This activity will be completed as a group project (or individually if
desired). Consult with
your group members to determine how best to proceed to execute this project.
Project Calendar
Below are due dates for different steps of the project. Submissions must be must
be in PDF format. If you don't have a way to save documents as PDF, use
one of the free services found here:
Creating PDFs Files. Submission instructions are posted below by due
dates.
Designate one
member of your group to submit project documents. This member should also
send the final copy to group members as well.
Spring 2018, February 10
Post first draft of instrument as a PDF in the Discussion Forum for this
class. I will create a separate Discussion Forum for this draft.
Also, identify by item number which construct each item was designed to
measure -- include this information in the text of your discussion post, do
not identify this information on your instrument.
Additional instructions:
Plan to have about 7 to 10 indicators per construct measured, so about 20 to 30
items in the questionnaire to measure main constructs assigned. This number does not include
descriptive/demographic or open-ended items.
In the message explain which variables (constructs) you are trying to measure
with your instrument (e.g., dissertation anxiety and dissertation
self-efficacy), and also explain which particular items are designed to measure
which particular constructs (e.g., items 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 measure anxiety and
items 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 measure self-efficacy). Draft instrument should be in layout
exactly as intended to be sent to study participants. I'll check format and
content of instrument. I'll provide feedback on instrument so revisions can be
made for later field testing. Make revisions as
needed as a result of my feedback.
Note that questionnaires should have a very brief introduction and instructions.
In the introduction, it is better not to tell readers exactly what you are
measuring (because this could create response bias), instead, describe study in
general terms. For example, if studying dissertation anxiety and self-efficacy,
I would not explain the instrument is designed to measure those two constructs,
instead, I would use this wording: This questionnaire is designed to help us
understand better how doctoral students think about the dissertation process.
Spring 2018, February 25
Submit your revised instrument to me as a PDF in the Activity 1 Dropbox.
In the text of your mail message identify by item number which construct
each item was designed to measure.
Additional instructions:
Shortly after receiving feedback from me on the revised instrument, field test revised instrument with 2 or 3 individuals who
closely match the proposed study participants. Ask these 2 or 3 individuals to complete the
instrument and provide feedback about ambiguous, poorly worded, and other
problematic items. Make further revisions to instrument as needed. At this point
you may be down to the 3 to 6 best structured-items (although more are allowed),
and you should have at least three well developed open-ended items (one for each
construct assigned).
Spring 2018, March 23 (or earlier)
Administer newly revised instrument to classmates in EDUR 9131. Best to do this electronically with Google Docs, Qualtronics,
or other similar on-line surveying options.
Send notice to classmates where they can find your questionnaire (web
address--link); everyone should complete responses to all questionnaires
within a week by so each group has time
to complete data analysis and write results.
After collecting responses to questionnaires, begin data
entry into SPSS and coding of open-ended responses.
Spring 2015, April 23
Final manuscripts of research project report due to me as a PDF
submitted in the Activity 1 Dropbox.
Detailed Instructions:
The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to the research process
and better prepare you for the dissertation experience. This project, in short,
will require to you design and execute a research study.
To complete this assignment, you will be required to submit a manuscript in
which you report the findings of your study. In total, the report will
probably range between eight and ten pages. Due date for the final submission is
listed above.
In the report include a title page, an introduction, literature review,
summary with
research questions/hypotheses, method, results, conclusion, reference list, and
a copy of a
well-developed instrument.
I will provide research topics that will include three variables. For example, you may be instructed
to study whether anxiety toward the dissertation
process can be predicted by one's self-efficacy toward the dissertation process
and one's self-assessed competence on research methods. To study the assigned
variables, you will be required to create an instrument that includes
both open-ended (e.g., free response questions) and structured items (e.g.,
responses to Likert scales). Three open-ended items are required, one to learn
something about each of the three variables assigned.. For example, one
open-ended item may focus on anxiety toward the dissertation process and could
be worded as follows:
"Which aspects of the dissertation process do you most fear or are most
concerned about? Please explain why you fear or are concerned about each aspect
you identify."
From the structured items you must be able to use
data collected to perform a regression analysis. In
addition, there must be a few background/demographic items on the instrument
(e.g., sex, race, and anything else that may be pertinent to your study). When
developing structured items, develop a minimum of 21 items. Of these, several
may be omitted after you perform various item analyses. The item analyses will
be another assignment for this class and will be explained later. The items you
develop should solicit responses on a Likert scale with five, six, or seven
steps (e.g., Very Poor, Poor, Adequate, Good, Very Good; Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Somewhat Agree, Agree, Strongly Agree).
For example, in measuring self-efficacy toward the dissertation process, you
may decide to use items such as these:
not at all
true of me
very true of me
1. I believe I will do
well on the dissertation.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
3. I am confident that I
can address even the hardest aspects of the dissertation process.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
9. I am sure that I will
be able to answer some of the more challenging or difficult questions
posed by the dissertation committee.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
You may also use other item formats (e.g., semantic differential), but obtain
permission from me before developing those items.
A sample instrument is provided below and also listed in the sample
manuscript for this project. Read the sample manuscript carefully to learn how I
present the introduction, literature review, research questions/hypotheses,
method (participants, materials, procedure), results, and
conclusion. Below are
more details on specific components of the manuscript.
For each construct measured you should also include an overall assessment item
for that construct. This is explained below immediate after presenting the 11
sample items below that measure dissertation process constructs.
1. Title Page
Provide a title, your name(s), and course identification (also add page
numbers starting with the next page).
2. Introductory section
In this section, the writer introduces the reader to the topic investigated
in the study and makes clear the importance of the topic. Usually the first few
paragraphs provide a brief background to the problem for the study, then this is
followed by a paragraph or two in which the purpose of the study is stated and
explained. In this last section the writer also explains who could benefit from
this study, and why this study is important. See sample
manuscript for an example of this section.
3. Literature review
With the literature review, you are to provide a brief overview of research
in the area you choose to investigate. Further, the way the literature is
presented should help the reader to understand the nature of your study—the
significance of your study and how your study differs from others. For this
assignment, the literature review should include about six to eight citations
and should be about two to three pages in length.
Although I have provided a rough number of citations to include as a guide,
ensuring that you have the appropriate number of citations is not the point of
this review; your review should clearly present the story of the research topic
for your project, should read well, and should be informative.
When writing the literature review, a summary section at the end is needed.
The summary serves as a transition statement or paragraph between the literature
review and the research questions/hypotheses for the study. After stating the
research questions or hypotheses, indicate in a few sentences or a paragraph how
this study differs from previous research on the topic—how your study makes a
contribution. For example, for a study of high school dropouts and minimum
competency testing, one may write the following:
"As noted above, both educators and educational researchers think
that minimum competency testing will result in more students dropping out of
school. In addition, academically at-risk students and racial minority students
are expected to be especially affected by poor performances on competency tests.
To empirically examine these issues, data were collected and analyzed in this
study to address the following questions about the relationship between
competency test performance and dropping out of high school: (a) Do students who
fail the minimum competency test show an increased likelihood of dropping out of
school? (b) Are students with lower achievement records more likely to leave
school if they fail the competency test than students with average and above
average achievement records? (c) Are Black and Hispanic students differentially
affected, in terms of dropping out, by failure on the competency relative to
White students? This study, unlike other published work on increased graduation
standards, provided an empirical analysis of the relationship between test
performance and dropping out of high school. In addition, this study extended
research by specifically examining minimum competency testing performance for
academically at-risk students and racial minority students, and their decisions
to leave school."
See sample
manuscript for the type of literature review I require for this project.
4. Method
The method section contains a number of subsections that are explained below.
Since you will be doing survey research, there only needs to be three sections
for the method: Participants, Instruments, and Procedures.
Participants
With this assignment you may only survey
students in this class (EDUR 9131). In this
section, you will describe participants (e.g., demographic characteristics,
field setting, etc.), and how you selected participants.
Instruments/Materials
You will be required to develop a questionnaire to administer to everyone in class. Details of what should be included in
the questionnaire are explained above. In this section of the report you
should explain what the instrument is designed to measure, the steps taken to
develop the instrument, and present evidence of validity and reliability for
scores obtained from the instrument. (You may wish to direct readers to
empirical evidence of validity that may be present in the results section of the
paper.) Also, discuss any pilot studies and the revisions that resulted from the
pilot studies.
Procedures
Explain the procedures you followed to collect data
for your study (when questsionnaires were distributed, procedures followed to collect
questionnaires, procedures used to contact those who failed to return
questonnaires, etc.).
See sample manuscript for the type of detail
required for each of these sections.
5. Results
In this section you will presents results of your study. Results
typically take the form of outcomes from statistical analysis or
qualitative/descriptive findings. You will have both in your study to report.
At a minimum, your analyses should a table of correlations among constructs,
regression analysis predicting one construct with the other two (or also
demographic variables), and a table and written description showing results of
the qualitative analysis of open-ended questions.
6. Conclusion/Discussion
Present, in this section, how your findings correspond with prior research or
theory. Point out directions for future research.
7. Reference/Appendix
Include a reference section and any appropriate appendices (e.g., copy of
your instrument).
As noted above, see sample manuscript for example results, conclusion, and
reference presentation.
Example Instrument for Research and Presentation Assignment
Below is a questionnaire that illustrates the type of instrument that should
be developed for this project. In this example only two constructs are measured: (a)
anxiety and (b) self-efficacy toward the dissertation process. For the first 10
items, the even items tap anxiety and the odd assess self-efficacy.
Instructions
The purpose of the questionnaire is to ascertain doctoral
students’ thoughts regarding the dissertation process. In the context of this
questionnaire, dissertation process means the entire
process students experience to construct and defend the dissertation. This
includes, for example, developing the research idea, developing and defending
the prospectus, collecting and analyzing data for the research, writing the
dissertation, and defending the dissertation before a committee.
The following 11 statements refer to the
dissertation process that you will soon experience. There are no right or wrong
answers, so please answer as accurately as possible. Use the scale below to
respond to each statement. If you think the statement is very true of you,
circle 7; if the statement is not at all true of you, circle 1. If the statement
is more or less true of you, find the number between 1 and 7 that best describes
you.
not at all
true of me
very true of me
1. I feel uneasy or
uncomfortable with the dissertation process as a whole.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2. I am confident that I
can address even the hardest aspects of the dissertation process.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
3. Thinking about the
upcoming dissertation process makes me feel anxious.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
4. The process of
writing and defending the dissertation may be difficult or hard, but I
think I will be successful anyway.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
5. I am worried about
how well I will do during the dissertation defense.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
6. I know that I have
learned the literature and theories that will be necessary to report in
the dissertation.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7. I feel my heart
beating faster as I start to think about the dissertation.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8. I am sure that I will
be able to answer some of the more challenging or difficult questions
posed by the dissertation committee.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
9. Thinking about the
consequences of failing some component of the dissertation process makes
me uptight.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
10. Overall I believe I will do well on the dissertation.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
11. When I think about the dissertation process as whole, I tend to get
anxious about it.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
(EDUR 9131 Students -- Note the two final
global or "overall"
questions (10 and 11). For each construct you wish to measure, you should
include one global item that can be used to assess how well the other items
correlate with this overall concept. The items above measure dissertation process
efficacy and dissertation process anxiety. Item 10 is a global assessment of
efficacy, and item 11 is an overall assessment of anxiety. As another example of
this concept, suppose you wish to construct a measure of marital happiness,
there may be a number items to measure this, but there should also be one to
assess the general happiness with marriage [e.g., In general I am happy with my
marriage]. As a second example, if one wished to measure test anxiety, one
possible overall assessment of this could be "I tend to feel anxious when I face
an important test.")
Open-Ended Responses
For items 12 and 13, please provide honest, thoughtful responses. If space
does not permit a full response, please continue your response on the back of
this paper.
12. With which aspects of the dissertation process do you most fear or are most
concerned about? Please explain why you fear or are concerned about each aspect
you identify.
(leave adequate space for responses here)
13. With which aspects of the dissertation process are you most comfortable with
or confident about? Please explain why you are comfortable or confident with
each aspect you identify.
(leave adequate space for responses here)
Demographics
14.
Sex
Female
15.
How many years has it been since you received
your last college degree?
0-1
Male
2-3
4-5
6-7
16.
Race
/ Ethnicity
Asian
8-9
Black/African-Amer.
10
or more
Hispanic
White
Other
(please identify in the space below)
Research Manuscript Points of
Evaluation
Below are points that one should consider when developing a research report. This
does not represent an exhaustive list, but does include common errors found in
student manuscripts.
Plagiarism.<---Very important; many students write by lifting
sentences here and there from others' work, and that is plagiarism. I will
spot check each submitted project to ensure that plagiarism does not exist.
If incidents of plagiarism exist, group projects will be penalized severely.
To
understand better plagiarism, review these sites:
Failure to provide appropriate sections (e.g., problem statement, research
question(s)/hypotheses, participants, etc.).
Lack of correspondence between hypotheses/research question(s) and methods
selected (e.g., hypothesis indicates comparison of two groups, methods
section suggests comparison of four groups).
Grammatical mistakes.
Poorly written or structured passages; lack of flow in manuscript (this
indicates sloppiness and lack of concern for craftsmanship; dissertation
committees dislike this type of behavior).
Lack of correspondence between the problem statement and
hypotheses/research question(s) (e.g., problem statement indicates an
investigation of A and B, hypotheses introduce new variables, like A, B, and
C).
Lack of correspondence between literature review and hypotheses/research
question(s) (e.g., literature review focuses upon A and B, hypotheses on C
and D; or, lit. review suggest that A will occur, but hypothesis states the
opposite will occur).
Lack of correspondence between problem statement and literature review
(e.g., problem statement indicates research will focus on A and B, but A and
B are not coveredor not covered wellin the lit. review).
Failure to specify how variables in research question(s)/hypotheses will
be measured (in methods section).
APA formatting errors.
Lack of correspondence between citations and reference list.
Weak or inappropriate coverage of methods section (i.e., participants,
etc.). For detailed comments on what should be included in each sub-section
of the method section, see the proposal requirements I provided you on the
second night of class.
Your research will make a valued contribution to the literature on the
topic. (I don’t evaluate this, but this will be something to consider when
developing your dissertation prospectus.)