Three aspects of educational research have hindered a truly scientific approach--artificially simple laboratory settings, a reliance on post hoc computer analysis, and the rule of the contract office. A more scientific setting might be created if three requirements are satisfied: (1) research should be carried out in life situations; (2) focus should be on sets of forces or systems; (3) strategy for choosing topics should be to contrast systems. With these satisfied, one would be studying the ecology of a phenomenon. Twenty propositions define the properties of ecological systems investigation: the experiment has (1) ecological validity and (2) integrity; (3) has contextual validity; (4) allows participant definition of the situation; (5) requires attention to the setting; (6) allows reciprocal processes; (7) recognizes that social systems operate in the research setting; (8) analyzes second order (N+2) and (9) third order (N+3) effects; (10) accommodates temporal and spatial arrangements; (11) conceptualizes and analyzes in systems terms; (12) analyzes interactions between settings; (13) allows cross-set influences in single person experiments; (14) accounts for reciprocal interactions in multi-setting experiments; (15) replicates at the level of settings; (16) examines larger contexts that affect events within the setting; (17) examines developmental transitions from (18) a lifetime perspective, with (19) possible introduction of innovations; and (20) restructures prevailing systems by redefining goals, roles, and activities, and by providing interconnections between systems. Extensive reference list. (MB)