Research Methods in Education

Joseph W. Check, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership in the Graduate College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Boston. He completed his B.A. at Boston College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English at Tufts University. His prior publications include Politics, Language, and Culture: A Critical Look at Urban School Reform (Praeger, 2002), co-editorship of Writing Within School Reform, a monograph series of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, and book chapters and articles on literacy, practitioner inquiry, and urban school reform. He has supervised dissertations in school reform, professional development, literacy, home/school interactions, and special education. He has served as Principal or Co-Principal Investigator for numerous grant-funded professional development programs including a 4-year, $4M practitioner inquiry project in 14 urban school districts, funded by the DeWitt-Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation. He is an experienced classroom instructor in master’s and doctoral level research courses.Russell K. Schutt, PhD, is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service and taught from 1979 to 2022. He is also a Clinical Research Scientist I at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. He completed his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University. In addition to ten editions of Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and seven editions of Making Sense of the Social World, with Daniel F. Chambliss, PhD, as well as coauthored versions for criminal justice, psychology, and education, his other books include Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (2011), Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited, 2015), and Organization in a Changing Environment (1986). He has authored and coauthored more than 70 peer reviewed journal articles, as well as more than 30 non-refereed articles and book chapters on social support, mental and physical health, health services, organizations, homelessness, law, and teaching research methods. His research has been funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the National Science Foundation, the Veterans Health Administration, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Fetzer Institute, and state agencies. Details are available at https://blogs.umb.edu/russellkschutt/.

• PrefacePart I. Foundations of Research1. Science, Schooling, and Educational ResearchLearning About the Educational WorldThe Educational Research ApproachEducational Research PhilosophiesConclusions2. The Process and Problems of Educational ResearchEducational Research QuestionsEducational Research BasicsThe Role of Educational TheoryEducational Research GoalsEducational Research Proposals, Part IConclusions3. Ethics in ResearchHistorical BackgroundEthical PrinciplesConclusions4. Conceptualization and MeasurementConceptsMeasurement OperationsLevels of MeasurementEvaluating MeasuresConclusions5. SamplingSample PlanningSampling MethodsSampling DistributionsConclusionsPart II. Research Design and Data Collection6. Causation and Research DesignCausal ExplanationCriteria for Causal ExplanationsTypes of Research DesignsTrue Experimental DesignsQuasi-Experimental DesignsThreats to Validity in Experimental DesignsNonexperimentsConclusions7. Evaluation ResearchWhat Is Evaluation Research?What Can an Evaluation Study Focus On?How Can the Program Be Described? Creating a Program Logic ModelWhat Are the Alternatives in Evaluation Design?Ethical Issues in Evaluation ResearchConclusions8. Survey ResearchWhy Is Survey Research So Popular?Errors in Survey ResearchQuestionnaire DesignWriting QuestionsSurvey Design AlternativesCombining MethodsSurvey Research Design in a Diverse SocietyEthical Issues in Survey ResearchConclusions9. Qualitative Methods: Observing, Participating, ListeningFundamentals of Qualitative ResearchParticipant ObservationIntensive InterviewingFocus GroupsCombining Qualitative and Quantitative MethodsEthical Issues in Qualitative ResearchConclusions10. Single-Subject DesignFoundations of Single-Subject DesignMeasuring Targets of InterventionTypes of Single-Subject DesignsAnalyzing Single-Subject DesignsEthical Issues in Single-Subject DesignConclusions11. Mixing and Comparing Methods and StudiesMixed MethodsComparing Reserch DesignsPerforming Meta-AnalysesConclusions12. Teacher Research and Action ResearchTeacher Research: Three Case StudiesTeacher Research: A Self-Planning Outline for Creating Your Own ProjectAction Research and How It Differs From Teacher ResearchValidity and Ethical Issues in Teacher Research and Action ResearchConclusionsPart III. Analyzing and Reporting Data13. Quantitative Data AnalysisWhy We Need StatisticsPreparing Data for AnalysisDisplaying Univariate DistributionsSummarizing Univariate DistributionsRelationships (Associations) Among VariablesPresenting Data Ethically: How Not to Lie With StatisticsConclusions14. Qualitative Data AnalysisFeatures of Qualitative Data AnalysisTechniques of Qualitative Data AnalysisAlternatives in Qualitative Data AnalysisComputer-Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysisEthics in Qualitative Data AnalysisConclusions15. Proposing and Reporting ResearchEducational Research Proposals, Part IIReporting ResearchEthics, Politics, and Research ReportsConclusionsAppendix A: Questions to Ask About a Research ArticleAppendix B: How to Read a Research ArticleAppendix C: Finding Information, by Elizabeth Schneider and Russell K. SchuttAppendix D: Table of Random NumbersGlossaryReferencesAuthor IndexSubject IndexAbout the Authors