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For this Assignment, you will develop an introduction that contains a problem statement and purpose statement. Although your work to this point may have guided you toward a particular research design or approach, there is still value in examining your topic from a variety of perspectives. Toward that end, one useful exercise involves returning to the triumvirate of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches and to create hypotheses and descriptive research questions accordingly in your introduction.

To prepare for this Assignment:

· Review:

· Chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the Creswell text

· Chapter 2, “Manuscript Structure and Content” in the APA Manual

· The “A Typology of Research Purposes and its Relationship to Mixed Methods” book excerpt

· Sections on Introductions and Conclusions in the Introductions and Conclusions webpage

· The Problem Statements interactive media

· The Developing Purpose Statements, Research Questions, and Hypotheses interactive media

· Consider the feedback from your colleagues and Instructor on your introduction from this week’s Discussion.

Write a 4- to 5-page introduction based on your literature review in Week 3 Assignment 1. Your introduction should address and include the elements suggested by this week's Learning Resources, including:

· Background of the Problem: This section should provide the context for your study.

· Problem Statement: The problem statement identifies, in 1–2 paragraphs, the research problem under investigation. It is not a social problem. Rather, it is a problem of knowledge—what we do not know about something. You can find a research problem by identifying a “gap” in the literature you reviewed.

· Statement of Purpose: The purpose of the study is one paragraph that describes the overall goal of your study and why you are undertaking it. Be sure to identify specific deficiencies in past studies and explain how your study will address these deficiencies.

· Theoretical Foundation/Conceptual Framework: Doctoral scholarship represents an understanding of theory and how it is generated and tested. Identify at least one theoretical perspective that will guide your research. In 1–2 paragraphs, describe the theoretical framework and provide citations to appropriate references.

· Brief Operational Definitions: Any specialized terms you are including, or variables under investigation in the study, must be defined. 

· Significance of the Study: What are the implications of the results of the study for researchers, practitioners, and social change? What good can be produced from your study (regardless of whether you find statistically significant results)?

· Research Questions and Hypotheses for the quantitative section, qualitative section, and mixed-methods section.

· Develop 3–4 research questions for the qualitative section.

· Develop a directional hypothesis, a non-directional hypothesis, and a null hypothesis for the quantitative or mixed-methods section that derive from the theory you are considering. For each hypothesis, describe the relationships between at least two variables.