Practical Research and Evaluation
A Start-to-Finish Guide for Practitioners
- Lena Dahlberg - Dalarna University and Dalarna Research Institute
- Colin McCaig - Centre for Education and Inclusion Research (CEIR), Sheffield Hallam University
The growing emphasis on evidence-based practice means that there is an increasing need for practitioners to have at least a basic understanding of research, be aware of methodological pitfalls and to be updated on new methods. This book provides a practical, user-friendly guide to social science research methods for professionals who have benefited from little, if any, formal research methods training but find themselves in a role that requires them to read and understand complex research findings and carry out their own research as part of their professional practice.
Practical Research and Evaluation is aimed at practitioners working in education, health, social care and community work. Many in this market are non-graduates or are those whose study did not contain a research element, but are required to know how research works. This book will:
- enable readers to carry out small-scale research projects of their own
- provide them with the basic understanding necessary to commission research
- enable them to better understand and evaluate critically research reports
An excellent guidebook- to be used as recommended /supplemental reading for our course.
I find the practitioners' guide approach as an effective way to communicate research methods to my students who come from government and civil society. They are usually intimidated by the usual Research Method textbooks. The language of this text is very friendly to non-academics. Hopefully, my students no longer \fear\" research after reading this book."
Some will be able to use this book - a useful resource.
Clear, comprehensive & well written. I intend to recommend this text to the incoming Masters in Development Practice cohort as a valuable guide to research design and practice.
Some chapters were better than others. I would use chapters of the book rather than to recommend the book itself
Practical Research and Evaluation provides a practical addition to the theoretical understanding of research processes and practices. In the field of Child and Family Studies, students are able to have a very basic understanding of the practical applications of their interventions.
I found this a really user friendly manual suitable for all abilities and research experience.
A helpful book for practitioners and students doing practice based dissertations. Clearly laid out and accessibly written, this book contains chapters on all the key elements of the process. I would have expected a little more on reflexivity given the nature of the topic - only one reference in the index. There is a useful introduction to action research which explains the concept well. Concise introduction to literature review is also useful particulalry for those who have little experience in this area. Excellent glossary. Would recommend this to students looking to buy one or two key texts in this area.
This is a good text suitable for introducing practitioners to research.
A very useful book - practical as its title suggests and more accessible than many - which I now recommend to candidates on my course at Metanoia. It is especially good to see a book that deals with both some general issues in research and develops a focus particularly on evaluation while representing both qualitative and quantitative methods.
