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9780761977087

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

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780761977087

  • ISBN10:

    0761977082

  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 2003-03-14
  • 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.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi
Henry M. Levin
Preface xiii
The Goals of This Book xiv
Who This Book Is For xv
What This Book Is Not xv
Overview of the Contents xvi
A Few Words of Explanation xvii
Acknowledgments xviii
About the Authors xxi
Asking the Right Questions
1(17)
What Is Our Approach to Making Sense of Research?
2(1)
Five Questions About Research
3(9)
The Causal Question: Does It Work?
5(3)
The Process Question: How Does It Work?
8(1)
The Cost Question: Is It Worthwhile?
9(1)
The Usability Question: Will It Working for Me?
10(1)
The Evaluation Question: Is It Working for Me?
11(1)
Four Case Studies of Education Research
12(5)
Class Size Reduction: Does Size Matter?
13(1)
Phonics: Can It Teach Them All to Read?
14(1)
Vouchers: Are Private Schools in the Public Good?
15(1)
Whole-School Reform: Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts?
16(1)
Further Reading
17(1)
Behind the Scenes in the World of Education Research
18(14)
The World of Education Research
18(4)
The Worldviews of Researchers
19(1)
Research Methodologies
20(1)
The Purposes of Research
21(1)
Who Does Education Research?
22(1)
Who Pays for It?
23(1)
Where Is It Published?
24(1)
Can You Trust Education Research?
25(2)
What Does the Future Hold for Education Research?
27(2)
Does Education Research Really Matter?
29(1)
Further Reading
30(2)
The Causal Question: Does It Work? (Part I)
32(22)
The Causality Conundrum
33(1)
Simple (Minded) Methods of Establishing Causality
34(4)
The Before-and-After Approach
35(1)
The Comparison Group Approach
36(1)
Internal Validity
37(1)
The Elements of an Experiment
38(7)
Why Random Assignment?
38(2)
Units of Randomization
40(1)
Defining the Treatment, Outcomes, and Sample
41(1)
What Is the Treatment?
41(1)
What Are the Outcomes?
42(1)
What Is the Sample?
43(1)
Analyzing Experimental Results
44(1)
What Can Go Wrong With Experiments?
45(1)
Why Are Experiments So Unpopular With Education Researchers?
46(6)
Does Class Size Reduction Work?
48(1)
Does Phonics Instruction Work?
49(1)
Do Private-School Vouchers Work?
50(1)
Does Whole-School Reform Work?
51(1)
Further Reading
52(2)
The Causal Question: Does It Work? (Part II)
54(21)
Quasi-Experiments and Non-Experiments
55(2)
What They Are Not
55(1)
What They Are
56(1)
The Researcher's Bag of Tricks
57(4)
Design
57(2)
Statistics
59(2)
Quasi-Experimental Approaches
61(3)
Matching
61(2)
Interrupted Time Series
63(1)
Bad Quasi-Experiments
63(1)
Non-Experimental Approaches
64(9)
Correlational Studies
64(2)
``Natural'' Experiments
66(1)
Bad Non-Experiments
67(2)
Does Class Size Reduction Work?
69(1)
Does Phonics Instruction Work?
70(1)
Do Private-School Vouchers Work?
71(1)
Does Whole-School Reform Work?
72(1)
Further Reading
73(2)
The Process Question: How Does It Work?
75(16)
What Is Qualitative Research?
76(1)
The Qualities of Qualitative Research
77(2)
Naturalistic
78(1)
Descriptive
78(1)
Focused on Meaning and Explanation
78(1)
The Power of Qualitative Research
79(1)
Qualitative Research Methods
80(3)
Interviewing
80(1)
Observing
81(1)
Analyzing Documents
82(1)
From Whence Comes the Quality in Qualitative Research?
83(7)
How Does Class Size Reduction Work?
86(1)
How Does Phonics Instruction Work?
87(1)
How Do Private-School Vouchers Work?
88(1)
How Does Whole-School Reform Work?
89(1)
Further Reading
90(1)
The Cost Question: Is It Worthwhile?
91(19)
The Concept of Costs
92(2)
The Ingredients Method of Cost Analysis
94(6)
Identifying Ingredients
94(2)
Valuing Ingredients
96(1)
Analyzing the Distribution of Costs
97(1)
Aren't Budgets Good Enough?
98(1)
A Cost Analysis Caveat
99(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

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