Research Methods for Education
An Introduction
By Peter Newby
May 2010
Pearson Education
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9781405835749
676 pages, Illustrated
$72.50 Paper original
Written with the novice educational researcher in mind, Research Methods in Education is designed to help students produce good quality, valid and valuable research. The text is written in an engaging style and adopts a mixed-methods approach; guidance on analytical procedures that require more advanced tools such as SPSS and Minitab are also provided. The book is packed with exercises, examples and comparative international material from other educational contexts, all of which help to introduce this complex subject in an easy to use format for people that are new to research and are not confident with numerical information.
Peter Newby's student-friendly text allows the researcher to confidently address the practical aspects of deciding on a research project, designing a questionnaire or presenting conclusions in the most convincing way.
Contents
PART I: The Context for Your Research.
1. Research: A Messy Business.
2. Understanding the Research Process
3. Putting Your Research Design Together.
PART II: The Process of Data Collection.
4. Data: Assembling the Research Toolkit.
5. Using Literature In Research.
6. Getting the Right Information.
7. Modelling Data Needs.
8. Using Questionnaires.
9. Talking, Listening and Watching: Other Approaches to Data Collection.
PART III: The Process of Data Analysis.a
10. Extracting the Information from Statistical Data.
11. Extracting the Information from Qualitative Data Sets.
12. Extracting Information from Quantitative Data.
13. Using Statistics to Say Something Significant.
14. Putting It All Together.
References.
Appendices.
Glossary.
Index.
Features
Key features:
· Written for people who are new to research and not confident with numbers
· A mixed methods approach, which doesn’t simply prioritise quantitative or qualitative methods
· Rich supporting website with activities, multiple choice questions, data-sets, examples of good and bad research tools. This shows students how to progress their own research project and contains a remedial maths coaching tool
· Covers graphical and analytic procedures using Internet tools and spreadsheets
· Contains guidance on analytic procedures that require more advanced tools such as SPSS, Minitab
· Designed to help students produce good, valid and valuable research
· Excellent coverage of availability of secondary data sources
· Many excellent international examples and case studies specifically from education, which breaks away from a parochial focus on UK education system
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