教育实证主义研究范式的赋魅与祛魅

Enchantment and Disenchantment of the Educational Positivist Research Paradigm

教育实证主义研究范式肇始于美国发起的以数据和证据为基础的教育实证研究运动,进而在全球形成教育实证研究浪潮。教育实证主义研究范式借鉴自然科学研究方法,强调提出教育假设,看重研究设计,采用量化统计或数学模型方式处理教育经验和材料,从而获得具有解释和预测功能的教育科学理论。对教育研究而言,教育实证主义研究范式正抛弃对“教育乌托邦”的描绘,转而将直接观察和实验的教育现象作为研究对象,以探究教育规律作为主要目的,以因果推断作为主要研究方法,旨在推动教育学科建立统一、普遍、以因果规律为基础的知识结构。教育学科学化需要教育实证主义研究范式,但教育研究者应当警惕对教育实证主义研究范式的赋魅,避免对教育研究范式和教育实证研究的狭隘理解。首先,要认识到教育研究范式的丰富性。教育实证主义研究范式不是教育研究的唯一范式。倘若单一应用因果推断方法,忽略人的自由意志与情感态度,将复杂教育现象和问题简单化,极易导致教育意义与价值研究的式微。教育研究应当根据不同性质的问题,选用与之相适切的研究范式。其次,以人文社会科学方法论丰富教育实证研究的内涵。在实证主义风靡的时代,实证研究往往被等同于定量研究,实证主义构筑起教育实证研究的哲学根基。后实证主义时期,教育实证研究的内涵应当被重新审视。教育实证研究应超越自然科学的视域,打破对自然科学的范式崇拜,重视人文社会科学的研究方法。再次,应当破除教育研究中实证与思辨两种范式的虚假对立,强调多种研究范式在教育领域中的综合应用,聚焦多元范式的高质量运用。最后,应当致力于探索教育学科的内部结构,接受教育研究结果的可解释性和多样化特征,建构符合自身逻辑的研究范式。

The educational positivist research paradigm began with the data and evidence-based educational empirical research movement in the United States,which led to a global wave of educational empirical research.Drawing on natural science research methods,the educational positivist research paradigm emphasizes the formulation of educational hypotheses,the importance of research design,and the use of quantitative statistics or mathematical models to deal with educational experiences and materials in order to obtain a scientific theory of education with explanatory and predictive functions.In terms of educational research,the educational positivist research paradigm is abandoning the portrayal of an‘educational utopia’and taking directly observed and experimental educational phenomena as the object of study,with the investigation of educational laws as the main objective and causal inference as the main research method,aiming to promote the establishment of a unified,universal,cause-and-effect law-based intellectual structure.To make pedagogy scientific requires an educational positivist research paradigm,and the educational researchers should be wary of the enchantment of the educational positivist research paradigm and avoid a narrow understanding of the educational research paradigm and educational empirical research.Firstly,understand the richness of educational research paradigms.The educational positivist research paradigm is not the only paradigm of educational research.The single application of causal inference method ignores human’s free will and emotional attitude,and simplifies complex educational phenomena and problems,leading to the decline of research on educational significance and value.Educational research should select appropriate research paradigms according to the different problems.Secondly,humanities and social science methodology should be used to enrich the connotation of empirical research in education.The positivist research paradigm is not the only paradigm for empirical research in education.In the era when positivism was all the rage,empirical research was equated with quantitative research,and positivism constructed the philosophical foundation of empirical research in education,leading to a narrow understanding of empirical research in education.In the post-positivist era,the connotation of empirical research in education should be re-examined.Empirical research in education should go beyond the horizon of the natural sciences,break the paradigm worship of the natural sciences and pay attention to the research methods of the humanities and social sciences.Once again,the false opposition between the two paradigms of empirical and discursive research in education should be broken down,and the comprehensive application of multiple research paradigms in the field of pedagogy should be emphasized,focusing on the high-quality use of multiple paradigms.Finally,the pedagogues should be committed to exploring the internal structure of pedagogy,accepting the interpretable and diverse characteristics of educational research results,and constructing research paradigms that conform to their own logic.