481

more sophisticated in respect to re

search methodology.
The Problem

These teachers, too, were concerned

in general with the character of their
pupils. There was quite a bit of talk
about dishonesty and lack of dependa
bility, and about other aspects of mo
rality.
Several members of the group,
however, realized that they were talk
ing about a problem area and not a
problem sufficiently specific to do some
thing about. After a great deal of dis
cussion, they agreed to use, as a criterion
of character, peer judgments within the
various class groups. The traits they
would concentrate on would be de
termination, honesty, stick-to-itiveness,
leadership, and hard work. These char
acteristics were mentioned most fre
quently by pupils when they listed the
outstandingly desirable characteristics
of those Americans who, they believed,
had made significant contributions to
the history of their country.
This "definition" still left the prob
lem a broad one. Some additional pre
cision resulted when the group decided
to find out something about the pres
ent status of the "character" situation
by getting sociometric judgments from
the youngsters which would establish a
"reputation" bench mark.
This group's attempts to get some evi
dence about its problem and to define
it somewhat more precisely is in con
siderable contrast to what was done by
the first group of social studies teachers.
This second group took several steps in
the direction of the kind of method
ology which characterizes educational
"research."
482

Hypothesizing

These teachers, too, were more rig

orous in their hypothesizing. Without
going into any detail as to the deriva
tion of their predictions regarding the
consequences of a "biographical" em
phasis, these three hypotheses were
agreed upon:
A substantial, positive relationship
will exist between scores measuring in
formation pupils have learned about
famous Americans and the extent to
which these same persons are admired.
The degree of admiration for famous
American historical personages will be
appreciably increased as a consequence
of one semester of instruction in Amer
ican .history.
A measurable degree of relationship
will exist between the degree to which
these historical persons are admired and
the reputation the pupils have among
their peers for behaving in a manner
consistent with the traits explaining
this admiration.
Again these "hypotheses" leave much
to be desired if scrutinized from the
point of view of the professional edu
cational researcher. They do, however,
represent substantial improvement over
the casual and careless and unimagina
tive hypothesizing of the first group of
social studies teachers.
Design

These teachers talked for quite a

while about the best way for them to
test their hunch that emphasis upon
the biography of famous Americans
would have a benefu ial effect upon the
characteras definedof their pupils.
In general the design they agreed upon
involved, first, trying to find out how
Educational Leadership

much boys and girls knew about fa

mous Americans, the extent to which
these Americans were admired, and the
reputations of the youngsters, a t the be
ginning of the year. They then agreed
to introduce to all American history
classes certain readings that stressed the
character of famous Americans. They
also selected a limited number of mo
tion pictures that all boys and girls
would see. Each member of the staff
agreed, too, to incorporate in his teach
ing, and whenever he could, episodes
and incidents from the lives of famous
Americans. The plan then was to re
peat the sociometric, information and
"admiration" tests at the end of the
year and compare "before and after"
scores. This would enable the teachers
to find out how much the boys and girls
had learned, the extent to which their
admiration for famous Americans had
changed, and the extent to which their
reputation among their peers for the
traits agreed upon had been affected.
Again this design was far from pre
cise. There was no real agreement
among the teachers regarding the time
that would be spent emphasizing biog
raphy or the teaching methodology that
would be employed. No attempts were
made to get evidence on a control
group. But, be these limitations as evi
dent as they may be, the difference be
tween this design and the design of the
first group of social studies teachers
represents substantial movement from
subjective, casual, non-scientific inquiry
toward careful, thoughtful, and "re
search" methodology.
Evidence

One major indication of the metho

dological sophistication of the second
May, 1952

group of social studies teachers was

their attempt, all along the line, to get
evidenceto get facts. First, they pro
cured some rather reliable and objective
evidence as to the status of the boys
and girls in respect to a number of
factors at the beginning of the year.
These attempts at evidence collecting
were repeated again in June. There was
much less dependence upon casual, sub
jective recall. It is true that the instru
ments used to get evidence were of
limited reliability. Apart from consid
ering the "face" validity of these instru
ments, little was done to determine the
extent to which they really measured
what the teachers wanted to measure.
But even with these limitations, the
realization that facts were essential to
the definition and solution of their
problem was a long step forward.
4

Generalizing

At a final departmental meeting at

the end of the year, when the data
were in, these teachers took a look at
them. They got help from someone who
understood statistics and could counsel
them in the interpretations. They
reached these conclusions:
The possession by our pupils of in
formation about historical characters
has little relationship to their admira
tion of these characters.
One semester of our instruction in
American History with emphasis on bi
ographies does not measurably increase
the extent to which boys and girls ad
mire famous Americans.
There is no relationship between the
extent to which our boys and girls ad
mire famous Americans and the repu
tations they have among their peers in
483

respect to the traits that explain their

admirations.
These conclusions were rather devas
tating. Admittedly they were based
upon measuring instruments and a de
sign that left much to be desired. But,
as these teachers said, these conclusions
\\ere based upon better evidence and a
lietter design than had previously been
available to them. Consequently, con
siderable confidence \vas placed in the
conclusions.
RESEARCH Is NOT AN ABSOLUTE
Now let's get back to the major argu
ment of this article. Educational re
search or research of any sort is not an
absolute. The research quality of an
investigation is relative. Excellent re
search involves a method of inquiry
that warrants a high degree of confi
dence in the results of the investigation.
As research departs in quality from
that which warrants high confidence in
results it can depart along any one or
more dimensions. These dimensions are
all inter-related, but problem solving at
any level of methodological sophistica
tion involves problem definition, hy
pothesizing, a design to test the hy
potheses, procuring of evidence, and
generalizing from this evidence. If the
quality of definition, hypothesizing, de

signing, evidence getting and generaliz

ing is high, the research is of excellent
quality. This is another way of stating
that its consequences justify a great
deal of confidence.
One difficulty with most of the writ
ing and talking about educational re
search is the implication that it does
represent an "absolute" in methodology.
The fact that all attempts at problem
solving fall at various points on a con
tinuum ranging from casual, impres
sionistic, and untested inquiry to high
quality research is rarely, if ever, em
phasized. This is regrettable because it
has led teachers and other school peo
ple to value research, but at the same
time to view it as having little bearing
upon the methods they employ to solve
their own problems. The fact is, of
course, that confidence is warranted in
the decisions made by teachers and
other school people in the degree to
which these decisions are based on
problem solving methods that are
closely analogous to those used by the
professional educational investigator,
and no one has a corner on these
methods. They can best be learned by
practicing them. To refrain from try
ing because of lack of skill precludes
improvement, and improvement is what
counts.

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