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RESEARCH REPORT TEMPLATE—OPTION A
A Template for the Master of Education
Option A Research Report
Vince Aleccia
Eastern Washington University
Presented to the Department of Education
of Eastern Washington University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree
Master of Education
June 10, 2016
Contents
CHAPTER 1 1
Introduction 1
Significance of the Study 1
Statement of the Research Problem 2
Research Questions 3
Limitations of the Study 4
Definition of Terms 4
On the Importance of the Content Page(s) 5
A Note on Option A 6
Some Formatting Pointers 6
CHAPTER 2 7
Literature Review 7
Your First Level 2 Heading 8
This is a Level 3 heading 8
This is another Level 3 heading 8
Your Second Level 2 Heading 9
Your Third Level 2 Heading 9
Some Writing Strategies to Consider 10
Conclusion 12
CHAPTER 3 13
Project Design 13
Type of Design and Underlying Assumptions 13
Qualifications and Assumptions of the Researcher 14
Participants and Site 14
Concerning Level 3 headings 15
Description of site 15
Data Collection 16
Data Analysis 16
A Final Note 17
CHAPTER 4 18
Project Implementation and Analysis 18
Description of the Project 18
Changes Made 18
Data Collection 19
Data Analysis 20
Challenges Experienced 21
Final Information on Tables and Figures 21
CHAPTER 5 22
Conclusions and Reflections 22
What to Do Differently Next Time 22
Reflections on My Own Growth 23
A Note on References 23
Suggested Length of the Research Report 23
REFERENCES 24
APPENDICES 25
Appendix A—Letter to Parents 26
Appendix B—Student Survey 27
Tables
Table 1—NBCT Responses to “I perform work that suits my values” 20
Abstract
Immediately after the contents page (or list of tables and/or figures, if your research report requires them), you will insert an abstract. This is a passage of about 150 words that conveys what your research report addresses. In broad strokes, provide the reader with a summary of your study and your findings. You likely will reveal the type of research methodology (or methodologies) you used, whether qualitative, quantitative, or mixed. Use active voice, avoid technical jargon if at all possible, and be as parsimonious as possible with your words. Set the label centered 1 in. from the top of the page in bold. Be sure the text of your abstract is set double-space, like everything else in your research report. This is the last introductory component before you begin the first chapter. Because it appears before the text of your research report, the abstract is not listed on the contents page(s).
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RESEARCH REPORT TEMPLATE—OPTION A
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The first chapter of your Option A research report for the MEd program provides an overview and framework of the project for your reader. It should consist of six sections: (a) introduction, (b) significance of the study, (c) statement of the research problem, (d) research questions, (e) limitations of the study, and (f) definitions of terms. As with the other chapters of your research project, the first section, which serves as an introduction, does not have a Level 2 heading. Hence, it begins as this paragraph does: indented but otherwise unadorned. Be sure to paginate in the upper-right corner with a running head in the upper-left. (The first chapter will normally begin with “1” for the pagination; the introductory pages such as the title page, contents page, and pages containing lists of tables or figures will be paginated using lower-case Roman numerals [i, ii, iii, etc.].) You may wish to cite specific sources that you’ve encountered in your research that will convey the essence of the background of your research project. When you have provided the appropriate overview and background for the reader, you will then need to provide the reader with an advance organizer. A listing of the sections as given in the second sentence of this paragraph will suffice. Use APA seriation for elements within a paragraph for this listing as discussed on page 64 of the Publication Manual. Once you’ve given your reader a sufficient introduction, you’re ready to continue with the rest of your first chapter.
Significance of the Study
In this section, you should explain why this study is important. If, for example, you will focus on the importance of teaching study skills to incoming high school freshmen, you need to ask yourself questions about the importance of this topic. Have student scores on standardized assessments lagged in a particular area? Do students need remediation in notetaking or other study skills? Do students need additional structure in working productively in cooperative groups? How could your research study improve the situation or condition of students, teachers, or education in general? You may wish to cite specific studies that you encounter in your review of literature that address the significance of your research project. As Glatthorn and Joyner (2005) suggested,
a professionally significant study can contribute in one or more of these ways: test a theory, contribute to the development of theory, extend existing knowledge, change prevailing beliefs, suggest relationships between phenomena, extend a research methodology or instrument, or provide greater depth of knowledge about a previously studied phenomenon. (p. 114)
In essence, this section answers the imperative question “So what?” that is crucial to understanding the significance of your research study. If you’re clear about the answer to “So what?”, then you’ll have a better understanding of why you’re conducting your study and, just as importantly, so will your reader.
Statement of the Research Problem
Begin this section with a statement that starts “The purpose of this research project is to….” Because this statement encapsulates the essence of your research project, you should take great care in making it as complete as possible. As with the other sections of your first chapter, you may wish to cite specific sources that address some aspect of the purpose of your research project. An example of this is the long quote from Glatthorn and Joyner (2005) used in the previous section. Please note that with an indented long quote, quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quote should not be used. The indentation of the quote serves as the typographical indicator that the passage is a quotation.
Research Questions
This section of your first chapter provides the reader with the specific questions your research project will address. You will need a sentence or two that introduces your research questions such as “To determine the effectiveness of teaching study skills to ninth-grade students during their first quarter of high school, I will examine the following questions….” When you list your research questions, be sure to number them with Arabic numerals followed by a period. (See pages 63-64 of the Publication Manual for a rationale and more detailed explanation.) Here is an example of this format:
- What study skills do entering freshmen have?
- To what extent does training in study skills improve the academic grades of students who are exposed to this training?
- Do entering freshmen who are not given training in study skills perform better than, as well as, or less well than students who are exposed to this training?
The scope and sequence of these questions are crucial as they form the major focus of your research project. Be sure they’re in the most logical order. This is also important because your research questions will almost certainly be tied to the sections of your literature review in the second chapter. Also, be thinking about what type or types of data you will use to answer the questions. Creating research questions without thinking about the data sources to use in answering them is one of the most common mistakes beginning researchers make. In addition, you will examine how you answered these questions in your final chapter of your research study. Thus, they serve as structural bookends that mark the focus and results of your research project in the first and last chapters. When you have finished listing your research questions, you’re ready to move on to the next section in your first chapter.
Limitations of the Study
This section should make clear exactly what your research project will address as well as what it won’t. If, for example, your research project will examine the impact of study skills on entering freshman students at a high school, then be sure to indicate that you will not look at the impact of study skills on other students in the school. If your research project will examine only two sections of students in an experimental-control group structure, be sure to indicate that the research project will not affect all freshman students. Other limitations may include factors that you have no direct control over such as a budget cut in the middle of the year that affects the planned outcome of your research project. It’s imperative that your reader knows exactly what you plan to address in your study and what you plan to leave out. As with so much else in life, accurate framing of what your study will and will not address is crucial.
Definition of Terms
One of the most important hallmarks of academic writing—or any writing for that matter—is precision. You may well use terms that you encounter in your review of the literature that are employed in specific ways in your research project. Thus, for the sake of clarity, be sure to define these terms precisely for your reader. After your Level 2 heading, and before you list your terms, be sure to indicate why you’re operationalizing these terms. For example, “It’s essential that the reader knows exactly what is meant by some specialized terms that appear in this research report. To give the reader that information, a list of terms follows with their specific definitions as they apply to this study.” When you define a term, please begin with a paragraph indentation and then list the term in boldface followed by a colon. End each definition with a period. If you are using a term as defined by a researcher, be sure to cite the source at the end of your definition. Please follow this formatting precisely, and be sure to list your terms in alphabetical order. Here are three examples for you:
National Board Certified Teacher: an accomplished teacher who has demonstrated professional mastery through certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Such a teacher is referred to as an NBCT. National Board certified teachers receive certification in a specific subject are (for example, mathematics or art) and at a specific development level (for example, Early Adolescence [EA] or Adolescence and Young Adulthood [AYA]).
Professional Development School: a school, usually an elementary school, with ties to a college or university teacher-training program that serves as a laboratory for training teachers and, often, teacher leaders.
Role Conflict: the incompatibility or incongruency a teacher leader experiences in performing professional duties—especially as they pertain to tension between (a) the teacher leader’s internal standards or values and the defined role behavior; (b) the time or resources and the defined role behavior; (c) several roles the teacher leader must assume and the accompanying changes in behavior each role requires; and (d) institutional demands and requests from others, including co-workers and supervisors (Rizzo, House, & Lirtzman, 1970).
On the Importance of the Contents Page(s)
The contents page or pages of your research report are more than simply a list of the chapters and sections of your report. They serve as an integral structural device that provides the organizing principle for the entire report. In essence, a well-structured contents page or pages also doubles as an outline. The reader can readily consult it to determine the hierarchical relationships between Level 2 headings within a chapter as well as any Level 3 headings (or, if necessary, Level 4 headings) and their relationship with the appropriate Level heading which they support. Please be sure your contents page or pages serve this purpose. Carefully check that the Level 2 headings and Level 3 headings are organized correctly. Please ensure that you format your headings correctly. (See pages 62-63 of the Publication Manual for more information.)
A Note on Option A
This option of the MEd research report should focus on a product such as a curriculum unit or other independent variable that can make a difference for students and your institution—whether classroom, school, or district. It should be a topic that you are passionate about. You will, of course, spend a good deal of time on the research and writing of the report as well as designing the project, collecting the data, and analyzing them. Therefore, choose your project carefully as you will be living with it for a year (or more).
Some Formatting Pointers
When you set up your formatting defaults, be sure you have no additional space inserted when you hit the Return key. To check this, first click on the Paragraph pull-down menu. Then under Spacing be sure that both Before and After are set at 0 pt. Line spacing should also be set as Double. If you make these settings your default, you’ll never have to worry about this while you’re writing your research report. In addition, remember that APA style requires the use of the Oxford comma in a list. Be sure, moreover, that your double quotation marks are “smart quotes” (“x”) instead of inch markers ("x") and that your single quotation marks or apostrophes are also true single quotation markers or apostrophes (‘x’) instead of foot markers ('x'). These details will enhance the professional appearance of your finished research report.
CHAPTER 2
Literature Review
The second chapter of your Option A research report for the MEd program encompasses a synthesis of the pertinent research literature that you have examined. It should consist of several sections including the following: (a) an introduction, (b) several segments of the literature review, and (c) a set of conclusions. The number of segments of the literature review itself will depend on the number of research questions you have for your research project. Ideally, each research question should be correlated to one of the sections of the literature review itself. For example, if your research project focuses on study skills of incoming high school freshmen—the example used in the sample first chapter—then your sections of the literature review should be aligned with your research questions. If your first research question deals with the study skills preparation that incoming freshmen have, then the appropriately related section of the literature review should be devoted to studies that address this topic and be labeled with a fitting Level 2 heading such as Study-Skills Preparation of Incoming Freshmen (set, of course, in boldface flush left).