Engelska

With so much technical information about research methods it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of why we carry out educational research and where and how research might contribute to the improvement of education. <i>Educational Research: An Unorthodox Introduction</i> steps you through the wider social and political contexts of educational research, focusing on fundamental questions such as what education actually 'is' and what it is for. In doing so, the book raises questions that more 'orthodox' introductions to the theory and practice of educational research often leave aside. Gert Biesta covers a range of key issues which permeate any educational research project, including the roles of theory in research, what it means and takes to improve education, the nature of educational practice, the history of educational research and scholarship, the connection between research, professionality and democracy and what the social and political dimensions of academic publishing are. Each chapter includes a set of questions to stimulate further discussion.

Throughout the history of psychology, attempting to objectively measure the highly dynamic phenomenon of human behaviour has given rise to an underappreciated margin of error. Today, as the discipline experiences increasing difficulty in reproducing the results of its own studies, such error not only threatens to undermine psychology's credibility but also leaves an indelible question: Is psychology actually a field of irreproducible science? In this thought-provoking new book, author Brian Hughes seeks to answer this very question. In his incisive examination of the various pitfalls that determine 'good' or 'bad' psychological science - from poor use of statistics to systematic exaggeration of findings - Hughes shows readers how to critique psychology research, enhance its validity and reliability, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the way psychology research is produced, published, and promulgated in the 21st century. This book is essential reading for students wanting to understand how to better scrutinise psychological research methods and results, as well as practitioners and those concerned with the replication debate.