Making Sense of Research: What's Good, What's Not, and How To Tell the Difference [Paperback]

Elaine K. McEwan-Adkins (Author), Patrick J. McEwan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0761977082 | ISBN-13: 978-0761977087 | Edition: 1

This book is for practitioners at all levels, from teachers making site-specific decisions to administrators making schoolwide and policy decisions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Each chapter launches with a discussion of the different forms of inquiry that can be used to answer [a] question at hand, and in plain language how each type (design or paradigm) works. Part of that process involves frank assessment of the strengths and limitations of each format--and thus the credibility of the evidence produced. (June edition of www.unlockresearch.com )

About the Author

Patrick J. McEwan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and an affiliate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. Previously, he taught in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and served as Assistant Director of Research at the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He completed his PhD in education at Stanford University, in addition to master's degrees in economics and international development. His published books (with Henry Levin) include Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications, Second Edition (2001) and Cost-Effectiveness and Educational Policy: 2002 Yearbook of the American Education Finance Association (2002). He is the author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reports, and he has consulted on education policy and evaluation at the Inter-American Development Bank, RAND, UNESCO, and the ministries of education of several countries. His recent research (with Martin Carnoy) has evaluated the impact of Chile's national voucher plan on the effectiveness and efficiency of primary education.

Elaine K. McEwan is a partner and educational consultant with The McEwan-Adkins Group, offering workshops in instructional leadership, team building, and raising reading achievement. A former teacher, librarian, principal, and assistant superintendent for instruction in a suburban Chicago school district, McEwan is the author of more than thirty-five books for parents and educators. Her Corwin Press titles include Raising Reading Achievement in Middle and High Schools: Five Simple-to-Follow Strategies for Principals, Second Edition (2006), Seven Strategies of Highly Effective Readers: Using Cognitive Research to Boost K-8 Achievement (2004), Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals: From Good to Great Performance (2003), Making Sense of Research: What’s Good, What’s Not, and How to Tell the Difference (2003), Seven Steps to Effective Instructional Leadership, Second Edition (2003), Teach Them ALL to Read: Catching the Kids Who Fall through the Cracks (2002), and Ten Traits of Highly Effective Teachers: How to Hire, Mentor, and Coach Successful Teachers (2001).

McEwan was honored by the Illinois Principals Association as an outstanding instructional leader, by the Illinois State Board of Education with an Award of Excellence in the Those Who Excel Program, and by the National Association of Elementary School Principals as the National Distinguished Principal from Illinois for 1991. She received her undergraduate degree in education from Wheaton College and advanced degrees in library science (MA) and educational administration (EdD) from Northern Illinois University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Corwin Press; 1 edition (March 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761977082
• ISBN-13: 978-0761977087
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guide for Educational Research, October 26, 2007

By 

S. Blackburn "William H. Blackburn" (St. Louis, Missouri) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Making Sense of Research: What's Good, What's Not, and How To Tell the Difference (Paperback)

I am the coordinator of secondary student teaching at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. I am also a research consultant for a counseling program at a large school in the St. Louis area. This book takes an in-depth look at research in the educational realm without delving into statistics or mathematical data. The key idea in this book is how to come up with the right research question(s), which can be the most important aspect of this process. Then the book goes on to discuss what some of the results truly mean and why they are important. For those interested in educational research, it is a good supplement to the texts on methodology, and it may just help you to understand and enjoy this experience.

William H. Blackburn, Ph.D.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars find the right problems, July 29, 2007

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Making Sense of Research: What's Good, What's Not, and How To Tell the Difference (Hardcover)

The research in this book is that of educational research. Where perhaps you are interested in investigating the efficacy of some proposed teaching pedagogy. The McEwans offer assistance in a lucid and non-mathematical manner. Other research texts might delve into how to frame hypotheses and test them, with statistical rigour. But this book eshews that approach.

Instead, it describes in a qualitative fashion higher level issues. Like how to ask the right questions. Part of the skill in doing original research starts with this aspect. And it is crucial. Because posing the right questions might mean being able to focus on the key issues that you can then try to resolve. This chapter of the book could be the most important to the reader.

Another take on the chapter was an observation years ago by the Nobel physicist, Richard Feynman. He remarked that at the highest level of physics, most have the same ability to solve a given problem. But the real genius comes in finding the right problems to work on. Just as germane in educational research.

Other chapters of the book cover issues almost as vital. Like being careful about the difference between causality and correlation. Or doing meta-analysis across existing research reports. Plus, the book offers insight into the sociology of who does most educational research.

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Sense of Research, July 13, 2009

By 

S. Cortes - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Making Sense of Research: What's Good, What's Not, and How To Tell the Difference (Paperback)

This book is great! It looks at educational research with a critical eye and doesn't just present things from a myopic viewpoint.