Training regular education and special education teachers in the use of research methodology and statistics

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the needs of primary and secondary level teachers seeking Master's degrees (second degrees) in terms of knowledge and use of research methodology and statistics, with special consideration of the needs of Special Education teachers. In particular, the following topics will be discussed: goals and organisation; descriptive statistics; inferential statistics; specific hypothesis testing procedures; experimental and quasi-experimental designs; survey research and sampling techniques; qualitative data collection techniques; and reliability and validity. The paper ends with a discussion of what special education teachers need to know concerning meta-analysis and single-subject designs and with some miscellaneous comments.