Educational Research: An Introduction, Eighth Edition,is the most comprehensive and widely respected text for scholars and graduate-level students who need to understand educational research in depth and conduct original research for a dissertation or thesis. A complete introduction to the major research methods and types of data analysis used today, this text provides detailed coverage of all facets of research, from the epistemology of quantitative and qualitative scientific inquiry to the design, data collection, analysis, and reporting of a completed study.
Used this research textbook during my doctoral studies and have used it ever since in my teaching. Would recommend for any upper level research course.
So, I got this book about 8 months ago, as part of a bridge course to prepare one for the rigorous Ph. D. work in statistics. At that time, I read 3 pages, closed the book, and put it on my shelf. It is NOT a beginner's book. Now that I have a rough working knowledge of different statistical procedures, I picked back up this book and leafed through some procedures I found easy and difficult. The book makes more sense, now. However, I do feel this is a sort of encyclopedia for stats. 2-3 pages describing a procedure, with one or two articles/studies that typify that type of design. This might be useful for a reference once you have some background, but it is not a good preliminary text or a way to learn about different procedures.