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

by Elaine K. McEwan

• ISBN13: 9780761977087
• ISBN10: 0761977082
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-14
• Publisher: Corwin Pr

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