Methodological Alignment in Design-Based Research

Empirical research is all about trying to model and predict the world. In this article, I discuss how design-based research methods can help do this effectively. In particular, design-based research methods can help with the problem of methodological alignment: ensuring that the research methods we use actually test what we think they are testing. I argue that our current notions of rigor overemphasize certain types of rigor at the expense of others and that design-based research provides an opportunity to select different inferential trade-offs. I describe how 1 design-based research trajectory evolved over time in a way that helped ensure that the learning theories being studied were well represented by the planned interventions and that the interpretation of outcomes was grounded in an understanding of not only the research design, but how the research played out in practice when enacted in real classrooms.