The Methodology Reconsidering Of The Education Experiment Development

Methodology is the way in which we know and make the world. It tries to discover the relationship between the specific approaches and things. The methodology for educational experiment is the theoretical and knowledge systems concerning the approaches of educational experiment. It tries to find out the relationship between the specific approaches and subjects in the process of educational experiments. The reflection of methodology focuses on subjects'way of knowing and doing things so as to offer more transparent understandings of them.Methodology is of crucial importance to the development of every subject. Methodology has played its important part in the development of educational experiment for several hundred years. Throughout the history ,some scholars enjoy doing educational experiments and are trying to make its methodology more scientific and standardized. And they want to know the difference between educational experiments and natural science experiments. They also want to know if both of them should have their own unique methodology. This showed us the increasing importance educational experiments can have.This thesis reviews the development history of educational experiments, examines and reflects some of the typical methodologies of educational experiments, and makes some suggestions on how to make its methodologies more scientific and standardized.The thesis can be divided into four parts. In first part of the introduction, the reasons and significance of writing this thesis, the status quo of the contemporary research, and the concepts contained in the research are discussed. The two main concepts involved in the research are"educational experiment"and"methodology of educational methodology". In the second part, the methodologies that were developed in the educational experiments are closely examined. There can be four stages in its development history. On the first stage, the methodology is characterized by using experience and observations. On the second stage, positivist methodology is used. More systematic methodology is used during the third period. And humanistic methodology comes to gain its popularity in the fourth period. Two main categories of paradigms can be summarized actually according to the four stages, i.e., the positivist paradigm and the humanistic paradigm.The third part deals with the reflections on the two main paradigms. The disadvantages that the positivist paradigm has are as follows: firstly, it has ignored the complex relationships between different things by adopting the linear way of thinking; Secondly, it has separated the value from facts, which is not the characteristics of educational experiments; Thirdly, it has unreasonably paid more attention to the use of quantitative methods, which has resulted in the simplification and mechanization of educational experiments; Fourthly, the experiments are made in the labs, the variables strictly controlled and the conclusions are hard to be generalized. The disadvantages the humanistic approach has are as follows: firstly, with the variables lacking of strict control, the conclusions reached are hard to be attributed. Secondly, with the lack of quantitative methods, the conclusions reached are not accurate and persuasive. Thirdly, value judgment is prone to the influence of human moods. In each item, the author exemplifies the reasons why the disadvantages arise.In the fourth part, the suggestions are given to make the methodology of educational experiments more standardized and scientific. Firstly, we should adopt"the dynamic development", which exists in the complexity science, as the way of thinking about educational experiment. Secondly, we should make sure that the conclusions can be made according to causality and the procedures are easy to follow. Thirdly, educational experiment should adopt some of the characteristics of action research and use all kinds of approaches. These suggestions are made on the basis of analyzing the disadvantages of the two main paradigms.