GRACE MISSION COLLEGE

Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro

e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

Module 4
MODULE 2 Subject: The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles

Research in Child and Adolescent Development

At the end of this Module, you should be able to:

 explain the basic principles of research,

 demonstrate appreciation of the role of teachers as consumers and producers of developmental research and
 read researches on child and adolescent development and make simple research abstracts out of researches
read.

INTRODUCTION
As you may have noticed, most if not all of what is presented about the development of the child and the
adolescent are products of research. It might interest you to know how these concepts/ theories were arrived at. Or
after having been exposed to a number of researches cited in this course, hopefully you may be so inspired that you,
too, would like to start conducting researches on your own or join a group for research.

What is the importance of research in child and adolescent development?

By studying children, we can learn more about why they develop the way they do and also the most effective ways to
help them to develop as responsible citizens with positive contributions to make.

ABSTRACTION
As a pre-service teacher, it is important to have a positive regard for research. Best practices in education are
usually borne out of research. Research informs practice.
All of the topics discussed in this book are, in one way or another, a product of research. Research is a very
reliable means for teachers to learn about child and adolescent development. When conducted in an appropriate and
accurate manner, it becomes a strong basis for making decisions about the things you will do as an effective teacher.
 GRACE MISSION COLLEGE
Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro
e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

One important principle in research is adherence to the scientific method, since research is a systematic and a
logical process. As such, researchers basically follow the scientific method. Dewey gave us 5 steps of the scientific
method. They are as follows:
1. identify and define the problem
2. determine the hypothesis
3. collect and analyze data
4. formulate conclusions
5. apply conclusions to the original hypothesis
Simply explained, identifying the research problem is the first step. This is followed by stating a tentative answer
to the research problem called the hypothesis. The hypothesis is also referred to as an “educated guess.” How correct is
your “educated guess” or “hypothesis?” if your research problem is concerned with the cause and effect or a
phenomenon, you have to gather and analyze data derived from an experiment. This is true with experimental research.
However, if your research problem is concerned with describing data and characteristics about the subjects or
phenomenon you are studying, you do not need to perform an experiment. This is descriptive research. After analyzing
the data, you formulate your conclusions.
Compare your conclusions to your original hypothesis to find out if your original hypothesis is correct or not. If
your original hypothesis does not jibe with your finding and conclusions, reject your original hypothesis.

To be able to conduct quality research, it is important that you

know carious research designs and different data gathering
techniques used by developmental researchers.

Some Research Designs:

GRACE MISSION COLLEGE
Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro
e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com