Design-Based Research: A Decade of Progress in Education Research?

Impact Factor:2.779 | Ranking:6/219 in Education & Educational ResearchSource:2012 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2013)
Terry Anderson1Julie Shattuck2

1Athabasca University, Centre for Distance Education, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

2Frederick Community College, Centre for Distributed Learning, Frederick, MD Design-based research (DBR) evolved near the beginning of the 21st century and was heralded as a practical research methodology that could effectively bridge the chasm between research and practice in formal education. In this article, the authors review the characteristics of DBR and analyze the five most cited DBR articles from each year of this past decade. They illustrate the context, publications, and most popular interventions utilized. They conclude that interest in DBR is increasing and that results provide limited evidence for guarded optimism that the methodology is meeting its promised benefits.

TERRY ANDERSON is a professor at Athabasca University, Centre for Distance Education, 10011 109th Street, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 3S8, Canada; terrya{at}athabascau.ca. His research focuses on social networking in distance education courses.

JULIE SHATTUCK is an instructional designer and assistant professor at Frederick Community College, Centre for Distributed Learning, 7932 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, MD 21702; jshattuck{at}frederick.edu. She is a doctoral student at Athabasca University, and her research focuses on adjunct faculty training for online teaching.

Received July 7, 2011. Revision received September 20, 2011. Accepted September 26, 2011. © 2012 American Educational Research Association

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