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Making sense of research : what's good, what's not, and how to tell the difference / Elaine K. McEwan, Patrick J. McEwan.

Ebook Central Academic Complete Available online

Format:: Book
Author/Creator:: McEwan-Adkins, Elaine K., 1941-
Contributor:: McEwan, Patrick J.
Language:: English
Subjects (All):: Education--Research--United States.; Education.; School improvement programs--United States.; School improvement programs.
Physical Description:: 1 online resource (xxii, 174 p.) : ill.
Place of Publication:: Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Corwin, c2003.
Summary:: This book is for practitioners at all levels, from teachers making site-specific decisions to administrators making schoolwide and policy decisions.
Contents:: Cover; Contents; Foreword; Preface; The Goals of This Book; Who This Book is for; What This Book is Not; Overview of the Contents; A Few Words of Explanation; Acknowledgments; About the Authors; Chapter 1 - Asking the Right Questions; What is our Approach to Making Sense of Research?; Five Questions about Research; The Causal Question: Does it Work?; The Process Question: How Does it Work?; The Cost Question: Is it Worthwhile?; The Usability Question: Will it Work for Me?; The Evaluation Question: Is it Working for Me?; Four Case Studies of Education Research; Class Size Reduction: Does Size Matter?; Phonics: can it Teach Them all to Read?; Vouchers: Are Private Schools in the Public Good?; Whole-School Reform: Greater Than the Sum of its Parts?; Further Reading; Chapter 2 - Behind the Scenes in the World of Education Research; The World of Education Research; The Worldviews of Researchers; Research Methodologies; The Purposes of Research; Who Does Education Research?; Who Pays for it?; Where is it Published?; Can You Trust Education Research?; What Does the Future Hold for Education Research?; Does Education Research Really Matter?; Chapter 3 - The Causal Question: Does it Work? (Part I); The Causality Conundrum; Simple (Minded) Methods of Establishing Causality; The before-and-after Approach; The Comparison Group Approach; Internal Validity; The Elements of an Experiment; Why Random Assignment?; Units of Randomization; Defining the Treatment, Outcomes, and Sample; What is the Treatment?; What are the Outcomes?; What is the Sample?; Analyzing Experimental Results; What can Go Wrong with Experiments?; Why are Experiments So Unpopular with Education Researchers?; Does Class Size Reduction Work?.; Does Phonics Instruction Work?; Do Private-School Vouchers Work?; Does Whole-School Reform Work?; Chapter 4 - The Causal Question: Does it Work? (Part II); Quasi-Experiments and Non-Experiments; What They are Not; What They are; The Researcher's Bag of Tricks; Design; Statistics; Quasi-Experimental Approaches; Matching; Interrupted Time Series; Bad Quasi-Experiments; Non-Experimental Approaches; Correlational Studies; "Natural" Experiments; Bad Non-Experiments; Does Class Size Reduction Work?; Does Phonics Instruction Work?; Chapter 5 - The Process Question: How Does it Work?; What is Qualitative Research?; The Qualities of Qualitative Research; Naturalistic; Descriptive; Focused on Meaning and Explanation; The Power of Qualitative Research; Qualitative Research Methods; Interviewing; Observing; Analyzing Documents; From Whence Comes the Quality in Qualitative Research?; How Does Class Size Reduction Work?; How Does Phonics Instruction Work?; How Do Private-School Vouchers Work?; How Does Whole-School Reform Work?; Chapter 6 - The Cost Question: Is it Worthwhile?; The Concept of Costs; The Ingredients Method of Cost Analysis; Identifying Ingredients; Valuing Ingredients; Analyzing the Distribution of Costs; Aren't Budgets Good Enough?; A Cost Analysis Caveat; Two Important Cost Questions; Is it Cost-Feasible?; Is it Cost-Effective?; Why Does This Matter?; Is Class Size Reduction Worthwhile?; Is Phonics Instruction Worthwhile?; Are Private-School Vouchers Worthwhile?; Is Whole-School Reform Worthwhile?; Chapter 7 - The Usability Question: Will it Work for Me?; Will it Work in My Setting?; Students.; Settings; Treatments; Outcomes; Some Rules of Thumb for Making Generalizations; Surface Similarity; Ruling out Irrelevancies; Making Discriminations; Interpolation and Extrapolation; Causal Explanation; Research Reviews and Meta-Analysis; Special Considerations for Qualitative and Cost Studies; Qualitative Studies; Cost Studies; Making Trade-offs; Will Class Size Reduction Work for Me?; Will Phonics Instruction Work for Me?; Will Private-School Vouchers Work for Me?; Will Whole-School Reform Work for Me?; Chapter 8 - The Evaluation Question: Is it Working for Me?; What Is User-Driven Research?; The Causal Question: Is it Working for Me?; The Process Question: How is it Working for Me?; The Cost Question: Is it Worthwhile for Me?; User-Driven Research at Lincoln Middle School; Middle School: Panacea or Pandora's Box?; Adopting the User-Driven Research Mind-Set; Asking the Right Questions; Question Number One: Is the Middle School Model Working for us?; What Does the Research Say?; Analyzing Achievement Test Data; Question Number Two: How is the Middle School Model Working (or Not Working) for Us?; Surveying the Faculty; Interviewing the Faculty; Interviewing Students and Parents; Question Number Three: Is the Middle School Model Worthwhile for Us?; Counting the Costs; Cost Effective?; Refocusing on Outcomes; Defining the Problems; Exemplars of User-Driven Research; Inquiry for School Improvement: The Accelerated-School Model; Closing the Literacy Gap: The Reading Apprenticeship; Teachers as Staff Developers: East Side Community High School; Sustaining School Improvement: The Professional Learning Community; Resource: Bibliographies for Case Studies; Class Size Reduction; Phonics Instruction; Private-School Vouchers.; Whole-School Reform; References; Index.
Notes:: Description based upon print version of record.; Includes bibliographical references and index.; Description based on print version record.; Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
ISBN:: 9781483360928; 148336092X; 9781452299839; 1452299838; 9781483328591; 1483328597
OCLC:: 1017728760

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Making sense of research : what's good, what's not, and how to tell the difference / Elaine K. McEwan, Patrick J. McEwan.

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