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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Preparing the ground | |
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| Approaches to research | |
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| Action research and the role of practitioner researchers | |
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| Case study | |
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| Critics of case study | |
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| Survey | |
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| The experimental style | |
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| Ethnography and the ethnographic style of research | |
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| The grounded theory approach | |
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| Narrative inquiry and stories | |
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| Which approach? | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Planning the project | |
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| Selecting a topic | |
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| Getting started | |
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| The purpose of the study | |
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| Hypotheses, objectives and researchable questions | |
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| Working title and the project outline | |
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| Timing | |
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| Supervision | |
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| Student-supervisor relationships | |
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| Codes of practice for supervision | |
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| Change of supervisor | |
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| Keeping records of supervisory tutorials | |
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| The research experience | |
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| Writing as you go along and the research diary | |
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| Planning the project checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Ethics and integrity in research | |
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| Research contracts, codes of practice, protocols and the principle of informed consent | |
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| Ethics committees | |
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| Confidentiality and anonymity | |
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| Safeguarding confidentiality and anonymity if disseminating information by computer | |
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| Ethical research in practice, the problems of 'inside' research and personal codes of practice | |
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| Codes of ethical practice relating to intellectual ownership/property | |
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| The ethics and integrity in research checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Reading, referencing and the management of information | |
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| Reading | |
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| Note-taking and guarding against plagiarism | |
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| Referencing | |
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| Creating, editing and storing references electronically | |
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| The card index | |
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| The management of information | |
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| A lot of fuss about nothing? | |
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| Reading, note-taking, guarding against plagiarism, referencing and the management of information checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Literature searching | |
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| Defining the parameters of your search (search limiters) and keywords | |
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| Focusing, refining and grouping your keywords | |
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| Passwords, usernames and working from home | |
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| Libraries, librarians - and books | |
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| Scanning books into digital format | |
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| Journals | |
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| Citing sources from the Internet | |
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| Evaluating sources | |
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| Copyright and licensing restrictions when downloading items from web pages | |
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| Time to move on | |
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| The top ten guide to searching the Internet | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Appendix: Search engines and Internet Gateways | |
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| The review of the literature | |
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| The 'critical review' of the literature | |
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| Theory and theoretical (or conceptual) frameworks | |
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| The 'critical review' in practice | |
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| Reviewing the reviews | |
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| The review of the literature checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Selecting methods of data collection | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Constraints | |
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| Reliability and validity | |
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| Thinking about computer data analysis? | |
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| Not thinking about computer data analysis? | |
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| A reminder | |
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| Further reading | |
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| The analysis of documentary evidence | |
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| The nature of documentary evidence | |
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| Approaches to documents | |
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| The location of documents | |
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| The selection of documents | |
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| The critical analysis of documents | |
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| The analysis of documentary evidence checklist | |
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| Designing and administering questionnaires | |
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| Exactly what do you need to find out? | |
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| Question types | |
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| Question wording | |
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| Appearance and layout | |
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| Drawing a sample | |
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| Piloting the questionnaire | |
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| Distribution and return of questionnaires | |
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| Respondents' and your rights and responsibilities | |
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| Non-response | |
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| Analysis of data | |
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| Designing and administering questionnaires checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Planning and conducting interviews | |
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| The ethics of conducting interviews | |
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| Advantages and disadvantages of the interview | |
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| Question wording | |
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| The interview schedule | |
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| Group interviews and focus groups | |
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| Recording interviews | |
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| Bias - the old enemy | |
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| Remember! | |
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| Planning and conducting interviews checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Diaries, logs and critical incidents | |
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| Representativeness | |
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| The diary-interview method | |
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| Piloting returns forms and instructions to participants | |
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| The primary pupils' food diary | |
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| The supply teachers' diary and time log | |
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| The general practitioners' time log | |
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| The asthma treatment diary | |
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| The heads of department critical incidents and problem-portfolio logs | |
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| The ethics of diary use | |
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| A final word of warning | |
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| Diaries, logs and critical incidents checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Observation | |
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| Unstructured observation | |
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| Participant observation | |
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| Structured observation and keeping records | |
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| Recording behaviour | |
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| Content | |
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| A few words of warning - again | |
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| After the event | |
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| Observation checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Interpreting the evidence and reporting the findings | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Interpreting the evidence and reporting the findings | |
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| List questions | |
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| Quantity and category questions | |
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| Measures of central tendency | |
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| Coding | |
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| Grids | |
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| Scales | |
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| Verbal questions | |
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| Conclusions | |
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| Interpreting the evidence and reporting the findings checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| Writing the report | |
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| Getting started | |
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| The final writing task | |
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| Structuring the report | |
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| The need for revision | |
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| Any possibility of plagiarism? | |
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| Evaluating your own research | |
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| Writing the report checklist | |
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| Further reading | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |