Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers in Education and Social Science (2nd Edition) - Softcover

BELL J M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335190944 ISBN 13: 9780335190942

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education, 1993

Synopsis

If you are a beginner researcher, the problems facing you are much the same whether you are producing a small project, an MEd dissertation or a PhD thesis. You will need to select a topic; identify the objectives of your study; plan and design a suitable methodology; devise research instruments; negotiate access to institutions, material and people; collect, analyze and present information; and, finally, produce a well-written report or dissertation. Whatever the scale of the undertaking, you will have to master techniques and devise a plan of action which does not attempt more than the limitations of expertise, time and access permit. Most people learn to do research by actually doing it, but a great deal of time can be wasted and goodwill dissipated by inadequate preparation. This book aims to provide you with the tools to do the job, to help you avoid some of the pitfalls and time-wasting false trails that can eat into your time, and to establish good research habits. It takes you from the stage of choosing a topic through to the production of a well-planned, methodologically sound and well-written final report or dissertation on time. "Doing Your Research Project" is designed to serve as a source of reference and guide to good practice for all beginner researchers, whether undergraduate and postgraduate students or professionals such as teachers or social workers undertaking investigations in education and the social sciences. This second edition retains the basic structure of the first edition, whilst incorporating some important new material.

About this title

Review

"What Bell has produced constitutes a useful work for all first-time researchers. It could be used with pre-service teacher education students to assist them in their research projects. Tutors couldalso find it helpful as a text for generating questions on the natureof educational research and the problems which is raises...Each chapterends with a useful list of suggested further readings for those students who want to pursue topics in greater depth." - Education Research & Perspectives "Nicely done Judith Bell- no wonder the book is in its 10th printing." - Social Work Review

About the Author

Judith Bell has worked as a university lecturer, head of department and vice principal in colleges of further education, senior counsellor and course team writer for the Open University, and as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools specializing in continuing education. She works now as a freelance writer, lecturer and consultant and holds honorary fellowships in various universities in the UK.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0335190944
• ISBN 13: 9780335190942
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 192