Title: Different Research Methods: Strengths and Weaknesses — The Learning Scientists
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Content: Descriptive research can provide an in-depth view of any topic we might want to study, and the level of detail that we can find in descriptive research is extremely valuable. This is particularly true of descriptive research that is collected qualitatively. In this form of research, we may find information that we never even knew to look for! This type of research can be used to create new research questions, or form hypotheses about cause and effect relationships (though we cannot determine cause and effect from this research alone). Observation research has an added benefit of allowing us to see how things work in their natural environments. Weaknesses: We cannot determine a cause and effect relationship from descriptive research. For example, if a student talks about engaging with a particular learning strategy, and then provides an in-depth account of why they think it helped them learn, we cannot conclude that this strategy actually did help the student learn. We also have to be very careful of reactivity in this type of research. Sometimes, people (and animals too) change their behavior if they know they're being observed.