KEY PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES AND STUDENT LEARNING RESOURCES
Storytelling - The most distinctive pedagogical feature of Research Methods in Crime and
Justice is the use ‘stories’ from the scholarly literature, practitioner conducted research and a few
fictional narratives to illustrate how research gets done. These stories appear throughout the text
in set out boxes titled;
Making Research Real – narratives of how research methods are relevant to criminal
justice practitioners.
Developing the Method – narratives from the scholarly research that illustrate how actual
researchers applied research methodologies to produce knowledge.
Reinforcing essential information – Essential information in Research Methods in Crime and
Justice is presented to the students five times! The students confront essential information when
they;
Read it in the textbook,
Encounter set out boxes titled Getting to the Point that occur in every section and
subsection of the textbook,
Read the chapter summaries,
Hear and see it featured in the instructor’s lecture and PowerPoint presentation, and
Access the Flash Cards feature in the Student Resources section of the companion
website.
Chapter Exercises – The exercises at the end of each chapter in Research Methods in Crime and
Justice are traditional chapter review questions. These questions are written to comprehensively
cover the breadth of the material in the chapter. A reformatted version of these questions
appears on the practice quizzes feature in the student resources section of the companion
website.
Research Application Exercises – The research application exercises at the end of Chapters 1
through 13 provide students with an opportunity to critically evaluate actual research articles
from the published and peer refereed scholarly literature. There are at least two articles
referenced and sets of questions at the end of each chapter. The actual articles are available free
to the instructors in pdf format through the instructor resources section of the companion
website. Instructors may distribute these articles and the questions that come with them to the
students as assignments.
The Researcher’s Notebook – This feature, unique to introduction to research methods
textbooks, is a series of structured exercises that may be assigned by instructors who want to
provide their students with an opportunity to develop a research prospectus. These exercises are
structured so as to substantially reduce and distribute instructor assessment time throughout the
semester or quarter, rather than waiting to the end of the term. When completed the objective
and content specific exercises (available to instructors through the companion website) provide
students with an opportunity to:
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Develop a viable research question,
Write the introductory section of a research prospectus,
Develop an outline for the literature review,
Access the available literature,
Learn how to recognize the most authoritative literature available on a subject,
Annotate their literature review outlines with information from the literature,
Learn how to know when they have access ‘enough’ literature,
Write the literature review, and
Develop a research plan that, if implemented, would produce the data necessary to
answer their research questions.
Student Resources (companion website) – The student section of the companion website for
Research Methods in Crime and Justice includes the following learning tools.
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Practice Quizzes - (reformatted from the end of chapter exercises) designed to help
students self assess their understanding of a chapter’s content.
Flash Cards - (reformatted from the Getting to the Point in text summaries) designed to
provide students with an opportunity to quickly review the content material from each
chapter.
Applying What You’ve Learned – Short synopses of research reports that demonstrate
how research methods are applied to research problems. Each of these synopses (two per
chapter) includes guided discussion questions that teach students how to critically
evaluate research.
Instructor Resources (companion website) – The instructor resources section of the
companion website for Research Methods in Crime and Justice includes the following
instructional and assessment tools.
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Overview and Chapter Outlines – provide you with a broad view of how the textbook
is formatted and how the parts and chapters within the textbook are intended to interact.
Lecture Support Materials/PowerPoint Presentations – provide you with detailed
lecture materials and PowerPoint presentations for each chapter.
Suggested Pacing Options–provide you with numerous options for integrating the
material through a semester or quarter term. This feature also provides suggestions on
how to incorporate the Research Application Exercises and The Researcher’s Notebook
into the syllabus.
Exam Items –provide you with questions and answer keys for chapter, midterm and final
examinations.
Research Application Exercises –allow you to assign students reading from the
published, scholarly and peer refereed literature and questions that assess the student’s
ability to critically evaluate actual research.
The Researcher’s Notebook – exercises that allow an instructor to assign students to
complete research prospectus over the course of a term with a minimum of instructor
assessment time.