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Engaging and cross-disciplinary, Practical Research: Planning and Design is a do-it-yourself, understand-it-yourself manual for planning and conducting research.  Suitable for a wide variety of courses in basic research methodology, the text guides the reader, step-by-step, from the selection of a problem, through the process of conducting authentic research, to the preparation of a completed report, with practical suggestions throughout. The authors emphasize the idea that quality research demands planning and design, and they provide what is needed for readers to be able to execute their own research projects effectively and professionally.

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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 book and several other textbooks: Human Learning (7th ed., 2016); Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (8th ed., 2014); Essentials of Educational Psychology (4th ed., 2015); Our Minds, Our Memories: Enhancing Thinking and Learning at All Ages (2011); and Child Development and Education (with Teresa McDevitt; 5th ed., 2013).

Brief Contents

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  QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH  

Chapter 6  DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH    

Chapter 7  EXPERIMENTAL, QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL, AND EX POST FACTO DESIGNS

Chapter 8 ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE DATA

PART IV  QUALITATIVE RESEARCH   

Chapter 9  QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS

Chapter 10  HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Chapter 11 ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA

PART V  MIXED-METHODS RESEARCH

Chapter 12  MIXED-METHODS DESIGNS

PART VI  RESEARCH REPORTS

Chapter 13  PLANNING AND PREPARING A FINAL RESEARCH REPORT          

APPENDICES              

Appendix A  USING A SPREADSHEET: MICROSOFT EXCEL