Educational researchers may draw upon a variety of disciplines including psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy.
Basic, or academic research focuses on the search for truth[2] or the development of educational theory.
[2] The goal of applied research is "to determine the applicability of educational theory and principles by testing hypotheses within specific settings".
[2] The following are several defining characteristics written by Gary Anderson to compare basic (academic) and applied (contract) research.
[1] The scientific method uses directed questions and manipulation of variables to systematically find information about the teaching and learning process.
Types of quantitative research include: There also exists a new school of thought that these derivatives of the scientific method are far too reductionist in nature.
[8]Types of mixed methods include: In analysis of mixed methods, the following ways might be used; Discipline-based education research (DBER) is an interdisciplinary research enterprise that "investigates learning and teaching in a discipline [normally from the STEM fields] from a perspective that reflects the discipline's priorities, worldview, knowledge, and practices.
"[13] Examples include: Educational research can also be organized by the subject or object of focus, as in school, teacher, student, etc., the relationship between actors such as student-teacher, teacher-principal, school-home, etc.
In response to increased attention to the replicability of experimental findings in the sciences and medicine, in 2014, Educational Researcher published a review of the entire publication history of the 100 education journals with the highest five-year impact factors that found that out of 164,589 articles published only 221 articles (or 0.13 percent) were attempted replications of previous studies.