Bayesian inference networks, a synthesis of statistics and expert systems, have advanced reasoning under uncertainty in medicine, business, and social sciences. This innovative volume is the first comprehensive treatment exploring how they can be applied to design and analyze innovative educational assessments. Part I develops Bayes nets' foundations in assessment, statistics, and graph theory, and works through the real-time updating algorithm. Part II addresses parametric forms for use with assessment, model-checking techniques, and estimation with the EM algorithm and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). A unique feature is the volume's grounding in Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) framework for assessment design. This "design forward" approach enables designers to take full advantage of Bayes nets' modularity and ability to model complex evidentiary relationships that arise from performance in interactive, technology-rich assessments such as simulations. Part III describes ECD, situates Bayes nets as an integral component of a principled design process, and illustrates the ideas with an in-depth look at the BioMass project: An interactive, standards-based, web-delivered demonstration assessment of science inquiry in genetics. This book is both a resource for professionals interested in assessment and advanced students. Its clear exposition, worked-through numerical examples, and demonstrations from real and didactic applications provide invaluable illustrations of how to use Bayes nets in educational assessment. Exercises follow each chapter, and the online companion site provides a glossary, data sets and problem setups, and links to computational resources.

Key Themes in Qualitative Research is an attempt by three well-respected ethnographic researchers to present a balanced view of qualitative methodology and research. The book is structured around classic texts, written by methodological pioneers, which comprise the basic foundation of modern qualitative research. The authors examine key premises in these texts, such as intimacy, advocacy, and validity, and how they may be supported, redesigned, or made problematic in today's field. This allows for a critical analysis of Old Guard vs. Avant-Garde ideas and provides for the reader a guide to wade through the proliferation of texts and theories available since the postmodern turn. While not designed as a primer in qualitative research methods, anyone with modest experience in the field should find this book extremely useful.

This collection demonstrates the use and variety of applications of time use methodology from multidisciplinary, multinational, and multicultural perspectives. A distinguished roster of contributors from such fields as psychology, occupational therapy, sociology, economics, and architecture examines the complex relationship between human time utilization and health and well-being and evaluates the future of time use analysis as a research tool in the social sciences.

Cross-border studies have become attractive for a number of fields, including international migration, studies of material and cultural globalization, and history. While cross-border studies have expanded, the critique on nation-centered research lens has also grown. This book revisits drawbacks of methodological nationalism in theory and methodological strategies. It summarizes research methodologies of the current studies on transnationalization and globalization, such as multi-scalar and transnational approaches, global and multi-sited ethnography, as well as the entangled history approach and the incorporating comparison approach. This collected volume goes beyond rhetorical criticism on methodological nationalism, which is mainly associated with the ignorance and naturalization of national categories. It proffers insights for the systematic implementation of novel research strategies within empirical studies deployed by young and senior scholars. The novelty lies in an interdisciplinary lens ranging from sociology, social anthropology and history.

This practical, user-friendly guide examines ethics in research. It helps researchers to manage ethical dilemmas that arise while research is being planned, conducted and reported and includes a unique 'ethical review checklist', as well as other useful features, to aid ethics in practice.

This volume considers the ways in which educational research is being shaped by policy across the globe. Policy effects on research are increasingly influential, as policies in and beyond education drive the formation of a knowledge-based economy by supporting increased international competitiveness through more effective, evidence-based interventions in schooling, education and training systems. What consequences does this increased steering have for research in education? How do transnational agencies make their influence felt on educational research? How do national systems and traditions of educational research - and relations with policy - respond to these new pressures? What effects does it have on the quality of research and on the freedom of researchers to pursue their own agendas? The 2006 volume of the World Yearbook of Education explores these issues, focusing on three key themes: globalising policy and research in education steering education research in national contexts global-local politics of education research. The 2006 volume has a truly global reach, incorporating transnational policy perspectives from the OECD and the European Commission, alongside national cases from across the world in contrasting contexts that include North and South America, Canada, France, Singapore, China, Russia and New Zealand. The range of contributions reflect how pervasive these developments are, how much is new in this situation and to what extent evidence-based policy pressures on research in education build on past relationships between education and policy. This book considers the impact of the steering processes on the work and identities of individual researchers and considers how research can be organised to play a more active role in the politics of the knowledge economy and learning society.

The American Statistical Association (ASA) and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) have longstanding ethical practice standards that are explicitly intended to be utilized by all who use statistical practices or computing, or both. Since statistics and computing are critical in any data-centered activity, these practice standards are essential to instruction in the uses of statistical practices or computing across disciplines. Ethical Reasoning for a Data-Centered World is aimed at any undergraduate or graduate students utilizing data. Whether the career goal is research, teaching, business, government, or a combination, this book presents a method for understanding and prioritizing ethical statistics, computing, and data science - featuring the ASA and ACM practice standards. To facilitate engagement, integration with prior learning, and authenticity, the material is organized around seven tasks: Planning/Designing; Data collection; Analysis; Interpretation; Reporting; Documenting; and Engaging in Team Work. This book is a companion volume to Ethical Practice of Statistics and Data Science, also published by Ethics International Press (2022). These are the first and only books to be based on, and to provide guidance to, the American Statistical Association (ASA) and Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) ethical guideline documents.

First published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book addresses some of the key questions facing contemporary social scientists. It does so by focusing on international research on identity and social inequality grounded in "race" and ethnic difference. The contributors to the volume, who are drawn from Europe, North America, South Africa, and Australia, reflect on questions from the position of "insiders", in the sense that they are active participants in the research cultures about which they are writing. They ask searching questions about the politics of research finding, the empowerment of minorities and the prospects for meaningful social change. In doing so we gain a fascinating insight into, for example, the position of social scientists in war-torn Serbia, in post-apartheid in South Africa, and in the contemporary US.

"Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census" represents a unique and definitive collaboration among more than 80 leading experts on all aspects of the U.S. Census. Drawing from academia, government, and the private sector, CQ Press and the editorial board have commissioned more than 100 concise, definitive articles on the decennial census and related topics. Subjects covered include: content of the census - what the census tracks, and when it began to ask specific questions, how questions are formulated, and factors that affect which questions are asked, and other types of censuses (housing, economic, and agricultural); procedure - how the census is planned, advertised, and conducted, state and local involvement, and how results are tabulated and stored; and uses of the census - publications, databases, and electronic products that provide census information for statistical and demographic research, and archiving of census records and genealogical use of census schedules. It also includes: census history - census taking in America from colonial times to the present and at each census, population trends over time, including changes in family composition, racial and ethnic groups, and the social, economic, and educational status of the population; politics of the census - effect of census data on congressional districts and funding of federal programs, controversies: from slavery and the three-fifths compromise in 1790, to the use of statistical sampling in 2000. Other features include a 16-page photo collection that visually shows the census evolution, and an extensive glossary of terms, as well as an appendix of useful information and a detailed index round out the volume. Most articles include references for further reading; many also point the reader to online resources for census information.

This book explores widely used seasonal adjustment methods and recent developments in real time trend-cycle estimation. It discusses in detail the properties and limitations of X12ARIMA, TRAMO-SEATS and STAMP - the main seasonal adjustment methods used by statistical agencies. Several real-world cases illustrate each method and real data examples can be followed throughout the text. The trend-cycle estimation is presented using nonparametric techniques based on moving averages, linear filters and reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, taking recent advances into account. The book provides a systematical treatment of results that to date have been scattered throughout the literature. Seasonal adjustment and real time trend-cycle prediction play an essential part at all levels of activity in modern economies. They are used by governments to counteract cyclical recessions, by central banks to control inflation, by decision makers for better modeling and planning and by hospitals, manufacturers, builders, transportation, and consumers in general to decide on appropriate action. This book appeals to practitioners in government institutions, finance and business, macroeconomists, and other professionals who use economic data as well as academic researchers in time series analysis, seasonal adjustment methods, filtering and signal extraction. It is also useful for graduate and final-year undergraduate courses in econometrics and time series with a good understanding of linear regression and matrix algebra, as well as ARIMA modelling.

What factors influence the relationship of a newly married couple? Do these factors change as the marriage matures? The authors of this book examine the determinants of marital instability in the early years of marriage. Conclusions are based on the results of a survey of 199 black couples and 174 white couples throughout the first four years of marriage. Findings focus on attitudes, perceptions, and feelings spouses have for each other and the manner in which they interact. Some of the topics discussed in the survey include: length of courtship, educational differences, religion, and family involvement. The findings show what effect these and other factors have on a marriage.

Beginning and well-seasoned researchers alike face significant challenges in understanding the complexities of research designs arising from both within and across methodological paradigms, and in applying them in ways that maximise impact on knowledge, practice, and policy. This volume engages educational and social researchers in a scholarly debate offering some crucial re-interpretations of established research methodologies in light of contemporary conditions and critical introduction to some contemporary research approaches yet to gain general recognition. This book is a contemporary vademecum for researchers, practitioners and graduate students on research methodologies and designs for educational and social change in today's world. The chapters chart and analyse the conceptual and practical complexities of a variety research designs for contemporary educational and social work research. This anthology, taken overall, provides readers with the knowledge and understanding needed not only to design technically sound and coherent research studies, but also to develop methodologically innovative research projects that cross the boundaries between different methodological traditions to the benefit of scholarship, policy, and practice. The chapters cover nine research approaches: - Design-based research - Action research - Ethnomethodological research - Negotiated ethnography - Arts-informed research - Historical analysis and postcolonial scholarship - Policy analysis - Comparative research - Quantitative modelling of correlational and multi-level data The book provides a critical discussion of epistemological questions and methodological frontiers: - Knowledge and epistemology in scholarship, practice and policy - Digital knowledge and digital research - Emerging methodological challenges for educational research - Challenges and futures for social work and social policy research methods - Methodology and the knowledge industry

Everyday Ethics: Reflections on Practice looks at the moments that demand moral consideration and ethical choice that arise as part of a researcher's daily practice. Drawing on principles of systematic inquiry as transparent and grounded in conceptual reasoning, it describes research as praxis and the researcher as practitioner. The researcher is a decision-maker for both procedural and ethical matters that attend the conduct of research, especially when the research is focused on human wellbeing. Every decision about data collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation has moral dimensions. Morally compelling moments demand a reflexivity ('research praxis') - that is, informed action, the back-and-forth between reasoning and action. Methodological wisdom emerges during the cyclical process of inquiry that is doing, thinking about the doing through a moral lens, and doing again. This book invites us to deepen our understanding of everyday ethics, and contributes to the ongoing discourse about research as moral practice, conducted by such reflexive practitioners. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

This book introduces the theory of stochastic processes with applications taken from physics and finance. Fundamental concepts like the random walk or Brownian motion but also Levy-stable distributions are discussed. Applications are selected to show the interdisciplinary character of the concepts and methods. In the second edition of the book a discussion of extreme events ranging from their mathematical definition to their importance for financial crashes was included. The exposition of basic notions of probability theory and the Brownian motion problem as well as the relation between conservative diffusion processes and quantum mechanics is expanded. The second edition also enlarges the treatment of financial markets. Beyond a presentation of geometric Brownian motion and the Black-Scholes approach to option pricing as well as the econophysics analysis of the stylized facts of financial markets, an introduction to agent based modeling approaches is given.

TThis book illustrates recent advances in applications of partial order theory and Hasse diagram techniques to data analysis, mainly in the socio-economic and environmental sciences. For years, partial order theory has been considered a fundamental branch of mathematics of only theoretical interest. In recent years, its effectiveness as a tool for data analysis is increasingly being realized and many applications of partially ordered sets to real problems in statistics and applied sciences have appeared. Main examples pertain to the analysis of complex and multidimensional systems of ordinal data and to problems of multi-criteria decision making, so relevant in social and environmental sciences. Partial Order Concepts in Applied Sciences presents new theoretical and methodological developments in partial order for data analysis, together with a wide range of applications to different topics: multidimensional poverty, economic development, inequality measurement, ecology and pollution, and biology, to mention a few. The book is of interest for applied mathematicians, statisticians, social scientists, environmental scientists and all those aiming at keeping pace with innovation in this interesting, growing and promising research field.

The UK Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) worked for ten years to improve outcomes for learners in schools and other sectors through high quality research. One outcome of individual projects and across-Programme thematic work was the development of ten ?evidence-informed? principles for effective pedagogy. Synopses of these principles have been widely disseminated, particularly to practitioners. However, the evidence and reasoning underpinning them has not yet been fully explained. This book fills this gap by providing a scholarly account of the research evidence that informed the development of these principles, as well as offering some evidence of early take-up and impact. It also includes responses from highly-respected researchers throughout the world in order to locate the work in the broader international literature, to extend it by drawing on similar work elsewhere, to provide critique and to stimulate further development and debate. Principles for Effective Pedagogy contributes to international dialogue on effective teaching and learning, providing a focus for scholarly comment, sharing of expertise and knowledge accumulation.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Research Papers in Education.

This analysis of regional cultures is the 17th part in a series on social research. Topics covered include: the emergence of Wales and Saxony as modern regions in Europe; state support and literary regionalism in Norway and the US; and regional industrialization and political mobilization.

This book presents a broad spectrum of problems related to statistics, mathematics, teaching, social science, and economics as well as a range of tools and techniques that can be used to solve these problems. It is the result of a scientific collaboration between experts in the field of economic and social systems from the University of Defence in Brno (Czech Republic), G. d'Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara (Italy), Pablo de Olavid eUniversity of Sevilla (Spain), and Ovidius University in Constanta, (Romania). The studies included were selected using a peer-review process and reflect heterogeneity and complexity of economic and social phenomena. They and present interesting empirical research from around the globe and from several research fields, such as statistics, decision making, mathematics, complexity, psychology, sociology and economics. The volume is divided into two parts. The first part, "Recent trends in mathematical and statistical models for economic and social sciences", collects papers on quantitative matters, which propose mathematical and statistical models for social sciences, economics, finance, and business administration. The second part, "Recent trends in qualitative theories for economic and social sciences", includes papers on qualitative matters, which discuss social, economic, and teaching issues. It is an ideal reference work for all those researchers interested in recent quantitative and qualitative tools. Covering a wide range of topics, it appeals in equal measure to mathematicians, statisticians, sociologists, philosophers, and specialists in the fields of communication, social and political sciences.

This book is concerned with the universality of wellbeing indicators. It provides contributions from international scholars in the field of quality of life and subjective well-being. The book provides substantial conceptual coverage on issues relating to the universality of subjective wellbeing including detailed discussion of central underlying mechanisms and processes involved in subjective wellbeing. The main topics covered include: the theoretical bases for the measurement of quality of life, the affective dimension in quality of life, the roles of homeostasis and personality in the processes of quality of life assessment and maintenance, the impact of factors including residential care, economic wealth, and work-related variables on subjective wellbeing. The book is of interest to all who want to develop their understanding of the universality, assessment, development and maintenance of subjective wellbeing.

Rigorous research is crucial to effective work with young people and increasingly youth practitioners need to be able to develop, review and evidence their work using a variety of research and assessment tools. This text equips students and practitioners with a thorough understanding of research design, practice and dissemination, as well as approaches to evidence-based practice.

A clear practice framework informs the book, outlining the significance of research to youth work, especially in relation to designing and developing services for young people. Research and Research Methods for Youth Practitioners:

• Analyses the research/practitioner role
• Explores the ethical context of research in youth work
• Offers a thorough analysis of key methodological questions in research in practice
• Provides a guide to data collection and analysis
• Presents five principal research strategies for youth work: ethnographic work and visual methods; interviewing and evaluation; surveys and evaluation; the use of secondary data and documentary analysis; and researching virtual and online settings
• Discusses the implications of research for work with young people as well as its dissemination.

Written by experienced researchers and practitioner-researchers, each chapter in this accessible textbook includes an overview, a critical discussion of the pros and cons of the particular method or approach, a case study, a practice-based task, a summary and suggestions for further reading. This textbook is invaluable for student and practising youth workers. It is also a useful reference for other practitioners working with young people.

Policy makers are increasingly demanding evidence from randomized trials. The book focuses on the design of rigorous trials rather than their statistical underpinnings or analyses. Consequently, statistical theory is absent and statistical methods are minimal. Few other texts go into such detailed description about randomization procedures and different trial designs within the same volume. The book has chapters on: pragmatic designs; placebo designs; preference approaches; unequal allocation; economics; analytical approaches; randomization methods.

Prevent, Repent, Reform, Revenge is a study of the aims that people intend to achieve by the sanctions and treatments they recommend for wrongdoers. The book is designed to answer two main questions: What kind of analytical scheme can profitably reveal the nature of people's reasoning about the aims of sanctions they propose for perpetrators of crimes and misdeeds? In the aims that people express, what changes in overt moral reasoning patterns appear between later childhood and the early adult years? The authors conducted interviews with 136 youths between the ages of 9 and 21 to find out what sanctions and aims they felt were appropriate in three cases of wrongdoing. The resulting information provides an important insight into adolescent moral development. LC 95-16145.

Integrated assessment modelling is an active and rapidly developing field, triggered by the debate on climate change and the move towards the goal of sustainable development. This book provides an integrated approach to modelling, using a transdisciplinary approach. The author summarizes the main issues involved in the changing global system, and gives an overview of the emerging field of integrated assessment. He then presents a general discussion of the methodological principles of a multidisciplinary integrated modelling approach. Existing tools are examined and new methodological approaches are applied to various aspects of the problem of global change. The case studies focus on optimizing climate change mitigating policies, the allocation of emission rights and the the adaptive behaviour of social and biological agents. Special attention is given to the role of uncertainty, especially the subjective interpretation of uncertainties (world views), and the role of adaptive multi-agent modelling. The book concludes with a discussion on future uses of integrated assessment modelling in the global environment. Modelling Global Change will be vital to economists and scientists who have an interest in integrated assessment modelling, global modelling and decision support, environmental and ecological economists and those interested in sustainable development.

"This compact, user-friendly book provides everything a teacher needs to know to conduct an action research project, in a clear, step-by-step presentation. "" "This book guides the learner through comprehension and interpretation of both qualitative and quantitative techniques in action research methods and then describes all phases of the process, including selecting a topic; collecting, analyzing, and reporting data; reviewing the literature; and presenting the report. There are many new strategies and examples of projects that can be used for professional growth and development included with this edition, as well as more examples, ideas for possible research questions, and many new forms and graphics are added.