Practical Research

Paul D. Leedy is late of the American University.   Jeanne Ellis Ormrod holds a B.A. degree in psychology from Brown University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The Pennsylvania State University. For more than twenty years she was a faculty member at the University of Northern Colorado, where she taught courses in learning and cognition, educational psychology, measurement, and research methods; she is currently Professor Emerita of Psychological Sciences at UNC. Dr. Ormrod has published numerous research articles but is probably best known for this textbook and several other Pearson books: Human Learning (6th ed., 2012); Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (7th ed., 2011); Essentials of Educational Psychology (3rd ed., 2012); Our Minds, Our Memories: Enhancing Thinking and Learning at All Ages (2011); and Child Development and Education (with Teresa McDevitt; 5th ed. in press).

PART I: THE FUNDAMENTALS
Chapter 1. The Nature and Tools of Research

PART II: FOCUSING YOUR RESEARCH EFFORTS
Chapter 2. The problem: the Heart of the Research Process
Chapter 3. Review of the Related Literature
Chapter 4. Planning Your Research Project
Chapter 5. Writing the Research Proposal

PART III: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Chapter 6. Qualitative Research
Chapter 7. Historical Research

PART IV: QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
Chapter 8. Descriptive Research
Chapter 9. Experimental, Quasi-Experimental, and Ex Post Facto Designs
Chapter 10. Mixed-Methods Research
Chapter 11. Strategies for Analyzing Quantitative Data

PART V: PREPARING THE RESEARCH REPORT
Chapter 12. Technical Details: Style, Format, and Organization of the Research Report

APPENDICES
Appendix A. Using a Spreadsheet: Microsoft Excel
Appendix B. Using SPSS

REFERENCES