Application fields of educational research

Abstract

This article deals with contributions to educational knowledge resulting from experimental studies. The contributions from sound, carefully thought out practica1 experiences is, however, not underestimated. Contemporary qualitative, anthropological research methods allow renewed interest of the scientific community for this type of research endeavour. Ten areas are presented: -Preprimary education with special attention devoted to age 0-3 education, -Primary education (continuity with preprimary education, contemporary trends: direct versus indirect teaching, minimun competency testing, problems of school failure, mastery learning, teacher education), -Secondary education (new curricula, consequences of change of populations, new concepts of vocational education, change of teaching methods), -Higher education (changing characteristics of students, need for other teaching methods, higher education theory as a new field of pedagogy), -Study of teaching processes (specially the new process-product paradigm and the ecological paradigm; research on teacher implicit theories and planning; competency based versus humanistic teacher education), -Education and technology (with special attention to computer technology, development of educational software and impact on curriculum development, new look at teaching and learning activities), -Programme evaluation (new approaches, international achievement surveys, monitoring), -Curriculum development and evaluation, -Research methods, -0ther domains In the conclusion, the author emphasizes the importance of educational research at this tirne of cultural crisis. In Europe, educational research has not yet received enough financial support to be in a position to contribute significantly to the progress of the school systems. This will remain the case as long as a critica1 point in terms of number of qualified researches is not reached.