Research Methods in Education

This thoroughly updated and extended eighth edition of the long-running bestseller Research Methods in Education covers the whole range of methods employed by educational research at all stages. Its five main parts cover: the context of educational research; research design; methodologies for educational research; methods of data collection; and data analysis and reporting. It continues to be the go-to text for students, academics and researchers who are undertaking, understanding and using educational research, and has been translated into several languages. It offers plentiful and rich practical advice, underpinned by clear theoretical foundations, research evidence and up-to-date references, and it raises key issues and questions for researchers planning, conducting, reporting and evaluating research.

This edition contains new chapters on:

Mixed methods research

The role of theory in educational research

Ethics in Internet research

Research questions and hypotheses

Internet surveys

Virtual worlds, social network software and netography in educational research

Using secondary data in educational research

Statistical significance, effect size and statistical power

Beyond mixed methods: using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to integrate cross-case and within-case analyses.

Research Methods in Education is essential reading for both the professional researcher and anyone involved in educational and social research. The book is supported by a wealth of online materials, including PowerPoint slides, useful weblinks, practice data sets, downloadable tables and figures from the book, and a virtual, interactive, self-paced training programme in research methods. These resources can be found at: www.routledge.com/cw/cohen.

Table of Contents

PART 1: The context of educational research 1 The nature of enquiry: setting the field; 2 Mixed methods research; 3 Critical educational research; 4 Theory in educational research; 5 Evaluation and research; 6 The search for causation PART 2: Research design 7 The ethics of educational and social research; 8 Ethics in Internet research; 9 Choosing a research project; 10 Research questions; 11 Research design and planning; 12 Sampling; 13 Sensitive educational research; 14 Validity and reliability PART 3: Methodologies for Educational Research 15 Qualitative, naturalistic and ethnographic research; 16 Historical and documentary research, Jane Martin; 17 Surveys, longitudinal, cross-sectional and trend studies; 18 Internet surveys; 19 Case studies; 20 Experiments; 21 Meta-analysis, systematic reviews and research syntheses, Harsh Suri; 22 Action research; 23 Virtual worlds, social network software and netography in educational research, Stewart Martin PART 4: Methods of Data Collection 24 Questionnaires; 25 Interviews; 26 Observation; 27 Tests; 28 Using secondary data in educational research; 29 Personal constructs, Richard Bell; 30 Role play and research, Carmel O’Sullivan; 31 Visual media in educational research PART 5: Data Analysis and Reporting 32 Approaches to qualitative data analysis; 33 Organizing and presenting qualitative data; 34 Coding and content analysis; 35 Discourses: conversations, narratives and autobiographies as texts; 36 Analyzing visual media; 37 Grounded theory; 39 Statistical significance, effect size and statistical power; 40 Descriptive statistics; 41 Inferential statistics: difference tests; 42 Inferential statistics: Regression analysis and standardization; 43 Factor analysis, cluster analysis and structural equation modelling; 44 Choosing a statistical test; 45 Beyond mixed methods: using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to integrate cross-case and within-case analyses, Barry Cooper and Judith Glaesser