I plan to study educational psychology in the near future. I know research methods is a big thing for educational psychologists, so I wanted to get a firm grip on the statistical knowledge required for research methods. Thus, I am looking for good stats books for educational psychologists? Either that or a lists of stats methods that an educational psychologist should master/know.
Thanks!
Cross Validated has a long list of answers to, "What book would you recommend for non-statistician scientists?" including an answer from our own @JeromyAnglim regarding SPSS for psychologists. Jeromy has also listed a number of good recommendations in response to The current recommended text for statistics in behavioural sciences, and @Mike suggested one for R users such as myself. I hesitate to recreate their content here because their original wording seems appropriate to preserve, and I'd rather have you read their answers and upvote them than try to take any credit myself.
I'd offer additional recommendations of my own if I had any good ones, but my stats textbooks were pretty deficient in retrospect, and I've had to overwrite a great deal of my formal education in psychological statistics through more diffuse study of sources other than textbooks. My standards for "a firm grip" on statistical research methods are probably more stringent than is truly necessary though, so my experience shouldn't concern you necessarily.
Also, FWIW, I had good but limited experiences with the textbooks that were assigned to me in my graduate stats classes for all areas of doctoral study in psychology (which excluded ed psych at my alma mater). My experiences with these were limited because I borrowed from colleagues instead of buying to save money. I will provide references to these books below. They were assigned by two psychometricians whose professional opinions I hold in high regard, one of whom is the primary author, Bob Rosenthal.
References
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Rosenthal, R., & Rosnow, R. L. (2007). Essentials of behavioral research: Methods and data analysis (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Presently available used from \$1.11.
In my country, studying educational psychology is a postgraduate qualification. It implies that you have completed an undergraduate sequence in psychology, and therefore would have already been exposed to the basics of statistics and research methods (e.g., univariate, bivariate statistics, significance testing, various ANOVA, regression, study designs, measurement reliability/validity, etc.). This may also include a subject on multivariate methods (e.g., factor analysis, logistic regression, perhaps a little SEM, etc.). Popular texts within psychology courses for this material include Andy Field's book and Tabachnick and Fidell Using Multivariate Statistics.
Thus, for students coming into an postgraduate Educational Psychology program, they may need a refresher or consolidation of the above statistical methods.
In general, educational psychology uses a lot of the same statistical techniques as other areas of psychology. A few techniques of particular relevance include:
Ultimately, how well you want to learn any of the above techniques depends on your aims. These more advanced techniques can help you read the literature, and are particularly important if you want to do research using the technique.
