Exploring main challenges of teaching research methodology in education and psychology

This study aims at identifying major challenges in teaching research methods in the fields of education and psychology. The research followed a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis. Based on purposeful sampling, twenty experts who had several years of experience in teaching research methods in the fields of education and psychology were interviewed. The data were then analyzed through the thematic analysis method based on the six steps suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006), namely acquainting researcher with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the report. With regard to challenges of teaching research methods, three main themes have emerged from interviews: curriculum, commonplace and structural problems. The curriculum challenges include issues pertaining to the course and number of units, content and resources, teaching and evaluation. The commonplace challenges include the student and the instructor-related issues, and the structural challenges include unprecedented expansion of higher education, requirements and infrastructure.