Concept of a Research Variable:
Variables, in general, are quantities with changing values. In the context of education research, variables primarily are physical, psychological, emotional or sociological traits or attributes in students, in their parents or in their teachers.
Variables can also be called Constructs in psychological terms. For example, intelligence of students in a typical classroom is one of their important mental traits and hence is a psychological construct or a research variable.
Similarly, the students in a typical classroom come from different socio-economic backgrounds in a society. So, this particular aspect can be a sociological variable and taken up for research. For example, students from low, middle and high income groups in a classroom. Height and weight are physical traits of students and hence are examples for physical variables.
Types of Research Variables:
Educational research basically involves studying the changes in one type of variable by changing another variable voluntarily. The variable that is voluntarily changed or manipulated is called the independent variable or the predictor variable. The other variable, whose changes are studied by manipulating the independent variable is called a dependent variable or criterion variable.
For example, consider a typical classroom of 35 students, comprising of 20 boys and 15 girls. The gender of the students can be an independent or predictor variable and their level of intelligence can be a dependent or criterion variable.
There are some variables on which the researcher is not interested, but cannot stop these variables from influencing the independent variable of his or her study. As a result, the dependent variable also gets influenced to some extent or the other. Such variables are called Confounding variables.
Confounding variables are those independent variables which undesirably influence the dependent variable of a research study. The influence of such variables must be controlled during a research study. For example, in a study of gender and intelligence of students, the home environment a student has, can be a confounding variable.
Conclusion: Variables are at the very base of educational research. Any number of observations made by researchers about the physical, psychological or sociological aspects of their subjects, ultimately fall under one variable type or the other, namely, an independent, a dependent or a confounding variable.
References:
1. Best John W & James V Kahn (2008): Research in Education, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Variables, in general, are quantities with changing values. In the context of education research, variables primarily are physical, psychological, emotional or sociological traits or attributes in students, in their parents or in their teachers.
Variables can also be called Constructs in psychological terms. For example, intelligence of students in a typical classroom is one of their important mental traits and hence is a psychological construct or a research variable.
Similarly, the students in a typical classroom come from different socio-economic backgrounds in a society. So, this particular aspect can be a sociological variable and taken up for research. For example, students from low, middle and high income groups in a classroom. Height and weight are physical traits of students and hence are examples for physical variables.
Types of Research Variables:
Educational research basically involves studying the changes in one type of variable by changing another variable voluntarily. The variable that is voluntarily changed or manipulated is called the independent variable or the predictor variable. The other variable, whose changes are studied by manipulating the independent variable is called a dependent variable or criterion variable.
For example, consider a typical classroom of 35 students, comprising of 20 boys and 15 girls. The gender of the students can be an independent or predictor variable and their level of intelligence can be a dependent or criterion variable.
There are some variables on which the researcher is not interested, but cannot stop these variables from influencing the independent variable of his or her study. As a result, the dependent variable also gets influenced to some extent or the other. Such variables are called Confounding variables.
Confounding variables are those independent variables which undesirably influence the dependent variable of a research study. The influence of such variables must be controlled during a research study. For example, in a study of gender and intelligence of students, the home environment a student has, can be a confounding variable.
Conclusion: Variables are at the very base of educational research. Any number of observations made by researchers about the physical, psychological or sociological aspects of their subjects, ultimately fall under one variable type or the other, namely, an independent, a dependent or a confounding variable.
References:
1. Best John W & James V Kahn (2008): Research in Education, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
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