Western educational researchers generally regard experimental
studies as "unethical" now.
I see this as a result of the debate
between Chomsky and Skinner: conducting experiments on human beings is like
treating human beings as animals. However, probably due to this ethical
consideration in the Western academia, I hardly see ground breaking educational
research outputs conducted in Western countries nowadays, as compared to early
and middle of the 20th century.
Having said so, I participated in several experimental
studies conducted under the Psychological Department when I was studying in
University of Warwick. In other words, Experimental studies are allowable under
the domain of psychological studies, but not educational studies in certain
universities.
In UPSI, my colleagues in Sports Science also conduct
experimental studies that involve blood test--as long as they follow ethical
protocol set by the university and the Sports Council. So whether you can
conduct experiment studies or not depends on which department or domain of
study you are studying your PhD.
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