First published 2007 by Routledge
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2007 Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison
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ISBN
0-203-02905-4 Mastere-bookISBN
ISBN 10: 0–415–37410–3 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–36878–2 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0–203–02905–4 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–37410–1 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–36878–0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–02905–3 (ebk)
Contents
List of boxes xiii
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction 1
Part 1
The context of educational research
1 The nature of inquiry – Setting the
field
Introduction 5
The search for truth 5
Two conceptions of social reality 7
Positivism 9
The assumptions and nature of
science 11
The tools of science 14
The scientific method 15
Criticisms of positivism and the scientific
method 17
Alternatives to positivistic social science:
naturalistic approaches 19
A question of terminology: the normative
and interpretive paradigms 21
Phenomenology, ethnomethodology and
symbolic interactionism 22
Criticisms of the naturalistic and interpretive
approaches 25
Critical theory and critical educational
research 26
Criticisms of approaches from critical
theory 29
Critical theory and curriculum
research 30
A summary of the three paradigms 32
The emerging paradigm of complexity
theory 33
Feminist research 34
Research and evaluation 41
Research, politics and policy-making 46
Methods and methodology 47
Part 2
Planning educational research
2 The ethics of educational and social
research
Introduction 51
Informed consent 52
Access and acceptance 55
The field of ethics 58
Sources of tension 58
Voices of experience 61
Ethical dilemmas 62
Ethics and research methods in
education 69
Ethics and evaluative research 70
Research and regulation: ethical codes and
review 71
Sponsored research 74
Responsibilities to the research
community 75
Conclusion 75
3 Planning educational research
Introduction 78
A framework for planning research 78
A planning matrix for research 87
Managing the planning of research 93A worked example 95
Conclusion 98
4 Sampling
Introduction 100
The sample size 101
Sampling error 106
The representativeness of the sample 108
The access to the sample 109
The sampling strategy to be used 110
Probability samples 110
Non-probability samples 113
Planning a sampling strategy 117
Conclusion 117
5 Sensitive educational research
What is sensitive research? 119
Sampling and access 121
Ethical issues in sensitive research 124
Researching powerful people 127
Asking questions 130
Conclusion 131
6 Validity and reliability
Defining validity 133
Triangulation 141
Ensuring validity 144
Reliability in quantitative research 146
Reliability in qualitative research 148
Validity and reliability in interviews 150
Validity and reliability in
experiments 155
Validity and reliability in
questionnaires 157
Validity and reliability in
observations 158
Validity and reliability in tests 159
Validity and reliability in life
histories 164
Part 3
Styles of educational research
7 Naturalistic and ethnographic research
Elements of naturalistic inquiry 167
Planning naturalistic research 171
Critical ethnography 186
Some problems with ethnographic and
naturalistic approaches 188
8 Historical and documentary research
Introduction 191
Choice of subject 192
Data collection 193
Evaluation 194
Writing the research report 195
The use of quantitative methods 197
Life histories 198
Documentary research 201
9 Surveys, longitudinal, cross-sectional
and trend studies
Introduction 205
Some preliminary considerations 207
Planning a survey 208
Survey sampling 211
Longitudinal, cross-sectional and trend
studies 211
Strengths and weaknesses of longitudinal,
cohort and cross-sectional studies 214
Postal, interview and telephone
surveys 218
Event history analysis 224
10 Internet-based research and computer
usage
Introduction 226
Internet-based surveys 226
Internet-based experiments 239
Internet-based interviews 241Searching for research materials on the
Internet 242
Evaluating web sites 244
Computer simulations 245
Geographical Information Systems 251
11 Case studies
What is a case study? 253
Examples of kinds of case study 258
Why participant observation? 260
Recording observations 260
Planning a case study 261
Writing up a case study 262
Conclusion 263
12 Ex post facto research
Introduction 264
Co-relational and criterion groups
designs 265
Characteristics of ex post facto
research 266
Occasions when appropriate 268
Advantages and disadvantages of
ex post facto research 268
Designing an ex post facto
investigation 269
Procedures in ex post facto research 270
13 Experiments, quasi-experiments,
single-case research and meta-analysis
Introduction 272
Designs in educational
experimentation 274
True experimental designs 275
A quasi-experimental design: the
non-equivalent control group design 282
Single-case research: ABAB design 284
Procedures in conducting experimental
research 285
Examples from educational research 287
Evidence-based educational research and
meta-analysis 289
CONTENTS ix
14 Action research
Introduction 297
Defining action research 297
Principles and characteristics of action
research 299
Action research as critical praxis 302
Procedures for action research 304
Reflexivity in action research 310
Some practical and theoretical
matters 311
Conclusion 312
Part 4
Strategies for data collection and
researching
15 Questionnaires
Introduction 317
Ethical issues 317
Approaching the planning of a
questionnaire 318
Types of questionnaire items 321
Asking sensitive questions 333
Avoiding pitfalls in question writing 334
Sequencing the questions 336
Questionnaires containing few verbal
items 337
The layout of the questionnaire 338
Covering letters or sheets and follow-up
letters 339
Piloting the questionnaire 341
Practical considerations in questionnaire
design 342
Administering questionnaires 344
Processing questionnaire data 346
16 Interviews
Introduction 349
Conceptions of the interview 349
Purposes of the interview 351
Types of interview 352Planning interview-based research
procedures 356
Group interviewing 373
Interviewing children 374
Focus groups 376
The non-directive interview and the
focused interview 377
Telephone interviewing 379
Ethical issues in interviewing 382
17 Accounts
Introduction 384
The ethogenic approach 384
Characteristics of accounts and
episodes 384
Procedures in eliciting, analysing and
authenticating accounts: an example 385
Network analyses of qualitative data 388
What makes a good network? 388
Discourse analysis 389
Analysing social episodes 391
Account gathering in educational
research: an example 391
Problems in gathering and analysing
accounts 392
Strengths of the ethogenic approach 393
A note on stories 394
18 Observation
Introduction 396
Structured observation 398
Critical incidents 404
Naturalistic and participant
observation 404
Natural and artificial settings for
observation 408
Ethical considerations 408
Some cautionary comments 410
Conclusion 412
19 Tests
Introduction 414
What are we testing? 414
Parametric and non-parametric tests 414
Norm-referenced, criterion-referenced
and domain-referenced tests 415
Commercially produced tests and
researcher-produced tests 416
Constructing a test 418
Devising a pretest and post-test 432
Reliability and validity of tests 432
Ethical issues in preparing for tests 432
Computerized adaptive testing 433
20 Personal constructs
Introduction 435
Characteristics of the method 435
‘Elicited’ versus ‘provided’ constructs 436
Allotting elements to constructs 437
Laddering and pyramid constructions 439
Grid administration and analysis 439
Procedures in grid administration 439
Procedures in grid analysis 439
Strengths of repertory grid technique 442
Difficulties in the use of repertory grid
technique 442
Some examples of the use of repertory
grid in educational research 443
Grid technique and audio/video lesson
recording 445
Focused grids, non-verbal grids, exchange
grids and sociogrids 446
21 Role-playing
Introduction 448
Role-playing versus deception: the
argument 450
Role-playing versus deception: the
evidence 451
Role-playing in educational settings 452
The uses of role-playing 452
Strengths and weaknesses of role-playing
and other simulation exercises 455
Role-playing in an educational setting:
an example 455
Evaluating role-playing and other
simulation exercises 456Part 5
Data analysis
Approaches to qualitative data analysis
Introduction 461
Tabulating data 463
Five ways of organizing and presenting
data analysis 467
Systematic approaches to data
analysis 469
Methodological tools for analysing
qualitative data 473
Content analysis and grounded theory
Introduction 475
What is content analysis? 475
How does content analysis work? 476
A worked example of content
analysis 483
Computer usage in content analysis 487
Reliability in content analysis 490
Grounded theory 491
Interpretation in qualitative data
analysis: multilayered texts 495
Quantitative data analysis
Introduction 501
Scales of data 502
Parametric and non-parametric data 503
Descriptive and inferential statistics 503
One-tailed and two-tailed tests 504
Dependent and independent
variables 504
Reliability 506
Exploratory data analysis: frequencies,
percentages and cross-tabulations 506
Statistical significance 515
Hypothesis testing 519
Effect size 520
The chi-square test 525
Degrees of freedom 527
Measuring association 528
Regression analysis 536
Measures of difference between groups
and means 542
25 Multidimensional measurement and
factor analysis
Introduction 559
Elementary linkage analysis: an
example 559
Factor analysis 560
Factor analysis: an example 570
Examples of studies using
multidimensional scaling and cluster
analysis 576
Multidimensional data: some words on
notation 579
Multilevel modelling 583
Cluster analysis 584
26 Choosing a statistical test
How many samples? 586
Assumptions of tests 591
Notes 593
Bibliography 599
Index 633
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