Books in the Research Methods for the Social Sciences series

Integrate qualitative inquiry approaches and methods into the practice of evaluation Qualitative inquiry can have a major effect on evaluation practice, and provides evaluators a means to explore and examine various settings and contexts in need of rich description and deeper understanding.

The second edition of Program Evaluation in Practice offers guidance for new and would-be evaluators. It uses real-world examples, explained in writing clear enough so that learners gain a great deal of helpful information while not being overwhelmed, thanks to manageable chapter lengths.

Essential management guidance for real-world applied research projects Managing Applied Social Research equips you with the skills, strategies, and knowledge you need to effectively manage research projects.

The book helps to identify, analyze, and judge twenty-eight evaluation approaches that cover most program evaluation efforts. Readers will learn to discriminate between illicit and legitimate approaches based on application of the Joint Committee Program Evaluation Standards.

Performance Evaluation is a hands-on text for practitioners, researchers, educators, and students in how to use scientifically-based evaluations that are both rigorous and flexible.

Basic Statistics for Social Research offers an introduction to core general statistical concepts and methods. It covers procedural aspects of the application of statistical methods for data-description; and hypothesis-testing; distributions, tabulations, central tendency, variability, independence, correlation and regression.

Quantitative and Statistical Research Methodsoffers a guide for psychology, counseling, and education students in the use of statistics and research designs, combined with guidance on using SPSS in the course of their research.

The authors noted scholars and researchers provide an up-to-date guide to qualitative study design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Step by step, the authors explain a range of methodologies and methods for conducting qualitative research focusing on how they are applied when conducting an actual study.

In this important book, the authors explore what answers mean in relation to how people understand the world around them and communicate with one another. They offer practical and theoretical insights that will prove invaluable when developing questionnaires.

Written for students, educators, and researchers, Methods in Educational Research offers a refreshing introduction to the principles of educational research. Designed for the real world of educational research, the book s approach focuses on the types of problems likely to be encountered in professional experiences.

* Teaches students how to conduct the most essential part of social research data collection: the interview, along with how to organize, analyze, and interpret their data. * This workbook provides a step-by-step template for a collaborative class experience in deductive social science.

* Ethnography is a branch of cultural anthropology. However, the last few years have seen growth in the number of designers, marketing people, and others outside the academic social sciences applying ethnographic methods to study how people behave * This book offers a comprehensive, stand-alone guide to ethnographic research.

Teacher inquiry helps improve educational outcomes Practitioner Teacher Inquiry and Research explores the concept and importance of the teacher practitioner, and prepares students in teacher education courses and programs to conduct research in the classroom.

This book is an accessible introduction to quantitative data analysis, concentrating on the key issues facing those new to research, such as how to decide which statistical procedure is suitable, and how to interpret the subsequent results.

This comprehensive guide provides a step-by-step approach to creating effective surveys, polls, questionnaires, customer satisfaction forms, ratings, checklists, and other instruments for social sciences research. This book is organized according to the process of instrument construction and takes the reader through each of the steps.

Research Essentials provides conceptual building blocks and essential tools that students need to think freely, critically, and creatively about research. Practical: Single-book solution teaches how to read, understand, and evaluate research Clear: Distinguishes between disciplines of inquiry or methodologies and methods of collecting data.

This book offers an innovative introduction to social research. The book explores all stages of the research process and it features both quantitative and qualitative methods. Research design topics include sampling techniques, choosing a research design, and determining research question that inform public opinion and direct future studies.

Evaluation Competencies, written by a team of experts in the area of evaluation and sponsored by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction presents validated evaluator competencies with practical and applicable description of each of these competencies.

Action Research Essentials is a practical guide born of the author's own experience working with students in the social sciences and education, providing a step-by-step outline of how to "do" action research--backed by the most extensive theory and research coverage on the market today.

The book provides a full complement of assessment technologies that enable leaders to measure and evaluate performance using qualitative and quantitative performance indicators and reference points in each of seven areas of organizational performance.

Written for students, researchers, consultants, professionals, and scholars, Logic Modeling Methods in Program Evaluation provides a step-by-step explanation of logic modeling and its importance in connecting theory with implementation and outcomes in program evaluation in the social sciences.

This timely text addresses the theory and practice of mixing inquiry methodologies in program evaluation and other forms of applied educational and social research. It covers roots of the contemporary interest in mixing methods, various conceptualizations of mixed method design and analysis and challenges of mixed method practice.

Why has youth participatory evaluation (YPE) become so important so quickly? Participatory evaluation focuses on stakeholder empowerment. But empowering youth is not the same as working with other communities. For just this reason, there is a spate of books on various aspects of action research, all aimed at educators working with youth.

The book will train new interviewers on all aspects of conducting telephone interviews. The volume will begin broadly, reviewing types of surveys, the interviewer's role in the survey process, research on survey research, ethics, laws that protect telephone interviewing, and respondents' rights.

Since it was first published more than twenty-five years ago, Asking Questions has become a classic guide for designing questionnaires the most widely used method for collecting information about people's attitudes and behavior.