EDUR 9131
Doctoral Research Methods

Note:

single measure for overall construct measure
- place in clendar
- place in instructions for gropu progject
- place in notes

reversed score = (minimum score) + (maximum score) – actual score    souorce:  www.theanalysisfactor.com/easy-reverse-code

 

 

Summer 2012

Instructor/Facilitator: Bryan W. Griffin
My personal web pages can be found at http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/ 


Announcements:  

Activity 1 due date extended to June 21.


Course Index (check frequently for alterations)

A. Course Administration

  1. Syllabus 
  2. Course Calendar (listed below)

B. Activities that count toward course grade

  1. Test 1 -- due date to be assigned; expect Test 1 after about chat 2 (summer 2012).
  2. Test 2 -- will be made available after the final class session, responses are due June 20 June 21.
  3. Activity 1: Research Project -- This is a group activity and will be due as a PDF attachment by 9:00pm on June 18 June 21; see timeline and instructions on the linked page. An example of a completed research project can be viewed here: sample research project manuscript. A sample questionnaire that can be used as a guide can be found here: dissertation_process_questionnaire_example. You can use this sample to get an idea of how the proposal should appear minus the results and conclusion section.
  4. Research Group Topics for Activity 1

Andy Field, of the University of Sussex, has students complete a similar project. He provides useful insight into the steps one must take to develop a questionnaire so I recommend you review his project instructions: Design a Questionnaire

C. Activities that do not count toward course grade

  1. Activity 2 (Individual, non-graded) Instrument Construction Steps (due 5/27)
  2. Activity 3 (Individual, non-graded) Internal Consistency (post responses to GeorgiaView EDUR 9131 Discussion Forum; note to instructor -- use data with reversed items)
  3. Activity 4 (Individual, non-graded) Sample Size Calculations (complete activity shortly after chat 4 chat 2 or 3 summer 2012 [completion of sample size discussion]; consider GPower)
  4. Activity 5 (Individual, non-graded) Coding Open-ended Responses (due date to be added). 
  5. Note to instructor -- Others to consider (e.g., factor analysis, regression, reading statistical tables, reverse scoring and composite scores, effect sizes, reliability)

D. Course Notes and Assigned Readings

1. Review of Educational Research (linked readings below were taken from EDUR 7130, Introduction to Educational Research)

2. Review of Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics

3. Questionnaire Development

4. Reliability

(a) Read: de Vaus chapter 11; pp 52-53; pp. 180-186; review "Scaling Checklist" p. 195; William Gabrenya's Reliability

(b) Stability with test-retest  (scores must be correlated, and means should be similar; correlation and correlated samples t-test)

(c) Equivalent forms, brief overview

(d) Internal Consistency with Cronbach's alpha

(e) Scorer-rater; inter-judge agreement -- Discussed below with coding open-ended responses

5. Sample Size Determination

(a) Read: de Vaus chapter 6; and Cohen 1992

(b) Excel spreadsheet to calculate sample size or power, or to convert among effect size measures: http://www.bwgriffin.com/samplesize

(c) Yes/No Items (categorical variable status; use for Chi-square type analyses)

To find sample sizes for studies involving simple proportions, such as responses to Yes/No type questions (assumes binomial distribution)

(d) Effect Size d

(e) Group Comparisons

To find sample sizes for group comparisons (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA type analyses)

(f) Correlation

Sample sizes for Pearson's correlations

(g) Regression -- presented below after coverage of regression

(h) Other software or websites for sample size calculations

6. Coding open-ended questionnaire responses (conceptual analysis discussed here; see link below by Palmquist 2008 for relational analysis example).

(a) Read: de Vaus chapter 9, and the following works by Le Compte, Palmquist, Glenn, and Tobacco Control:

(b) Codebooks/Codesheets

(c) Reliability -- inter-rater and intra-rater agreement

7. Validity -- Providing Evidence

(a) Read: de Vaus chapter 4

(b) Summary notes: http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/Validity_According_to_Standards.pdf

(c) Read the following articles:

(d) Illustrative Examples of Validity Evidence -- for each, in what ways is validity evidenced?

8. Factor Analysis

(a) Read:

(b) Notes on Conducting Factor Analysis

(c) Reporting Factor Analysis

 

E. SPSS Tutorials (obtained from various on-line sources: Dr. McKnight at U. Oklahoma,  Dr. Elvers at U. of Dayton, Guang-Hwa Change at Youngstown State U.)

  1. Entering data into SPSS (variable labels, value labels, setting variable as numeric, etc.)
            Data Entry A, Data Entry B
  2. Frequencies/Explore Commands (including descriptive statistics, box plots, histograms, stem-and-leaf, etc.)
            Frequencies A, Frequencies B, Stem and Leaf, Various Graphical Displays
  3. t-tests (one sample, independent sample, and correlated samples)
            t-tests, independent samples t-tests
  4. Correlation 
            Correlation A, Correlation B, For scatter plots see Various Graphical Displays above
  5. Regression 
            Regression A, Regression B
  6. ANOVA
            ANOVA A (using ONEWAY command), ANOVA B (using ONEWAY command), ANOVA C (using UNIVARIATE command)
  7. ANCOVA
            ANCOVA A

F. PDF File Creation

Since groups will be required to submit this project, I will only accept PDF attachments from one individual in each group. See detailed instructions on this in the Research Project link above. If you do not know how to create a PDF file, use one of the following sources:

Here are a few free web page that convert files to PDF over the internet: 

I use the following free software to create my PDF files (it leaves no watermark): http://www.primopdf.com/ 

I also use OpenOffice to create some free PDF files. Open Office is a free Office Suite similar to Microsoft Office (Open Office leaves no watermark): http://www.openoffice.org/ 

If you want further tips and links for converting to free PDFs, read this site http://www.pruittfamily.com/paul/freepdf.htm or this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software .

G. Reporting Statistical Outcomes

APA style for t-test, correlation, regression, ANOVA, chi-square:  Reporting Statistics (Word document with sample APA styled tables and written presentations).

Add factor analysis.

 

Course Calendar (tentative plan of course coverage)
Session Date Topic

1

5/21

1. Syllabus

2. Research Project -- Review Activity 1 Assignment

3. Questionnaire Development 

  • Note Activity 2
  • Questionnaire Development Model
  • Content Validity (with Anxiety example)

4. Literature Searches -- brief review using Google Scholar and GALILEO (search for reading interest measure; also add literature review writing, list vs. integration, early vs. late citations, transitions).

5. Review of basics of educational research

6. Review of Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics

7. SPSS Introduction 

 

 

5/27

1. Activity 2 Assignment due
2. Check here for possible assigned activities, readings, or videos

Possible videos will be posted for viewing

 

2

5/28

1. Discuss Activity 2 : Instrument Construction Steps
2. In-class Questionnaire for Example Analysis: http://tinyurl.com/5wcuv3n (private link to raw data here: http://tinyurl.com/4wb6unu )

2. Questions on Activity 1 -- Brief review of questionnaire item wording and development; guidelines to questionnaire construction (practical tips)

3. Review of independent and correlated samples t-test (read: de Vaus chapter 15)

4. Review of Pearson's Correlation (read: de Vaus chapter 14)

5. Reliability

(Spring 2011 -- covered briefly tips on questionnaire construction, independent samples t-test, correlation, Cronbach's alpha)

 

 

5/31

1. First draft questionnaire you plan to use for the Activity 1 is due

  • Post your group's questionnaire on discussion forum.
  • Student feedback on posted questionnaires due 6/1
  •  Instructor will provide feedback by 6/2

Possible video of Sample Size Determination posted by 6/1 (see de Vaus chapter 6; Cohen 1992)

 

3

6/4

1. Note to students: Send revised group research project questionnaire to instructor for final review.

2. Work through internal consistency exercise: http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/cronbachs_alpha_exercise_data.sav

3. Correlated samples t-test (read: de Vaus chapter 15)

  • This material was presented earlier in session 2 above. See information linked above for lecture notes and supplemental reading.

4. Reliability: Test-retest

  • See material presented in session 3 above.

5. Coding open-ended questionnaire responses (conceptual analysis discussed here; see Palmquist 2008 for relational analysis example). Read de Vaus chapter 9, and the following works by Le Compte, Palmquist, Glenn, and Tobacco Control:

6. Begin Regression, see de Vaus' text pp 280-288

Other readings from my course notes in EDUR 8131 (introductory statistics):

SPSS Regression Videos

(Spring 2011: Covered all above except correlated t-test, started simple regression)

 

6

2/28

1. Resume Regression

2.  Review sample size determination for regression; see Cohen 1992

3. Validity -- Providing Evidence (read de Vaus chapter 4)

4. Factor Analysis (read de Vaus chapter 11)

(Spring 2011: through regression sample size )

 

7 3/7

1. Resume material from chat session 6

2. Illustrate group project analysis steps from data collection to final regression analysis

Note to instructor:

 

 

 

 

 

 


Note: The material indented with grey background are comments for instructor about content to review for possible incorporation into course. Students should ignore this information.

Assessing reliability and validity of single item measures:

Validity Standards: Validity evidence (Standards Validity Evidence), and these standards (note also steps for questionnaire development): http://nces.ed.gov/StatProg/2002/std2_6.asp

National standards on validity discussion, useful table: http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/validity_new_standards_11539590.pdf

Link between Research Questions and Methods -- (Note to instructor: develop examples; consider design issues)

Add links to on-line statistical programs, e.g., 

Reading Research Reports --- t-tests and ANOVA

Note -- Links to possible Reading Research report tables

  1. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur7130/RR_JER_rating_and_learning.pdf

  2. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur7130/RR_backgroundmusic.pdf

  3. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/instrument_construction_Ragheb_Beard.pdf

  4. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/instrument_construction_Conley_Goldman.pdf

  5. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/Menon_ST_2001_employee_empowerment_Applied_Psychology.pdf

  6. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/infantmentalhealthjournal.pdf

  7. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/infantandchilddeveopment.pdf

  8. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/journalofchildneurology.pdf

  9. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/journalofsocialpsychology.pdf

  10. http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/foundations/bwgriffin/edur9131/ceprittschofgriffin.pdf

 


Copyright © 2005, Bryan W. Griffin

Last revised on 18 January, 2018 02:44 PM