Practical Research Methods for Educators

Book excerpt: This text offers a fresh perspective on developing research skills for educators as well as for students studying to become educators. Practical Research Methods for Educators is unique in identifying the requirements for conducting pragmatic research for everyday instructional personnel. The book introduces key concepts, such as identifying and measuring dependent and independent variables. It also reviews the three forms of research (descriptive, correlation, and experimental). With this book, educators and students can become well prepared to appropriately conduct research and become wise consumers and critics of research findings. Each chapter presents a brief description of a research design, figures illustrating the design features with hypothetical data, and real research studies that utilized such a design. Each type of single-case design is discussed in relation to its advantages and limitations. Key features: Outlines the requisites for single-case research and methodological designs Explains how to measure the dependent variable in single-case research studies Presents a variety of single-case designs for use in classroom research projects Includes an in-depth explanation of the four types of applied research: demonstration, comparative, parametric, and component analysis