EPC 602 RESEARCH METHODS Fall 2003

Reagan Curtis, Ph.D.

Conceptual Framework: MichaelD.EisnerCollege of Education

The Michael D. Eisner College of Education as a professional school is committed to advancing learning, teaching and student success. This is accomplished using a developmental approach to promote reflection, critical thinking, and excellence in an inclusive learning community. Its graduates are well educated, highly skilled and caring persons who are lifelong learners prepared to practice in an ever changing, multicultural world. They are committed to promoting achievement of all students as a primary measure of successful educational practice. Graduates assume service and leadership roles in public and private educational, health, and social programs and institutions. The College establishes and maintains productive partnerships throughout campus and with community schools and agencies. The faculty is committed to excellence in teaching, scholarship, service and collaboration with the community and professions. The values for faculty and students that form the foundation of this Conceptual Framework include the following:

  1. We value high standards in the acquisition and application of professional knowledge and skills in subject matter, pedagogy, and technology.
  2. We value the achievement of students at all levels and advance their success in accordance with national, state, and institutional standards.
  3. We value an inclusive learning community.
  4. We value creative, critical and reflective thinking and practice.
  5. We value ethical practice by caring professionals.

Required Texts

Gay, L. & Arasian, P. (2003). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and applications (7th ed.). Columbus, OH. Merrill/Prentice-Hall

American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.

You will also be asked to read articles provided by the instructor and develop your own library of journals articles, books, and other sources related to your individual topic.

General Information

Class Time: Every Wednesday 4-6:50 pm

Instructor: Reagan Curtis, Ph.D.

Office: ED 2224

Office Phone: (818) 677-3199

E-Mail Address:

Office Hours: W 2-4pm, Th 2-4 pm and by individual appointment

COURSE GOALS: Students who are successful in this course will

  1. Demonstrate proficiency in the use of appropriate vocabulary of research design.
  2. Demonstrate competency in the use of American Psychological Association (APA) format including appropriate word usage, syntactic structure, mechanics, standard English, and acceptable standards of writing in all class assignments.
  3. Describe the importance of the role of research in the social sciences.
  4. Select appropriate research methods related to specific research situations.
  5. Critique in writing completed research studies according to criteria presented in class.
  6. Select a problem area, state a research problem and design a research proposal according to guidelines presented in class. (Note: this will be a formal proposal for conducting an educational research project.)
  7. Learn the difference between and the process for doing a thesis study or thesis project in the EPC department.

ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR CONDUCTING RESEARCH:

STUDENTS SHOULD CONSULT THE STANDARDS MOST APPROPRIATE FOR THEIR SUBSTANTIVE AREA OF RESEARCH. PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS THAT HAVE ARTICULATED ETHICAL GUIDELINES INCLUDE:

1. ASSOCIATION FOR COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT (1981).

2. AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION (1983).

3. AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (1981).

4. AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS (1985).

5. ASSOCIATION FOR SPECIALISTS IN GROUP WORK (1980).

6. NATIONALACADEMY OF CERTIFIED CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELORS (1980)

Course Outline:

Topic / Readings and Assignments / Date
Introduction to Course and Educational Research / Syllabus and Ch. 1 / 2/4
Research Reports / Ch 17-18 and APA Manual Ch 1 / 2/11
Research Topics and Plans,
plus APAWord Usage / Ch. 2-3 and APA Manual Ch 2 / 2/18
Library Research Introduction / Meet in library—Location to be announced / 2/25
Sampling and Measurement / Ch. 4-5CRITIQUE DUE / 3/3
Advanced Library Research / Meet in library—Location to be announced / 3/10
Qualitative Research / Ch. 6 and 9 / 3/17
Qualitative Data / Ch 7-8 Draft # 1 due / 3/24
Cesar Chavez Day- No Class! / 3/31
Spring Break—No Class!!! / 4/7
MIDTERM TEST (1-9, 17-18) / 4/14
Survey Research and
Draft#1 feedback / Ch. 10 / 4/21
Correlational Research / Ch 11-12 / 4/28
Experimental Research / Ch 13 Draft # 2 due / 5/5
Sadistics , Post-analysis, and Draft#2 feedback / Ch 14-16 / 5/12
Final Exam Review
FINAL PROPOSAL DUE / 5/19
*** / COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM / Wed5/26 5:30-7:30pm***

Grading

POINTS

Participation.50*Note: Includes attendance and in-class activities.

Mid Term Test50

Final Exam50

Critique100

Proposal250**NOTE: Proposal Draft#1is 30 points, Draft#2 is 20 points, and the Final Version is worth 200

TOTAL POINTS500

1

GradeRange

A450+

B400-449

C350-399

D300-349

F<300

Grading Policy:Timely submission of all assignments is expected. Assignments turned in late will be graded based on half the allotted points!

1

ATTENDANCE: Attendance will be critical to your performance in this course. Not only will you lose points for absences, but more importantly you will miss what we cover during that class period.

COMPORTMENT: Please be courteous to your classmates and to me. During class time, please turn off your cell phones and beepers (or put them on vibrate if you are expecting an emergency call). It is NOT appropriate to answer calls during class time unless it is an emergency.

Responsibility taking: Once we have discussed the syllabus, it becomes your responsibility to know what the assignments are and when they are due. I will, of course, always answer any questions that you have, but “I didn’t know it was due today!” is not a valid excuse for turning work in late.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS: Any assignment not turned in on the day it is due will receive ONLY 50% of the original point value unless arrangements are made with me BEFORE THE DAY IT IS DUE.

Critique Explanation

This assignment is designed to help you read research literature critically. You will select a primary source that reports on empirical research. It is very important that you are clear on what a primary empirical source is. I strongly suggest bringing any article you are considering into class and letting me verify for you that it is a primary empirical source.Address the following questions in your 5 - 7 page report (use these questions as subheadings):

1.What was the objective/question/hypothesis?

2.How was the research designed to address the objective/question/hypothesis?

Here you will identify the following:

a.Subjects and sampling procedure

b.Variables examined

c.Measures used

d.Experimental treatment, if any

e.Statistical analysis, if any

3.What were the results?

4.What conclusions were drawn from the results?

5.Were the results and conclusions justified based on the objectives and methods used?

6.What problems did you find in the way the research was carried out?

7.How can you apply the findings in you own work?

NOTE: The word-processed document must conform to the APA style manual. This assignment should be submitted as a report and not as a question-answer assignment. A report in APA must have a title page, abstract, page header, reference list and appendixes (your appendix should be the full text of the article you are critiquing). You can find a visual sample of APA format on p.306 of the APA Publication Manual.

Proposal Explanation

This assignment is the major project for this course. It is designed to give you experience in operationalizing a research plan from the stage of identifying a research question to providing a detailed plan for collecting and analyzing data. Guidelines for the proposal are provided below. Remember, it is a proposal for an empirical study, not just library research and not a report on research that has already been conducted!

The submitted proposal must be word-processed according to the guidelines presented in the APA Manual of Style (5th. edition). The reference list, citations in the text, quotations, and titles of tables, figures and appendices, etc., etc. must conform to the format specified in APA. There must be a perfect match between citations in the text and the reference list.

You are expected to know how to write using proper English. Incorrect English in the formal proposal will affect your grade.

Plagiarism will result in a grade of F for the course.

ITEMS THAT MUST BE INCLUDED IN PROPOSAL: Refer to APA manual and my description of the draft assignments for more details

1. ABSTRACT OF PROPOSAL - 120 words or less

2. NARRATIVE - Must be 15-20 double-spaced pages from the beginning of the introduction to the end of the Anticipated Results and Implications sections. In the narrative be sure to address:

a. Introduction section includes a description of the problem, development of some background information and a clear problem statement.

Start broad; provide compelling evidence that your proposed research problem is worthy of researching and funnel your writing to focus on your research topic.

b. Literature Review section is a review of work done by others in the area addressed by your proposed research. This should have a similar organization as your intro section, but include much more detail. This section is the bulk of your narrative.

c. Methods and procedures to be used

This is a detailed section where you will address the following:

i. Participants - How many participants? How will they be selected? What are the general characteristics of the population from which they will be selected?

ii. Design - Identify your research design (Survey, experimental, quasi-experimental, ex post facto, pretest/posttest control group, factorial, etc.). Address the issue of threats to internal and external validity as they apply to your research design. Discuss how you plan to minimize these threats.

iii. Measures - Identify and describe the measures you plan to use for data collection. Address the issues of reliability and validity as they apply to your measures. Append complete versions of measures if possible or at least detailed descriptions and sample items from those measures, as well as any instructions, interview protocols, observations systems, etc.

iv. Procedures - Discuss your procedures for obtaining needed consent (Append copies of sample permission letters), procedures for data collection, etc. For experimental and quasi-experimental studies you will detail the experimental and control procedures.

v. Data analysis - Outline the statistical procedures you plan to use. These often include how you will calculate variables from the measures you give as well as any inferential statistics used to ascertain whether observed differences are statistically significant. Note that your data analysis procedures must be related to your research questions.

f. Anticipated results and implication: What do you think you will find and how will you interpret that in light of what you wrote in your introduction and literature review? Also, what will be the implications if the results turn out differently than expected?

3. References - Include all and only those references that have been cited in the narrative. Reference list must be in precise APA style.

ProposalDraft Explanations

I will review your drafts and make corrections / suggestions to you as feedback to help improve your final version of the research proposal.

Draft#1 Explanation

You must include a title page and an abstract (this should summarize the entire proposal in less than120 words… that's about 1 sentence for each major section) and don't forget you need a reference page because you will be citing lots of sources. EVERYTHING must be in APA format.

Introduction section of Draft#1

The first portion is a draft of an introduction section. You need to read the first chapter of the APA manual to help explain what is involved in an introduction section. Essentially, the introduction should introduce your topic, develop pertinent background information (without going into lots of detail on research studies), and present your problem statement. You should introduce some research (with citations), but you should save the nitty-gritty details of methodology for the literature review section. You can think of each section of the research proposal as building the foundation for the next. The intro. builds the foundation for the lit. rev. by telling the reader why your topic is important and interesting. You want to motivate them to want to read your lit. rev.

You should also think of the intro. section as being shaped like a funnel. A funnel starts out with a broad mouth and then slowly narrows down to a specific focus. The intro should be about 2-4 pages. You should start with a broad description of your topic and related areas. Then slowly narrow the focus down to your specific problem statement.

Perhaps a brief example will help make my point. You could start by discussing the use of technology in education, then discuss learning disabilities, then discuss technology designed to help those with learning disabilities and finally give your problem statement..."This study will determine the relative effectiveness of two types of technology assisted instruction with second grade students who have been diagnosed with attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder."

See the funnel? Once you establish this funnel type of organizational structure in the intro section, you should use the same basic organization for the lit rev. This makes it easier for the reader to follow your argument. I do not mean that you cannot change your mind on how to organize your sections. I mean that if you decide to make the change while working on your lit rev, then you will need to go back and make similar changes in your intro before turning in the final proposal at the end of the course.

Literature Review section of Draft#1

This is a draft of your literature review. It should be at least 10 pages. We read about a literature review section in ch 1 of the APA manual. Remember that your intro and lit rev should follow similar organizations to make it easier on the reader. Also, remember the funnel metaphor. Finally, be sure to describe both the method and results of studies you review, and show how they fit into your overall argument. Take a look at the kind of detail that is required for your Critique of a Primary Source assignment. You should be providing and critically reviewing that level of detail from the primary sources you include in your lit rev. Finally, you MUST have subheadings for your literature review to make your organization clear to the reader.

As I have read lit reviews in the past, I have found that many have identical needs for improvement. What follows are the most common errors. Read through these comments and then look over your draft before turning it in to determine whether they apply to you. Your final version should not have these problems. If you have more specific/individual questions about these drafts please don't hesitate to email me so I can help you figure it out. My comments for improvement include:

1)You need to make the organization of your literature review transparent for the reader. You should have subheadings that say what each section will cover (See APA manual p.111-115 for format) and you should start off the Lit Review with an introductory paragraph that explains each subsection, how one flows into the next, and what the point of the whole lit review is. You should also have transitional sentences at the end of each subsection explaining why the next section is the next logical topic to discuss.

2)You need to build a better foundation for your methods section (which comes directly after the lit rev section) by critically reviewing primary sources (similar to the critique assignment). If you critically review the methods, results and conclusions of empirical studies that have important similarities to the method you will be proposing, then your reader will understand that your study is an improvement on past research. You don't have to go into the kind of detail you do on the critique with every primary source, but you should go into that detail with at least two or three that are similar to the type of study you are going to propose in your methods section.

3)Don't rely too much on direct quotation. You should only use direct quotations if there is something particularly compelling about the author's specific words. When you do use direct quotation, you always have to give the page number where the quote is found like this (p.#). If it is an online source you may give the paragraph number instead if that is easier like this (para.#). Look over your direct quotes and ask yourself whether you could put them in your own words without losing anything particularly important to what you are trying to convey.

4)Read over my description of using citations in the text. You should always give a citation after saying something that is even partially based on one of your sources. That citation should include the author and the publication year. Also, be very careful that your reference list and the citations you use in the text match precisely. You shouldn't ever have citations that don't appear on the reference page (or vice versa) and the dates and order of authors must be consistent.

5)General Format: Review the levels of heading formats. No headings are ever in bold. Almost all of you will have either 2 or 3 levels of headings. Also, if you present lists of things (bulleted, numbered or lettered), then you have to follow the seriation format found on p.115-117 of the APA manual. Everything should be double-spaced, including your title page, references list and long format quotations.