An introduction to educational research methods. Введение в образовательные исследовательские методы Білім беру-зерттеу әдістеріне кіріспе

Writing About Your  Research

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GETTING STARTED

Essay and thesis writing is a difficult task, so the temptation will be to put off starting to write 

and to get side-tracked by deflecting activities such as sharpening your pencils and ordering 

your desk! Discipline yourself to write something each time you sit down.

Don’t be too much of a perfectionist at the early stages and don’t discard your early

ideas, even if they are far from final draft material. Also, don’t worry about handing in

draft work to your supervisor – nobody produces perfect work at the first attempt, and

that is what your supervisor is there to help you with. Don’t be put off either, if there

are a lot of corrections when you get your draft back – keep in mind that your draft work

is not being evaluated; only the final product will receive a grade. 

Planning is crucial

Set yourself targets and discuss a reasonable schedule for producing chapters, and, ultimately,

finishing your thesis, with your supervisor. Draw up a schedule that is broken

down into chapters, with indicators of when certain chapters are due, and take these

dates seriously. Successfully completing each section will also boost your confidence.

Be disciplined and write as you go along

Set aside some time each week to write a little, and don’t put off writing tricky sections –

write down your ideas, even if this is in the form of rough notes. Leave enough time to

step away and think about your ideas. You will have a fresh perspective on things when

you return.

Organize your draft sections using electronic folders

Make a folder for your whole thesis or essay, a subfolder for each section or chapter, an

additional folder for your references, and a final folder just for general notes. As you

proceed with writing your thesis, include notes and reminders in each folder as well as

your general notes folder. Try putting notes and text in different colours. Don’t forget to

save your work and make back-up copies of each change.

Know what you want to write

Plan time for reading, because if you start to write too soon, you won’t have anything to

say so you will tend to ‘freeze’ at the sight of a blank screen. Above all, do not suffer in

silence or put the process off – ask your tutor for help!

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COMPOSING YOUR ESSAY OR THESIS 

Planning the structure of the work

Composing your essay or thesis involves making major decisions about what you need 

to include and how to organize the work. This is probably the most difficult part of the 

writing process. The next paragraph written by Peter Lipton, the late Professor of History 

and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, sums up this process of essay 

writing succinctly: 

An essay is not a list of sentences: it has structure. The structure should be obvious to the 

reader. Write informative introductions and conclusions. The introduction should not only 

introduce the topic, it should introduce your argument. That means that you should tell the 

reader what you are going to prove and how you are going to prove it. Unless the intro-

duction gives the reader a clear map of the essay, she is likely to get lost. Be direct and spe-

cific. Replace sentences like ‘Throughout the centuries, the greatest minds have pondered 

the intractable problem of free will’ with ‘In this essay, I will show that free will is impossi-

ble’. The conclusion of the essay should tell the reader what has been accomplished and 

why the struggle was worthwhile. It should remind the reader how the different moves in 

the body of the essay fit together to form a coherent argument. (Lipton, 2007)

This is really good advice, and if you follow it you will produce a good essay or thesis. 

Activity 11.1 Generating ideas

1. Imagine that you are being interviewed by someone. What questions would

the other person ask you about your work? What would they want to find out

about your project? Why did you do it? When did you do it? Where did you do

it? How did you do it? What did you find out, and so what? 

Or

2. Map out and organize your ideas visually to explore relationships between 

the processes.

Then write freely or brainstorm ideas and don’t worry about revising or 

proofreading at this stage.

Writing About Your  Research

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STRUCTURING YOUR WORK 

Before you start, organize your essay in the form of an outline to help you to visualize the 

flow of ideas and ensure coherence throughout the work (see Figure 13.1).

Although you will probably be asked early on to submit an essay or thesis title, it is highly 

likely that you will refine this and even rewrite the title after you have finished writing up 

your project. A title ought to provide a succinct summary of the whole essay or thesis.

SCHOOL-BASED RESEARCH

214

Box 13.1

Examples of PGCE essay titles:

•   Does the use of active teaching approaches to encourage independent 

learning increase students’ understanding in Year 12 chemistry lessons?

•   How effective are the use of analogies in teaching electricity to a Year 

11 class in an 11–18 mixed comprehensive school?

Examples of thesis titles:

•   Developing the role of written feedback in promoting students’ engage-

ment in early secondary mathematics: An action research study.

•   ‘Ebbing the tide’ of teaching to the test in secondary science classrooms.

Some unusual academic paper titles:

•   McIntyre, D., Pedder, D. and Rudduck, J. (2005) ‘Pupil voice: comfortable 

and uncomfortable learnings for teachers’, Research Papers in Education, 

20 (2): 149–68.

•   Younger,  M.  and  Warrington,  M.  (2006)  ‘Would  Harry  and  Hermione 

have done better in single-sex classes? A review of single-sex teaching in 

coeducational  secondary  schools  in  the  United  Kingdom’, 

American 

Educational Research Journal,

 43(4): 579–620.

Introduction

The Body

Conclusion

Introduce the main idea or claim

Develop ideas

Support the main claim

Re-emphasize the main ideas

Wrap up the argument

Build points

Grab the reader’s attention

Figure 13.1  The structure of an extended essay or thesis

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Figure 11.1

 The structure of an extended essay or thesis

Writing About Your  Research

559

The Introduction

The introduction is a statement of purpose which will contribute to answering a central 

question expressed in general terms. This might also include, firstly, a summary of the 

more specific aims of your research and, secondly, a justification of the significance of the 

substantive topic you have chosen and why this is important for your practice. Explain 

your own value position in relation to this topic that has shaped the focus of your enquiry. 

Then you should clarify what the broad issues or problems are, linked to the specific aims 

of your research, and include a brief description of the context of your enquiry. Table 11.1 

illustrates how Martin (2007) introduced her work.

Box 11.1

Examples of PGCE essay titles:

• Does the use of active teaching approaches to encourage independent

learning increase students’ understanding in Year 12 chemistry lessons?

• How effective are the use of analogies in teaching electricity to a Year

11 class in an 11–18 mixed comprehensive school?

Examples of thesis titles:

• Developing the role of written feedback in promoting students’ engagement

in early secondary mathematics: An action research study.

• ‘Ebbing the tide’ of teaching to the test in secondary science classrooms.

Some unusual academic paper titles:

• McIntyre, D., Pedder, D. and Rudduck, J. (2005) ‘Pupil voice: comfortable

and uncomfortable learnings for teachers’, Research Papers in Education,

20 (2): 149–68.

• Younger, M. and Warrington, M. (2006) ‘Would Harry and Hermione

have done better in single-sex classes? A review of single-sex teaching in

coeducational secondary schools in the United Kingdom’, American

Educational Research Journal, 43(4): 579–620.

Writing About Your  Research

560

THE MAIN BODY OF THE WORK

 The main body of the work is likely to include the following sections:

A review of the literature

The literature review sets out what is already known in your area of study (see Chapter 

3), and should start by signposting what will be covered. Firstly, you should set out a critical 

and focused review of the literature, guided by review questions relating to your substan-

tive and theoretical issues or problems in turn. Start with your substantive knowledge area 

and then the theoretical ideas informing your study. Secondly, include a brief summary 

of your position concerning your ideas about the substantive and theoretical issues or 

problems in the light of your review. Finally, end this section with an indication of how the 

research design you plan to use will take forward your work in relation to the substantive 

and theoretical areas and your research questions (see Table 13.2).

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215

the introduction

The introduction is a statement of purpose which will contribute to answering a central 

question expressed in general terms. This might also include, firstly, a summary of the 

more specific aims of your research and, secondly, a justification of the significance of 

the substantive topic you have chosen and why this is important for your practice. 

Explain your own value position in relation to this topic that has shaped the focus of 

your enquiry. Then you should clarify what the broad issues or problems are, linked to 

the specific aims of your research, and include a brief description of the context of your 

enquiry. Table 13.1 illustrates how Martin (2007) introduced her work.

Table 13.1  Introduction

A justification of the 

significance of the 

substantive topic

In accordance with national and local priorities, the school prioritizes raising achievement 

in literacy.

A statement of the 

broad issues

The Big Book approach was already an established reading strategy in the early stages, up 

to Primary 3 (aged 7). As a class teacher, my intention was to investigate the potential of 

interactive talking books and an interactive whiteboard as a teaching and learning 

resource, to develop writing with Primary 6 children.

A description of the 

context of your enquiry

This research was carried out in the school where teach, as part of the new Scottish 

qualification of MSc. in Chartered Teacher Studies, for which students are required to plan, 

implement and evaluate small-scale research and development work that has professional 

relevance to the student and to the school. 

An outline of the rest of 

the study

Through this medium, I wanted to find out how helping children to interact with and reflect 

on the writing of professional authors might motivate them, develop their understanding 

and influence their own writing.

Source: Martin (2007).

The main body of the work

The main body of the work is likely to include the following sections:

a review of the literature

The literature review sets out what is already known in your area of study (see Chapter 3), 

and should start by signposting what will be covered. Firstly, you should set out a 

critical and focused review of the literature, guided by review questions relating to 

your substantive and theoretical issues or problems in turn. Start with your substan-

tive knowledge area and then the theoretical ideas informing your study. Secondly, 

include a brief summary of your position concerning your ideas about the substantive 

and theoretical issues or problems in the light of your review. Finally, end this section 

with an indication of how the research design you plan to use will take forward your 

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work in relation to the substantive and theoretical areas and your research questions 

(see Table 13.2).

Table 13.2  Literature Review Section

A critical and focused review of 

the literature guided by review 

questions

Martin’s review considered literature about: 

• The Big Book approach

• Whole-class interactive teaching

• Interactive whiteboards

A brief summary of your position 

concerning your substantive and 

theoretical issues or problems in 

the light of your review

The conclusion made is that there is a strong relationship between the ways in 

which ICT has been used and the resulting attainment outcomes. This suggests 

that the crucial component in the use of ICT within education is the teachers 

and their pedagogical approaches.

An indication of how the research 

design will take forward your work 

in relation to the substantive and 

theoretical areas and your 

research questions

For the reasons set out above, in order to improve children’s writing, I therefore 

decided to explore the use of interactive electronic Big Books that have 

graphics and sound to support the text. In addition, an interactive whiteboard 

would allow children to make use of writing tools such as highlighter pens, and 

speech and thought bubbles while composing, using the touch screen facility.

Source: Martin (2007).

Details of your research design

This section will set out your research questions and the theoretical framework you are 

using to help you understand and analyse the substantive topic relating to the central 

question. If you are writing a thesis, this section will be substantial and will also include 

a brief critical and focused review of the literature relating to your methodological issues 

or problems, indicating how other researchers have approached them and have investi-

gated similar substantive topics. Finally, include a brief summary of your position about 

your methodological approach and any issues which arise in the light of what your have 

read and found out so far.

your methodology and methods

In the methodology section, justify the methodological approach you have taken and 

explain the methods of data collection you are using and your justification for using 

them (see Chapters 9–17).

Table 13.3 shows Martin’s research methods section from her paper in Literacy (2007). 

This section is an abridged version of Martin’s final thesis which would also have 

included a summary description of her data collection instruments, indicating how her 

research questions are addressed and her rationale for the instruments chosen. In her 

thesis, she will have also presented a summary of her pilot data collection stage and 

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Table 11.1 

Introduction

Table 11.2 

Literature Review Section

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561

Details of your research design 

This section will set out your research questions and the theoretical framework you are 

using to help you understand and analyse the substantive topic relating to the central 

question. If you are writing a thesis, this section will be substantial and will also include a 

brief critical and focused review of the literature relating to your methodological issues

or problems, indicating how other researchers have approached them and have investigat-

ed similar substantive topics. Finally, include a brief summary of your position about your 

methodological approach and any issues which arise in the light of what your have read 

and found out so far.

Your methodology and methods

In the methodology section, justify the methodological approach you have taken and

explain the methods of data collection you are using and your justification for using

them.

Table 11.3 shows Martin’s research methods section from her paper in Literacy (2007).

This section is an abridged version of Martin’s final thesis which would also have

included a summary description of her data collection instruments, indicating how her

research questions are addressed and her rationale for the instruments chosen. In her

thesis, she will have also presented a summary of her pilot data collection stage and includ-

ed details of how data were analysed. The thesis would also have included an extended 

ethics section, outlining how Martin ensured that her research followed all the neces-

sary school and research ethical guidelines. Finally, Martin would also have discussed the 

strengths and limitations of her design and told us how she had overcome the threats to 

the reliability and internal and external validity of her methods.

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562

Table 11.4 is Dorion’s (2009) research design, extracted data from his paper written after 

the publication of his PhD thesis. This is not an appropriate table for a research paper, but 

for an extended thesis such a table would help the reader to see clearly what data collec-

tion methods you have used in your design.

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217

included details of how data were analysed. The thesis would also have included an 

extended ethics section, outlining how Martin ensured that her research followed all the 

necessary school and research ethical guidelines. Finally, Martin would also have dis-

cussed the strengths and limitations of her design and told us how she had overcome 

the threats to the reliability and internal and external validity of her methods (see 

Chapter 9).

Table 13.3  Research methods section

As a class teacher investigating my own classroom, I felt an action research model was most appropriate as this would 

allow me to reformulate ideas in response to my findings, and feed these back into teaching in a continuous process. 

It would also allow me to include qualitative as well as quantitative approaches.

Research Questions 

Data Collected

1.  To what extent has 

using interactive 

whiteboard technology 

(IWB) to support  

whole-class teaching of 

reading and writing 

improved children’s 

writing?

A random sample of six boys and four girls (every third child on the class register) 

provided samples of character description and persuasive argument before and after 

the project, producing four pieces per pupil. (It is recognized that this was a very 

small sample and no generalizations can be made from the results.) It was agreed 

beforehand that two colleagues would assess the writing pieces. However, because 

of constraints of time and workload, four colleagues were eventually involved. 

‘Taking a Closer Look at Learning to Write’ (SCRE, 1995) was used as the assessment 

tool and the writing samples (with pupils’ names and dates removed) were graded 

on a scale of one to six, where one represented limited understanding, and six 

represented sound understanding.

2.  To what extent has 

using interactive 

whiteboard technology 

(IWB) to support  

whole-class teaching of 

reading and writing 

improved children’s 

writing?

The second question set out to monitor the effect of interactive whiteboard 

technology on the learning of two boys in class labelled pupil X and pupil Y, 

both with additional support needs. I created a scaled observation schedule that 

measured aspects of behaviour before and during the project, and in each of 

four writing sessions. My support assistant observed one boy and various 

colleagues shared in observations of the other, leaving me free to teach the rest 

of the class. To address issues of reliability, an inter-observer agreement 

(Simpson and Tuson, 2003) was drawn up and discussed with colleagues 

beforehand. 

3.  What benefits/

disadvantages for the 

teaching and learning 

of writing are offered  

by using IWB? 

The third question looked at the advantages and disadvantages of using the 

technology in teaching and learning. Two questionnaires were designed to assess 

children’s understanding about their learning and their views on using the 

technology in writing lessons. As the project developed I took the decision to 

investigate patterns in pupil behaviour during interactive whiteboard lessons and a 

further observation schedule was designed and administered by my support 

assistant.

Table 13.4 is Dorion’s (2009) research design, extracted data from his paper written 

after the publication of his PhD thesis. This is not an appropriate table for a research 

paper, but for an extended thesis such a table would help the reader to see clearly what 

data collection methods you have used in your design. 

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Table 13.4 

Dorrian’s (2009) research design

Research Question:

What are the characteristics of the drama activities employed in some secondary science lessons?

Sub-questions 

Data Source 

Data Source  Data Source  Data Source 

1. What types of drama are used?

Teacher interviews 

2.  What objectives initiate the use of 

drama?

Teacher interviews

Students 

interviews

Lesson 

observation

3.  What characteristics of these activities 

are perceived to enable achievement of 

the teaching objectives

Teacher interviews 

Stimulated video recall 

Students 

interviews 

Video 

Lesson 

observation 

Dorion (2009) uses a table (Figure 13.2) in his paper to collate his field studies and this 

is another possible way of presenting this information in your thesis. 

Table 3. Fieldwork stages

 

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Method

Teacher 

pre-observation 

interview (45 min)

Lesson observation (1 

hr 20 min–1 hr 40 min)

Teacher 

post-observation 

interview (45 min)

Student 

post-observation 

interview (20 min)

Structure

Semi-structured

Open-ended and 

unstructured

Focused and 

semi-structured

Semi-structured

Rationale

Provides context 

for student 

learning and 

knowledge

Interpretive; highlights 

important moments 

during the intervention; 

triangulation with 

teacher and student 

perceptions

Utilises experiential 

knowledge of the 

teachers; narrow 

focus on case activity; 

triangulation

Triangulation with 

teacher 

interviews, and 

observations

Specific 

resources

Show cards

Video

Stimulated recall with 

video for teachers

Show cards

Figure 13.2  Table from Dorion’s 2009 paper

your presentation of the findings

This findings section will set out a summary of all the findings broken down into topics 

relating to the research questions. It is a good idea to support this in the form of tables, 

matrices, diagrams and quotations from participants and informants, where appropriate, 

and end the section with a concluding summary of key findings and emerging issues 

which you have identified.

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