Part One: The Context Of Educational Research Part Two: Planning Educational Research Part Three: Styles Of Educational Research Part Four: Strategies And Instruments For Data Collection And Researching Part Five: Data Analysis

Research Methods in Education

This paper reveals the author's theory of method for conducting longitudinal field research on change. The paper also discusses a range of practical problems in carrying out time-series research in organisational settings. The practical problems include dealing with time in longitudinal research; issues of site selection, choices about data collection and degrees of involvement the importance of clarifying research outputs, audience, and presentation; and finally handling problems of complexity and simplicity associated with longitudinal comparative case study research on change. The paper concludes by discussing some ethical issues of longitudinal research field research, and managing a community of researchers.

Longitudinal Field Research on Change: Theory and Practice

This article presents the rationale and procedures for conducting a process analysis in evaluation research. Such an analysis attempts to identify the process that mediates the effects of some treatment, by estimating the parameters of a causal chain between the treatment and some outcome variable. Two different procedures for estimating mediation are discussed. In addition we present procedures for examining whether a treatment exerts its effects, in part, by altering the mediating process that produces the outcome. Finally, the benefits of process analysis in evaluation research are underlined.

Process Analysis: Estimating Mediation in Treatment Evaluations

Psychologists have worried about the distortions introduced into standardized personality measures by social desirability bias. Survey researchers have had similar concerns about the accuracy of survey reports about such topics as illicit drug use, abortion, and sexual behavior. The article reviews the research done by survey methodologists on reporting errors in surveys on sensitive topics, noting parallels and differences from the psychological literature on social desirability. The findings from the survey studies suggest that misreporting about sensitive topics is quite common and that it is largely situational. The extent of misreporting depends on whether the respondent has anything embarrassing to report and on design features of the survey. The survey evidence also indicates that misreporting on sensitive topics is a more or less motivated process in which respondents edit the information they report to avoid embarrassing themselves in the presence of an interviewer or to avoid repercussions from third parties.

https://www.learnlab.org/research/wiki/images/a/a8/Tourangeau_SensitiveQuestions.pdf

Sensitive questions in surveys.

The handbook of research synthesis and meta-analysis, 2nd ed.

Social Experimentation: A Method for Planning and Evaluating Social Intervention.

Social Experimentation: a Method for Planning and Evaluating Social Intervention

https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/pro/8/4/411.pdf

Sensitivity, bias, and theory in impact evaluations.

This bibliography lists references to cover 300 randomized field experiments undertaken in schools, hospitals, prisons, and other social settings. The list is divided into 10 major categories corresponding to the type of program under examination. They include: criminal and civil justice programs, mental health, training and education, mass media, information collection, utilization, commerce and industry, welfare, health, and family planning. The main purpose of the bibliography is to provide evidence on feasibility and scope of randomized field tests, since despite their advantages, it is not always clearfrom managerial, political, and other constraints on research that they can be mounted.

Robert F. Boruch

Papers

Social Experimentation: A Method for Planning and Evaluating Social Intervention.

Social Experimentation: a Method for Planning and Evaluating Social Intervention

Sensitivity, bias, and theory in impact evaluations.

Randomized Field Experiments for Program Planning, Development, and Evaluation: An Illustrative Bibliography.

Relations among statistical methods for assuring confidentiality of social research data