Educational research is conducted within a variety of constraints -- isolation of variables,
availability of subjects, limitations of research procedures, availability of resources, and
balancing of priorities. Various research methodologies are used in mathematics
education research including a clinical approach that is frequently used to study problem
solving. Typically, mathematical tasks or problem situations are devised, and students are
studied as they perform the tasks. Often they are asked to talk aloud while working or
they are interviewed and asked to reflect on their experience and especially their thinking
processes. Waters (48) discusses the advantages and disadvantages of four different
methods of measuring strategy use involving a clinical approach. Schoenfeld (32)
describes how a clinical approach may be used with pairs of students in an interview. He
indicates that "dialog between students often serves to make managerial decisions overt,
whereas such decisions are rarely overt in single student protocols.