Quasi-experimental research as an epistemological-methodological approach in education research

Pedagogy as a social-humanistic science that deals with upbringing and education expresses its complexity through a plurality of ideas, understandings and opportunities for studying, learning and researching educational practice. The methodology dealt with by experimental and quasi-experimental pedagogy is exact and serves to establish reliable data, i.e., it searches for facts and evidence that can replace research hypotheses. A synonym for quasi-experimental pedagogy is “new pedagogy” because the evaluation of research quality in educational practice can be defined through the methodological basis of research, originality, novelty and significance. The question arises: how many quasi-experiments have been conducted so far that researchers are not even aware of, that is, they have not called this type of research by its real name? The main goal of theoretical research is to analyze the crucial differences between non-experimental, experimental and quasi-experimental research. From the presented goal of the research arises the research task which is reflected in seeking to affirm quasi-experimental research in pedagogy with the aim of bringing closer to the scientific public the characteristics and advantages of quasi-experiments in terms of streamlining implementation and practicality in the natural school environment. The paper uses the theoretical analysis method with the content analysis technique. The authors presented conclusions about the importance of quasi-experimental research as a special epistemological-methodological approach in determining the causality of educational phenomena.