The Present Situation/Problems And Outlets Of Higher Education Research Method In China

This paper takes the present situation/problem and outlet of higher education research method as the master line, makes a series of the documentary investigations on the present situation that our higher educational circle has been applying these research methods, analyzes the problems and reasons in Chinese higher education research, and inquires the future tendency of our higher education research methodology.Firstly, through investigating the present situation of higher education research method, we obtain the following conclusion: First, the qualitative research absolutely occupies the main status in the level of research methodology ,the quantitative research and the mixed methods research only approximately occupy 1/5, but the higher education works belong to the exception; At the same time, the dominant position of philosophy methodology has the vacillation, the discipline methodology and the principle methodology have the rising tendency. Second, from the methodology level, comparison method, literature method, history method and investigation method are situated the first 4 places of the methodology, these four items approximately compose 3/5 in frequency of all methodology; investigation method is the most popular method in quantitative investigation, while theory methodology is the most popular method used in qualitative research. New types of methodology increase in high speed, and become diversified. Third, we haven't paid enough attention to the material collection and the techniques of material analysis.Next, the problems and influencing factors which exist in higher education research in China. The problems are mainly analyzed: The phenomenon of taking a part for the whole is prominent in understanding and using research method. Researchers'methodology consciousness is light, the structure of qualitative research and philosophical study needs optimization ,the quantitative and experiment research wait for strengthen, the mixed methods research awaits to develop urgently; theory methodology, experience summarizing method, the philosophy speculation are mainly used in indirect research , comparison method and examination method of the quantitative investigation are less used .The main factors affecting Chinese higher education research method include: First, Chinese community of higher education research has the compound feature, the research facility has the mass character and the spontaneity; The specialized researchers'knowledge and reserves are not sufficient in research methods and the researching ability. Second, the existence of higher education research activity and the particularity of research subject and object relations, objectively cause the difficulties in using concrete methods and technologies of quantitative research; At present, the qualitative investigation isn't sufficient. It has also affected the development of quantitative investigation in a certain degree. Third, the faith flaw of current higher education discipline in China is one of the difficulty roots existing in current higher education research; The Eastern unique thinking mode is the"heredity"factor affecting comprehensive thinking method and theory researching method in higher education research; The shortage of researching funds and the data collecting difficulties have became the barriers restricting the development of quantitative and experiment research.Thirdly, the following situations have been found in the part of present situation investigation and developing tendency of the higher education research methods in America. First, in the level of methodology, from the type of the articles, the quantitative and experiment research articles occupy above 3/4, take absolutely dominant position; From the levels of broad research design and the method type, quantitative research, qualitative research, the mixed methods research separately occupy 73.4%, 20.3% and 6.3% of the total investigation. Second, according to frequency of the research design, the order is: Correlational research, Descriptive-Quantitative, Longitudinal, Case Study, Descriptive-qualitative, Ex post factors, Grounded theory and so on. Third, in the concrete method and the technical levels, the main methods of collecting materials are direct or indirect investigations, the literature, interview and observation. The main technologies of analysis materials are: Descriptive Statistics, Multiple Regression, Bivariate Correlation, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Oneway or Factorial ANOVA, Chi-squared , Independent Samples T-test and so on. Fourth, mixed methods research is the developing tendency of the American higher education research.Finally, this paper proposes the suggestions that overall mentality, standpoint and method paradigm of higher education research in China should be made corresponding adjustment to overcome a series of problems existing in current higher education research: First, transform the overall mentality and standpoint of higher education research in China, makes the higher education research laying on the life world of higher education, pay attention to the development of practice rational. Second, the higher education research object includes the activity existence, the idea existence and the research reconsidering existence. The affair research is the research nature of higher education. it takes the processes of synthesis production and the dynamic conversion in higher education as the starting point and the standpoint, takes the general rule of promulgating the production and the conversion process as its fundamental research goal; The studies of applying general rules to the direct understanding, the rationality and the valid research of higher education practice constitute the applied research of higher education. Third, the object and nature particularity of higher education research decided comprehensive nature of overall characteristic of researching method. From the method paradigm, this kind of comprehensive research is the mixed methods research. Comparing to the multi-disciplinary research methodology and"the unique method combination theory", mixed method has more theory persuasive power and the reality possibilities, it is the ideal paradigm of higher education research in China.