Educational Research in Higher Education ― Methods and Experiences

In recent years, increasingly more higher education research focusses on a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches, thus becoming an integrated component. This practice has been called new methods higher education research. Several reasons seem to explain the rise of these methods: the emergence of a global, multicultural and increasingly complex society, and the involvedness of contemporary social, economical, political and educational problems demand research with a different approach that allows entry to this new complexity.

Moreover, in recognition of the limitations inherent to its conceptualization, in which models present approaches from quantitative and qualitative research in order to address the totality and density of human endeavor. For this reason, within higher education research a more pluralistic and flexible view of research is emerging, where models of quantitative and qualitative research are recognized as being complementary to each other, to enter the social convolution in which we live. Educational Research in Higher Education presents latest research theories and modern-day examples of design research in higher education. The chapters represent an extensive assortment of interpretations and examples of how today's new design researchers conceptualize this growing methodology across areas as varied as classroom teaching methodologies, instructional innovations, educational technology, equality studies, environmental education, etc. This book is planned as a guide for master and doctoral students, novel researchers, crossover and professional researchers from field's other than but related to higher education, who are interested in supporting new design research.