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Making Sense of Research : What's Good, What's Not, and How to Tell the Difference

by: Elaine K. McEwan

Making Sense of Research : What's Good, What's Not, and How to Tell the Difference

by: Elaine K. McEwan

ISBN 13:
9780761977087
ISBN 10:
0761977082
Format: Paperback
Copyright: 03/14/2003
Publisher: Corwin Pr

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Summary

This book is for practitioners at all levels, from teachers making site-specific decisions to administrators making schoolwide and policy decisions.

Foreword

Henry M. Levin

Preface

xiii

The Goals of This Book

xiv

Who This Book Is For

What This Book Is Not

Overview of the Contents

xvi

A Few Words of Explanation

xvii

Acknowledgments

xviii

About the Authors

xxi

Asking the Right Questions

(17)

What Is Our Approach to Making Sense of Research?

(1)

Five Questions About Research

(9)

The Causal Question: Does It Work?

(3)

The Process Question: How Does It Work?

(1)

The Cost Question: Is It Worthwhile?

(1)

The Usability Question: Will It Working for Me?

(1)

The Evaluation Question: Is It Working for Me?

(1)

Four Case Studies of Education Research

(5)

Class Size Reduction: Does Size Matter?

(1)

Phonics: Can It Teach Them All to Read?

(1)

Vouchers: Are Private Schools in the Public Good?

(1)

Whole-School Reform: Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts?

(1)

Further Reading

(1)

Behind the Scenes in the World of Education Research

(14)

The World of Education Research

(4)

The Worldviews of Researchers

(1)

Research Methodologies

(1)

The Purposes of Research

(1)

Who Does Education Research?

(1)

Who Pays for It?

(1)

Where Is It Published?

(1)

Can You Trust Education Research?

(2)

What Does the Future Hold for Education Research?

(2)

Does Education Research Really Matter?

(1)

Further Reading

(2)

The Causal Question: Does It Work? (Part I)

(22)

The Causality Conundrum

(1)

Simple (Minded) Methods of Establishing Causality

(4)

The Before-and-After Approach

(1)

The Comparison Group Approach

(1)

Internal Validity

(1)

The Elements of an Experiment

(7)

Why Random Assignment?

(2)

Units of Randomization

(1)

Defining the Treatment, Outcomes, and Sample

(1)

What Is the Treatment?

(1)

What Are the Outcomes?

(1)

What Is the Sample?

(1)

Analyzing Experimental Results

(1)

What Can Go Wrong With Experiments?

(1)

Why Are Experiments So Unpopular With Education Researchers?

(6)

Does Class Size Reduction Work?

(1)

Does Phonics Instruction Work?

(1)

Do Private-School Vouchers Work?

(1)

Does Whole-School Reform Work?

(1)

Further Reading

(2)

The Causal Question: Does It Work? (Part II)

(21)

Quasi-Experiments and Non-Experiments

(2)

What They Are Not

(1)

What They Are

(1)

The Researcher's Bag of Tricks

(4)

Design

(2)

Statistics

(2)

Quasi-Experimental Approaches

(3)

Matching

(2)

Interrupted Time Series

(1)

Bad Quasi-Experiments

(1)

Non-Experimental Approaches

(9)

Correlational Studies

(2)

``Natural'' Experiments

(1)

Bad Non-Experiments

(2)

Does Class Size Reduction Work?

(1)

Does Phonics Instruction Work?

(1)

Do Private-School Vouchers Work?

(1)

Does Whole-School Reform Work?

(1)

Further Reading

(2)

The Process Question: How Does It Work?

(16)

What Is Qualitative Research?

(1)

The Qualities of Qualitative Research

(2)

Naturalistic

(1)

Descriptive

(1)

Focused on Meaning and Explanation

(1)

The Power of Qualitative Research

(1)

Qualitative Research Methods

(3)

Interviewing

(1)

Observing

(1)

Analyzing Documents

(1)

From Whence Comes the Quality in Qualitative Research?

(7)

How Does Class Size Reduction Work?

(1)

How Does Phonics Instruction Work?

(1)

How Do Private-School Vouchers Work?

(1)

How Does Whole-School Reform Work?

(1)

Further Reading

(1)

The Cost Question: Is It Worthwhile?

(19)

The Concept of Costs

(2)

The Ingredients Method of Cost Analysis

(6)

Identifying Ingredients

(2)

Valuing Ingredients

(1)

Analyzing the Distribution of Costs

(1)

Aren't Budgets Good Enough?

(1)

A Cost Analysis Caveat

(1)

Two Important Cost Questions

100

(9)

Is It Cost-Feasible?

100

(1)

Is It Cost-Effective?

101

(2)

Why Does This Matter?

103

(2)

Is Class Size Reduction Worthwhile?

105

(1)

Is Phonics Instruction Worthwhile?

106

(1)

Are Private-School Vouchers Worthwhile?

107

(1)

Is Whole-School Reform Worthwhile?

108

(1)

Further Reading

109

(1)

The Usability Question: Will It Work for Me?

110

(19)

Will it Work in My Setting?

111

(4)

Students

112

(1)

Settings

112

(1)

Treatments

113

(1)

Outcomes

114

(1)

Some Rules of Thumb for Making Generalizations

115

(4)

Surface Similarity

116

(1)

Ruling Out Irrelevancies

116

(1)

Making Discriminations

117

(1)

Interpolation and Extrapolation

117

(1)

Causal Explanation

118

(1)

Research Reviews and Meta-Analysis

119

(1)

Special Considerations for Qualitative and Cost Studies

120

(2)

Qualitative Studies

120

(1)

Cost Studies

121

(1)

Making Trade-Offs

122

(6)

Will Class Size Reduction Work for Me?

124

(1)

Will Phonics Instruction Work for Me?

125

(1)

Will Private-School Vouchers Work for Me?

126

(1)

Will Whole-School Reform Work for Me?

127

(1)

Further Reading

128

(1)

The Evaluation Question: Is It Working for Me?

129

(22)

What Is User-Driven Research?

130

(4)

The Causal Question: Is It Working for Me?

132

(1)

The Process Question: How Is It Working for Me?

132

(1)

The Cost Question: Is It Worthwhile for Me?

133

(1)

User-Driven Research at Lincoln Middle School

134

(3)

Middle School: Panacea or Pandora's Box?

134

(1)

Adopting the User-Driven Research Mind-Set

135

(2)

Asking the Right Questions

137

(6)

Question Number One: Is the Middle School Model Working for Us?

137

(1)

What Does the Research Say?

137

(1)

Analyzing Achievement Test Data

138

(1)

Question Number Two: How Is the Middle School Model Working (Or Not Working) for Us?

139

(1)

Surveying the Faculty

139

(2)

Interviewing the Faculty

141

(1)

Interviewing Students and Parents

142

(1)

Question Number Three: Is the Middle School Model Worthwhile for Us?

143

(1)

Counting the Costs

143

(1)

Cost Effective?

143

(1)

Refocusing on Outcomes

143

(1)

Defining the Problems

144

(1)

Exemplars of User-Driven Research

145

(5)

Inquiry for School Improvement: The Accelerated-School Model

145

(2)

Closing the Literacy Gap: The Reading Apprenticeship

147

(1)

Teachers as Staff Developers: East Side Community High School

148

(1)

Sustaining School Improvement: The Professional Learning Community

149

(1)

Further Reading

150

(1)

Resource: Bibliographies for Case Studies

151

(6)

Class Size Reduction

151

(1)

Phonics Instruction

152

(2)

Private-School Vouchers

154

(1)

Whole-School Reform

155

(2)

References

157

(13)

Index

170

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Making Sense of Research : What's Good, What's Not, and How to Tell the Difference

Making Sense of Research : What's Good, What's Not, and How to Tell the Difference

9780761977087

0761977082

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

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