Whatever level you are working at, and assuming no prior research experience, Your Education Research Project Companion, 2nd edition provides the support and guidance you need in order to write a first-class research project or dissertation in education.
Written in the form of a fictional case study, the book charts the progress of student working on an education research project, through tutorials with their academic tutor. The clear, innovative narrative style will bridge the gap between theory and research practice, to ensure you acquire the simple and essential information needed.
New for this edition and included throughout the book is MA level advice helping you to know what more is required of you to achieve a Masters qualification.
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Yes, you can access Your Education Research Project Companion by Jim Mcgrath,Anthony Coles in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Education & Education General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
To provide you with an overview of the research process and guidance on how to define the focus of your research and draft suitable research questions.
Areas covered in this tutorial
Recommended reading
Finding a focus for my research
Formatting my research questions
Cause and effect in education research
Writing my focal paragraphs and research questions
How am I going to collect my data and how much do I need?
Access and insider research
Why my research is worth doing and more on data collection
Disseminating my findings
Working at Master’s level
Note: Key terms have been highlighted in the text when first used. A definition of each term is provided in the glossary at the end of the book.
Sam’s reflection
13 September, lunchtime
Dr Sue Storm the Course Director reminded us last week that we need to keep a reflective journal as part of our coursework for a minimum of three months. Needless to say I’d forgotten all about it. As if the PGCE wasn’t hard enough without additional work. Luckily, I start my tutorials on the 15th with Dr Reed, so I can base my journal around my Research Project Module. That should give me enough information to reflect upon.
I’ve not had much to do with Dr Reed so far. I wonder what he’s like. I hope he’s not one of those academics that try to overcomplicate things.
Barry Allan was telling me that when he did this module he found it really difficult to take notes and listen to what his supervisor was saying at the same time. He ended up recording each session. I think I’ll do that. It means I can concentrate on what’s said and not worry about missing anything. I’d better give the good Doctor a ring and see if he is happy with me recording his tutorials.
Dr Reed sounded friendly enough when I phoned him. He asked if I was free to pop round and see him tonight for an informal chat. He’s in Room FF4 the Baxter Building.
13 September, evening
Well that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Dr Reed, or Richard as I now call him, seemed really friendly. He wanted to know all about me. What modules I had previously studied. What my professional interests are. Where my placement is. He said that this background information helped him understand each student as a person. Of course he could just be nosey.
Funnily enough while he was trying to find out about me I was checking him out. Judging by the poster over his desk he’s a West Brom fan. Poor soul. One of my first boyfriends was a football fan and if his team lost I always knew we were in for a misery-filled Saturday night. Richard also had a mini library in his room. I wonder if he’s read every book or if they are there just for show?
He asked me if I was going to take the module at Level 6 or Master’s level. I told him I hadn’t decided yet and he said that was fine. He was happy to spend a bit of time at the end of each tutorial talking about the difference between working at Level 6 and Level 7 – Master’s level and he gave me a hand-out detailing the level descriptors (see Handout 1.1). He said Level 6 is equivalent to the last year of study on an undergraduate course and that Level 7, Master’s, was a step up from that. But he didn’t think that it was a huge step up. He believed that any undergraduate who was willing to work hard could handle Master’s-level work.
Fortunately he was happy for me to record the tutorial. In fact, I think he was quite impressed with the idea. Apparently, some students turn up without even a pen to take notes. How can they hope to remember what a tutor says over the course of 45 minutes without some notes? So first things first. Richard asked me to jot down some ideas about what I wanted to research before I see him on the 15th. That shouldn’t take long.
Review of tutorial
Recommended reading
Richard was reading his emails when I entered. He looked up and smiled. ‘So our meeting didn’t put you off then?’
‘No, but tonight might,’ I said with more feeling than I had intended.
‘Grab a seat’, he said and waited for me to get organised. ‘Before we get started I thought it would be useful if I gave you a list of books and articles that I’ll be referring to and which you might want to dip into (
Recommended reading list and bibliography on pages 239–41). I suggest that you use Your Education Research Project Companion as your core book. But it’s essential that you back that up with some additional reading. So select at least one other book from the Highly recommended section and use it to clarify and sometimes challenge what is said in the Companion. As for the texts in the Recommended section, use them when you want additional information about a specific aspect of research such as questionnaires or interviews.’
‘There seems a lot here. Do I have to read them all?’
‘No. What you have to learn to do is use both the table of contents and the index to find what you want. How much you need to read will depend entirely on what’s required for your research. Based on that you must decide if you need to read a paragraph, a page, a chapter or the whole book. OK?’
‘Yes. What should I read to support this Tutorial?’ I asked, keen to make a good start.
‘From the recommended list I’d dip into McGrath and Coles (2011), Wilson (2009a) and McMillan and Weyers (2010). But I stress again, you should read just the bits that are relevant to you.’
Even dipping in to this seemed like a lot of reading but I just said, ‘That’s fine.’
Finding a focus for my research
‘Good. When I spoke to you I asked you to identify a topic or issue that you wanted to find out more about. What have you come up with?’
‘Well, I thought that I would look at teaching methods.’
‘That’s a good topic. What age group do you currently teach?’
‘Eleven to 14.’
‘OK. So why teaching methods?’
‘My placement has been doing some work in this area. They had an OfSTED report that said some teachers relied too heavily on a limited range of teaching methods.’
‘Fine. I always like it when a student can do a piece of research that they are interested in and which is of value to their employers. It means you can legitimately do some of your research during working hours and you are likely to get support from your line manager and colleagues. Have you thought about the focus for your research?’
‘I’m sorry?’ I said, unsure what he meant.
‘What I mean is: which aspect or aspects of teaching methods do you want to look at? For example, are you interested in the difference between teacher-centred and learner-centred methods or do you want to explore how to use more student-centred methods in your teaching?’
‘I’m not sure. I suppose I want to identify what methods are available, when I should use one method rather than another and which methods are most effective.’
‘Good, you may not realise it but you have clearly thought about the scope of your research. Effectively you’re doing an empirical study into the teaching methods that can be used in a secondary school, how to choose between the methods available and identify which are most effective in your school. Correct?’
‘Well, when you say it like that it sounds as if I know what I’m doing.’
Formatting my research questions
Richard smiled. ‘OK you have your research focus. Now you have to identify your research questions.’
‘You mean like, “What are the best teaching methods to use when working with 11- to 14-year-olds?”
‘Not quite. Your question sounds like it has a specific answer.’
‘I...
Table of contents
Cover Page
Half Title page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
About the authors
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Tutorial 1 Getting Started
Tutorial 2 How to Structure Your Research Report
Tutorial 3 Writing your Literature Review
Tutorial 4 Choosing your Research Methodology
Tutorial 5 Research Strategies – Case Studies, Action Research and Surveys
Tutorial 6 Gathering Your Data – Interviews and Observations
Tutorial 7 Gathering Your Data – Documents and Questionnaires
