Engaging in Action Research


Book Description

You don't need a tweed jacket to be a researcher—in thousands of schools across North America, practising teachers conduct studies on best practices, alternative approaches, and effective learning strategies. Classroom teachers have experiences and opportunities unavailable to researchers in a university setting, and action research—site-based, teacher-conducted research—can have a valuable impact on the educational community. Yet many teachers don't see their work as real research, and many other teachers have great ideas for research projects but don't know where to begin. For these teachers, Engaging in Action Research demystifies the world of educational research and provides support, guidance, and encouragement. From creating a research plan to reporting findings, this book provides step-by-step instructions to help teachers conduct research projects in the classroom, using strategies that work. Get ready to investigate, analyze, and share!




Handbook of Research on Developing Engaging Online Courses


Book Description

Online instruction is rapidly expanding the way professors think about and plan instruction. In addition, online instructional practices are expanding and changing as new tools and strategies are adopted. It is imperative that programs and institutions of higher education explore increased online options that align with best practices to develop effective and engaging online courses. The Handbook of Research on Developing Engaging Online Courses is an essential research publication that provides multiple perspectives on improving student engagement and success in online courses. This book includes topics focused on the online learner, online course content, and effective online instruction. The content contained within the title is ideal for curriculum developers, instructional designers, IT consultants, deans, chairs, teachers, administrators, academicians, researchers, and students.




Engaging in Educational Research-Practice Partnerships


Book Description

Engaging in Educational Research-Practice Partnerships guides academic researchers into forming mutually respectful, collaborative, and scalable partnerships with school practitioners. Despite robust theoretical and conceptual planning, research on learning is often removed from real settings and generates findings with limited practical relevance, yielding frustration for K-12 stakeholders. This book provides invaluable resources to researchers seeking to work with practitioners as they solve problems and improve outcomes while answering fundamental questions about who gets to generate knowledge, from where, to whom, and in what contexts. A range of illustrative case studies and strategies explores how to apply appropriate theories and methodologies, negotiate agendas that ensure mutually beneficial goals, determine the role of pracademics, establish institutional supports, policies, and procedures that amplify impact and sustainability, and much more.




Doing Educational Research


Book Description

`A welcome and helpful addition to the shelves of tutors and students working on masters programmes. It will be most beneficial supporting students on programmes where there is a substantial research training component. It offers important exemplars of using computer software in qualitative analysis′ - Educational Review `This book is aimed at Master′s students who are engaging in educational research for the first time. [It] provides teacher-researchers with the additional information they need so they can go on to read further and more in depth, having more confidence in the accessibility of such studies. I found it does this well, and is an ideal point of reference for those who are just embarking on a Master′s degree. A useful glossary is provided, giving detailed but ′readable′ explanations of key terms and phrases′ - Primary Practice Doing Educational Research offers a hands-on guide for students engaged in educational research. It provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the key qualitative and quantitative methods necessary for those commencing research for the first time. Through a detailed yet concise explanation, the reader is shown how these methods work and how their outcomes may be interpreted. Providing all the essentials for the first-time researcher, the book includes: · a variety of examples and case studies to illustrate how the methods and techniques can be used in `real-life′ contexts · practical guidance on time management planning research projects and writing reports. · a broad coverage - including qualitative and quantitative methodologies, data analysis using computer software, ethical issues and the writing-up and presentation of data. This engaging book has been written by a team of leading researchers with over sixty years of cumulative experience. It has a student-friendly structure which will make it accessible and popular with undergraduates and postgraduates. It will be an invaluable resource for both students and researchers, helping them to undertake effective research in education.




Thinking Critically and Ethically about Research for Education


Book Description

Thinking Critically and Ethically about Research for Education draws on the experiences of a range of researchers in the discipline to explore the lived realities, including ethical and methodological complexities, involved in undertaking educational research. Using global case studies, this book examines the meaning of ethical research practice and raises questions about representation, power and empowerment in the field. It provides critical reflections from researchers, reviewing the methodologies they used in their studies and the ethical implications of these in theory and practice. The book highlights the various difficulties and realities present in education research and provides researchers with the tools necessary for refining their skills and understanding ethical research methodologies. The chapters reflect authors’ responses to the following questions: What values prompted you to do this work and how did you share these with participants? What were the ethical considerations raised beforehand and how were these tackled in terms of meeting obligations (including to ERBs), maximising benefits and dealing with issues arising during the study and through to publication? What does ‘empowerment’ and/or ‘voice’ mean to you as a researcher and how did you express this to your participants? In what ways were the participants given opportunities to be empowered in or through your study? With critical discussions on ethics and research practices in education research, this book is ideal for student, novice and experienced researchers looking to undertake ethical education research.




Engaging with Student Voice in Research, Education and Community


Book Description

This work interrupts the current “consulting students” discourse that positions students as service clients and thus renders more problematic the concept of student voice in ways that it might be sustained as a democratic process. It looks at student voice holistically across realms of classroom practices, higher education, practitioner inquiry and policy formulation. The authors render problematic the “empowerment” rhetoric that is the dominant and insufficient narrative justifying consulting children and young people. They explore the many contradictions and ambiguities associating with recruiting and encouraging them to participate and the varying impacts of different circumstances on the ways in which student voice projects are enacted. They perceive that it is possible for student voice projects to be subverted from both above and below as varying stakeholders with varying purposes struggle to manage and control projects. Importantly, the book reports on research that identifies and highlights conditions for initiating and sustaining student voice and include “beyond school” dimensions that consider young people as “audiences” who can inform community facilities, their development and design as well as undergraduate students in universities. These cases are not reported as celebratory, but rather act as narratives that illuminate the many challenges facing those who chose to work with young people in authentic ways. It both advances methodologies for engaging young people as active agents in the design and interpretation of research that concerns them and offers a critique of those methods that see young people as the objects of research, where the data is mined for purposes that do not recognise that students are the consequential stakeholders with respect to decisions made in their interests.​




Conducting Educational Research


Book Description

Conducting Educational Research: A Primer for Teachers and Administrators is designed to provide the step-wise, content-specific information masters students must possess to design, conduct, and disseminate a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods classroom or school research study.




The Teacher's Guide to Research


Book Description

This accessible guide provides practical support on becoming research engaged and research active within the school and beyond. It explores the meaning of research and clarifies multiple types of research which lead to different views on ‘what works’, all whilst showing how to engage with the latest educational findings and how to conduct classroom-based research as part of career-long professional development. Divided into three parts, this book examines the various understandings of being ‘research-engaged’ and covers key issues such as: Finding and interpreting research How to apply and evaluate findings in reliable ways Planning and carrying out a classroom-based project Building a culture of research within a school Establishing local research networks Publishing work Illustrated with inspiring examples of how to these implement ideas in schools, The Teachers’ Guide to Research is perfect for practicing schools teachers, student teachers and educational leaders who are looking to expand their research knowledge and rekindle their professional curiosity.




Exploring Educational Research Literacy


Book Description

Exploring Educational Research Literacy offers beginning classroom teachers a comprehensive introduction to the topic of educational research literacy—that is, the ability to read educational research articles in a systemic and critical way. Many beginning teacher education students are expected to be familiar with the latest research in their field, but are not necessarily researchers themselves. In fact, many new students have had little exposure to educational research. In this accessible text, Gary Shank and Launcelot Brown give students step-by-step guidance through the often baffling process of learning a new 'language' of research methods. Using clear and friendly language, and employing simple articles created to introduce students to important ideas in an engaging manner, Exploring Educational Research Literacy gives students the tools to shift from being passive consumers of research to active and critical readers capable of evaluating research and judging the usefulness of the findings for educational practice. Features include: Downloadable resources including ten real research articles and eight "training" articles: Each lets students practice their research literacy skills and includes a list of questions to guide students in their reading" 'Practice Makes Perfect': end of the chapter reflection activities that prompt students to apply research skills described in each chapter Article Literacy Checklist: a guide to help students read research articles critically Glossary of key terms Clear and engaging style: Exploring Educational Research Literacy is written so that even students who are new to educational research can gain a clear understanding of and ability to apply the special skills needed to read research articles




Engaging in Educational Research


Book Description

This book reflects the paradigm shift now manifesting in Bangladesh’s education system by highlighting recent empirical research. It shares essential insights by presenting research conducted on diverse aspects of current day education in Bangladesh, including policy and governance, equity, access and participation, curriculum and pedagogy, assessment, and education programs and projects run by NGOs. Further, it offers a platform for these unique studies to be showcased and disseminated to scholars and researchers from developing and developed countries alike, and represents a unique reference resource for the education research community in Bangladesh, Asia and all over the world. With Foreword from Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury.