This study aimed to provide an understanding of the current state of research methods and statistical analysis in doctoral dissertations that were conducted in the field of education. The study also examined the relationships between the research methods and statistical analysis techniques students used in their dissertation and the type of doctoral degree they obtained. One hundred and ten doctoral dissertations conducted in the period between 2008 and 2010 were reviewed to identify the research methods and statistical analysis techniques used in those dissertations.;The study concluded that quantitative research was the most commonly used research method, followed by qualitative research methods, and mixed-method research was the least commonly used research method. It was also shown that, overall, triangulation mixed method design seems to be the most frequently used research design among the research designs, followed by case study, correlational, and descriptive research designs. The data also revealed that the type of doctoral degree had no significant effect on the research method students used in their dissertations.;The study also revealed that basic statistics were the most commonly utilized techniques in students' dissertations, followed by advanced statistics, and intermediate statistics were the least commonly used techniques. Descriptive statistics were the most frequently used statistics techniques in the studies, followed by bivariate correlation, ANOVA, and t test. Multiple regression seemed to be the most commonly used statistic techniques from the intermediate level. Finally, the study showed that the type of doctoral degree had a significant effect on the level of statistical analysis techniques students used in their dissertations. PhD students utilized more advanced statistics techniques than their EdD peers, who tended to use only basic statistics to treat their data.
展开▼
