Methodology chapter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Methodology chapter - Essay Example These differences, which can be considered to be improvements on the latter approaches, are what make design-based research a good fit for this research study. Design-based research differs from lab experiment re4search in a number of ways, especially in the education domain. While using lab experiment research in this case would have required a laboratory setting to ensure that there were no significant interruptions from confounding variables, design-based research will enable the current research to account for the dynamics, complexities, and limitations of the real world classroom (Behrendt, 2010). In addition, despite the existence of significant dependent and confounding variables in the classroom, DBR does not seek to consider all the former variables. This ability to choose from a number of dependent variables offers an advantage for using DBR to study the use Adobe Connect in learning a second language, especially since lab experiments have a fixed procedure due to attempts to manipulate one variable and control for the rest. By revising the research design iteratively and flexibly over the course of the research, it will be possible to characterize the complexities of how participants develop competency in the use of technology (Behrendt, 2010). Moreover, the fact that DBR will allow for social interactions with the ESL teachers, as well as between the ESL teachers and their students. This is due to its â€Å"real world† orientation, which lends it an added advantage over lab experiment research that would isolate the ESL teachers and prevent their interaction with researchers. Due to the complexities portended by the language barrier and learning new technology, it will be difficult to come up with a hypothesis from ini tial investigation of the research problem, which is a requirement of experimental investigations (Behrendt, 2010). By using DBR, however, the researchers will be able to develop practical design profiles