Research Methods for Education

Book excerpt: From award-winning author Gregory J. Privitera and Lynn Ahlgrim-Delzell, Research Methods for Education covers the range of different quantitative and qualitative research methods specific to their use in educational research. This new text uses a problem-focused approach in a way that fully integrates the decision tree—from choosing a research design to selecting an appropriate statistic for analysis. With a conversational, student-friendly writing style, and examples from a wide variety of education-related fields, the authors show how methods and statistics work together and enable the testing of hypotheses through use of the scientific method. Students will become informed consumers of research with the ability to understand a research article and judge its quality and apply the methods in action research to inform educational practice.