1st Edition
Making Your Doctoral Research Project Ambitious Developing Large-Scale Studies with Real-World Impact
Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION Thinking bigger: The importance of an ambitious doctoral research project
Nadia Siddiqui and Stephen Gorard
Part 1 EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Chapter 2 – School value-added measures: Undertaking policy- and practice-relevant methodological research
Thomas Perry
Chapter 3 - Is Progress 8 a valid and reliable measure of school effectiveness?
Mark Ledger
Chapter 4 – The stability problem in using value-added measurements for teacher performance evaluation
Ismail Aslantas
Chapter 5 - Does academic selection promote effectiveness and equity? Evaluating a classic topic using a new approach
Bin Wei Lu
Chapter 6 - Does instructional leadership make schools more effective? Evidence from the Maldives
Ismail Shafeeu
Part 2 EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT
Chapter 7 – Can co-operative learning and group-work help English language learners in Thailand?
Phanatdao Chantarasiri
Chapter 8 - The role of metacognition in the learning of English as a foreign language
Meechai Wongdaeng
Chapter 9 - Can Philosophy for Children improve critical thinking and attainment for Chinese secondary students?
Cai Wei Wu
Chapter 10 - Evaluating the impact of instruction on the critical thinking skills of English language learners in higher education
Nada el-Soufi
Chapter 11 - Can improving the ‘academic buoyancy’ of secondary school students improve their school attendance?
Sophie Anderson
Chapter 12 – Understanding the moral values of primary school children: a comparative study
Shi Pian
Part 3 EVALUATING EDUCATION POLICY
Chapter 13 – Free Schools in England: researching a (controversial) new policy reform using a mixed methods approach
Rebecca Morris
Chapter 14 – Does absence from school influence attainment, and what is the best way to handle it?
Haifaa Alabbad
Chapter 15 – Do expensive STEM enrichment activities make any difference to science and maths outcomes at school?
Pallavi Banerjee
Chapter 16 – How fair are the indicators used in contextualised admission policies in China?
Yiyi Tan
Chapter 17 – International comparisons at the crossroads of policy, practice and research: the case of school leavers’ and graduates’ information systems
Rita Hordósy
Chapter 18 – Evidence translation strategies to promote the use of research results in schools: What works best?
Caner Erkan
Chapter 19 – CONCLUSION The implications of these studies for new researchers
Stephen Gorard and Nadia Siddiqui
Biography
Nadia Siddiqui is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Durham University Evidence Centre for Education (DECE), UK.
Stephen Gorard is Professor and Director of the Durham University Evidence Centre for Education (DECE), UK and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
"Overall, the book offers valuable and extraordinary doctoral research projects; it is highly recommended for new researchers of all kinds – including both doctoral faculty members, potential doctoral students, and those in their first research appointment. Moreover, it is ideal reading for supervisors, tutors, or professors of any nationality as the excellent research projects in this book can inspire them to help their students succeed in doctoral research and subsequent publication. As a Ph.D. student and a language teacher, working with this book helped me reflect on the real substantive significance of research in the social sciences and better understand that the Ph.D. is not my end-goal, but instead more of a new starting point within the world of research and education." - Qiqin Hu, Educational Review
