State of Educational Research in Italy: A Scoping Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7346/sird-022022-p34Keywords:
Educational research, Theoretical research, Empirical research, Scoping reviewAbstract
Evaluating whether and how educational research is conducted in a particular country is of great importance because it can help stimulate the scientific community to improve its quality. In particular, the investigation methods it uses, the relationship between them and the aims assigned to the research itself are important. This work examines the articles published during six years (from 2016 to 2021) in the most qualified scientific journals dealing with teaching in Italy. The questions to answer are about how much the overall educational research emphasizes the empirical dimension, what kind of research designs are prevalent, what qualitative and experimental approaches are present.
In the period examined, the analysis highlights a significant number of published articles which mainly saw the prevalence of studies and discussions of a theoretical nature (76,6%). For the remaining part, within a residual number of works that are interested in an experimental empirical approach, the prevalence of observational and qualitative studies is clear, many times with little impact on educational practice. The picture that emerges, requires critical reflection within the scientific community to establish and suggest more explicit and demanding criteria and guidelines.
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