Temporal changes in magnitude of effect sizes reported in many areas of research are a threat to the credibility of the results and conclusions of meta-analysis. Numerous sequential methods for meta-analysis have been proposed to detect changes and monitor trends in effect sizes so that meta-analysis can be updated when necessary and interpreted…

This paper explores the interdisciplinary nature of studies in the field of lifelong learning participation. Until recently, participation studies have been presented in a rather fragmented way, often drawing on insights from separate disciplines such as sociology or psychology. The complex nature of lifelong learning participation, however, urges…

Null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) has been the subject of debate for decades and alternative approaches to data analysis have been proposed. This article addresses this debate from the perspective of scientific inquiry and inference. Inference is an inverse problem and application of statistical methods cannot reveal whether effects…

The advent of online platforms such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) has expanded considerably researchers' options for collecting research data. Many researchers, however, express understandable skepticism of the viability of using platforms such as MTurk. In this article, we provide a background on the use of MTurk as a mechanism for…

The focus of this article is on the use of theories and on what we imply when we in research claim to use a theory. In this article, diverse uses of one theory will be illustrated with reference to 10 different studies. The aim is not to evaluate or judge how the theory is used in these studies, but to discuss how the diverse uses of one and the…

In this case, I describe the "Paths on Life's Way (Paths)" project. The "Paths" project is the only longitudinal study of its kind in British Columbia and one of the few longitudinal studies in Canada. The research, now spanning 22 years-with a 28-year follow-up underway-is designed to provide a detailed examination of the life…

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is a form of critical participatory action research that provides young people with opportunities to identify injustices in their current social realities, to gather and analyze data about these phenomena, and to determine actions that will begin to rectify their negative outcomes. A growing body of…

Purpose: The limited uptake of improved agricultural practices in Africa raise questions on the functionality of current agricultural research systems. Our purpose is to explore the capacity for local innovation within the research systems of Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a…

This article focuses on the criticisms of current approaches in educational research methodology. It summarizes rationales for mixed methods and argues that the mixing quantitative paradigm and qualitative paradigm is problematic due to practical and philosophical arguments. It is also indicated that the current rise of mixed methods work has…

Snowball sampling is generally seen as a highly effective sampling technique that allows for the study of difficult to reach or 'hidden' populations. It is also seen as a valuable tool for the study of particularly sensitive or private matters. As a result, it was chosen as the sampling method for a research study into illegal drug users over the…

Randomized controlled trials are considered the gold standard for evaluating social work interventions. However, published reports can systematically overestimate intervention effects when researchers selectively report large and significant findings. Publication bias and other types of reporting biases can be minimized through prospective trial…

This thematic content analysis done about teaching biotechnology which is researched in Turkey is conducted with 64 articles, from a total of 45 magazines published in Turkey from 2003 to 2018. An analysis of the research trends of Turkish researchers based on teaching biotechnology. In this research, it has been tried to guide the researchers by…

We examine the American landscape of higher education quantitative research concerning how gender and sex demographic information is collected. We use a directed content analysis to examine the prevalence and operationalization of gender and sex among widely used higher education survey instruments. Our findings illuminate a seemingly haphazard…

The challenges of conducting lengthy fieldwork in today's busy academic world have impacted the types of research that are able to be carried out. In particular, traditional educational ethnography has become problematic for research beyond initial doctoral research programs. This article analyzes data collected during a return to the field of a…

Mixed-methods research (MMR), as an inter-discourse (quantitative and qualitative) methodology, can provide applied linguistics researchers the opportunity to draw on and integrate the strengths of the two research methodological approaches in favour of making more rigorous inferences about research problems. In this article, the argument is made…