Research Methods in Education, Sixth Edition

[Pages:657]Research Methods in

Education

This rewritten and updated sixth edition of the long-running bestseller Research Methods in Education covers the whole range of methods currently employed by educational research at all stages. It has five main parts: the context of educational research, planning educational research, styles of educational research, strategies for data collection and researching and data analysis. The book contains references to a comprehensive dedicated web site of accompanying materials. It continues to be the standard text for students and lecturers undertaking, understanding and using educational research.

This sixth edition comprises new material including:

O complexity theory, ethics, sampling, sensitive educational research, researching powerful people, Internet-based research, interviewing and surveys

O expanded coverage of, and practical guidance in, experimental research, questionnaire design and administration

O an entirely new part, containing five new chapters covering qualitative and quantitative data analysis including content analysis, grounded theory, statistics and how to use them, effect size, and reporting data, all with practical examples

O detailed cross-referencing to a major educational resource web site designed specifically to run alongside this book.

Research Methods in Education, sixth edition, is essential reading for both the professional researcher and anyone involved in educational research.

Louis Cohen is Emeritus Professor of Education at Loughborough University, UK.

Lawrence Manion was former Principal Lecturer in Music at Didsbury School of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

Keith Morrison is Professor of Education at the Inter-University Institute of Macau and formerly Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Durham, UK.

Research Methods in Education

Sixth edition Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison

First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business ? 2007 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. "To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to eBookstore.tandf.co.uk."

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-02905-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 10: 0?415?37410?3 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0?415?36878?2 (pbk) ISBN 10: 0?203?02905?4 (ebk)

ISBN 13: 978?0?415?37410?1 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978?0?415?36878?0 (pbk) ISBN 13: 978?0?203?02905?3 (ebk)

For Lawrence Manion, a wise counsellor and a good friend

Contents

List of boxes

xiii

Acknowledgements

xvii

Introduction

1

Part 1 The context of educational research

1 The nature of inquiry ? Setting the field

Introduction

5

The search for truth

5

Two conceptions of social reality

7

Positivism

9

The assumptions and nature of

science

11

The tools of science

14

The scientific method

15

Criticisms of positivism and the scientific

method

17

Alternatives to positivistic social science:

naturalistic approaches

19

A question of terminology: the normative

and interpretive paradigms

21

Phenomenology, ethnomethodology and

symbolic interactionism

22

Criticisms of the naturalistic and interpretive

approaches

25

Critical theory and critical educational

research

26

Criticisms of approaches from critical

theory

29

Critical theory and curriculum

research

30

A summary of the three paradigms

32

The emerging paradigm of complexity

theory

33

Feminist research

34

Research and evaluation

41

Research, politics and policy-making 46

Methods and methodology

47

Part 2 Planning educational research

2 The ethics of educational and social research

Introduction

51

Informed consent

52

Access and acceptance

55

The field of ethics

58

Sources of tension

58

Voices of experience

61

Ethical dilemmas

62

Ethics and research methods in

education

69

Ethics and evaluative research

70

Research and regulation: ethical codes and

review

71

Sponsored research

74

Responsibilities to the research

community

75

Conclusion

75

3 Planning educational research

Introduction

78

A framework for planning research

78

A planning matrix for research

87

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