Research Methods in Education [antikvár]

RESEARCH METHODS IN EDUCATIONHow can teachers and researchers come to a deeper understanding of the processes of learning? What factors serve as disincentives to learning for many children? How can optimal learning be promoted? Research Methods in Education explores the whole range of methods currently employed by educational researchers to find answers to pressing questions like these.Previous editions of this book have been widely used on both initial and in-service courses for teachers. This fourth edition has been extensively revised in order to meet the needs of teachers and researchers in a climate of constant change. The case studies and examples in each chapter have been updated to include issues of current concern, such as reading development in the primary school, teacher stress, the use of information technology in schools, and gender-stereotyping. There is also a new chapter on the ethics of educational research.Louis Cohen, Ph.D., D.Litt., is Emeritus Professor of Education at Loughborough University of Technology. Lawrence Manion, Ph.D., is former Principal Lecturer in Music at Didsbury School of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University.AUTHORS' NOTE TO THE FOURTH EDITIONIt is five years since the third edition of Research Methods in Education was pubHshed and we are indebted to Routledge for the opportunity of producing a fourth revision. The book continues to be received favourably both at home and abroad and we should like to thank users and reviewers, respectively, for their encouraging remarks and constructive comments. In response to the latter we now include a chapter on the ethics of research, its earlier omission being a regrettable oversight on our part when we planned the book originally. Chapter 16: The Ethics of Educational and Social Research, provides a window onto a complex and increasingly relevant part of researchers' work. We trust that the issues raised there will provide readers with a basic framework that will meet their initial needs.Elsewhere, we have incorporated studies, many of which reflect concerns and interests that have surfaced in recent years, and concomitant research techniques developed to examine them. By way of example, we refer briefly to Chapter 3: Developmental Research, which includes a study of reading development in the first school that focuses on patterns of progress over a period of time; Chapter 5: Case Studies, which includes research on information technology and the use of computer programs; Chapter 10, Accounts, which introduces bubble dialogue as a means of exploring classroom discourse; Chapter 12: Role-playing, with an investigation of issues relating to gender-stereotyping; and finally. Chapter 15: Multi-dimensional Measurement, where a study applies the techniques of factor analysis to, inter alia, the problem of teacher stress. The overall format of the book however, remains unchanged and we hope, user-friendly.Against a background of administrative and curricular change and otraitened economic circumstances, educational research has in the recent past more than held its own and made significant contributions across the whole spectrum of education. Although we are some way from no longer needing to record the fall of every apple, as Peter Medawar described it when speaking of the need for science to be