Statistical Methods for Educational Research: An R-Based Approach
Preface
The present book came out of writing down my own experiences with educational research and tinkering with R. Though there are several excellent texts that cover statistics with R, I thought the having examples from educational research will help the scholars who are just beginning their journey towards research. At the same time this text can also serve as an introduction to R for researchers who are familiar with statistical methods but have not used R.
How this Book is Organized
Since this book is primarily intended for educational researchers, all examples/datasets are in the context of educational research, specifically drawing from scenarios relevant to the Indian context—from large-scale datasets like UDISE to classroom-level interventions.
Each chapter focuses on a key statistical concept and follows a consistent structure designed to build understanding layer by layer:
Historical & Research Context: We begin by exploring why this concept was developed and the problems it was originally meant to solve.
The “Use Case”: We examine real research studies where this concept was applied, asking the critical question: Why was this specific method chosen here?
Data Check: Before computing, we learn to inspect and clean our data, a crucial step often skipped in textbooks but essential in real research.
Computation with R: We walk through the code, step-by-step, using modern R tools.
Interpretation: Finally, we discuss how to read the output and report the results meaningfully and contextually in a research paper.
You will find Tasks scattered throughout the text. These are hands-on exercises designed to help you “learn by doing” rather than just reading.
I hope this book serves as both a practical guide and a friendly companion on your research journey.There are tasks every now and then which can help in understanding concepts behind the computations.
Hope this book helps!