In the social sciences and life sciences, a case study is a research method involving an up-close, in-depth, and detailed examination of a subject of study, as well as its related contextual conditions.
Qualitative research is a scientific method of observation to gather non-numerical data. This type of research "refers to the meanings, concepts definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things" and not to their "counts or measures." This research answers why and how a certain phenomenon may occur rather than how often. Qualitative research approaches are employed across many academic disciplines, focusing particularly on the human elements of the social and natural sciences; in less academic contexts, areas of application include qualitative market research, business, service demonstrations by non-profits, and journalism.
Program evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer questions about projects, policies and programs, particularly about their effectiveness and efficiency. In both the public and private sectors, stakeholders often want to know whether the programs they are funding, implementing, voting for, receiving or objecting to are producing the intended effect. While program evaluation first focuses around this definition, important considerations often include how much the program costs per participant, how the program could be improved, whether the program is worthwhile, whether there are better alternatives, if there are unintended outcomes, and whether the program goals are appropriate and useful. Evaluators help to answer these questions, but the best way to answer the questions is for the evaluation to be a joint project between evaluators and stakeholders.
Methodology is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study. It comprises the theoretical analysis of the body of methods and principles associated with a branch of knowledge. Typically, it encompasses concepts such as paradigm, theoretical model, phases and quantitative or qualitative techniques.
Michael John Scriven is a British-born Australian polymath and academic philosopher, best known for his contributions to the theory and practice of evaluation.
The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is mostly concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing education.
Stephen W. Raudenbush is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Sociology and Chairman of the Committee on Education at the University of Chicago. He is best known for his development and application of hierarchical linear models (HLM) in the field of education but he has also published on other subjects such as health and crime. Hierarchical linear models, which go by many other names, are used to study many natural processes. To use an example from education, a three level hierarchical model might account for the fact that students are nested in classrooms which are nested in schools. With the right data one could go further and note that schools are nested in districts which are nested in states. Repeated measures of the same individuals can be studied with these models as observations nested in people.
Miriam David FRSA FAcSS is a British educator. She is Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London and Associate Director of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme.
Andrew Pollard is Head of Research Impact at the Institute of Education, University College London. Formerly, he was Professor of Education at the universities of Cambridge, Bristol and West of England. He chaired the Education Sub-panel for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework on behalf of UK Higher Education Funding Councils, which involves assessing the quality of research undertaken in UK universities. He was Director of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme from 2002–09, of the UK Strategic Forum for Research in Education from 2008–11 and of ESCalate, the Education Subject Centre of the UK's Higher Education Academy. He is a non-executive director of William Pollard & Co. Ltd. a print and communications company, founded in 1781 and based in Exeter.
The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) is part of the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London. Its work is concerned with systematic reviews which use transparent and explicit methodologies for reviewing research evidence in order to be clear about what we know from research and how we know it.
Mary Frank Fox is an ADVANCE Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a pioneer and leader in the field of women and men in scientific and academic occupations and organizations, with work that has significant implications for science and technology policies. Her work has shaped understandings of complex issues in path-breaking ways including:
Stephen Park Turner is a researcher in social practice, social and political theory, and the philosophy of the social sciences. He is Graduate Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy of the University of South Florida, where he also holds the title Distinguished University Professor. He has held a NEH Fellowship, was Simon Honorary Professor at Manchester University and has twice been the Advanced Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies
Stephen A. C. Gorard is a British academic who specialises in the sociology of education. He is Professor of Education and Public Policy at Durham University.
Realist evaluation is a type of theory-driven evaluation method used in evaluating social programmes. It is based on the epistemological foundations of critical realism. Based on specific theories, realist evaluation provides an alternative lens to empiricist evaluation techniques for the study and understanding of programmes and policies. This technique assumes that knowledge is a social and historical product, thus the social and political context as well as theoretical mechanisms, need consideration in analysis of programme or policy effectiveness.
Yu Xie is a Chinese-American sociologist Xie has made contributions to quantitative methodology, social stratification, demography, Chinese studies, sociology of science, and social science data collection. He was Otis Dudley Duncan Distinguished University Professor of Sociology, Statistics, and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is currently Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Sinica, and the National Academy of Sciences.
The Department of Social Policy and Intervention is a leading interdisciplinary centre for research and teaching in social policy and the systematic evaluation of social intervention based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It dates back to ‘Barnett House’, a social reform initiative founded in 1914 and became a department of University of Oxford in 1961. The Department hosts two main research units: the Oxford Institute of Social Policy (OISP) and the Centre for Evidence-Based Social Intervention (CEBI). Since October 2017 Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus is Head of Department.
Yvonna Sessions Lincoln is an American methodologist and higher education scholar. Currently a Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, Lincoln holds the Ruth Harrington Endowed Chair of Educational Leadership. As an author, she has been largely collected by libraries.
Martyn Hammersley is a British sociologist whose main publications cover social research methodology and philosophical issues in the social sciences.
Sean F. Reardon is an American sociologist who currently serves as the Endowed Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where he also is a member of the Steering Committee of the Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA). Reardon is an Elected Fellow to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Bagele Chilisa is a Botswanan post-colonial scholar who has written and spoken extensively about indigenous research and evaluation methodologies. She is a full professor at the University of Botswana, where she teaches courses on social science research methods and evaluation research to undergraduate and graduate students. Chilisa has served as an evaluater on multiple global projects, and is considered to be an important "African thought leader." Chilisa identifies as a member of the Bantu people of Africa.
