Essentials of Research Methods for Educators

Essentials of Research Methods for Educators provides future teachers, specialists, administrators and educational leaders with a textbook and a resource that goes beyond the classroom to use in your career. With a focus on the wide variety of data available to educators and the importance of data literacy for all those involved in education, this book presents research methods in a relatable educational context with a variety of concrete examples. The authors use their expertise in educational psychology to optimize learning. The structure of the book breaks down research into discrete steps with the "Let′s See It," "Let′s Do It," and "You Do It" steps for each chapter so students feel motivated to complete their research projects. By covering qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research, with additional chapters on action research and program evaluation, students get a complete picture of the current research methods landscape. This highly scaffolded book supports future educational leaders in incorporating research and methods into their work and life.

Anastasia Kitsantas, PhD, is Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Office

of Doctoral Studies in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason

University (GMU). She has also served as Director of the Educational Psychology, Research

Methods, and Education Policy Division and as Academic Program Coordinator of the

Educational Psychology Program. She received her PhD in Educational Psychology with a

specialization in Development, Learning, and Instruction from the Graduate School and

University Center of the City University of New York. She has previously served on the faculties

at James Madison University in the School of Psychology and at Florida State University in the

Department of Educational Research. Prior to working in higher education, she taught in K–12

settings.

Dr. Kitsantas’ research interests focus on the development of self-regulated learning (SRL)

and student motivation across diverse areas of functioning, including academic learning, athletics,

and health. She has also studied the role of learning technologies in supporting student

SRL. She finds joy in mentoring students to conduct research in these areas and has chaired

more than 30 doctoral dissertations. She is the editor, coauthor, or author of three books and

over 150 journal articles, book chapters, refereed proceedings, and reports, many of which are

directed toward the training of self-regulation. Her publications have appeared in diverse outlets

across many fields, such as educational psychology, teacher education, learning technologies,

health psychology, and sport psychology. Her research output has been widely cited by others,

with more than 19,000 Google Scholar citations. In fact, she has been recognized as ranking in

the top 2% of scientists worldwide based on research conducted from Stanford University that

covered ~7 million scientists in 22 major fields (Jeroen, Boyack, & Ioannidis, 2020). She has also

presented over 200 papers or invited addresses at local, national, and international conferences.

She has received funding support for her scholarship by various agencies. Currently, she is the

Principal Investigator (PI) and a Co-PI on two projects funded by the Department of Education

and the National Science Foundation, respectively. Both projects focus on the development of

self-regulatory skills among school-aged students in literacy and STEM areas in preparation for

postsecondary learning, the workplace, and lifelong learning.

Dr. Kitsantas was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award by Division 15 of the

American Psychological Association (APA) in 1997 and had been honored to receive the 2019

Barry J. Zimmerman Award for Outstanding Contributions to the fields of studying and

self-regulated learning research by the Studying and Self-Regulated Learning (SSRL) Special

Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). She is a

Fellow of the American Psychological Association’s: Division 15, Educational Psychology. She

has excelled at teaching in a variety of course modalities and was awarded a George Mason

University Teaching Excellence Award, which is an institutional recognition for outstanding

teaching and acknowledgment of the significant work that faculty members devote to teaching,

advising, mentoring, and curriculum development. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of

The Journal of Experimental Education and has served on the editorial boards of a number of

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professional journals, including Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Technology,

Research and Development, Metacognition and Learning, The Journal of Experimental Education,

and many others.

Dr. Kitsantas has been extensively involved in the profession and has held numerous leadership

positions in professional organizations. She served as a Member at Large of the Executive

Board of Division 15 of APA in 2011 and most recently served as the Chair of the Fellows

Committee and the Webinar Committee. She has also been involved in the SSRLSIG of AERA

as the SIG Chair, Program Chair, and Chair of the Barry J. Zimmerman Award Committee.

She has been a panel reviewer for the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science

Foundation, and other funding agencies. She has developed partnerships with GMU and other

universities abroad, taught abroad, and as an advocate for study abroad programs, continues to

seed fruitful international collaborations.

Timothy J. Cleary is Professor and Chair of the Department of School Psychology in the

Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers, The State

University of New Jersey. He obtained his PhD in Educational Psychology with a specialization

in School Psychology from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of

New York, CUNY Graduate School in 2001. Dr. Cleary began his professional career working as

a licensed school psychologist in the public and private sector. He began his academic career as a

Visiting Professor at CUNY before serving as Assistant and Associate Professor at the University

of Wisconsin―Milwaukee prior to moving to Rutgers University in 2012.

Dr. Cleary’s primary research interests include the development and application of self-regulated

learning (SRL) and motivation assessment and intervention practices across academic,

athletic, medical, and clinical contexts. Specifically, he has examined trends in school-based

SRL assessment and intervention practices, developed and validated several types of SRL assessments

(i.e., self-report, teacher rating scales, parent rating scales, microanalytic protocols), developed

and tested academic intervention programs, and investigated links among SRL processes

and performance indicators. He has published over 70 peer-review journal articles and book

chapters specifically addressing SRL issues and applications, coedited a scholarly book on SRL,

served as sole author on an edited volume targeting SRL intervention programs and a sole author

for a research-to-practice book for K–12 teachers, The Self-Regulated Learning Guide: Teaching

Students to Think in the Language of Strategies (2018). Most of his publications have appeared

in top-tiered journals across multiple fields, including school psychology, educational psychology,

medical education, teacher education, and sport psychology. His research productivity has

been widely cited by others, with approximately 8,000 Google Scholar citations and 4,000 citations

since 2018. He was the recipient of the 2021 Barry J. Zimmerman Award for Outstanding

Contributions to the fields of studying and self-regulated learning research from the Studying

and Self-Regulated Learning Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research

Association (AERA).

Dr. Cleary’s extramural grant funding is significant in both its quantity and quality, and

most of his projects have been collaborative in nature. He is serving or has served as a Principal

Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department

of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), Institute for

Educational Sciences (IES), and the Spencer Foundation. Over the course of his career, Dr.

About the Authors xxix

Cleary has served in a lead or collaborative scholarly role on grants totaling approximately $12

million.

Dr. Cleary has also taken on several leadership roles at the university and national levels.

Across institutions, he has served as Program Director, Director of Clinical Training,

and Department Chair. He also participated as a Fellow in the inaugural Rutgers Leadership

Academy in 2015. At a national level, Dr. Cleary has served on the executive board for the

Studying and Self-Regulated Learning Special Interest Group (SSRL SIG) of the American

Educational Research Association (AERA), performing roles of Chair, Program Chair, and

Secretary. He also served as Chair for the Graduate Student Mentoring Program of the SSRL

SIG for four years and has participated in various mentoring programs sponsored by NASP and

Division C of AERA. Dr. Cleary currently serves on prestigious editorial boards for school psychology

journals (Journal of School Psychology, School Psychology) and educational psychology

journals (Journal of Experimental Education, Metacognition and Learning) and served as a panel

reviewer for IES grant for several years. Dr. Cleary is frequently asked to provide professional

development workshops to school personnel, researchers, and psychologists across the country

regarding the application and motivation and SRL principles.

Dr. Maria K. DiBenedetto holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology with a specialization

in Learning, Development, and Instruction from the Graduate School and University Center

of the City University of New York. She has a rich history in working in various administrative

positions in higher education, including admissions, recruitment, advisement, student services,

assessment, and reaccreditation, as well as adjunct teaching of both undergraduate and graduate

students (courses include research methods, educational psychology, counseling psychology,

child and adolescent development, theories of learning in teaching, and management). She also

has several years’ experience teaching as a high school science teacher and Chair of the Science

Department, as well as experience as a second- and fourth-grade elementary school teacher.

Dr. DiBenedetto’s current position is at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, in

the Bryan School of Business and Economics where she is a member of the Dean’s Leadership

Team. In her position as Lecturer/Director of Assessment and Reporting, Dr. DiBenedetto

oversees assurance of learning for the business school’s reaccreditation by AACSB International

(Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), one of the most prestigious and internationally

recognized organizations that reviews business schools throughout the globe. In

addition, she ensures the business school is meeting the assurance of learning standards set by

SACSCOC (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges) for all

graduate programs, undergraduate majors, minors, and certificate programs. She also serves on

various committees throughout the university and within the business school and is a senator on

the university-wide staff senate.

Dr. DiBenedetto’s research interests are focused on self-regulated learning, self-efficacy,

and motivation. She has published numerous chapters and articles on these topics and has collaborated

with world-renown scholars in the field of educational psychology. She is particularly

interested in research on self-regulated learning for college-bound high school students as well

as study strategies for undergraduate and graduate students and their impact on achievement.

Her research has been widely cited; for example, in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher

Education on first-generation college students’ study strategies, the authors cited one of her

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studies in their discussion of study strategies for success (https://www.chronicle.com/article/Kn

owing-How-to-Study-Can-Mean/246644.).

Along with Dr. DiBenedetto’s empirical research, she has written several theoretical/conceptual

publications focused on assessment, standards-based instruction, self-efficacy within a

sociocultural lens, the mentoring of doctoral students, and two books, one edited and one coauthored.

In the edited book Connecting Self-Regulated Learning and Performance With Instruction

Across High School Content Areas (2018), each chapter is cowritten by outstanding content area

high school teachers throughout the United States and well-known educational psychologists on

applying self-regulated learning to classroom instruction. Self-Regulation and the Common Core:

Applications to ELA Standards (2015) was her earlier coauthored book that discusses how selfregulated

and the common core can be used to teach ELA standards to students in grades K–12.

Dr. DiBenedetto has served on several prestigious editorial boards: Journal of Experimental

Education; The International Journal of Educational and Psychological Assessment; and a special

issue of Theory Into Practice. She has served as a guest reviewer for several premier journals

including the Journal of Educational Psychology; Journal of Advanced Academics; Learning and

Individual Differences; and Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy, & Practice, among others.

DiBenedetto is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and served as

chair of Division 15’s (Educational Psychology) Committee on the Development of Early Career

Educational Psychologists. She served in several positions in the Studying and Self-Regulated

Learning Special Interest Group (SIG) for the American Educational Research Association

(AERA) including Chair, Program Chair, Secretary, and Editor of the SIG.

Dr. DiBenedetto has presented her research internationally and domestically and has conducted

professional development workshops for teachers in middle schools and high schools in

addition to guest lectures for doctoral students on student learning and assessment. In addition,

Dr. DiBenedetto serves on doctoral dissertation committees and has served and serves as a consultant

on many projects for organizations such as ACT (American College Testing), Pearson

Education, Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and the Portuguese

Science Foundation.

 

Suzanne E. Hiller, PhD, has worked in the field of education as a practitioner, professor,

researcher, and evaluator for over three decades. Notably, she was the Teacher Naturalist with

the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. She has served as an assistant

professor teaching educational psychology, program evaluation, research, and preservice

teacher courses in curriculum and assessment. While affiliated with Wingate University, she was

the Director of the Graduate Education Program and the Director of Multidisciplinary Studies

in Education with Hood College.

Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Blue Swallow Farm Foundation, an organization

dedicated to promoting inclusive, authentic experiences in outdoor education through

research and training while motivating students in STEM careers. In light of this mission,

Suzanne E. Hiller has been working with educators, administrators, researchers, and scientists

on a variety of projects related to professional development, curriculum development, and

research, with a particular emphasis on outdoor classrooms and citizen science. Most recently,

she has conducted a series of research studies on the impact of water quality programs on student

STEM achievement, career motivation, environmental attitudes, and social-emotional

well-being. Through this type of research, professional development on designing and utilizing

About the Authors xxxi

outdoor classrooms, curriculum resources for educators, and mentorship and support for doctoral

students, she continues to encourage growing interest in providing students with exposure

in STEM activities within natural settings.

In support of educational research at large, Suzanne E. Hiller has served on the editorial

board for the International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology and the

Journal of Experimental Education. She has also been a reviewer for a variety of journals, such as

Learning and Individual Differences; Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction; and Heliyon. She

has written one book on using metacognitive and self-regulatory strategies to promote student

science achievement and coedited one book on fostering STEM career motivation through citizen

science.

Her background in motivation and self-regulation was particularly relevant as a co-principal

investigator on a grant from the Maryland Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund to provide assistance

for teachers during the recent health crisis. Using an online format, the program serviced

teachers across the state of Maryland with presentations, mentorship, and projects related to

social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, mind-brain education, and self-regulation,

all topics that were critical for student success during the pandemic. The experience of

working on this grant serves as a model for several upcoming programs to train educators and

administrators in outdoor instruction through the Blue Swallow Farm Foundation as well as to

develop curricular materials for outdoor learning, Grades K–12.