McGraw-Hill Education Educational Research: An Integrative Introduction

Are your beginning students sometimes overwhelmed by the prospect of reading research articles or writing a research proposal? Does the notion of educational research make them anxious to begin with? Is research a mystery to them? This text will help. Educational Research: An Integrative Introduction is a brief, basic, paperback alternative to the typically long, weighty, hardcover educational research tome. It takes a practical approach to educational research for beginning students. Students who study its chapters critically learn to read research reports and to produce a proposal for their own research project. Nine complete research reports in Appendix A provide illustrations of major ideas in the text chapters and are used in the end-of-chapter exercises. The reports read include experimental, descriptive, qualitative, and historical approaches. The book presents qualitative and quantitative research as complementary approaches to educational research. From the Publisher BRIEF, BASIC, AND PAPERBACK: The Sowell text offers a brief, basic, paperback alternative to the typically long, weighty, hardcover educational research tome. The text has an excellent balance of qualitative and quantitative approaches. THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL: The text relieves student anxiety about devising a research proposal and provides specific help on first tasks that seem overwhelming to the inexperienced. Chapter 13 gives straightforward guidance about drafting initial problem statements and locating related literature. Chapter 14 shows students how to set the problem statement and literature review into a proposal with a timeline for procedures. RELIEVES STUDENT ANXIETY: The book demystifies the research process and avoids concepts and topics with little relevance for beginning researchers. NINE COMPLETE RESEARCH REPORTS: Nine complete primary research reports reprinted in Appendix A from diverse educational journals provide illustrations of major ideas in the text chapters and are used in the end-of-chapter exercises. TECHNOLOGY: Chapter 13 discusses the use of databases, the Internet and World Wide Web, and other electronic resources. COMPING GUIDELINE: Look for less rigorous ed research courses, especially those taken by students who were not Education majors as undergraduates. Sowell is paperback, smaller, slower, simpler, and over 300 pages shorter than most big hardcover ed research texts, including our own best-selling, hardcover, 684-page Fraenkel, How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education. BOOK'S POSITION: A brief, basic, paperback alternative to the typically long, weighty, hardcover educational research tome. Nine research reports in Appendix A provide illustrations of major ideas in the text chapters and are used in the end-of-chapter exercises. About the Author Evelyn J. Sowell is currently Professor of Education at Arizona State University West. She received her Ed.D. in education from Northern Illinois University. A former elementary teacher, she has authored articles, reports, and books. In addition to educational research methods, her special interests include mathematics education and curriculum.