Welcome.

The Research School provides straightforward support to help you finish your research project. We teach you what most programs do not: the in's and out's of how to execute a research project. Videos, worksheets and one-on-one guidance will help you make sense of your individual project details and walk you through each step of the process.

How it Works

The Research School provides support that is organized into lessons. Each lesson corresponds to an important part of a research project:

Developing the problem and purpose statements;
Developing research questions;
Conducting and writing a literature review;
Designing and running quantitative and qualitative studies; and,
Running your analysis and writing up the results.

There are several ways to get help from The Research School.

Explore Free Lessons for free videos, readings, and worksheets. These resources are tailored to help you master the lesson content at your own pace.
Submit Your Work for Review as you develop it. Completed worksheets, dissertation chapters, and other written work can be submitted for review by Dr. Smith for a fee. Each lesson provides an option for submitting your work that is related to the lesson topic for review.
Schedule a Meeting. Need to talk it through or get more support? One-on-one meetings to help you troubleshoot, brainstorm, or clarify any part of the research are also available for a fee.

Who I Am: Dr. Tamarah Smith

Tamarah Smith, PhD, is the founder of The Research School. She holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from Temple University and Master's of Science in Applied Statistics from West Chester University. She has 17 years of experience as a University faculty member where she most recently served as an associate professor in the doctoral education program at Gwynedd Mercy University as well as the Dissertation Coordinator and methodologist. She has advised hundreds of students' research projects from undergraduate projects to doctoral dissertations. She has guided dozens of students in both presenting and publishing their research projects and has a long history of publishing and presenting her own research. She specializes in teaching courses that focus on research methods and analysis, and supporting students in developing their research methodology and executing their data analysis. Her students' success is her passion.

Dr. Smith's research focuses on student mindsets, anxieties, attitudes, and other motivational factors that impact student success particularly while doing research. She has created and tested various interventions, curriculum, and measurement techniques to help dissect and influence the relationship between such apprehensions and learning.

Dr. Smith is a regular reviewer for academic journals and the National Science Foundation's grant programs. She served on the Board of Directors for the Eastern Psychological Association, has served as a reviewer for several journals, and was an associate editor for a special issue of Psychology Learning and Teaching. She is currently serving as the Director for Regional Conference Programming for the Society of Teaching Psychology.

Her work has been funded by the Society for Teaching Psychology, Psi Chi, and the Buzzallino Family Faculty Scholars Award. She served as co-PI on a National Science Foundation grant that incorporated her work with high-risk STEM majors. She has implemented her intervention work in statistics courses for psychology majors and developed and run programming to train tutors, high school teachers, and administrators, as well as college faculty to utilize mindset interventions in their classrooms and institutions.