Thanks for the question. I'd like to hear our colleagues' responses too. ;)

Greetings.

Methodology is a fraught issue in much of the STEM education research area. My interest has been in combining different types of study to provide a richer picture of the learning situation. Together with some colleagues I have written a few papers discussing theoretical and methodological considerations in designing and carrying out mixed methods studies in Computer Science Education and Engineering Education.

Article Models and methods for computing education research

Conference Paper Harnessing theory in the service of engineering education research

I am also more than willing to engage in discussion about the use of different models.

One issue is the choice of approach should match the type of question that you would like answers to, as well as the type of answers that you think will be most valuable to you in the context of the work you are doing.

Large scale statistical studies can be used to evaluate innovation, but there are limitations. How do we get the large sample sizes required, control group and experimental group study structures are problematic from many perspectives.

In the comparative study situation it may be important to know what you want to compare about the learning process beyond a structural analysis of curriculum and other artefacts. Looking at learning and teaching methods has been done before in Finland, but the context was trying to evaluate the impact of staff education programmes on the teaching in the university.

Chapter Hailikari, T., Postareff, L., Tuononen, T., Räisänen, M. & L...

A comparative design helps to compare two or more groups on one variable. Is it a descriptive or normative comparison ? iam attaching few references which might help; the link pasted below also gives an idea about your question. Hope it helps

ttp://www2.uiah.fi/projects/metodi/172.htm

A Framework for the Comparative Study of Social Services

1. Jens Alber doi: 10.1177/095892879500500204 Journal of European Social Policy May 1995 vol. 5 no. 2 131-149

I have suggested that ,you can use a quasi experimental approach with two groups of traditional method and a new method and then compare them. If you can read quasi experimental approaches in research books it can help you for designing this research .

best regard

Dear Ia! I would be interested to better understand your suggestion. Would experimental groups be in the same country or no? In the context of this research, curriculums are both implemented since 2004. Therefore, it would be difficult to have a traditional group and an 'experimental group'.

Sincerely!

Hi

It is better and needs to select both groups from the same country and same context then you can compare two groups such as traditional with new methods.. But I have also  another suggestion  for your condition. You can also do cohort approach and evaluate curriculum's outcome with each other from 2004 until now in different variable that you want and have access and it is interesting for report.

Best regards

Thank you for these ideas!

The question is, What is the logic of case selection in comparative cases study research? Because of the theoretical issues to be explored and tested, the small-n comparative case study is the appropriate approach to research (Lijphart, 1971; 1975). Keeping in mind the benefits, in terms of internal validity, that experimentation offers and the confidence in causal inferences that it provides, the proposed research strategy optimizes control and effectively isolates the relationships of interest, given the constraints created by our need to observe the phenomenon contextually. One should try to articulate such a method by relying on a logic of case selection that, within the limits inherent in the well-designed small-n comparative case-study (Verba, 1967; Eckstein, 1975; Yin, 1984), allows the researcher to maximize the internal and external validity possible given his/her contextual interests, thus increasing the confidence and generalizability of our causal explanations. Careful attention to the issues of case selection, in case study research, is a critical component of defensibility. The challenge is to determine the research strategy and case selection method most appropriate to the investigators’ theoretical concerns and to their desire to make confident inferences from the findings. How should we do it?

The answer is purposeful sampling of cases for comparison from the universe of cases. Purposeful sampling enables researchers to move away from the indeterminacy that makes generalizations from case studies problematic and in the direction of valid causal explanations of social and political phenomena; for example, the role that research-based knowledge has played in preparing for a probable disaster. Where these concerns pertain, selection of cases in small-n comparative case study research should be guided by some theoretically-driven decision rule. Such a selection process is referred to as theoretical sampling (Mitchell, 1983; Scott, 1987: 158). Cases selected in this manner vary on identified characteristics of theoretical interest. As Fernandez 2005) notes, if researchers hope to explain variation in a dependent variable, the choice of cases must allow for variation in the dependent variable. King and his co-authors (1994, 129) put it bluntly when they ask, “How can we explain variations on a dependent variable if it does not vary?” (p. 129).

I (Goggin, 1986) have identified one common problem that plagues many who design and carry out comparative policy research, the “too few cases/too many variables problem”. One remedy for the too few cases/too many variables problem is to select cases with an eye toward maximizing similarities among cases except for the phenomenon to be explained or maximizing differences among cases except for the phenomenon to be explained (Goggin, 1986:333-34). Przeworski and Tuene (1970:39) label these "most similar" and "most different" systems designs, respectively. The authors describe the differences in these two logics of case selection as follows: “The most similar systems design is based on a belief that a number of theoretically significant differences will be found among similar systems and that these differences can be used in explanation. The alternative design, which seeks maximal heterogeneity in the sample of systems, is based on a belief that in spite of intersystem differentiation, the population will differ with regard to only a limited number of variables or relationships.” The logic of the two designs is identical, with co-variation or the lack thereof, as the instrument for distinguishing relevant from irrelevant variables. It is only the incidence of variability in the dependent variable – some variability in the most similar systems approach and no variability in the most dissimilar systems design – that differentiates these two approaches to case selection in comparative research.

Comparative Research Methods:

There are many methods and methods used in the preparation of comparative research, the most important of which are:

1- System analysis method: It is a method based on analyzing education systems in the light of the forces, factors and variables affecting them, explaining the phenomena associated with them and justifying their differences between countries. This method is also called comprehensive analysis when the researcher studies the general basic forces on which educational systems are based.

2- The method of studying the problems:

It is a method in which the researcher studies one of the educational problems of more than one country, such as studying low levels of student achievement, the reality of using educational technology, problems of educational administration, problems of educational supervision or educational guidance and other problems that are of interest to the researcher.

3- Case study method:

It is a method based on a comprehensive study of one educational system or a study of a particular city or governorate so that the student has the analytical basis in which he explains the educational system within its cultural framework and the factors and forces affecting it.

4- Statistical comparison method:

Its results depend on values ​​and data and their treatment in statistical tests, such as comparing the education budget, the number of successful students in the secondary stage, the number of students who dropped out in the basic stages, or the number and gender of faculty members for the different educational stages.

5- Global study method:

In this type, international bodies and organizations conduct the study in which no single researcher or a specific team of researchers can do, but several teams of researchers must join forces. Researchers, such as the UNESCO study in 1970 on reducing educational losses.