RT - Journal Article T1 - Internal and external research methodologies relevant to the curriculum in higher education JF - cstp YR - 2014 JO - cstp VO - 1 IS - 2 UR - http://cstp.khu.ac.ir/article-1-1920-en.html SP - 125 EP - 148 K1 - methodology K1 - Curriculum K1 - higher education AB - Abstract: Curriculum has always been the main element in any educational system and a relatively large number of research has been carried out in this area. Using quantitative approach and document content analysis, this study investigates the methodologies applied in research on higher education curriculum. Among the existing literature, 30 studies from 13 journals that were carried out by Iranian researchers, and 30 studies from 14 credible journals carried out by foreign scholars were selected through purposeful sampling, and subsequently analyzed.  The results reveal that in foreign studies on curriculum, qualitative approach was dominant, employed in sixty percent of the studies. Within this portion, case studies and phenomenological approach with %50 and 37.5% were used most by the researchers. The study also found that quantitative approach was the dominant approach applied in Iranian studies (fifty percent), among which survey methodology was the most widely used (%85.8). Moreover, this study indicates that both Iranian and foreign research are moving from quantitative to qualitative and mixed research, although this trend is stronger in foreign research.   LA eng UL http://cstp.khu.ac.ir/article-1-1920-en.html M3 ER -