ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises some of the problems that can be raised to do with the nature of research, attempting to contextualise this by focusing on how research can be carried out in, or applicable to, museum settings. It examines different approaches and paradigms to conducting research before highlighting a few of the methods that are most common in museum-based research on learning. The chapter draws attention to four different approaches (positivism, constructivism, transformativism and pragmatism) to research, any one of which might use methods that are qualitative, quantitative or both. Often considered the 'gold standard' in quantitative or post-positivist studies, experiments involve changing one, independent, variable and measuring the effect on another, dependent, variable as a result of that change. Like experiments, action research (AR) involves the implementation of an intervention to see whether the changes seem to have an effect on learning and/or behaviour.
