Much of the discussion in the text is unlikely to be otherwise encountered by the neophyte researcher, even in graduate courses in educational research where majority of the instructor's energy will be devoted to an explanation of technical issues. For most current or future educational researchers this book will serve as one of the few references for these topics. Research in Educational Settings is a well organized and well written book. By choosing to present topics in the order that they do, the authors present them as they are likely to be encountered. Coupled with a strategic use of topic headers, sections of the book covering different issues are relatively easy to find.
Some topics are difficult to place and are discussed in more than one section of the book.
An example is the discussion of subject attrition which appears both in chapter 4 on design and sampling and in chapter 8 on implementation problems. The use of a single case study through out gives the book a greater sense of coherence as well as a source for numerous concrete examples. The writing style is clear and concise and the authors provide many personal experiences as examples of problems researchers may face. This increases the books readability and its engagement of the reader. Each chapter is introduced with a preview of the topics and issues to be covered and concludes with a review of those topics and issues and a summary of suggestions.