Educational Research: Taking the Plunge

Research can play an important role in offering ideas and insights into educational issues, but it should always be understood and utilised through the filter of professional values and judgement. This book is suitable for those with little or no research experience: in it, the authors sketch out some of the main features and concepts in educational research, whilst also offering advice on constructing single, small-scale research projects. As such, it will allow readers to engage with some of the basic conceptual elements of research as well as offering a foundation of knowledge and application.

Educational Research has two main aims:

1. To introduce some of the basic concepts and knowledge underlying an understanding of research. This is important as research has a specialist language all of its own. To engage with and critique research we need to be able to understand how and why a piece of research has been developed in the way it has. 2. To provide some basic frameworks for developing your own small-scale research projects. One of the best ways to deepen your understanding of research is to carry out your own! Educational Research is a comprehensive guide to practitioner research; equipping teachers with the tools to develop their research literacy and conduct their own small-scale research projects. The book covers: the foundations of good educational research, research literacy, ethical issues in educational research, managing researcher bias, critical reading and writing, an introduction to research interests, context and questions, worldviews, philosophies and methodologies of research, research methods, data capture, sampling, methods of data collection, analysing data, descriptive statistics, reliability and validity and developing small-scale research projects.