Experimental versus Exploratory Research
Exposure to the vast number of research methods easily
perplexes learners anticipating their first important research project. Attempting to extricate the seemingly irrelevant
components that an inexperienced learner-researcher gains from reading numerous
studies, and focusing instead upon a research method that is identified as
useful for their dissertation, is difficult.
Therefore, since the target of this discussion is experimental and
exploratory research methods, my objective is to only consider these two
methods, which will possibly benefit my upcoming exploratory research
project. Consequently, the information
that follows summarizes information from writers that has, in my opinion, contributed
to important new understanding that may impact my upcoming project.
Lelouche
(2006) discussed experimental learning methods used in academia: "the
learning domain is well known, the expected user is a student, and the
technology…is used to guide (the student's) learning" (p. 8). Conversely, exploratory learning methods provide
an almost entirely unstructured setting, the user is represented by a
researcher, and technologies provide the user with tools to explore learning
scenarios that encourage discovery (Lelouche, 2006). Lelouche (2006) posited that exploratory
learning is minimally used, and encourages teachers to combine exploratory and
experimental methods. A new paradigm in
research methodology?
Experimental
research includes manipulating variables.
Exploratory research does not manipulate variables. Exploratory research may point the researcher
and other researchers toward more formal research. An objective of exploratory research is to
clarify indistinct dilemmas, and get a better grasp on the magnitude of
dilemmas. Exploratory research does not
typically identify with action research.
Researchers undertaking exploratory research expect that further
research could provide solutions (MBA Knowledge Base, 2012).
I
particularly enjoy finding articles representing innovative thinking, which I believe
I found in Franklin (2005). "Exploratory
experimentation—experimentation that is not guided by hypothesis (or theory…)—has
a broader and more systematic role in scientific inquiry than is commonly
recognized" (p. 888). Franklin
(2005) suggested that with "'wide', also known as 'high-throughput',
instruments (those which allow the simultaneous measure of many features of an experimental
system) for exploratory experimentation is more productive than it is otherwise"
(p. 888). Franklin (2005) shared an
intriguing opinion from a 2002 writer: "in the high through-put world, we can
perform thousands of experiments at once, provide millions of possible answers
and then start asking questions" (p. 889).
Franklin
(2005) believes it possible that "theory-directed experimentation is more efficient
than exploratory experiments for those using narrow instrumentation" (p.
897). If more efficiency is found to be
true, "the efficiency of theory-directed inquiry, rather than the logic of
falsification or confirmation, is the best explanation for the ubiquity of
theory-directed experimentation in scientific practice" (p. 897).
Many
times researchers have stated that alternative, more enterprising research
methods are not conducted due to a realization that time and expense of such
methods was not feasible. However,
Franklin (2005) suggests that if experimentalists had the availability of
computing technologies to examine data, more learning would be possible from
experiments than that by "narrow experimentalists" (p. 898). A curiousity arises that since Franklin's
(2005) piece was published seven years ago, perhaps later researchers have
written and supported Franklin's (2005) suggestions.
Franklin
(2005) also suggested that experimentalists "would be able to investigate
connections that the narrow-experimentalist would not consider asking about for
fear of wasting time and yielding a negative result" (p. 898). Franklin (2005) ends by asking, "might
wide instrumentation be productively used to carry out theory-directed experiments?"
(p. 898). Reviewing such accounts inspire
this learner-researcher to keep an open mind.
References:
Franklin, L.R. (2005, December). Exploratory experiments. Philosophy of Science, 72, 888 – 899.
Retrieved from http://www.experimentalmath.info/papers/franklin-expm.pdf
Lelouche, R. (2006, April 23). Exploratory and experimental
learning...for teachers and researchers too! Retrieved from http://hal.inria.fr/docs/00/12/37/31/PDF/ArtFinal_CELDA_05.pdf
MBA Knowledge Base. (2012). Exploratory research and its methods. Retrieved from http://www.mbaknol.com/research-methodology/exploratory-research-and-its-methods/
