ABSTRACT

This rewritten, expanded and updated 7th edition of the long-running bestseller Research Methods in Education encompasses the whole range of methods currently employed by educational research at all stages. It offers plentiful and rich practical advice, underpinned by clear theoretical foundations, research evidence and up-to-date references.

Chapters new to this edition cover:

Causation, critical educational research, evaluation and the politics of research, including material on cross-cultural research, mixed methods and participatory research

Choosing and planning a research project, including material on sampling, research questions, literature reviews and ethical issues

Meta-analysis, research syntheses and systematic reviews

Virtual worlds and internet research

Using and analysing visual media and data in educational research

Organizing and presenting qualitative data, content analysis, coding and computer analysis, themes, narratives, conversations and discourses, grounded theory

Understanding and choosing statistical tests, descriptive and inferential statistics, multi-dimensional measurement and factor analysis

Research Methods in Education is essential reading for both the professional researcher and students of education at undergraduate and postgraduate level, who need to understand how to plan, conduct, analyse and use research.

The textbook is accompanied by a website: www.routledge.com/textbooks/cohen7e. PowerPoint slides for every chapter contain an outline of the chapter structure followed by a thorough summary of the key points, ideal for both lecturers and students.  Within the book a variety of internet resources are referred to and these references have been included here, with links to the websites.  A wide range of supplementary documents are available for many chapters, providing additional guidance and examples.  They range from guidelines for the contents of a research proposal with a worked example, to screen-print manuals for using SPSS and QSR N6 NUD*IST (exportable to N-Vivo) plus data files.

part |2 pages

Part 1 The context of educational research

chapter 1|28 pages

1 The nature of enquiry: setting the field

chapter 2|17 pages

2 Critical educational research

chapter 4|19 pages

The search for causation

part |2 pages

Part 2 Planning educational research

chapter 6|10 pages

6 Choosing a research project

chapter 7|28 pages

7 Planning educational research

chapter 8|22 pages

Sampling

chapter 9|14 pages

Sensitive educational research

chapter 10|38 pages

Validity and reliability

part |2 pages

Part 3 Style of educational research

part |2 pages

Part 4 Strategies and instruments for data collection and researching

chapter 20|32 pages

Questionnaires

chapter 21|35 pages

Interviews

chapter 22|12 pages

accounts

chapter 23|20 pages

Observation

chapter 24|20 pages

Tests

chapter 25|14 pages

Personal constructs

chapter 26|18 pages

role- playing

chapter 27|7 pages

Visual media in educational research

part |2 pages

Part 5 Data analysis

chapter 28|10 pages

approaches to qualitative data analysis

chapter 29|12 pages

Organizing and presenting qualitative data

chapter 30|15 pages

Coding and content analysis

chapter 32|10 pages

analysing visual media

chapter 33|6 pages

Grounded theory

chapter 34|18 pages

approaches to quantitative data analysis

chapter 35|19 pages

Descriptive statistics

chapter 36|31 pages

Inferential statistics

chapter 38|8 pages

Choosing a statistical test