reseñas educativas (Spanish)    
resenhas educativas (Portuguese)    

This review has been accessed times since July 21, 2005

Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2004). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches (2nd edition). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Pp. 592
$106.20     ISBN: 0-205-36126-9

Reviewed by Andy Rudd
Florida State University

July 21, 2005

I have spent the past two years teaching an introductory mater’s level course in educational research. This is a required course for our education students majoring in a variety of areas, e.g., reading, special education, and educational leadership. From my experience I have found that many of these students come into the educational research class with preconceived notions about research. Many of them are afraid or disinterested in research. They think it is too technical, boring, and generally not useful.

From conversations with colleagues at other universities, I have discovered that my students are not unique. Numerous other professors or instructors who teach educational research have experienced less then positive attitudes from students (not seeking a degree in educational research) in their educational research classes.

As part of creating a positive learning experience, it would follow that a methodologically sound and user-friendly textbook would be a critical feature of an introductory course in educational research. Recently, I discovered an excellent text by Burke Johnson & Larry Christensen entitled, Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches that strongly lends itself to the positive and effective learning of research. The book contains some unique features and strengths that I would like to point out in the following review. First however, is an overview of the book’s organization and key content.

Overview of Text

Johnson and Christensen’s text is divided into six major sections: Introduction, Planning the Research Study, Foundations of Research, Selecting a Research Method, Analyzing the Data, and Writing the Research Report. The text contains 18 chapters that cover all of the essential introductory concepts, e.g., proposal preparation, research ethics, research design (experimental, quasi-experimental, nonexperimental, qualitative, and mixed method), internal and external validity, data collection/measurement, descriptive and inferential statistics, qualitative data analysis, reporting, etc. To aid students’ understanding of the myriad research concepts, each chapter opens cleverly with a vignette that concretely illustrates the chapter’s main topic. In addition, to the left of each vignette is a list of clearly stated learning objectives. These objectives are helpful for targeting instruction and fostering student learning.

Throughout the chapters are key review questions to check students’ (and perhaps instructors’) understanding before moving on to the next chapter. Clear definitions for all key terms are conveniently provided in the margins in the chapters. Following the chapter summary for each chapter are a list of the key terms with page numbers, discussion questions, research exercises, and recommended readings. As well, at the end of each chapter is a handful of highly useful Internet sites for students to gain more information about various related concepts.

The book also contains some other auxiliary resource/materials that can be used to enhance student learning. There is a companion website that is rich with supplemental information (http://www.ablongman.com/johnsonchristensen2e). The site includes full lectures for each chapter, concept maps for each chapter, answers to the study questions, bonus material (e.g., additional explanations of important concepts), practice quizzes, and three full-length journal articles respective to the three major types of research: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. The text also makes use of Research Navigator, which is a collection of databases, instructional materials, and publications. Throughout each chapter students are pointed to Research Navigator.com, by the inclusion of key “search words” in the margins. When this happens students can then visit the ContentSelect database and type in the key words listed under the Research Navigator icon to learn more about that particular concept.

Discussion

Paramount to any good educational research text is the language the author uses to describe and explain concepts. Students need to be able to rely on their textbooks to do assignments and understand the material. Johnson & Christensen do an excellent job of putting research methodology into language that can be easily understood by beginning researchers. Their ability to explain potentially complex concepts is particularly evident in the statistics and design chapters. For example, their explanation of null hypothesis testing is extremely lucid and should be accessible to even some of the more trepid students.

The book also contains some unique content features that I have not seen in other introductory research texts. First, in chapter 1 the authors briefly introduce students to the philosophy of science. This section is useful for orienting students to the notion that research is concerned with systematically and thoughtfully gaining knowledge about a phenomenon of interest. The difference between proof and evidence is stressed. Students are exposed in brief to concepts like empiricism, reasoning, expert opinion, how to evaluate theories or explanations, and the basic tenets of science.

Second, in chapter 2 students are introduced to the three major research approaches: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research. Johnson & Christensen explain the basic features of these three approaches and differentiate in detail the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. The explication of the three research paradigms provides students with a good introduction to the differing philosophies concerning how to conduct research. Concurrently, the explanation of mixed research and its pragmatic philosophy exposes students to the idea that choosing a particular research method hinges on the individual’s research question rather than a staunch allegiance to one particular research paradigm. Later chapters in the book provide greater detail on many of the concepts introduced in this chapter.

Third, chapter 8 on validity of research results has expanded and updated some of the old classic threats to internal and external validity (Campbell & Stanley, 1963) by relying on more on current thinking about these issues (e.g., Cook & Campbell, 1979; Shadish, Cook, & Campbell, 2002). Although Johnson & Christensen explain most of the original internal and external validity issues, they also introduce new internal and external validity concepts, e.g., ambiguous temporal precedence, additive and interactive effects, outcome validity, temporal validity, and population validity. They also briefly discuss statistical conclusion validity and construct representation, which, along with the more traditional internal and external validity types, make up the four broadest categories of validity according to Shadish, Cook, and Campbell. The chapter also includes discussion of “validity issues” for qualitative research (descriptive validity, interpretive validity, theoretical validity) and includes a helpful table that lists 14 strategies that can be used to help produce high quality qualitative research. The content in chapter 8 is one of many examples in which the authors have infused the most current research practices into their book.

Fourth, chapter 11 on nonexperimental research is different from other educational research texts that deal with nonexperimental designs. They classify nonexperimental research along two major dimensions: time and research objective. The time dimension includes retrospective, cross-sectional, and longitudinal data, and the research objective dimension includes descriptive, predictive, and explanatory purposes. It is then shown how researchers can combine these dimensions to create a variety of nonexperimental designs. Additionally, Johnson & Christensen spend a goodly amount of time addressing the limitations of nonexpermimental approaches for ascertaining cause and effect while also explaining strategies for design improvement in nonexperimental quantitative research such as matching, statistical control, causal modeling, and the use of longitudinal designs.

Fifth, the statistics chapters (14 and 15) provide more extended coverage than other statistics chapters. In particular, Johnson & Christensen are the first I have seen to describe regression for purposes of both prediction and explanation. Related to the importance of explained variance, they repeatedly (chapters 2, 9, 10, 11, and 16) emphasize the importance of explaining dependent variable variance while also controlling for extraneous variables using multiple control techniques (e.g., random assignment, statistical control such as multiple regression, partial correlation, ANCOVA, building variables into the design, and theoretical modeling). They also provide a more in-depth treatment of null hypothesis testing and statistical significance while also explaining the importance of practical significance, i.e., effect size or strength of relationship and overall usefulness. They also discuss, in simple and clear language, the difference between point and interval estimation, which sometimes is called on rather than traditional null hypothesis testing.

Sixth, Johnson & Christensen dedicate an entire chapter to mixed method and mixed model research. In this chapter, the authors have classified the combining of qualitative and quantitative research into two distinct methods: mixed model and mixed method research. The differences between these two approaches are fully explicated and concrete examples of both major types are provided. Detailed stages of the mixed research process are also illustrated. Thus, readers are given a clear understanding of how to go about conducting a mixed method or mixed model study. Notably, the book’s attention to mixed research may be due partly to Johnson’s recent contributions to the emerging field of mixed methods research (see Johnson & Turner, 2002; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

Suggestions for Improvement

Although my overall evaluation of Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches is very positive, I would like to make a few minor suggestions for potential improvement. First, some of the examples in chapter 3 on proposal preparation could stand some adjusting. For instance, the example given for how to write a qualitative purpose statement which is quoted from a study by Drew (1986) is somewhat difficult to understand. The first part of this purpose statement reads: “The focus of the present study was to explore distressing and nurturing encounters of patients with caregivers and to ascertain the meanings that are engendered by such encounters…” The wording here is dense. Some of the students in my classes have struggled to understand this purpose statement. The addition of a clearer statement and from an educational context would be helpful (most examples in the book are couched in education). Their example of a quantitative purpose statement is also in need of some tweaking. The second example they provide states: “The purpose of this study is to describe the degree of relationship that exists between spelling proficiency and the extent of a person’s learning disability.” Part of good research is to clearly describe the constructs being studied. However, the construct: “learning disability” is not clearly specified. I have had numerous special education majors who have been quick to comment on the ambiguity of the term “learning disability.”

Second, a strength of the text is its user-friendly nature. For example, when it comes to anything statistical, Johnson and Christensen refrain from overwhelming students with complex formulas. The majority of information on statistics is taught at the conceptual level. However, the authors could consider showing more formulas or providing slightly more technical explanations for some of the basic statistics. For example, they might consider including the formula for the estimated standard error of the mean and an intuitive formula for the correlational coefficient (such as the sample covariance of X and Y divided by the product of the standard deviations of X and Y which shows the correlation to be a standardized covariance between two variables (see Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 1991, p. 369 for more discussion of this way of calculating the simple correlation coefficient). These formulas are not terribly complicated and can provide additional insights into statistics.

When the authors provide multiple examples of significance testing, they are very consistent in using their five steps of hypothesis testing (provided in the chapter) for each of the tests for statistical significance. This process includes stating the null and alternative hypotheses, setting the alpha level, obtaining the p-value, comparing alpha and the p-value to determine statistical significance, as well as obtaining effect sizes and determining practical significance for statistically significant results. On the other hand, their explanations of some of the inferential statistics could be augmented. The t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) are examples in which they could explain some of the underlying statistical concepts in greater detail. For example, the analysis of variance is referred to as such because it takes into consideration the ratio of within versus between group variability. Instead, they only explain that the F-distribution is used as the sampling distribution and that ANOVA is appropriate for comparisons of two or more groups. A thought here is to append some statistical formulas and additional details about the various statistical analyses.

Third, part of the additional materials includes three empirical research articles related to the three major research approaches, i.e., quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. A further strength would be if they added a few more articles that cover more specific research approaches. For example, on the quantitative side, they might add an article that uses the nonequivalent comparison-group design and one that uses the multiple-baseline design, and on the qualitative side they might add an article that uses grounded theory and one that uses ethnography. The current quantitative article is a randomized field experiment examining the effects of small class sizes. The study is interesting and well designed, but it might be too complex for beginning students. For example, the study’s statistical analysis used a 2x2x2x2 factorial analysis of variance. An example of a study with a less complex statistical analysis might be a better choice.

Fourth, one criticism that applies to all current educational research textbooks, is the lack of any discussion of item response theory, which is an important movement in the field of measurement.

Although I have made a few suggestions for improvement, I do not want these suggestions to overshadow my positive evaluation of the book. I believe Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches is a highly sound, cutting edge research text, and it should be seriously considered for adoption by other instructors.

References

Campbell, D.T. & Stanley, J.C. (1966). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Chicago: Rand McNally.

Cook, T.D., & Campbell, D.T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design and analysis for field settings. Chicago: Rand McNally.

Johnson, R.B., & Onwuegbuzie, A.J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33 (7) 14-26.

Johnson, R.B., & Turner, L.A. (2002). Data collection strategies in mixed methods research. In A.Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 297-319). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Pedhazur, E. J., & Schmelkin, L. P. (1991). Measurement, design, and analysis: An integrated approach. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Shadish, W.R., Cook, T., Campbell, D. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

About the Reviewer

Andy Rudd
Department of Sport Management, Recreation Management & Physical Education College of Education, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4280

Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.

~ ER home | Reseñas Educativas | Resenhas Educativas ~
~ overview | reviews | editors | submit | guidelines | announcements | search ~