Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology: Integrating Diversity With Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Third Edition

I really appreciated this textbook in my introductory graduate-level research methods course. Mertens provides a comprehensive introduction to research methods and incorporates the need for researchers to be mindful of diverse perspectives and ethical concerns at every step of the research process. Mertens is clearly a culturally competent researcher, evaluator, and author. It seems to me like she would also be an excellent professor, as she appears to have a wealth of experience and a genuine concern for the human aspect of social science research.

This book was purchased for a class.

Mertens presents all (or most) of the pertinent information, but with rather excessive wording and unfocused, garrulous examples. That is to say, the content is rather thorough, but it certainly lacks concision. On the upside, the design is attractive, and the text itself easy-to-read, not overwhelming, and obviously carefully edited. Also, some of the investigative approaches described as distinct are in fact very similar, the main difference being purely semantic in nature.Overall, a decent textbook (especially for undergrads) but a bit too wordy, and a bit stuffed with purely rhetorical and conceptual material, rather than practically rich content.

I used this textbook for a graduate level online class and it worked out very well. I think it has good "real-life" examples that are given in the text and very interesting studies. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs it for research study purposes.

Used for class

I bought the book because I had to for a graduate class. Research is a class few look forward to taking. This book didn't help. The book is wordy and is never able to define or explain things clearly. I had to resort to the internet for clarity and more insightful definitions/examples. My professor was immature, unethical,deceitful, and couldn't guide people as to how to use a pencil. I was never so happy to resell a book back to the bookstore in my life. I was happy to get $45 for it and trying to put the entire nightmare behind me.

Everything was good.

I'm reading this book for a graduate course in research methods in counseling. In my psychology undergraduate degree I graduated summa cum laude. Research methods in psychology was one of my favorite classes while en-route to my bachelor's degree. However, this book ranks right up there with the most aggravating of any of the textbooks I've read so far. It's not straight-forward at all. Mertens fails to use easy to understand examples to help illustrate the subject matter she's trying to teach. I find myself constantly getting lost and having to re-read what I just read in an attempt to help integrate it with other material she's previously talked about. In other words, it doesn't flow at all. It's not very engaging either. Mertens clearly has a excellent concept of the material, but on almost every account she fails to convey this information to the reader in simple, clear terms. I would not recommend this textbook.