Experimental Research Methods

Experimental research has had a long tradition in psychology and education. When psychology emerged as an infant science during the 1900s, it modeled its research methods on the established paradigms of the physical sciences, which for centuries relied on experimentation to derive principals and laws. Subsequent reliance on experimental approaches was strengthened by behavioral approaches to psychology and education that predominated during the first half of this century. Thus, usage of experimentation in educational technology over the past 40 years has been influenced by developments in theory and research practices within its parent disciplines.