Case Study and Randomized Control Trial (RCT) Research Designs for Educational Leadership and Management Studies
- November 23, 2021
- Posted by: RSIS
- Categories: Education, IJRSI
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VIII, Issue X, October 2021 | ISSN 2321–2705
Frederick Ebot Ashu
Department of Educational Foundations and Administration, Faculty of Education, University of Buea, Cameroon
Abstract: It is becoming increasingly important for researchers to critically reflect on a set of research questions relevant to their own area of research that can have a positive impact on complex social phenomena, such as school leadership and management development outcomes of school leaders. This paper discusses about randomized control trial and case study enables the researcher to answer research questions within the effectiveness of leadership development of Cameroonian school leaders, in the real world, presents new challenges for collecting data and verifying inferences from these data.
Many educational leadership researchers seem to have high hopes that such approaches using quasi-experimental, randomized control trails can give positive research outcomes when it comes to educational leadership development of school leaders. It is noted that case study research is more than simply to data collection, analysis, and report writing differing from the traditional, randomized control trial in terms of issues such as rigour, practicality, ethics, sampling, and validity are of great importance and perhaps of special relevance to researchers in Cameroon, and to the African context in which we work. This paper provides a further distinction between randomized control trial and case study research designs. This paper also presents a summary of the different research designs to conduct research in quantitative and qualitative and mixed methods studies.
Keywords: Case Study, Randomized Control Trial (RCT), Research Designs, Educational Leadership, Educational Management
I. INTRODUCTION
In the most elementary sense, research design is a logical sequence that connects empirical data to a study’s initial research questions and ultimately, to its conclusions. According to Creswell (2003) and Yin (1994; 2014), research design means a strategic plan outlining how information is to be gathered for assessment or evaluation (Ebot Ashu, 2014). Researchers, therefore, typically take the position that research design is a plan that guides the decision as to when and how often to collect data; what data to gather and from whom, and how to analyze the data (Ebot Ashu, 2014; Creswell, 2003; Yin, 1994; 2014). Yin (2014) describe the purpose of a research design is to provide a plan of study that permits accurate assessment of cause and effect relationships between independent and dependent variables.
