This book introduces students to major research processes and methods used in business research. The research process includes all steps in the research project beginning from the problem formulation, through research design, proposal, conducting the research, deriving conclusions, writing research report, and preparing and making presentation. The major research methods include risk assessment, statistics, sampling, hypothesis testing, surveys, and comparative analysis. It helps students develop solid knowledge and practical skills sufficient for conducting a research project from its initiation, through completion, and delivery. The author provides multiple examples as well as the questions and problems for self-testing and self-evaluation in each chapter. The book is structured to provide a smooth flow of understanding and learning the material along the learning curve and is concise enough to fit a one-semester course.

This book highlights those aspects of Vygotskian theory which are most cogent to Science Education, including the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), concept development, play and imagination. Whilst these and other Vygotskian constructs apply to both research and practice in all forms of Science Education, this book employs a specific and critical focus on one or two key concepts for each context. Thus play and imagination are explored in depth in the chapter on science in early childhood learning, the ZPD is considered in depth in the primary school science chapter, and concept development in the secondary-level chapter. Chapters on higher education science learning and teaching, science teacher education, informal science learning, science education research, and the scientific endeavour itself draws on those aspects of Vygotskian theory which relate most closely. This book makes an important contribution to Vygotskian theory. Never before has it been applied so widely and comprehensively to the field of science and STEM education. The book is intended for students and academics in science and STEM education and the social sciences. It is also of interest to Vygotsky scholars and those involved in the analysis of pedagogic practice within and beyond science and STEM education.

Many researchers dread writing. They find it laborious - even painful - to put their scholarly work into words. They get bogged down in the study, and lose track of the story. And they produce uninspiring papers that fail to resonate with readers or reviewers. This book offers an antidote to this problem: brief, accessible lessons that guide researchers to write clear and compelling scientific manuscripts. The book is divided into three sections - Story, Craft, and Community. The Story section offers advice on getting the balance of study and story just right, introducing strategies for tackling each section of a scientific manuscript. The Craft section considers the grammatical and rhetorical tools of the trade, showing how they can be wielded for maximum impact. And the Community section offers suggestions for writing collaboratively, supporting other writers, and navigating peer review. Each section features multiple short and pragmatic lessons, peppered with illustrative examples. Readers can use the chapters collectively to build holistic writing skills, or dip in and out to refine specific elements of the craft. Rooted in a coaching philosophy, we aim to unlock our readers' potential as writers through instruction, reflection, and example. And we hope to inspire researchers to face writing with joy. This work is clearly written and easily understandable. Its many practical examples, tools, and exercises make an effective toolbox of support for scholarly writers. This will be invaluable to new scholars and help established scholars as well. The inclusion of examples specific to the health arena and the clear, elegantly simple explanations add strength and relevance to this work. Toni Ungaretti, Johns Hopkins School of Education, Baltimore, MD, USA This book is the most original perspective I have ever read about the craft of writing. As its title suggests, it is inspiring. Brownie Anderson, NBME, Philadelphia, PA, USA

The book makes a significant contribution to critical higher education studies, specifically to graduate employability research and to capabilities and education research. The book moves beyond the simplistic conception of alleged 'gaps' in graduate skills and 'mismatches' between employers and universities, and instead provides an innovative multi-dimensional and intersectional human capabilities conceptualisation of graduate employability. The book challenges an individualised notion of employability, instead locating employability issues in social and economic conditions, and argues that employability choices cannot be divorced from inequality. Qualitative and quantitative data from multiple case-study universities in South Africa are used to explore the perceptions and experiences of diverse students, lecturers, support officers and employers, regarding what each university is doing, or should be doing, to enhance graduate economic opportunities and contribute to inclusive development. The book will be highly relevant to students, scholars and researchers in the fields of education and sociology, particularly those with an interest in graduate employability.

Covers how to write empirical reports, research proposals, and literature, and how to read meta-analyses Provides strategies for improving one's writing - how to adopt an engaging style and grammatical and word use rules Numerous examples from journal articles demonstrate good writing in psychological reports Provides examples of the most common mistakes and how to avoid them and best practices to improve one's writing Chapter exercises provide an opportunity to apply the points conveyed in each chapter Incorporates 7th Edition APA Manual

This book explores new trends and developments in mathematics education research related to proof and proving, the implications of these trends and developments for theory and practice, and directions for future research. With contributions from researchers working in twelve different countries, the book brings also an international perspective to the discussion and debate of the state of the art in this important area. The book is organized around the following four themes, which reflect the breadth of issues addressed in the book: * Theme 1: Epistemological issues related to proof and proving; * Theme 2: Classroom-based issues related to proof and proving; * Theme 3: Cognitive and curricular issues related to proof and proving; and * Theme 4: Issues related to the use of examples in proof and proving. Under each theme there are four main chapters and a concluding chapter offering a commentary on the theme overall.

This edited book engages with the richly interdisciplinary field of business and professional communication, aiming to reconcile the prescriptive ambitions of the US-centred business communication tradition with the more descriptive approach favoured in discourse studies and applied linguistics. A follow-up to the award-winning book The Ins and Outs of Business and Professional Discourse Research (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), this volume brings together scholars and their recent work from wide-ranging business and professional settings to engage with the question of what counts as good data. The authors focus on four key themes - authenticity, triangulation, background and relevance - to shine a light on business and professional discourse as essential contextual and intertextual. This book will be of interest to scholars working in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and business communication, but also other social scientists interested in a range of perspectives on oral, written and digital language use in workplace settings.

This compact reference guide gives students the skills and confidence to succeed in case study assignments. It takes students step-by-step through the process, from reading and understanding the brief through to critically evaluating the case, applying theory and presenting the assignment. Featuring sample assignments from a wide range of disciplines, it provides guidance on identifying the most important facts in a case, what to do when there's information missing and how to decide which theories and concepts to apply to a case. It is an invaluable resource for students of all disciplines and levels.

This book focuses on the phenomenon of a '21st century curriculum' and its role in preparing students for work and life in a rapidly changing global knowledge society. Its context is the global and diverse national influences on education policy agendas. The central concepts in the academic literature that underpins the phenomenon are globalisation, curriculum, and policy. The analysis spans global influences on the development of '21st century curriculum' policy, the construction of such policy at the national and State levels in Australia, and the enactment of such policy in three select case-study schools and in relation to which both similarities and differences are identified. The global to local span and the international relevance of the exposition are both revisited to highlight major findings, to discuss them in relation to recent literature and to offer propositions about '21st century curriculum' development that are of wide interest and relevance. Recommendations for policy and practice as well as possible future directions for research in the field follow.

This book offers a practical, methodological guide to conducting arts-based research with children by drawing on five years of the authors' experience carrying out arts-based research with children in Australia and the UK. Based on the Australian Research Council-funded Interfaith Childhoods project, the authors describe methods of engaging communities and making data with children that foreground children's experiences and worldviews through making, being with, and viewing art. Framing these methods of doing, seeing, being, and believing through art as modes of understanding children's strategies for negotiating personal identities and values, this book explores the value of arts-based research as a means of obtaining complex information about children's life worlds that can be difficult to express verbally.

ADVANGEBOOKS - UNDERSTANDING ARGUMENTS: AN INTRODUCTION TO INFORMAL LOGIC, 9E shows readers how to construct arguments in everyday life, using everyday language. In addition, this easy-to-read textbook also devotes three chapters to the formal aspects of logic including forms of argument, as well as propositional, categorical, and quantificational logic. Plus, this edition helps readers apply informal logic to legal, moral, scientific, religious, and philosophical scenarios, too.

This book investigates how policy, family background, social class, gender and ethnicity influence young people's post-16 and post-18 employment and education access. It draws on existing literature, alongside new data gathered from a case study in a UK state secondary school, to examine how policy changes to the financial arrangements for further and higher education and the changing youth employment landscape have had an impact on young people's choices and pathways. Hoskins explores a number of topics, including the role of identity in young people's decision-making; the impact of changes to young people's financial arrangements, such as cuts to the Education Maintenance Allowance and increased university fees; and the influence of support from parents and teachers. The book will be of interest to students and researchers of Education and Sociology.

Returning in its 3rd edition, this bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides friendly, engaging, and realistic advice on how to complete your doctorate. Updated throughout, the book will guide you through the basics as well as covering aspects that other books don't usually mention, including: * What a PhD is really about and how to do one well * How to decipher what your supervisor actually means by terms like 'good referencing' and 'clean research question' * How to design, report and defend your research The authors offer an accessible, down-to-earth, and insightful account of the whole PhD process. Their advice addresses how to avoid some of the pitfalls en route to a successful submission. Key features: * Thinking about your career from the outset of your PhD (rather than at the end) * Tips for "sniffing" a paper to make your reading quicker and more efficient * Understanding cultural differences in research * Networking for research success * Sensible guidelines for using social media in your research * Guidance on project management - especially important for part-time students The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research is essential reading for anyone considering a PhD, embarking on one, or stuck in the middle and unsure where to turn. It will tell you things many students wish someone had told them before they started. "The course of a PhD never did 'run smooth'. This new edition of unwritten rules covers everything the doctoral student needs to know for a smoother passage with informal yet scholarly advice, ranging from improving the writing process, creating networks, completing the thesis, and even what to wear for the viva - a complete guide to the tacit guidelines sometimes left unsaid." Professor Jerry Wellington, University of Sheffield, UK

This edited book brings together contributions from different educational contexts across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in order to explore how L2 English writing is assessed. Across seven MENA countries, the book covers aspects of practice including: task design and curriculum alignment, test (re)development, rubric design, the subjective decision making that underpins assessing students' writing and feedback provision, learner performance and how research methods help shed light on initiatives to improve student writing. In such coverage, chapter authors provide concrete evidence of how assessment practice is governed by their unique context, yet also influenced by international standards, trends and resources. This book will be of interest to second language teachers, assessors and programme developers as well as test designers and evaluators.

This book explores the role of students' involvement in teacher professional development. Building upon a research study whereby pupils instruct their teachers in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the author argues that using student voice in this way can result in transformational learning for all those involved. The author presents the processes and experiences of pupils taking on the role of educators as well as the experiences of the teachers receiving such professional development from their students. In doing so, he promotes the innovative use of a student voice initiative to support teaching and learning, with the overarching purpose of improving and transforming teacher-pupil relationships. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of pupil voice, teacher professional development and transformational learning.

This book focuses on understanding the process of problem construction in oral communication in foreign language contexts, examining how speakers of English as a second language approach issues in oral communication, as well as the strategies they employ to overcome these difficulties. Using theories of general communication, and in particular current approaches to L2 oral communication and strategies in interactional discourse, the authors construct a theoretical framework for defining, identifying and classifying learners' problems and coping strategies when speaking English as a second or foreign language. The book offers a coherent process-oriented description of the complex and multidimensional nature and typology of oral interaction problems in EFL contexts, and it will be of interest to practitioners, teachers, researchers, students, and curriculum designers in Applied Linguistics and TESOL.

This volume showcases innovative research on dialectal, vernacular, and other forms of "oral," speech-like writing in digital spaces. The shift from a predominantly print culture to a digital culture is shaping people's identities and relationships to one another in important ways. Using examples from distinct international contexts and language varieties (kiAmu, Lebanese, Ettounsi, Shanghai Wu, Welsh English, and varieties of American English) the authors examine how people use unexpected codes, scripts, and spellings to say something about who they are or aspire to be. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars interested in the impact of social media on language use, style, and orthography, as well as those with a broader interest in literacy, communication, language contact, and language change.

This book describes and explains how digital technologies enter adolescents' everyday life and learning in different contexts and environments. The book is based on research conducted in recent years in the Czech Republic, the results of which are set within a broad theoretical and international framework. The authors consider the theoretical and methodological anchoring of the topic, describing various approaches in an effort to comprehensively describe and understand the learning process of today's pupils. They focus on ways to explore learning in the digital era, domestication of digital technology in families, and parents' approaches to digital technology. Attention is paid to adolescents' competences and autonomy in the use of digital technologies, as well as their views on technology in their lives and learning. The authors summarize the most important results of the research, but also consider the options of empirical research and their own experience with the research of such a complex concept.

A student-friendly introduction to undertaking a TESOL/Applied Linguistics MA which features practical advice, exercises and answer keys making it ideal for postgraduate students studying in this area. The book is very practical in nature and online support material features recordings of lectures so students can practise their listening skills in real-world scenarios which is essential given the continuing focus on online teaching. Written by a teacher with over 30 years’ experience of teaching EFL students and featuring material that has been trialled with students, this book will meet and support the needs of international students on MAs in TESOL and Applied Linguistics.