一叶落何以知天下秋?——浅析教育技术研究中的因果关系

How do you know when a small sign can predict a great trend?——Searching for Causality in Educational Technology Research

中国的教育研究走向世界面临两个重要的瓶颈:一是数据资料的匮乏,二是研究方法的缺失。首先从教育技术研究的两个实例入手,以因果关系为主线,探讨了定量研究方法在教育中的应用。中西教育研究方法差异的表象之下隐含着中西思维方式和文化的差异,而这种差异曾经导致过痛苦的历史后果。其次从历史和文化的比较中,深信只有将分析与综合的方法有机地整合在一起,中国才会产生出超越西方的思想武器。同样不可否认的是,方法的缺失部分是由数据资料的缺失引起的。最后呼吁中国的决策者和有识之士应把教育数据资料库的建设、整合和透明公开使用,作为提升教育研究水平,增强教育决策科学性的战略性步骤来思考。

There are two bottlenecks if China＇s education research wants to catch up the developed countries： lack of educational databases and lack of empirical research methods. Reasoning from a main thread of causality through two examples of educational technology research, author explores the possible ways of improvements in database construction and empirical research methods. The research found that underneath the differences of research methods, there are fundamental differences in ways of thinking between East and West. The research proposes that when using both methods of analysis and synthesis, we could have better thoughts to surpass the West. As a strategic thinking, China＇s decision-makers and scholars should establish, integrate educational databases in order to openly use them for research and decision making.