Description

For courses in teacher education.

An introductory text designed for consumers of research
Understanding Research, 2nd Edition can be used by anyone who uses the results and implications of research studies to enhance their knowledge and improve their practice. The focus is on guiding students toward a basic understanding of the research process, allowing them to develop the skills, knowledge, and strategies needed to read, interpret, and evaluate the quality of research reports. The text provides balanced coverage of quantitative, qualitative, and combined research approaches.

Extend learning beyond the classroom
Pearson eText is an easy-to-use digital textbook that students can purchase on their own or you can assign for your course. It lets students read, highlight, and take notes all in one place. The mobile app lets students learn on the go, offline or online. Creating a course allows you to schedule readings, view reading analytics, and share your own notes with students, motivating them to keep reading, and keep learning. Learn more about Pearson eText.

Features

Invigorate learning with the Enhanced Pearson eText
The Enhanced Pearson eText provides a rich, interactive learning environment designed to improve student mastery of content with the following multimedia features:

• Practice reading research articles. Interactive Reading Research Articles exercises provide readers with practice identifying key parts of research articles like purpose statements, research questions, descriptions of methods, and conclusions. (See page 75 and 145 for examples.)
• Practice understanding research articles. Interactive Understanding Research Articles exercises help readers not simply identify parts of articles but to use the concepts they have learned in the chapter to read articles with understanding. (See page 75 and 146 for examples.)
• Practice evaluating research articles. Interactive Evaluating Research Articles exercises scaffold readers and provide them with the tools they need to really evaluate the quality of studies and the articles that summarize those studies. (See page 76 and 146 for examples.)
• Check your understanding of chapter content. Interactive Self-Assessment Chapter Quizzes with feedback enable students to check how well they understand chapter content. (See page 62 for an example.)

Students can experience the advantages of the Enhanced Pearson eText along with all the benefits of print for 40% to 50% less than a print bound book! Instructors, visit pearsonhighered.com/etextbooks to register for your digital examination copy.

 Additional text features include:

• Each chapter begins by discussing how to locate and identify in a research article the research concepts that are the focus of that chapter. (See page 54 for an example.)
• In-text examples from recently published research articles illustrate main concepts. (See pages 88, 89, 122, and 193 for examples.)
• Two annotated full-text research articles direct students to important characteristics of published articles.  (See pages 27-38 and pages 40-52.)
• Six additional articles guide students to read for specific elements of the research report and to provide their own annotations. (See pages 98-117 and 148-160 for examples.)
• Here’s a Tip!  offers practical advice for applying chapter concepts when students read published studies.  (See pages 56, 73, and 81 for examples.)
• Chapters include specific evaluative criteria and a rating scale that students can use to evaluate a study. (See pages 71-73 for examples.)

New to this Edition

Invigorate learning with the Enhanced Pearson eText
The Enhanced Pearson eText provides a rich, interactive learning environment designed to improve student mastery of content with the following multimedia features:

• Practice reading research articles. Interactive Reading Research Articles exercises provide readers with practice identifying key parts of research articles like purpose statements, research questions, descriptions of methods, and conclusions. (See page 75 and 145 for examples.)
• Practice understanding research articles. Interactive Understanding Research Articles exercises help readers not simply identify parts of articles but to use the concepts they have learned in the chapter to read articles with understanding. (See page 75 and 146 for examples.)
• Practice evaluating research articles. Interactive Evaluating Research Articles exercises scaffold readers and provide them with the tools they need to really evaluate the quality of studies and the articles that summarize those studies. (See page 76 and 146 for examples.)
• Check your understanding of chapter content. Interactive Self-Assessment Chapter Quizzes with feedback enable students to check how well they understand chapter content. (See page 62 for an example.)

Students can experience the advantages of the Enhanced Pearson eText along with all the benefits of print for 40% to 50% less than a print bound book! Instructors, visit pearsonhighered.com/etextbooks to register for your digital examination copy.

Key content changes include:

• Enhanced focus on reading research --  The text guides students through the process of identifying, understanding, and evaluating the key elements of research articles. See Chapter 11 for an example, specifically pages 353-355.
• Advanced considerations for evaluating research --  Chapters 3-14 include tables of criteria for evaluating the targeted part of an article and provide indicators of quality for each criterion. See Table 7.2 on page 249 for an example. Chapters also include a rating scale that students can use to apply the criteria to research reports. See Figure 7.4 on page 250 for an example.
• New full-text articles that apply the book’s content --  Eight new full-text articles provide real-world examples of research reports.  Two of the articles include annotations to help students locate key ideas; students are guided through annotation of the others. See the quantitative Bullying-Intervention Study on pages 97-117 and the qualitative Adolescent-Homelessness Study on pages 147-160.
• More coverage of higher-level research approaches --  The text includes tables that summarize a wide array of research designs (see Table 9.1 on page 289) and high-level statistical approaches (see Table 8.2 on page 266).
• M ore examples that represent diverse disciplines --  In-text examples and the references include current examples of published research from a variety of disciplines. See page 87 for examples.
• Improved pedagogical features in the presentation of the content --  Each chapter begins with learning outcomes that point out what students should be able to do as critical consumers of research.  End-of-chapter reviews point students to the textual material that would help them achieve e

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Back Cover

From reviews of the book:

'The structure of the book is great.  [The authors use] language that helps the reader become engaged and invites them to start applying what they have learned to their situation immediately.  The examples of the journal articles with the notations are very helpful and we use these for discussion in the class quite a bit.  I also like the 'reviewing what we’ve learned' and 'practicing your skills' at the end of the chapter.  I much prefer the consumer approach of this text over others on the market.'

    -- Candyce Reynolds, Portland State University

'Understanding Research is true to its name; it is much more user friendly, it explains WHAT research IS.  It does an EXCELLENT job of covering all of the material I currently cover. [The authors] (fortunately) force me to provide a balanced, comparative description of both [quantitative and qualitative] research. . . . I find the writing style to be clear, interesting and engaging. ' 

    -- Carol A. Friesen, Ball State University

Author

Vicki L. Plano Clark is an Assistant Professor in Educational Studies in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services at the University of Cincinnati. She teaches research methods courses, including foundations of research, qualitative research, and mixed methods research. Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati, she spent 19 years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), where she first focused on physics education as Laboratory Manager in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and then switched to a focus on research methodology, ultimately serving as the Director of the Office of Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research in the Department of Educational Psychology. Dr. Plano Clark has authored and co-authored over 40 articles, chapters, and books.

John W. Creswell is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He held the Clifton Institute Endowed Professor Chair for five years, and for the last five years he has served as a co-director at the Office of Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research. He has held positions as Senior Fulbright Scholar (South Africa, 2008, and Thailand, 2012), as a consultant in the health services research area for the Veterans Administration, as Visiting Professor at Harvard's School of Public Health, and as Adjunct Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan, among others. In addition to his teaching, he has authored numerous articles and books on mixed methods research, qualitative methodology, and general research design, and was the founding Co-Editor for the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. In 2014, Dr. Creswell will be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Reader Review(s)

"Understanding Research is true to its name; it is much more user friendly, it explains WHAT research IS.  It does an EXCELLENT job of covering all of the material I currently cover.  I am not a huge fan of qualitative research, but you (fortunately) force me to provide a balanced, comparative description of both kinds of research...  I find the writing style to be clear, interesting and engaging. "  -- Carol A. Friesen, Ball State University

"The structure of the book is great.  The clear learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter is helpful and the graphics throughout and the connections between them add consistency and further add to understanding for the students.  I like the checking in on learning in the middle of the text and the little sidebars that help them apply their learning...[The authors use] language that helps the reader become engaged and invites them to start applying what they have learned to their situation immediately.  The examples of the journal articles with the notations is very helpful and we use these for discussion in the class quite a bit... I also like the reviewing what we’ve learned and practicing your skills at the end of the chapter.  I much prefer the consumer approach of this text over others on the market." -- Candyce Reynolds, Portland State University

"We adopted this text because all of the manuscripts used as examples are from the field of education.  Therefore, as students learn about the research construct being taught, they are better able to understand how the research construct works within educational contexts." -- Colleen Swain, University of Florida