Mr Nick Nelson
Senior Teaching Fellow
Tel: +44 (0)113 3434686
Room: 1.11 HP
Email: n.w.nelson@education.leeds.ac.uk
Research Methods and Statistics
Member of AEU.
Interests
Since moving into educational research from primary teaching in 1989 I have been involved in a wide variety of research activity in education. This began with a short project concerning the issues involved in the assessment of young children for whom English is not their first language. Soon after this, I was engaged on a major project evaluating the then new arrangements for the National Curriculum Assessment at key stage 1 (ENCA1). In this work I was involved in both the technical and analytical aspects of the project, and in aspects of the research design. The origins of the two strands of my subsequent career in educational research stem from this project. Firstly, an interest in the technical issues, philosophy and methodologies of assessment as applied in the UK and elsewhere, and secondly the development and application of research design and methodology in the educational research context. In the assessment field, I have conducted a considerable amount of analytic, evaluative and theoretical research work in assessment for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Teacher Training Agency, the Government of Jamaica, NFER-Nelson and others. I have a particular interest in research methodologies and statistical approaches appropriate in the educational research context, including Bayesian and exact inferential methods. These, more particularly the latter, are statistical techniques which through the application of more recent computational advances allow much stronger inferences to be drawn from research designs and data types for which only non-parametric approaches have been appropriate in the past.
Selected Publications
PAPERS
Jenkins, E. and Nelson, N. (2005). "Important but not for me: students' attitudes towards secondary school science in England". Research in Science & Technological Education, 23 (1), 41-57.
Shorrocks-Taylor, D., Curry, J., Swinnerton, B. & Nelson, N. (2003). "National Curriculum Mathematics Tests in England at Key Stage 2: weights and measures?". Oxford Review of Education, 29 (1), 51-66.
Alexander, R.J., Willcocks, J. & Nelson, N. (1996). "Discourse, Pedagogy and the National Curriculum: change and continuity in primary schools". Research Papers in Education, 11 (1), 81-120.
BOOKS
Alexander, R.J., Willcocks, J. & Nelson, N. (1993). "Curriculum-Associated Discourse and Pedagogy in the Primary School: Final Report". ESRC.
CHAPTERS
Nelson, N. (2003). "Parameter Compression in IRT Based Equating" in: Ventura, F. and Grima, G. (Ed.) Contemporary Issues in Educational Assessment. MASTEC.
Watson, J., Ainley, P., Nelson, N., Smith, D., & Yeomans, D. (2001). "Progression in and from Further Education: some problems for an integrated system of lifelong learning" in: Coffield, F. (Ed.) What progress are we making with lifelong learning?. University of Newcastle.
Watson, J., Yeomans, D., Smith, D., Nelson, N. & Ainley, P. (2000). "Higher Education and Diversity: Regional Learning Infrastructures and Student Progression" in: McNay, I. (Ed.) Higher Education and its Communities. OUP.
Alexander, R.J., Willcocks, J. & Nelson, N. (1995). "Change and Continuity" in: Alexander, R.J. (Ed.) Versions of Primary Education. Routledge.
Shorrocks, D. and Nelson, N. (1994). "The Reliability of National Curriculum Assessment at Key Stages 1 and 2" in: Hutchison, D. and Schagen, I. (Ed.) How Reliable is National Curriculum Assessment?. NFER.
Extended list of publications.
This page last updated by Nick Nelson on 7th October 2005