What Is Quantitative Research? 1 Foundations of Quantitative Research Methods 3 When Do We Use Quantitative Methods? 7 Summary 11 Exercises 11 Further Reading 12

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What Is Quantitative Research? 1 Foundations of Quantitative Research Methods 3 When Do We Use Quantitative Methods? 7 Summary 11 Exercises 11 Further Reading 12 DANIEL MUIJS DOING quantitative research IN EDUCATION 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page i Doing Quantitative Research in Education with SPSS 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page ii 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page iii Doing Quantitative Research in Education with SPSS Daniel Muijs Sage Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page iv © Daniel Muijs 2004 First published 2004 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1998, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP SAGE Publications Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B-42, Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 100 017 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-7619-4382-X ISBN 0-7619-4383-8 (pbk) Library of Congress Control Number: 2003115358 Typeset by Pantek Arts Ltd Printed in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page v Contents List of figures viii List of tables x Preface xi 1 Introduction to quantitative research 1 What is quantitative research? 1 Foundations of quantitative research methods 3 When do we use quantitative methods? 7 Summary 11 Exercises 11 Further reading 12 2 Experimental and quasi-experimental research 13 Types of quantitative research 13 How to design an experimental study 15 Advantages and disadvantages of experimental research in education 22 Quasi-experimental designs 26 Summary 32 Exercises 33 Further reading 33 3 Designing non-experimental studies 34 Survey research 34 Observational research 51 Analysing existing datasets 57 Summary 60 Exercises 61 Appendix 3.1 Example of a descriptive form 62 Appendix 3.2 Rating the quality of interactions between teachers and pupils 63 v 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page vi vi ■ Contents 4Validity, reliability and generalisability 64 Validity 65 Reliability 71 Generalisability 75 Summary 82 Exercises 83 Further reading 83 5 Introduction to SPSS and the dataset 85 Introduction to SPSS 85 Summary 90 Exercises 90 6 Univariate statistics 91 Introduction 91 Frequency distributions 91 Levels of measurement 97 Measures of central tendency 99 Measures of spread 105 Summary 110 Exercises 112 Further reading 112 7 Bivariate analysis: comparing two groups 113 Introduction 113 Cross tabulation – looking at the relationship between nominal and ordinal variables 114 The t-test: comparing the means of two groups 127 Summary 139 Exercises 140 Further reading 140 8 Bivariate analysis: looking at the relationship between two variables 142 The relationship between two continuous variables: Pearson’s r correlation coefficient 142 Spearman’s rho rank-order correlation coefficient: the relationship between two ordinal variables 151 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page vii Contents ■ vii Summary 156 Exercises 157 Further reading 158 9 Multivariate analysis: using multiple linear regression to look at the relationship between several predictors and one dependent variable 159 Introduction 159 What is multiple linear regression? 160 Doing regression analysis in SPSS 163 Using ordinal and nominal variables as predictors 169 Diagnostics in regression 176 Summary 183 Exercises 184 Further reading 184 10 Using analysis of variance to compare more than two groups 185 Want is ANOVA? 185 Doing ANOVA in SPSS 187 The effect size measure 194 Using more than one independent variable 196 Summary 200 Exercises 201 Further reading 201 11 One step beyond: introduction to multilevel modelling and structural equation modelling 202 Multilevel modelling 202 Structural equation modelling 209 Summary 217 Exercises 218 Further reading 219 References 220 Index 222 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page viii List of figures 4.1 Shavelson’s multifaceted, hierarchical self-concept model 69 4.2 Type I and type II errors 76 5.1 SPSS opening screen 86 5.2 The ‘Data View’ screen with our file opened 87 5.3 The ‘Variable View’ 88 6.1 Producing a frequency table: steps 1–3 92 6.2 Producing a frequency table: steps 4–6 93 6.3 ‘Frequencies’ output 94 6.4 Getting a chart in ‘Frequencies’ 95 6.5 A bar chart 96 6.6 Measures of central tendency in SPSS 103 6.7 Measures of central tendency output 104 6.8 Measures of spread 108 6.9 Output measures of spread 109 6.10 Describing single variables 111 7.1 Producing a cross tabulation table: steps 1–3 116 7.2 Producing a cross tabulation table: steps 4 and 5 117 7.3 Producing a cross tabulation table: steps 6 and 7 118 7.4 ‘Crosstabs’ output 119 7.5 Obtaining expected values in ‘Crosstabs’: steps 8–10 120 7.6 ‘Crosstabs’ output with expected values 121 7.7 Obtaining the chi square test in ‘Crosstabs’: steps 11–13 123 7.8 Chi square text output 124 7.9 Selecting cases: steps 1 and 2 128 7.10 Selecting cases: steps 3 and 4 129 7.11 Selecting cases: steps 5–7 130 7.12 The t-test: steps 1–3 132 7.13 The t-test: steps 4–6 133 7.14 The t-test: step 7 134 7.15 T-test: output 135 7.16 Summary of bivariate data 140 viii 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page ix List of figures ■ ix 8.1 Correlations: steps 1–3 148 8.2 Correlations: step 4 149 8.3 Pearson’s r output 150 8.4 Spearman’s correlation: step 5 154 8.5 Output of Spearman’s rho 155 8.6 Summary of bivariate relationships 156 9.1 Scatter plot of English and maths scores 161 9.2 Multiple linear regression: steps 1–3 164 9.3 Multiple regression: steps 4 and 5 165 9.4 Regression output: part 1 166 9.5 Regression output: part 2 167 9.6 Output including two ordinal variables 170 9.7 Transforming variables: steps 1–3 172 9.8 Recoding variables: steps 4–7 173 9.9 Recoding variables: steps 8–10 174 9.10 Output including dummy variables 175 9.11 Diagnostics: part 1 177 9.12 Diagnostics: part 2 178 9.13 Outliers casewise diagnostics output 179 9.14 Collinearity diagnostics 180 9.15 Collinearity diagnostics output 181 10.1 ANOVA: steps 1–3 188 10.2 ANOVA: steps 4–6 189 10.3 ANOVA: steps 7 and 8 190 10.4 ANOVA output: part 1 191 10.5 ANOVA output: part 2 – multiple comparisons 192 10.6 ANOVA output: part 3 – homogeneous subgroups 193 10.7 ANOVA: producing effect size measures – part 1 194 10.8 ANOVA: producing effect size measures – part 2 195 10.9 Effect size output 196 10.10 Multiple predictors and interaction effects: output 197 11.1 Predictors of achievement: a regression model 210 11.2 A more complex model 211 11.3 Four manifest variables determined by a latent maths self-concept 212 11.4 Year 5 structural equation model 215 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page x List of tables 6.1 Height, gender and whether respondent likes their job 100 6.2 Height, gender and whether respondent likes their job ordered by height 101 6.3 Wages in an organisation 102 6.4 Test scores in two schools 105 6.5 Calculating the interquartile range 107 7.1 Cross tabulation of gender and ethnicity (1) 114 7.2 Cross tabulation of gender and ethnicity (2) 115 8.1 Actual responses 152 8.2 Ranking of actual responses 152 11.1 Multilevel model: end-of-year test scores predicted by beginning-of-year test scores 206 11.2 Multilevel model: end-of-year test scores predicted by beginning-of-year test scores and pupil variables 207 11.3 Multilevel model: end-of-year test scores predicted by beginning-of-year test scores, pupil, school and classroom variables 208 x 9079 Prelims (i-xii) 26/2/04 3:41 pm Page xi Preface In this book we will be looking at quantitative research methods in edu- cation. The book is structured to start with chapters on conceptual issues and designing quantitative research studies before going on to data analysis. While each chapter can be studied separately, a better under- standing will be reached by reading the book sequentially. This book is intended as a non-mathematical introduction, and a soft- ware package will be used to analyse the data. This package is SPSS, the most commonly used statistical software package in the social sciences. A dataset from which all examples are taken can be downloaded from the accompanying website (www.sagepub.co.uk/resources/muijs.htm). The website also contains the answers to the exercises at the end of each chapter, additional teaching resources (to be added over time), and a facility to address questions and feedback to the author. I hope you find this book useful, and above all that it will give you the confidence to conduct and interpret the results of your own quantitative inquiries in education.
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