Contents: Preface. 1. Educational Research: The Basics. 2. Qualitative Research Design. 3. Quantitative Research Designs. 4. Other Research Methods. 5. Formulating Research Questions and Hypothesis.6 Selecting a Sample. 7. Knowing our Data. 8. Education Indicators. 9. Data Collection: Observation, Interviews and Tests. 10. Data Collection: Questionnaires and Surveys. 11. Data Analysis: Classification and Tabulation.12. Data Analysis: Descriptive Methods and Index Numbers. 13. Data Analysis: Inferential Methods and Analysis of Time Series. 14. Data Presentation and Report Writing. Appendices. Index. Designed to introduce students to the process of scientific research in education, Research Methods in Education goes beyond explaining the methods of empirical data collection and analysis. It encourages students and researchers to contextualise their knowledge and understanding of quantitative and qualitative research designs by drawing links between the research question and the underlying theoretical framework. This book identifies key research methodologies, data collection tools (e.g., sampling and hypotheses testing), and data analysis methods, and focuses on the comparisons between them. Each chapter highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the key research methods.