I’ve been doing some research as part of my dissertation through NILE. I came across an awesome book by Cohen et al called ‘Research Methods in Education’. It wasn’t on our key reading list but I’d thoroughly recommend it.
If you’re looking for guidance on where to start when it comes to devising your own research project, Chapter 3 is what you’re looking for. It offers an overview of research styles and types of statistics. It then has this awesome ‘planning matrix for research’. It’s a series of 30 questions which cover orienting decisions, research design and methodology, data analysis and reporting results. Working your way through these questions will probably cover most bases when it comes to research design. It turns out that there was so much I didn’t pay attention to, but these questions helped me plan in far more depth. Here’s an example of the first few orienting questions…
As you can see, each question gives you quite a lot to think about. Anyhow, if you’re stuck for ideas and you need to think a project through in more detail, I’d go with this! Check out this link to the Routledge Companion Site and scroll down to Box 3.3.
Categories: General, teacher development
ELT Planning 
Thanks for this post. It’s really useful and I have just got myself this book. It adds a lot of clarity to these early days of my dissertation!
LikeLiked by 1 person