Research Article

Research Types in Science Education Journal Articles: Identifying Major Trends

Konstantinos Karampelas 1 *
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1 Department of Elementary Education, School of Humanities, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, GREECE* Corresponding Author
Contemporary Mathematics and Science Education, 3(1), 2022, ep22006, https://doi.org/10.30935/conmaths/11815
Published: 27 February 2022
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ABSTRACT

This study aims to identify the research types that authors of science education journal articles tend to select for their studies. It focused on articles published during the last decade. Selection of the appropriate research type is a significant process in education research. Depending on factors such as the goals that the researchers set or the conditions within which they work, they may select the implementation of quantitative studies, such as experimental study, field survey, secondary data analysis, and case research. They may select the implementation of qualitative studies such as case study, focus group, action research, and ethnography. Finally, they may select the implementation of mixed study. Therefore, by researching the types of research in published articles it is possible to gain insights about what goals the researchers set and their work context. This was the objective of this research. 2,071 articles in refereed journals in science education were collected. These articles were published between 2011-2020. The methodology included descriptive statistics and distribution calculation through a Kolmogorov Smirnov test. The findings showed that there is a preference to the qualitative type, even though there is a considerable number of studies to other types as well.
Keywords: research types, research trends, science teaching, journal articles

CITATION (APA)

Karampelas, K. (2022). Research Types in Science Education Journal Articles: Identifying Major Trends. Contemporary Mathematics and Science Education, 3(1), ep22006. https://doi.org/10.30935/conmaths/11815

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