Success at seeking and gaining funding is now a vital component of building of a successful research career. The book sets out the case for why success at winning funding is so important, from both an institutional and individual researcher perspective. Primarily based on research funding available to researchers in the United Kingdom, the author explores in depth the main forms of research, research funding organizations, and modes of funding. The book takes researchers through the process of applying for funding, and suggests ways in which they can improve their chances of being successful. The book covers research funding in all the key areas: The sciences Life sciences Social sciences Arts and humanities And it also has a depth of coverage that will be useful to established researchers as well as those in the early stages of a research career.
Writing high quality grant applications is easier when you know how research funding agencies work and how your proposal is treated in the decision-making process. The Research Funding Toolkit provides this knowledge and teaches you the necessary skills to write high quality grant applications. A complex set of factors determine whether research projects win grants. This handbook helps you understand these factors and then face and overcome your personal barriers to research grant success. The guidance also extends to real-world challenges of grant-writing, such as obtaining the right feedback, dealing effectively with your employer and partner institutions, and making multiple applications efficiently. There are many sources that will tell you what a fundable research grant application looks like. Very few help you learn the skills you need to write one. The Toolkit fills this gap with detailed advice on creating and testing applications that are readable, understandable and convincing.
Grants and fellowships are increasingly essential to an academic career, and competition over federal and foundation funding is fiercer than ever. Yet there has hitherto been little training available for this genre of writing. Funding Your Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences demystifies the process of writing winning grant proposals in the humanities and social sciences. Offering practical guidance, step-by-step instructions, and examples of successful proposals, Walker and Unruh outline the best practices to crack the proposal writing code. They reveal the most common peeves of proposal reviewers, and offer advice on how to avoid frequent problem areas in conceptualizing and crafting a research proposal in the humanities and social sciences. Contributions from agency and foundation program officers offer the perspective from the other side of the proposal submission portal, and new research funding trends, including crowdfunding and public scholarship, are also covered. This book is essential reading for all those involved in funding applications. Graduate students, research administrators, early career faculty members, and tenured professors alike will gain new and effective strategies to write successful applications.
* What is action research and how can it best be understood? * How can practitioners use action research to deal with problems and improve services? * What are the different types of action research and which might be most appropriate for use in a particular setting? This book has been designed for use as a core text on research methods courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level and on professional training courses. It is divided into three parts. Part one traces the history of action research and shows the links between its use in education, community development, management research and nursing. Building on this background the book explores different ways in which action research has been defined and proposes four different types, each appropriate to a different problem situation and context. In part two, five case studies of action research are described from the perspective of the researcher, including case studies of success and instructive failure. Part three is designed to enable the reader to find a route through the maze of methods and approaches in action research by the use of such things as self-assessment and mapping exercises, a guide to diary keeping and to evaluation. The final chapter suggests that by developing a 'project perspective' action research can be of practical benefit to health and social care professionals in promoting service improvements.
This practical guide to promoting and developing independent learning is presented in a mixed format using both diagrammatic and textual stimulus. It offers tips and suggestions to achieve effective teaching and learning, and raises standards by enabling the pupil to become independent and responsible for their own learning; autonomous in their thinking and creative and critical in their understanding. Liz Lakin describes a progression away from dependency on the classroom teacher, whose role changes readily from teacher to facilitator. Drawing on practice-based research, she introduces the skills and processes associated with independent learning through established strategies such as ‘Assessment for Learning’, the use of ‘Active learning’ techniques, problem solving activities and peer-assessment. Each chapter presents tried and tested ideas, strategies and activities for the development of higher-order skills such as application, synthesis, evaluation and reflection, to use with pupils across the dependency spectrum. Several relate to the higher levels of attainment and are therefore applicable at Key Stage 3. The effectiveness of teacher/pupil feedback and the role of homework form a significant focus for the latter part of the book. "A truly-thought provoking, interactive book with a difference that takes teachers on a learning journey. It encourages us to reflect on how we learn, how our pupils learn and what the collective implications for effective teaching and helping pupils to construct their learning are.Reading and actively engaging with this book is indeed a learning journey, invaluable to practitioners. The text contains many invaluable references and deals with topics such as the value of homework, how people learn and how people respond to techniques addressee to hem in learning situations. An essential reading for practicing teachers and particularly students in training and their tutors." Dr Sue Dale Tunnicliffe, Senior lecturer in Science Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK "There has never been a time when independent learning is more important in school science. In Developing Independent Learning in Science, Liz Lakin challenges the reader to examine how they teach science and why pupils respond as they do. The result is a book that should be of great value to those who teach science to 7-12 year-olds and to science educators in general. A particular strength is the way the author interweaves rigorous thinking about learning with activities for the reader to help them engage with the text. In addition, there is a mass of useful thinking in here and plenty of classroom suggestions. The book is worth reading simply for the honesty of the 'How not to climb Helvellyn' case study." Michael J Reiss, Professor of Science Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK "In this book Liz Lakin involves the readers in the kind of independent learning that she in describing and advocating. It should enable practising teachers to stand back from their work to consider why we want children to learn in a certain way as well as providing useful ideas about how to do it. It is written in a personal and engaging style and is a unique addition to books on science teaching." Wynne Harlen, OBE, PhD. Visiting Professor of Education, University of Bristol, UK
"A most valuable resource setting health care research into a contemporary philosophical setting" Dr Colin Thunhurst, Course Director, University College Cork * Why is the philosophy of science important for health care research? * What impact do world-views and paradigms have on the research process and the knowledge it generates? * Why do some kinds of concepts get replaced by others? This book covers the major perspectives in the philosophy of science and critically discusses their relevance to health care research, using examples of paradigms, concepts, theories and research findings in the health sciences. It makes sense of the bewildering variety of assumptions, world-views and epistemiological implications of the different research methods. It enables the reader to become an informed consumer of scholarship on health care issues. The authors describe how health care research has been influenced by positivistic and interpretative approaches, and how it has recently been challenged by postmodernist philosophies. All of these approaches have research methods aligned with them which have taken their place in the panoply of tools at the disposal of the health scientist. Written in a clear and accessible style, Evidence-Based Research demonstrates how the different philosophical bases to research impact in real-life health care work and research. It is key reading for the growing number of people involved in health care research in universities and health settings, and is particularly suitable for advanced undergraduate and masters students researching in the health care sciences.
What are the responsibilities of those involved in social research for maximising the impact of research findings? How can social science researchers ensure that their work is widely publicized, applied and implemented? When should social research be extended or ended? Aimed at social researchers, students and research commissioners, this book is about the application, implementation and publication of social research. It focuses on the tasks of making findings available and ensuring that applied social research makes a difference to people’s lives. Drawing upon numerous examples, the book demonstrates the importance of considering the impact of research throughout the whole process. The contributors argue convincingly that an ethical approach to social science research requires a focus on the effectiveness of outcomes, outputs and responsibilities not acknowledged within the traditional research process. This book also critically evaluates research production as well as the expectations placed on researchers by funders, the academic system and end users, arguing that from inception to completion, researchers need to pay attention to how their work could and should be used. Extending Social Research rigorously examines the assertion that effective evidence-based social research can influence policy and practice and provides key reading for all those with an interest in the outcomes of research work, including funders, policy makers and researchers.
With the progressive digitisation of the book production processes, we see the emergence of a potentially potent mix of new technologies. Not potent because these technologies are capable of driving change alones, but potent for the commercial and cultural drivers which may work in concert with new technologies to transform the world of books and reading. Central to these technological developments is the convergence of the technologies of etext and digital print. This book examines recent technological changes in book production. Our focus is in part on technological actuality, centred mostly on the digitisation of text and its consequences. Our focus is also on the realm of possibility. Where might these technological shifts lead us? What are the commercial and cultural conditions under which technological possibility might bear fruits? Within this volume we look specifically at the changing definition of a 'book'. A book is no longer a tangible thing; a book is what a book does. It is information architecture. We examine the various manifestations of electronic book readers and imminent technologies, such as electronic ink, including case study on the use of ebook reading devices by a lending library, and speculate about other uses of such devices. We see the convergence of print and etext - manifestations of the same thing - electronically stored text, with the difference demonstrated only in the shift in mindset necessary to accommodate emergent forms of digital text - as information services within a product-service system, the changing shape of digital design and changes in printing technologies from letterpress to the rise of digital printing.
