The course prepares students to conducting qualitative and quantitative research in education. Students are taught to work independently with data using statistical software Gretl and R.
The content of the course is divided into two parts - educational research methods and statistical analysis of data. In the first part, we, for example, discuss characteristics of qualitative and quantitative research, main steps in the research process and selected instruments of data collection.
We also focuse on international comparative studies in education (PISA, TIMSS, CIVED etc.). In the second part, students are introduced to the basics of descriptive statistics (frequencies, measures of central tendency and variability, correlation coefficient, graphing data) and inferential statistics (hypotheses testing and linear regression) using selected examples and demonstration of data analyses in statistical software Gretl and R.
Students are also introduced how to develop and analyse achievement tests.