Research Methods in Education

Education research can be described as a one systematic and organized form of investigation towards a specific problem that comes under the way of work setting environment, which needs an immediate solution. Research methodology requires a series of steps for designing and execution of goal to find the ultimate answers related to those issues that affect the working environment. The first step in research is to know where the problem exists in the organization structure and then to identify as clearly and possibly to study and resolve the problems. The entire process through which the problems are solved is called a research. Research thus consists of systematic process of inquiry, examination and experimentation. This book throws light on education research which is defined as an organized, systematic, critical, data-based, objective, inquiry and investigative into a specific problem that deals with the purpose of finding the answers and solutions to deal the problems. The book shows the essence of research that provides the complete information to guide the decision makers to successfully deal with the problems. The data required for the analysis consist of two basic types of data that is, quantitative data and qualitative data where former relates to the data in the form of numbers gathered through structured questionnaire and later, relates to the data in the form of words collected through broad range of questions and answers in interviews or open-ended questions or through some observations gathered from various sources of internet. Chapter 1 of this book introduces and explains the alternative approaches of research that helps the student to develop the skills of doing research investigation. It further describes the hypothetico-deductive methods to study a problem. It also gives the description about the questions of research, research design and the methods of research. Second chapter gives a brief description about the research design and methodologies such as case studies which is a part of research design along with the layout of blueprints in research design. Chapter 3 gives a drive through the types of research in education where applied basic, qualitative and quantitative, and ex-post facto research have been discussed in detail. Chapter 4 and chapter 5 show the basic statistical tools that are required for the research such as measures of central tendency, hypothesis testing and test of statistics and next chapter shows the ways of data collection like through questionnaires, open ended interviews along with closed ended interviews where data is collected and analysis of data is discussed in further chapters. Concluding chapters discuss about the qualitative and quantitative analysis where former tells about advantages and limitations of qualitative research and later discusses about the construction of hypothesis and its testing and gives a brief description about the correlation and regression analysis. The last chapter discusses about the recent developments and future prospects of research in the field of education.