Bizzna Tutor

Directions for Unit 10

The Research Report

All the information you need for completing Unit 10 will be found on this directions sheet. You might want to print a copy; please pay careful attention to these directions.

1. Keep the objective relevant to this unit in mind as you proceed: Following completion of this course, the student will have developed a more practical understanding of educational research through completing a pilot study. The student will understand the necessity for skill and diligence in professional writing and will exhibit those traits in her or his work. Finally, the student will have completed a full manuscript describing a completed research project and the quality of this paper will be good to excellent. The student will have sufficient knowledge of research theory that he or she will be able to effectively use a checklist in evaluating educational research journal articles

2. Complete the assigned readings.

3. You have two tasks to complete.

a. The primary is job is to write your final research report. Use your proposal as the first part of the report, making the necessary verb tense changes and any other alterations indicated by instructor editing. You wrote in the future tense for the proposal and now it is over, done, in the past and that is why you must use the past tense in your statement of the problem, null hypothesis, and methods section. Then use your survey results, analyze and discuss them, being sure to relate your findings to previous research (citing) in your results and discussion section. Your task is to complete the report by inserting this results and discussion section into the previously developed and modified proposal. This will give you a feel for the process and highlight the relationship between the proposal and the final product. Appendix A will be your survey instrument. Appendix B will be your t-test results (see the t-test spreadsheet for directions), Appendix C will be your Fisher Test results, and Appendices D-F will be your qualitative analysis (see your qualitative paper as a reminder and guide regarding how to structure these). This finished product constitutes a pilot study that might or might not lead to a full research project, depending on your wishes. At least now you very well know the process and all that is involved in doing research. Be sure to consult the model final paper for guidance.

b. The other task is a simple one. Using the matrix attached to these directions, critique your research. You should retain a copy of this matrix, for it can serve you well if you’re ever required to or need to evaluate a piece of educational research or, for that matter, any research at all, whatever the field.

Matrix for Evaluation of Research

Reference, APA style:

Doe, J. J. (2015). Comparison…(delete this in red font; replace it appropriately with the proper information related to the final version of your research paper.)

Question
What was the research design? (Refer to Etext)
What was the major weakness of this design?
Was the sample large enough? How many subjects? Groups?
Was the publication in a peer-reviewed journal?
Was there random sampling of subjects?
Were reliability and validity reported for instruments reported?
Was there an obvious potential conflict of interest?
Did the study adequately address all of the criteria of Campbell and Stanley for validity? Example?
After reviewing the methods section, could you precisely replicate the study? If there was a difficulty, describe it.
Does the results and discussion section present the data and its interpretation in a cohesive, logical, and understandable manner?