Understanding Education Research: A Guide to Critical Reading

"Understanding Education Research" is designed to help students learn to read educational research articles carefully, systematically, and critically. Students learn to categorize titles, decode abstracts, find research questions, characterize research arguments, break down methods and procedures, explore references, apply analysis strategies, and interpret findings. The book allows them to easily develop the skills they need to be research literate. It offers simple guidelines for qualitative, quantitative, and statistical approaches that help students master the basics behind these often complex and confusing methodologies. The book is accessible for future researchers or for students who simply need to understand research clearly. It is written in a clear and engaging style, with ample concrete examples of each stage, offering exercises for student practice.

Gary Shank, Professor of Education at Duquesne University, is the author of Qualitative Research: A Personal Skills Approach.

Launcelot Brown is Associate Professor of Educational Research and Chair of the Department of Educational Foundations and Leadership at Duquesne University. He served as an Associate Editor for the Journal Educational Measurement from 2006 to 2009.

Janice Pringle is Associate Professor of Pharmacy and Therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh.