After reading Mertens' Introduction to Educational Research, I have a preliminary understanding of the four main research paradigms of research, which are post-positivism paradigm, constructivism paradigm, transformational paradigm and pragmatic paradigm. In the future, I plan to focus on the education direction of adult lifelong growth and learning. In this direction, I think the pragmatic paradigm will be more helpful to the education and research work I want to do. There are three reasons as follows:

#1 I focus on the growth and learning of adults, whose needs for growth and learning also change with the development of the times. The axiology of the pragmatic paradigm is that knowledge is acquired in the process of pursuing expected goals, and it is necessary to contact with multiple groups to obtain different understandings (Morgan 2007). This is suitable for the study of adult education in different Settings.

#2 The ontology of the pragmatic paradigm emphasizes the creation of knowledge through lines of action, pointing out that different people or groups can work together to complete "joint actions" or "projects". The emphasis is on the actual actions (" courses of action "), the beliefs behind those actions (" guaranteed claims "), and the possible consequences of different actions (" maneuverability ") (Morgan 2007). In my opinion, the personal growth and learning of growing people is the change of their beliefs or beliefs to action, and the positive feedback brought by the action promotes the occurrence of continuous learning. So at this point I also think that the pragmatic paradigm is more suitable for the direction of adult growth and learning.

#3 The epistemology of the pragmatic paradigm proposes that researchers need to interact with different members of society to understand problems in order to determine wise courses of action and determine the appropriateness of these actions, once implemented, to solve problems. The researchers did not position themselves as distant observers. Educational research on adult growth and learning requires interaction with group members, and researchers themselves are also part of the group, so they cannot be merely observers.

reference

Mertens, D. M. (2020). Research and evaluation in education and psychology : Integrating Diversity with Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods (5th edition). ISBN:9781544333762

阅读完Mertens的《教育研究导言》，初步了解了教育研究的四个主要的研究范式分别是后实证主义范式、建构主义范式、转化型范式和实用主义范式。我打算未来专注在成人的终身成长学习的教育方向上，在这个方向上我认为实用主义范式对我想做的教育及研究工作会比较有帮助。理由有三，如下：

#1 我关注的是成年人的自身成长学习，成年人本身成长学习的需要也是在时代的发展中也是变化的，实用主义范式的价值论是在追求预期目标的过程中获得知识，需要与多个群体接触，从而获得不同解度的理解（Morgan 2007）。这对于在不同环境下的成人成长教育的研究会很适合。

#2 实用主义范式的存在论强调通过行动路线创造知识，指出了不同的人或群体可以共同完成“联合行动”或“项目”。重点在于实际行为（“行动路线”）、这些行为背后的信念（“有保证的主张”）以及不同行为可能带来的后果（“可操作性”）（Morgan 2007）。在我看来，成长人的自身成长学习正是基本其信念或信念的改变，到有所行动，以及行动后带来的正向反馈促进持续学习的发生。所以在这一点上我也认为实用主义范式更适合用于成人自身成长学习的方向。

#3 实用主义范式的知识论提出研究者需要与社会的不同成员互动，理解问题，以确定明智的行动方针，并确定这些行动一旦实施后的适当性，解决问题。研究者没有将自己定位为有距离的观察者。对于成人的成长学习的教育研究，是需要与群体成员互动，而且研究者本身也是群体之一，无法成为仅是观察者的角色。

参考文献

Mertens, D. M. (2020). Research and evaluation in education and psychology : Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods(第 5 版)赛奇出版社。ISBN:9781544333762