Assuming no prior knowledge, Educational Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches, Fifth Edition, by Burke Johnson and Larry Christensen, gives upper-level undergraduate and graduate students an understanding of the multiple research methods and strategies—including qualitative, quantitative, and action research, as well as mixed methods inquiry—used in education and related fields. The authors expertly teach students how read and critically evaluate published research; write a proposal, construct a questionnaire, and conduct an empirical research study on their own; and ultimately write up their results in a research report using APA style.
I skimmed this book as a resource for my graduate level educational research class. I found that it had some good tips and clarifications for helping me write my prospectus paper. It was, like most texts written at the graduate level, a bit wordy and challenging to read, but a useful volume, if you really dug in with it.
Educational research isn’t the most exciting topic to bring up at a dinner party. Often times it’s hard to understand, let alone discuss. However, the authors of this text do a wonderful job of making the content both simple to understand (clear exemplars) and memorable (through purposeful repetition). As I read through this book, I felt I truly grasped the concepts and could use the content in the future. Additionally, the paired textbook website was invaluable, containing lecture notes (I used these to preview content for faster comprehension and retention.), flash cards, quizzes, and a variety of related YouTube videos. It truly wasn’t hard to be successful with this research methods textbook.
Read this entire book in an online class, therefore teaching myself about quant. qual. and mixed research. Book very well written. Funny even at times. Lots of good examples. Good study tools available online
This book has a LOT of good resources if you are trying to learn about the different types of research. I struggled but not so much the book's fault. ;-)