Importance of Research in Education

Ms. Mayurakshi Basu, M.Ed Trainee, Regional Institute of Education (NCERT),

Bhubaneswar, India

ABSTRACT

Research is a scientific and systematic investigation or inquiry especially through

search for new facts in any branch of knowledge. On the other hand education is
regarded as the aggregate of all the processes by which a person develops abilities,
attitudes and other forms of behaviour of practical values in the society in which she or
he lives. The core purpose of this paper is to understand the importance of research in
education. Research is widely regarded as providing benefits to individuals and to
local, regional, national, and international community’s involved in the education
system. The thrust areas of this paper are characteristics, purposes of research in
education, steps involved in research, importance of research in education and lastly
challenges of research in present context.

KEYWORDS: Research, Importance, Challenges, Education.

INTRODUCTION
The term research consists of two words,’ Re’+’Search’. “Re” means again and again
and “Search” means to find out something. Actually research is simply the process of
arriving as dependable solution to a problem through the planned and systematic
collection, analysis and interpretation of a data as revealed by Best, & Kahn (1998).
Boykin (1972) stated that research in the field of education is the more formal,
systematic and intensive process of carrying on a scientific method of analysis.
Research in education primarily aims at systematic investigation of educational
problems and tries to provide possible solutions to those problems. Research in
education has enabled significant progress to be made in curriculum development and
reform, educating learners with difficulties, understanding the individual differences
and preferences and in adapting methods of instruction to the needs of individual
learners.
CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION
Characteristics of research are as follows:

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a) Research is a systematic and critical investigation to a phenomenon embedded in our
society and education system.
b) Research aims at interpreting and explaining a phenomenon logically and
systematically by adopting a scientific method.
d) Research is based on empirical evidences and observable experience and develops
generalizations, principles or theories and is directed towards finding answer to the
questions and solutions to the education related problems.
e) Research in education deals with social, educational, economical and cultural
phenomena related to process, product and system of education and studies human
behaviour and their feelings.
f) Research in education field is carried out on both for discovering new facts and
verification of the old ones and tries to establish casual connection between various
human activities, social institutions and teaching learning process.

PURPOSES OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

a) Research provides answer to questions of what, when, how and why of man, social
life and institutions. The main purpose is to discover various facts and their inter
relationship and to help us to discard distortions and contribute to our understanding of
reality.
b) The another purpose of research is to diagnose different problems prevalent in our
society and education system and to make critical and logical analysis of those
problems. Our society has innumerable problems such as poverty, unemployment,
economic and gender inequality, social stratification etc. and these problems put impact
on our education system. The nature and dimensions of such problems have to be
diagnosed and analyzed. An analysis of problems leads to an identification of
appropriate remedial actions.
c) Research provides first hand information about the nature of social and educational
institutions. This knowledge helps us to control over the social phenomena. Research
also has potential to investigate and assess latest needs and level of advancement.
d) Another important purpose of research is to suggest possible remedial measures and
effective solutions to various problems and challenges. Researchers come up with
innovative and creative strategies and ideas to improve the education system and its
associated components. Researchers can identify the causes of existing evils and
problems and thus it can help in taking appropriate remedial actions.

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STEPS INVOLVED IN RESEARCH
Whatever approach or strategy is followed, the research process can usually be
summarised as follows:
• Identify and formulate the research topic or problem: Select, narrow and
formulate the topic or problem to be studied and conduct preliminary literature
search.
• Literature search and review: Read around the subject to help clarify your
research topic, questions, and methods. Critically review literature to compare
your research with what has already been done, and to give context. This stage
interacts with other stages.
• Research objectives, questions, and hypotheses: Define clear questions
and/or hypotheses.
• Research approach, design, and strategy: Select a research approach and
design that will make it possible to answer research questions and plan the
overall research strategy. Identify the data you want to record and from
whom/where you are going to collect it (sampling).
• Data collection: Collection of primary and secondary data using various tools.
• Data analysis: The data collected are prepared in such a way that they describe
and highlight what was found in the research. Analytical tools are used to
describe the data and measure or explore relationships between the subjects or
items of interest.
• Generalisation and write-up: The researcher relates the evidence collected to
the research questions, draws conclusions about the questions or hypothesis,
and acknowledges limitations of the research.

IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

From the foregoing discussion it is amply clear that research is a scientific and
systematic tool to study & has immense value in the field of education.
• Research in education helps to understand any subject and its principals in much
better and easier way which will encounter new questions and search for
answers of those questions will lead us to learn new theories of any subject.

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 • Research helps in identifying the research gaps, learning gaps at various levels
of education system and tries to bridge the gap between what is existing and
what is expected. Morris (1967) mentioned that research concerning social
aspects of education ensures the development of children and teaching method.
• Research professionals are always learning, finding out things, analyzing
information, adapting their behaviour according to information received,
looking to improve and adapting to modern demands and thus social science
research helps in well being of society, social and educational institutions as
stated by Rathnakar, G. (2018).
• Research findings could be beneficial for teachers, teacher educators,
administrators, policy makers, parents and other stakeholders involved in the
education sector. Research findings could be implemented in classroom teaching
learning process to bridge the learning gaps. Findings could be used in teacher
training programmes, curriculum development programmes and also in
formulating education policies as mentioned by Pramodini, D.V., & Sophia,
K.A. (2012).
• Research methodologies give teachers the tools to analyze and make informed
decisions about their practice. Researches can help in professional development
of teachers and teacher educators and also orient and prepare them to acquire
21st century skills in order to implement new educational strategies, evaluation
techniques in education system. Teachers should be enabled to use and integrate
relevant findings and scientific theories of educational research in their
professional actions and decisions (Diery, 2018).
• Researches in education help in analyzing perceptions, attitudes of students’
teachers, teacher educators, parents and other stakeholders on different issues
related to education sector, local and global environment. Thus research findings
indicate and suggest possible remedies to those issues keeping in mind the views
of stakeholders involved.

CHALLENGES OF RESEARCH IN PRESENT EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT

Ponce (2017) concluded that there are several challenges related to research and these
are as follows:

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The political nature of education: The problems of effectiveness of educational
research begin with the political-partisan nature of education. Public education is a
social construction that responds and is regulated by the government. It is difficult to
investigate the social and political ideals that are embedded in educational systems in
the form of educational objectives or standards.

The problem of lack of definition of research as a science: From its beginnings, the
expectation has been that educational research solves the problems of education and
that prescribes its practice. In this respect, educational researches in social science are
often ignored and devalued in comparison to science and technology based research.

The dislocation between educational research and the practice of education: A

third argument to explain the ineffectiveness of educational research lies in its relation
to the practice of the profession. There is a gap between research embedded in
education system and the practice of education in schools, colleges and other
institutions. Most of the times, the ongoing practice of classroom processes, evaluation
techniques, and teaching learning materials differ from the research suggestions.

Mortimore (2000) stated that there are many complexities under which educational
researches work. Other challenges reported by Pramodini, D.V., & Sophia, K.A. (2012)
are as follows:

• The learning and teaching experience be based upon research and evidence, but
it runs the risk of being any one of theory, ideology, convenience and prejudice.
• The main purpose of research in education should be liberate, and promote
democracy and equality of opportunity but in reality biasness and other
influences are affecting researchers.
• Education has its sole responsibility to develop active citizens. But in real
context by following an ideological route restricts choice, which is the opposite
to the real purpose of education the system runs the risk of being outdated and
not being forward-looking.
• Learning is complex and success is influenced by a multitude of factors, social
backgrounds, family background, personality, age, gender, location etc.
Theories are needed to be combined, tested and challenged in order to allow us

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 to adapt to suit local and personal environments. Convenience and
manageability are important.

Funding and availability of resources, Influences of National policy and provisions,

knowledge depth and understanding level of researchers, policy implementation and
willingness to apply research findings in real life scenario by administrators, policy
makers, teachers, ethical issues, plagiarism and many other issues are also associated
with research in present context which are needed to be replaced in order to ensure
positive impacts of research in the field of education.

CONCLUSION

The current education system needs a transformation and drastic changes are required to
be incorporated in the system in order to maintain quality (Rathnakar, G. 2018). In this
context the present paper makes an attempt to sensitize the issue of the importance of
the research in every sector of the education system. Research can help us to understand
what works and why, what the short and long-term implications are, provide a
justification and rationale for decisions and actions, help to deal with the unexpected by
identifying problems, and promotes improvement. Hence, effective implementation of
research in education is what we need the most. Further research can be extended to
identify the research challenges and to provide possible solutions and implementation
strategies to deal with those challenges for betterment of education sector and also for
the well-being of our education system as well as for our society.

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