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Quantitative Research for the Qualitative Researcher is a concise, supplemental text that provides qualitatively oriented students and researchers with the requisite skills for conducting quantitative research. Throughout the book, authors Laura M. O'Dwyer and James A. Bernauer provide ample support and guidance to prepare readers both cognitively and attitudinally to conduct high quality research in the quantitative tradition. Highlighting the complementary nature of quantitative and qualitative research, they effectively explain the fundamental structure and purposes of design, measurement, and statistics within the framework of a research report, (including a dissertation). The text encourages the reader to see quantitative methodology for what it is?a process for systematically discovering new knowledge that can help describe, explain, and predict the world around us.
List of contents
SECTION I: An Overview of Research in the Social Sciences: Qualitative Meets Quantitative
Chapter 1: Understanding the Purpose of Research in the Qualitative and Quantitative Traditions
Chapter 2: An Overview of the Qualitative Tradition and Connections to the Quantitative Tradition
Chapter 3: Overview of Research in the Quantitative Tradition
SECTION II: The Sine Qua Non for Conducting Research in the Quantitative Tradition
Chapter 4: Choosing Research Participants and Making Generalizations: Sampling and External Validity
Chapter 5: Measurement and Instrumentation in Quantitative Research
Chapter 6: Minimizing Alternative Explanations for Research Findings: Internal Validity
SECTION III: Research Design and Data Analysis in the Quantitative Tradition
Chapter 7: Non-Experimental Research Designs
Chapter 8: Experimental Research Designs
Chapter 9: Descriptive Analyses for Data Generated by Quantitative Research
Chapter 10: Inferential Analyses for Data Generated by Quantitative Research
Chapter 11: The Complementary Natures of Quantitative and Qualitative Research
About the author
Laura O′Dwyer (Ph.D., Boston College) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. She teaches courses in applied data analysis (basic to advanced topics), quantitative research methods, survey construction, and experimental design. O’Dwyer′s research focuses on examining the impact of technology-based interventions on student and teacher outcomes, and on international comparative studies in education. She has conducted several studies that employ randomized experimental designs to examine educational interventions including the effects of online professional development on teaching practices and learning outcomes.
James Bernauer, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor in the school of Education and Social Science at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. He teaches qualitative and quantitative research methods at the masters and doctoral levels. He also teaches educational psychology to undergraduates. Bernauer’s research focuses primarily on instructional effectiveness, technology, and assessment in both pre-12 and higher education. He is particularly interested in exploring the integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches across phenomena.
Summary
Quantitative Research for the Qualitative Researcher is a concise text that provides students who are not predisposed to mathematical or scientific thinking with the needed conceptual and practical understanding of quantitative methodology.
