February 2004 — Exclusive Series: SBR

Print this article

Click here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal

What the Words Mean

Help for Understanding SBR From the

Software & Information Industry Association

To appreciate the true impact of scientifically based research on education, it may be useful first to understand the meaning of the various terms that the law employs as part of its definition of SBR. The following explication is from a Software & Information Industry Association publication titled "Scientifically Based Research: A Guide for Education Publishers and Developers."

To begin, the word scientific itself warrants mention. Scientific means "relating to, or employing the methodology of science," according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Further, the methodology of science is "a continual process" applied over time (Committee on Scientific Principles for Education Research 2002). In other words, a single experiment, no matter how rigorous, d'es not constitute an indisputable body of scientific evidence. Paragraph A of the No Child Left Behind Act Section 9101 provides a top-level summary of the requirements of SBR. It describes SBR as "the application of rigorous, systematic and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs." Explanations of these key words follow. The order of presentation differs from the order in paragraph A for the sake of clarity.

Relevance

Relevance is addressed first because it determines the extent to which the other criteria for scientific research can be met. Relevance has two aspects: importance and alignment.

  1. Importance. Research is relevant when it addresses questions of theoretical and practical importance or need to the fields of education practice or policy, particularly with regard to student learning. Important research questions and approaches link to and flow from relevant theory and theory-based research.
  2. Alignment. To be relevant, not only must research study questions be important, but research procedures, analyses, and reported claims and conclusions must be of high quality and in alignment with the research questions and with each other. The research questions must guide the research design and analyses. In addition, conclusions and claims must be supported by the data and tie back to the research question(s).

Rigor

Rigor literally means strict, firm or rigid, and applies to the quality of the research. In research terms, it means:

  • Selecting an appropriate research design, research instruments and procedures for addressing the research questions at hand.
  • Implementing the design and procedures according to practices acceptable to the scientific community with the same or highly similar results.

Systematic

Systematic is a characteristic of the research as it is conducted that makes research logical, organized and methodical. Systematic study allows researchers to answer "what" questions such as what intervention or combination of interventions, applied to what degrees of intensity, contribute to certain differences in learning. Systematic approaches to research constitute one of the greatest challenges to conducting research in real-world settings such as schools.