Research Methods Study Plan Ch. 1-3
A high school principal wants to conduct a study to solve a particular problem with teachers feeling unsupported by administration. What is the best classification for this type of research?
Action Research (The primary purpose of action research is to develop solutions to problems.)
Candy is studying bullying, and she searches ERIC to find past research. Why is this a good choice?
ERIC is an online database focused on education. (ERIC is the Education Resources Information Center, an education-focused database.)
Which of the following is a qualitative approach to research?
Ethnographic research (Ethnographic research studies the cultural patterns and perspectives of participants in their natural settings.)
A school district has implemented a new program to enhance support for teachers in high schools. You need to conduct a study to determine whether the new program is effective and worth the investment. What is the best classification for this type of research?
Evaluation Research (Evaluation research involves collecting and analyzing data about the quality, effectiveness, merit, or value of programs, products, or practices. )
Jeff is conducting a literature review to prepare for a qualitative research study on student motivation and grades. Which of the following functions are most important for his literature review?
His literature review will help to refine research questions and develop the guiding hypotheses. (In qualitative research, the literature review helps researchers to refine research questions and guiding hypotheses that provide direction to the research study.)
Which of the following is usually the best way to organize a literature review?
Organize the reviewed studies into groups of topics or themes. (The literature should be organized in a meaningful way that indicates you have thought about the big ideas across the studies.)
Which of the following ethical concerns are unique to qualitative research?
Qualitative research plans typically change over time. (As the researcher becomes immersed in the study and gains a better understanding of the research, the plan may evolve.)
Of the following, which is the BEST research hypothesis?
Students taught in a co-operative group setting have higher achievement test scores than do students taught in a traditional class. (This hypothesis meets the criteria for a good hypothesis.)
Which of the following is an example of a null hypothesis?
Teachers receiving holistic stress reduction training will have similar stress scores following training as those not receiving such training. (This statement represents a null hypothesis because it specifies no difference between the specified groups.)
Which of the following is the best example of a good educational research problem?
The problem to be investigated is whether students involved in the peer-tutoring program demonstrate increased math skills. (This problem is worth the time and effort of the study, is researchable, contributes to knowledge, and has theoretical or practical significance.)
Jordan needs a research problem for her thesis. She goes to the library and goes through all of the journals searching for ideas. Evaluate Jordan's strategy for finding a research problem.
The strategy will likely not work well because the amount of material in the library will be overwhelming at this stage in her research. (The library is most useful to the researcher after a problem has been narrowed.)
Caleb is preparing a study of eighth-grade math team participants and their social networks. Students will answer a series of questions regarding who their friends are, how much time they spend with them, and what sorts of activities they do together. He is planning on getting permission from the local school, the math team director, and the parents of the students. What other permissions will he most likely have to seek?
The students themselves must agree even though their parents have already authorized the study. (Even with parent or guardian consent, all participants still have the right to decline participation.)
Given the research question, "Is there a significant difference in sixth grade student achievement as measured by classroom tests between learners taught via lecture only and those taught via slides?" a sensible non-directional hypothesis is:
There is a significant difference in student achievement between those taught via lecture only and those taught via slides. (This statement simply predicts a difference without specifying one group as higher.)
Which of the following is the best example of a hypothesis with an operationally defined variable?
There is no difference in second-language proficiency, as determine by those reaching CEFR B1 level, between the two instructional approaches. (This example specifies how second-language proficiency is measured.)
Which of the following questions is the best studied through a qualitative approach?
What does "well-being" mean to elementary physical education teachers? (This research question is a good start for a qualitative study. As stated, it is unlikely to include a lot of numerical, quantifiable data, and it focuses on one central concept of "well-being.")
Of following, the research question best tested with a correlational study is:
What is the relationship between study time and achievement? (This question focused on the relationships between two variables: study time and achievement.)
Which of the following should be part of your criteria for evaluating whether or not a study should be included in your literature review?
Whether the journal in which it is published is a scholarly or peer-reviewed (The reputation of the journal and whether or not articles are peer-reviewed are important criteria for judging the quality of the research article. This is a built-in quality control system to help you ensure that you are relying on high-quality research. )
A good research design to provide a solution to homework completion in a school setting is
action research. (Action research often provides methods for solving everyday problems in a school setting. )
Conducting research in an ethical manner involves
allowing participants to know about the risks of the research before they agree to participate. (Disclosing risks is one requirement of informed consent.)
A researchable problem is one that
can be studied by collecting and analyzing data. (We can investigate a researchable problem by collecting and analyzing data.)
Tamyra is planning a qualitative study of the curricular changes in her school. Her literature review will likely be
completed later than if she were doing a quantitative study. (Qualitative researchers often continue to develop the literature review as data collection progresses and they learn more about the research context and population.)
Of the following research goals, the one that most likely uses mixed-methds research involves
conducting interviews with participants after completing an instrument to assess instructional approaches to explain the results. (This study involves a quantitative instrument of instructional approaches followed by qualitative interviews to explain the results of the instrument. The integration of qualitative and quantitative data is a key characteristic of mixed-methods research.)
A reason to include dissertations reports in meta-analysis studies is that
dissertation studies tend to show smaller experimental effects and lead to a more accurate estimate of effect. (If a researcher excludes dissertations from a meta-analysis, effects may appear to be greater than they actually are.)
Professor Garcia is developing a new kindergarten curriculum. She approaches a private school and asks them to implement the program in one class for one year. The class is randomly selected, and data are collected from another class to compare. Professor Garcia is conducting
experimental research. (She is comparing variables in two classes randomly assigned to the experiment and control condition.)
When evaluating potential sources for inclusion in your literature review, you should
favor articles from refereed journals over nonrefereed journals. (Studies published in refereed journals are seen as more scholarly and trustworthy than articles from nonrefereed or popular journals.)
Ariel is conducting a literature search on policy as related to food choices in urban high schools. The best search terms for Ariel to use for an electronic database search are
food policy and high school. (This combination, using AND, is appropriately narrow.)
Steven, a college senior, is conducting a research project focused on children's friendships. He plans an ethnographic study to take place over the course of one year. Prior to conducting his study, Steven needs to consult with his university's IRB about
his plan to minimize risk to the participants. (The Institutional Review Board is charged with weighing risks and benefits prior to the start of any study. )
Of the following, the earliest step in identifying and narrowing a research problem is
identifying a subject area of interest to you. (Identifying an area of interest related to your expertise is the best way to start to select a research problem.)
A directional hypothesis
is used when a researcher has theoretical or empirical support for a prediction. (Researchers should have a sound reason for predicting an expected direction. )
You should choose to do a quantitative study if you need to
maintain control over the environment. (Quantitative research usually controls for contextual factors that may interact with the variables under study. Usually, qualitative research occurs within a naturalistic setting.)
A good review of the literature for a frequently studied topic should contain
only references that are directly related to your specific problem. (For a well-researched topic, focus on studies using similar subjects or similar variables.)
In an experiment, an effect size of .01 indicates that
on average, the experimental and control groups performed about the same. (The effect size is a numerical way of expressing the strength or magnitude of a reported relation but does not indicate causality.)
When developing an outline for the literature review, you should typically
organize headings related to the research problem. (The literature review provides the necessary background and rationale for your hypothesis and should be organized to identify the main problems. )
Matt must complete a project for his research class. A challenge he has faced this year is developing appropriate strategies for working with a child in his classroom who is autistic. He wonders what strategies other middle school teachers have found effective in working with children diagnosed with autism. The source of this research problem is derived from
personal experience. (Matt has personal experience with this topic, which provides the main source of his idea.)
A primary source is often more valuable to a researcher than a secondary source because it
provides detailed information about all aspects of a study. (Primary sources provide details about the method, procedure, and implications of particular studies, as well as the original data analysis.)
Regarding the literature review, one difference between qualitative and quantitative research is that
qualitative researchers often review the literature after the topic has emerged over time. (Qualitative researchers often save a complete review of the literature until they've narrowed the topic.)
Defining a research problem is important to research you conduct because
research problems reduce a study to a manageable size. (When well defined, research problems focus a study and keep it to a manageable size.)
A concluding summary of your literature review should
review the main themes of the literature and its implications. (The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the literature and provide the chain of logic that lead to the implications.)
Educational researchers ensure that research participants enter the research of their free will by
seeking informed consent from the participants. (Informed consent requires that participants know the potential risks of the research and that they can quit at any time. )
The basic procedure of meta-analysis consists of
statistically determining the composite result of a group of studies. (Meta-analysis is a statistical approach to summarizing the results of a group of quantitative studies.)
The procedure most aligned with a researcher using quantitative methods involves
studying a large number of participants as a detached, objective observer. (The degree of interaction with participants is usually low for quantitative research, and the researcher seeks a larger number of participants.)
Debbie's adviser asks her to annotate the sources in her literature review. The adviser is expecting
summaries with her own analysis. (A good annotation will contain a summary and analysis of the study. )
A review of the literature can be BEST defined as a
systematic identification and analysis of information related to the research problem. (A literature review involves both identification and analysis of available information.)
Qualitative research is characterized by
the attempt to study things as they exist naturally. (Qualitative researchers do not control or manipulate the environment they are studying.)
Kelly's adviser suggested that he start with secondary sources to gain a sense of the existing literature for his research topic. Of the following, the one most likely to be a useful secondary source is
the journal Review of Educational Research. (Usually, the word "review" in the title signals a secondary source.)
Yvonne, a college student, has just completed a class project on student behavior in an inclusionary classroom, where children with developmental delays work in small groups with children developing along a normative trajectory. She observed in a local elementary school each week and came to know the children quite well. When presenting her findings to her class in an ethical manner, Yvonne should be careful to avoid
using the children's names when discussing her observations. (Researchers should maintain confidentiality and not disclose information that would allow the children to be identified.)
Sandra is conducting a review of the literature investigating a problem area in which little research has been conducted previously. Her review is likely going to be
very broad, given the unique nature of the problem and the lack of information on it. (When little literature is available on a problem, the researcher will want to review any study that is broadly related to the problem.)
