Product Description: This text provides a solid introduction to the foundations of research methods, with the goal of enabling students and professionals in the various fields of education to not simply become casual consumers of research who passively read bits and pieces of research articles, but discerning consumers able to effectively use published research for practical purposes in educational settings...read more

Product Description: Partnerships in Education Research provides the epistemological and philosophical basis for engaging with partners in research and discusses many of the practical issues facing researchers such as finding the right research partner, developing partnership protocols, joint planning approaches and creating effective research relationships...read more

Product Description: For many teachers and teacher education students, research is initially, a daunting prospect. Educational Research: Creative Thinking and Doing, Second Edition, is an accessible and engaging text which introduces students to the broad field of educational research and demonstrates how to use research when thinking about issues arising from educational and social policy, as well as schools and classrooms, within organizational and institutional contexts...read more

The theoretical components of research are some of the most complicated and challenging aspects for new researchers to understand. While relevant methodologies are routinely covered by textbooks, the theory behind the practice can remain unnecessarily opaque. In six concise chapters Foundations of Education Research defines, discusses, and provides applications for the central components of research in order to provide researchers with a common ground from which to work. Including conceptual framework, epistemology, paradigm, theory, theoretical framework, and methodology/method, this book gives students the tools they need to understand existing education research literature and to produce theoretically-grounded work of their own. Beginning each chapter with perspectives from both novice and experienced researchers, this book is designed to help students achieve a deeper understanding of what is expected of them and ideas about how to achieve it. Guiding questions from both perspectives can assist researchers who are engaging with theory for the first time and those looking to improve their understanding of the fundamentals. Practice exercises and suggested reading lists at the end of each chapter offer students resources they can apply to their own research and thinking in concrete ways. A perfect accompaniment to standard research courses, this primer demystifies the jargon of education research in practical terms.

Product Description: Educational researchers take a number of decisions that define the credibility and scope of their enquiry – the approaches they adopt, the strategies they employ, the methods they use and the ways they present their findings. This core text provides an easy-to-read, comprehensive introduction to educational research that will develop your understanding of research strategies, theories and methods...read more

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This user-friendly text takes a learn-by-doing approach to exploring research design issues in education and psychology, offering evenhanded coverage of quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, and single-case designs. Readers learn the basics of different methods and steps for critically examining any study's design, data, and conclusions, using sample peer-reviewed journal articles as practice opportunities. The text is unique in featuring full chapters on survey methods, evaluation, reliability and validity, action research, and research syntheses.Pedagogical Features Include:*An exemplar journal article at the end of each methods chapter, together with questions and activities for critiquing it (including, where applicable, checklist forms to identify threats to internal and external validity), plus lists of additional research examples.*Research example boxes showing how studies are designed to address particular research questions.*In every chapter: numbered chapter objectives, bulleted summaries, subheadings written as questions, a running glossary, and end-of-chapter discussion questions.* Electronic Instructor's Resource Manual with Test Bank, provided separately--includes chapter outlines; answers to exercises, discussion questions, and illustrative example questions; and PowerPoints.

Possibilities for the use of research in educational practice are often written off due to the history, politics and interests of the ostensibly separate worlds that researchers and practitioners occupy. However, a more optimistic account highlights the ways these communities share a common need for practice-based theories, which enable them to make sense of a wide range of issues in education, including pedagogy, learning, and educational equity. In applying theory to situated accounts of various educational practices and learning contexts, this book explores mistaken assumptions about the ways that research can ‘inform’ or otherwise impact practice. It problematises a ‘what works’ agenda but also points to potentially more productive research-practice relationships in education. Experienced contributors describe how they have used a variety of context-sensitive theoretical approaches in the socio-cultural and discursive traditions to both understand practice and address a wide range of practical issues in education. At its core Reframing Educational Research challenges two commonly held assumptions: that "best practice" is readily identifiable in a way that is then transferrable to new contexts for use by practitioners more widely, and that theory will not help with what to do on Monday morning in the classroom or in developing policies with direct and visible impact. Drawing on the experience of a number of highly respected expert contributors, including Mel Ainscow, Harry Daniels, Anna Sfard and Etienne Wenger-Trayner, the book discusses a range of issues that must be explicitly addressed if we are to make headway in developing a sustainable and productive relationship between research, policy and practice. The authors make it clear that the politics, policies, institutional practices, market systems and social dynamics currently at play in education have a tendency to derail the idealised pathway from research to reform. This book aims to move the discussion towards alternative, and potentially more fruitful, ways of linking research with practice. Reframing Educational Research is an invitation to all researchers to identify new opportunities for advancing theory and practice in education. It is a must-read for all practitioners and researchers in education.

Product Description: The educational world is increasingly dominated by 'network rhetoric'; not only are teachers and learners seen as participants in networks, the availability of low-cost electronic devices, collaborative environments and new forms of data 'born digital' have changed the nature of education research...read more

Product Description: Focused on the needs of the new classroom researcher, and those studying at graduate level education courses, School-based Research is a thorough and thoughtful guide to the research process. This Second Edition has been updated to provide further coverage on the best ways to approach, construct and carry out educational research within the classroom...read more

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Product Description: Based on the author's many years of experience working with undergraduate and graduate students, this book is a basic guide to doing a research project in education. Step-by-step advice is presented in a clear way, and chapters take the reader through the entire process, from planning and doing research, to writing it up...read more

Product Description: Set against the current proliferation of global "difference" and economic realignment, Critical Dispositions explores the notions of "evidence" and "expertise" in times of material scarcity. Both have come to the forefront of national and international debate in education as "evidence" and "evidence-based" research and pedagogical practices continue as major trends in educational policy...read more

Product Description: Clear, easy principles to spot what's nonsense and what's reliable Each year, teachers, administrators, and parents face a barrage of new education software, games, workbooks, and professional development programs purporting to be "based on the latest research...read more