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Educational Research: Fundamental Principles and Methods, 8th edition

Published by Pearson (January 16, 2021) © 2022

  • James H. McMillan Virginia Commonwealth University

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For courses in Introduction to research methods (educational research).

Accessible, contemporary and thoughtful

Educational Research educates students on how to become intelligent consumers of educational research. The text introduces basic research principles to those who may use research in their work.

It facilitates student learning through chapter objectives, roadmaps and author reflections. It expertly emphasizes how to conduct research through a non-technical approach.

The 8th Edition has been fully revised and includes a new chapter on qualitative data analysis. Additionally, it has a new chapter on writing research proposals and new research articles.

Hallmark features of this title

Engaging pedagogical aids facilitate learning essential research principles and skills

  • Consumer (and Researcher) Tips provide clear guidelines for evaluating research and emphasize the skills needed to judge research critically.
  • Complete, annotated published articles familiarize students with the style and format of published articles and introduce students to the language of research.
  • Excerpts from recently published research articles on a variety of topics illustrate chapter concepts and demonstrate different research-writing styles.
  • Author Reflections draw on the author's many years of experience teaching, conducting and publishing research. Author Reflections introduce practices, controversies and challenges from the researcher's perspective.

New and updated features of this title

  • NEW: A new chapter on qualitative data analysis, validity/trustworthiness, and reporting (Chapter 13) provides more extensive coverage of qualitative data analysis, with new material on how to report results from qualitative studies.
  • NEW: A new chapter on writing research proposals, reports and articles (Chapter 16), with guidelines for scholarly writing, academic voice and tone, elements of style, formatting and new APA style recommendations for using inclusive language.
  • NEW: A new Hedgehog and Fox metaphor, illustrated in each chapter to show the difference between simplistic and more sophisticated, nuanced thinking.
  • NEW: New coverage of major research paradigms, new emphasis on implications of Big Data for research and inclusion of the 2018 Common Rule revisions for ethical research.
  • UPDATED: The new 5-part presentation guides students through critical areas: getting ready for research; quantitative research; qualitative research; mixed methods and action research and communicating research results.

The LMS-Compatible Assessment Bank streamlines assessments and grading

  • NEW: Learning outcome quizzes, application exercises and automatically graded chapter tests can be assigned from a packaged file. Questions give students feedback and model responses based on their answers.

Part I: Getting Ready for Research

  1. Introduction to Research in Education
  2. Ethical Issues, Principles, and Practices
  3. Research Problems and Questions
  4. Locating and Reviewing Related Literature

Part II: Quantitative Research

  1. Participants and Sampling for Quantitative Designs
  2. Foundations of Educational Measurement
  3. Quantitative Data Collection Techniques
  4. Nonexperimental Quantitative Research Designs
  5. Experimental Research Designs
  6. Understanding Statistical Inferences

Part III: Qualitative Research

  1. Qualitative Research Designs
  2. Qualitative Data Collection
  3. Qualitative Data Analysis, Validity/Trustworthiness, and Reporting

Part IV: Mixed Methods and Action Research

  1. Mixed Methods Designs
  2. Action Research

Part V: Communicating Research Results

  1. Writing Research Proposals, Reports, and Articles

About our authors

Dr. James H. McMillan is Professor Emeritus in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (Department of Foundations of Education). He obtained his doctorate from Northwestern University and master's degree from Michigan State University. Dr. McMillan has also published Research in Education: Evidence-Based Inquiry; Understanding and Evaluating Educational Research; the Sage Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment; Assessment Essentials for Standards-Based Education; Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice That Enhance Student Learning and Motivation; Classroom Assessment and Educational Measurement; and Better Being Wrong (Sometimes): Using Student Assessment Mistakes and Errors to Enhance Learning, in addition to more than 80 journal articles and book chapters. His current research interest is focused on student perceptions of classroom assessment and classroom assessment literacy.

Chapter coauthors (Chapters 2, 13, 14, and 15) are colleagues at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Lisa Abrams is Associate Professor in the Department of Foundations of Education, Dr. David Naff is Assistant Director of Research and Evaluation in the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium, Dr. Sharon Zumbrunn is Associate Professor in the Department of Foundations of Education and Dr. Jesse Senechal is Director of the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium.

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