EDUR 9131
Doctoral Research Methods

Spring 2011

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

Announcements:  

Course Index (check frequently for alterations)

A. Course Administration

1. Syllabus 
2. Course Calendar (listed below)
3. Research Group Topics

B. Activities that count toward course grade

1. Test 1 -- due date to be assigned; expect Test 1 after about session 3 or 4.
2. Test 2 -- will be made available after the final class session (date to be added).
3. Activity 1: Research Project -- This is a group activity and will be due as a PDF attachment by 9:00pm on March 9 (3/9); 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.

Andy Field, of the University of Sussex, has students complete a similar project. His instructions provide useful insight into the steps one must take to develop a questionnaire. I recommend you review his project instructions to see steps that must be taken to develop an instrument:

Design a Questionnaire

C. Activities that do not count toward course grade

1. Activity 2 (Individual, non-graded) Instrument Construction Steps (due for session 1)
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 [completion of sample size discussion]; consider GPower)
4. Activity 5 (Individual, non-graded) Coding Open-ended Responses (due date to be added). 
   •  Data for coding: open_ended_coding_data_doctoral_program_assessment.pdf 
5. Note -- Others to consider (e.g., factor analysis, regression, reading statistical tables, reverse scoring and composite scores, effect sizes, reliability)

D. Course Notes

1. Review of basics (taken from EDUR 7130, Introduction to Educational Research); only a few of these will be highlighted in the chat session

   • Read: For review of basics of research, see de Vaus text chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13 (section on levels of measurement), 14 (section on graphs), and 15 (sections on t-test and correlation)

1. Overview of Research/Scientific Method (general overview of research can be found here: Reader's Guide )
2. Format of a Research Paper
3. Variables and Scales of Measurement (practice exercise)
4. Purpose Statements (sometimes call Problem Statements)
5. Literature Review (on-line searches; common writing errors -- lists vs. integration, citations early vs. late, use of transitions)
6. Hypotheses (practice exercise)
7. Research Questions
8. Sampling (practice exercises)
9. Descriptive Statistics and Graphical Displays (correlation coefficients and scatterplots) (practice exercise for displaying data) 
10. Overview of Inferential Statistics (practice exercise) (integrate "Reading of Statistical Tables" from PDF links below
11. Measurement: Instrument/Test Reliability
12. Measurement: Instrument/Test Validity (practice exercise)
13. Quantitative Research Matrix  (practice exercise)

For the de Vaus text, read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13 (section on levels of measurement), 14 (section on graphs), and 15 (sections on t-test and correlation) to cover the material listed above.

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: 

• http://convert.neevia.com/  
• http://www.gohtm.com/ 
• http://www.pdfonline.com/ 

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.

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:

• single_item_reliability_validity_bjsm.2009.068395.full.pdf
• http://www.psych-it.com.au/Psychlopedia/article.asp?id=97

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)

Course Calendar (NOTE -- calendar under revisions, do not look beyond Session 1)

Session	Date	Topic
1	1/24	1. Syllabus 2. Research Project 3. Review of basics of educational research Reading assignments can be found in the links above for the supplemental Gall, Gall, and Borg text. For the de Vaus text, read chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13 (section on levels of measurement), 14 (section on graphs), and 15 (sections on t-test and correlation) to cover the material listed above. 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. Questionnaire Development -- Discussion of Activity 2: Instrument Construction Steps (read: de Vaus chapters 4, 7, 8, 11; Menon 2001; Ragheb & Beard 1982; Holmbeck & Devine 2009) Questionnaire Development Model Content Validity (with Anxiety example) 6. SPSS Introduction (Spring 2011 -- partially completed Questionnaire Development Activity 2 discussion; limited review of basics to variables, hypotheses, LR)
2	1/31	1. Review Activity 1 Assignment 2. Questionnaire Development continued (read: de Vaus chapters 4, 7, 8, 11; Menon 2001; Ragheb & Beard 1982; Holmbeck & Devine 2009) Table listing various approaches to questionnaire and score validation procedures:  Floyd, Phaneuf, & Wilczynski 2005 Content Validity: Item Pool Selection via Factor Analysis results (examples: Menon 2001; Ragheb & Beard 1982; Cheng 2004 [messy results]) Reliability Overview (brief review of concepts: William Gabrenya's Reliability) Structured Responses: test-retest (e.g., Kush & Watkins 1996) Structured Responses: internal consistency (e.g., Menon 2001; Ragheb & Beard 1982) Unstructured Responses: inter-rater agreement (e.g., Floyd, Phaneuf, & Wilczynski 2005) Construct Validity Overview (seeking anticipated/hypothesized patterns among structured response scores from instruments) McKenna & Kear 1990 p. 15 of PDF (predicted behavior with other variables, factor analysis?) Ragheb & Beard 1982 (correlation with similar measures; factor analysis) Menon 2001 (various) Examples of how to report questionnaire development results in journal publications: Publication focus is primarily on questionnaire development: Menon 2001 Ragheb & Beard 1982 Publication focus is primarily on other research but questionnaire development briefly discussed: McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth 1995 p. 943+ Pintrchi & De Groot 1990 p. 34+ Kush & Watkins 1996 p. 316 (last paragraph in Instrument section) 3. Review of Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics (read: de Vaus chapter 13; Descriptive Statistics and Graphical Displays; Inferential Statistics) Data entry in SPSS (collect data via Google documents) Descriptive Statistics in SPSS (brief review of concepts: William Gabrenya's Descriptive Statistics) p-values and hypothesis testing (logic, reading SPSS results, reading statistical tables) Logic of Hypothesis testing, probabilistic nature of hypothesis testing -- p-values (read: logic of hypothesis testing) Supplemental review: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/gerstman/StatPrimer/Hyp-test.PDF Supplemental review: William Gabrenya's Hypotheses and Inferential Statistics Overview) Types of Errors (see table of errors here: logic of hypothesis testing) Coin Flip: obtained p vs. alpha Reported results in literature example:  Hallam, Price, & Katsarou 2006, see Tables 1 and II, p. 115 (lacks *p<.05, t value) Scahill et al. 2001, see Table 1, p. 653 (Spring 2011 -- completed through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Resume chat 3 with t-test review.)
3	2/7	1. 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) Does item seem to belong; does it offer something unique; is it clearly worded, ambiguous, or confusing; does it require one to reverse response options de Vaus chapter 7, "Wording Questions" section has 17 points to consider Hale 2010 (appendix on constructing measures; note list of things to consider) Questionnaire Design (accessed 2011) Hints for Designing Effective Questionnaires (Frary 1996) Note Frary's recommendation against open-ended items; consider one's targeted population for a questionnaire when deciding whether open-ended items will elicit valuable information. The more educated, the better open-ended items may function For less educated populations, interviews may work well when structured items are inappropriate. A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development (Frary 2002) See comment above about Frary's recommendation against open-ended items. Guidelines for Constructing a Survey (Passmore et al. 2002) List of Step Descriptions for Five-point Likert Responses 3. Review of independent and correlated samples t-test (read: de Vaus chapter 15) Course notes from EDUR 8131 "Introductory Statistics": Notes 5 t-tests SPSS Example (see linked tutorial in Course Index; also William Gabrenya's t-test in SPSS) Reporting t-test results in APA Style: Reporting Statistics Example results: Hallam, Price, & Katsarou 2006, see Tables 1 and II, p. 115 (lacks *p<.05, t value) Goodman, Hans, & Bernstein 2005, see Table 1, p. 555 Practice Exercise: One and Two Samples t-test (answers) -- Note, address only exercise items 1 and 4; items 2 and 3 are one-sample t-test. Practice Exercise: Correlated Samples t-test (answers) Effect size d: Thalheimer & Cook 2002  Becker 2000 (see also Notes 5 t-tests  pp. 12-13) Interpretation of d Cohen's recommended effect sizes pooled vs. control group sd for calculation of d 4. Review of Pearson's Correlation (read: de Vaus chapter 14) Course notes from EDUR 8131 "Introductory Statistics": Notes 6 Correlation SPSS Example (see linked tutorial in Course Index; also William Gabrenya's correlation in SPSS) Reporting t-test results in APA Style: Reporting Statistics Example results: Danielidou & Horvath 2006, see Table 2 p. 416 Pintrchi & De Groot 1990 (motivated learning strategies) Menon 2001 Bryson 1974 (student ratings correlated with achievement) Practice Exercise: Correlation (answers) 5. Reliability (de Vaus chapter 11; pp 52-53; pp. 180-186; review "Scaling Checklist" p. 195; William Gabrenya's Reliability) (a) Stability with test-retest  (scores must be correlated, and means should be similar; correlation and correlated samples t-test) Example: Kush & Watkins 1996 Example: Sapountzi-Krepia 2005 (nice discussion of correlation limitation, alternatives) Example: to be added -- single_item_reliability_validity_bjsm.2009.068395.full.pdf  http://www.psych-it.com.au/Psychlopedia/article.asp?id=97 Discussion of test-retest method: http://www.sportsci.org/resource/stats/precision.html Notes: appropriate items, how performed; single item score [e.g. income] vs. composite scores [construct]; scores must be linked (b) Equivalent forms, brief overview (c) Internal Consistency with Cronbach's alpha Logic of Internal Consistency Example with class data:  http://tinyurl.com/5wcuv3n (private link to raw data here: http://tinyurl.com/4wb6unu ) SPSS analysis of Example Data Reverse Scoring Items and Forming Composite Scores Discussion of item analysis in SPSS with Cronbach's alpha: Gliem & Gliem 2003 Cronbach's alpha in SPSS notes: Cronbach's alpha Second Example: Students perform internal consistency analysis with these data: Leisure Activities or Alternative Tiny Link (raw data, private access) Spring 2011 results (SPSS file) (d) Scorer-rater; inter-judge agreement -- See discussion below with coding open-ended responses (Spring 2011 -- covered briefly tips on questionnaire construction, independent samples t-test, correlation, Cronbach's alpha)
4	2/14	1. First draft questionnaire you plan to use for the Research Study is due (fall 09, took about 2.5 hours to review 4 questionnaires). Send draft questionnaire to me as PDF before start of chat. . We will review each questionnaire in class during chat. 2. Sample size determination  (de Vaus chapter 6; Cohen 1992) Excel spreadsheet to calculate sample size or power, or to convert among effect size measures: http://www.bwgriffin.com/samplesize (a) 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) sample_size_proportion.xls (Excel [or OpenOffice] file download) D. A. de Vaus (2004). Surveys in social research (5th ed.). Routledge press. See Tables and pages 80 through 83.     http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html  (b) Effect Size d Effect size d: Thalheimer & Cook 2002  Becker 2000 (see also Notes 5 t-tests  pp. 12-13) Calculation and Interpretation of d pooled vs. control group sd for calculation of d Distributional overlap illustration: http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v10n3/aberson/power_applet.html (Article discussing above applet: http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v10n3/aberson.html ) http://www.bolderstats.com/jmsl/doc/CohenD.html Cohen's recommended effect sizes (refer to Cohen's article linked above) Effect size conversions: content\sample_size_effect_size_conversion.xls (c) Group Comparisons To find sample sizes for group comparisons (e.g., t-tests, ANOVA type analyses) sample_size_in_ANOVA_Maxwell_Delaney.pdf (per group) Cohen 1992 Table 2 (per group) (d) Correlation Sample sizes for Pearson's correlations sample_size_correlation.xls (Excel [or OpenOffice] file download) (Source for formula used in above Excel file: Dell, Holleran, & Ramakrishnan 2002) An on-line calculator for sample size for correlation can be found here: http://www.biomath.info/power/corr.htm (f) Regression -- presented below after coverage of regression (g) G Power -- free software for sample size determination Free sample size software: http://www.psycho.uni-duesseldorf.de/abteilungen/aap/gpower3/   Also downloadable from course web site (9.7MB): content\GPower3Windows.zip (h)  On-line sample size calculators: http://stat.ubc.ca/~rollin/stats/ssize/index.html http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/Business-stat/otherapplets/SampleSize.htm http://www.biomath.info/power/index.htm (Spring 2011: Reviewed questionnaires, covered samples size for yes/no, group comparisons, correlations)
5	2/21	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: Le Compte 2000 Analyzing Qualitative Data. Theory into Practice, 39, 146-154 Palmquist 2008 Content Analysis Glenn 2007 Analyzing Open-ended Questions (blog or discussion board post of simple steps to follow) Tobacco Control Evaluation (no date) Content Analysis: A Method for Analyzing Qualitative Data  Stemler  2001 An Overview of Content Analysis (brief discussion of rater reliability) Codebooks/Codesheets Development: http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/readings/content_analysis_codebook.pdf Samples: http://academic.csuohio.edu/kneuendorf/content/hcoding/hcindex.htm Sample Questionnaire and Coding Sheet: Sample questionnaire: sample_survey_open_ended_authorship.pdf Sample code sheet:  sample_code_sheet_open_ended_authorship.pdf Coded response #420: open_ended_coding_example_420.pdf  Coded response #1140: open_ended_coding_example_1140.pdf  Published version of questionnaire and results presented above: Moore & Griffin 2006  Supplemental reading of other relevant to data analysis of written responses: General guides to content analysis http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/readings/content_analysis_tobacco.pdf http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/readings/content_analysis_acell.pdf http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/readings/content_analysis_analyzingqualdata.pdf (within framework of qual. analysis) http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/PASS_coding_data.pdf Reliability -- inter-rater and intra-rater agreement Rating Scales are Categorical/Nominal (angry, fearful, contempt, disgust) or Few Ranked Categories (poor, good, very good) Notes on Inter-rater Agreement with Categorical Data Percentage Agreement Simple count of agreement/disagreement with percentage agreement calculated for two raters Mean level of agreement if more than two raters Kappa: Useful for two raters with unordered rating scale or few ordered options Discussion: Viera & Garrett 2005  Example of kappa use: Uiters et al 2006, see page 4 and table SPSS -- see Inter-rater Agreement with Categorical Data Requires symmetrical scores -- all scores must be present for each rater (Rater A uses 1 to 5, Rater B uses 1 to 4, no kappa) Likely not useful if number of categories is large (many themes to coding responses, good for overall judgments [excellent, pass, fail]) SPSS notes  http://www.stattutorials.com/SPSS/TUTORIAL-SPSS-Interrater-Reliability-Kappa.htm  http://www.uccs.edu/~faculty/lbecker/SPSS/ctabk.htm  http://www.sma.org.sg/smj/4412/4412bs1.pdf -- page 617 (problem, all categories must be present for both raters): http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/spss/faq/kappa.htm (can 3+ raters be used?) Supplemental reading on kappa: http://www.childrens-mercy.org/stats/definitions/kappa.htm Kappa for more than two raters See Inter-rater Agreement with Categorical Data Note to instructor: http://www.ccitonline.org/jking/homepage/interrater.html (Excel files for Fleiss kappa; large excel may be problematic) Rating Scales are Ordinal with Several Steps, or Interval/Ratio Scale Notes on Inter-rater Agreement with Ranked/Interval Data Two Raters Correlation between pairs of scores Check for mean differences/similarities More than Two Raters Intra-class Correlation (check description of single vs. multiple judge intra-class correlation estimates from SPSS - definition) Cronbach's alpha Note to instructor: http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/interrater_agreement_vs_reliability.pdf add this discussion to Inter-rater Agreement notes. Instructor note (students may ignore): Spearman rho; Kendall’s coefficient concordance (W) -- mean of all Spearman rho among raters; Cronbach's alpha among raters (yes)? Supplemental notes http://tinyurl.com/47ens9j See Liao Hunt Chen 2010 Comparison between inter-rater reliability and inter-rater agreement in performance assessments. Annals of Academy of Medicine 6. Begin Regression, see de Vaus' text pp 280-288 Other readings from my course notes in EDUR 8131 (introductory statistics): Notes 8a Simple Regression Notes 8b Multiple Regression SPSS Regression Videos http://distdell4.ad.stat.tamu.edu/spss_1/SimpleLinearReg.html http://distdell4.ad.stat.tamu.edu/spss_1/MultipleLinearReg.html (Spring 2011: Covered all above except correlated t-test, started simple regression)
6	2/28	1. Resume Regression See reading material linked above in chat session 5. Correlation does not imply causation (good read explaining necessity of "multiple," or partialed regression) Examples data with unexpected results for multiple regression: Partial Correlation/Partialed Data 2.  Review sample size determination for regression; see Cohen 1992 Excel spreadsheet for regression sample size: http://www.bwgriffin.com/samplesize Web page for regression sample size: http://www.danielsoper.com/statcalc/calc01.aspx Note also GPower software -- linked provide in earlier chat session on sample size 3. Validity -- Providing Evidence (read de Vaus chapter 4) Summary notes: http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131/content/Validity_According_to_Standards.pdf Read the following articles: Floyd et al 2005 -- review article and note particularly Table 1; in what ways can evidence for validity be provided? Goodwin & Leech 2003 -- read article and study Table 1 (2 MB file, may be slow download) Illustrative Examples of Validity Evidence -- for each, in what ways is validity evidenced? Ragheb & Beard 1982 Menon 2001 McKenna & Kear 1990 p. 15 of PDF McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth 1995 p. 943+ Pintrchi & De Groot 1990 p. 34+ Kush & Watkins 1996 p. 316 (last paragraph in Instrument section) 4. Factor Analysis (read de Vaus chapter 11) Notes on Factor Analysis To be added Additional Readings Kootstra (2004) -- read this. Field 2005 -- discussion with SPSS; review this. Jackman 2005 -- what are your thoughts on this introduction to factor analysis? Reporting Factor Analysis Factor Analysis Focus of Report: See Neill's 2008 presentation Factor Analysis is not Focus of Report: See Pintrchi & De Groot 1990 (p. 34+) as an example of a brief presentation (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: Revise in Google to provide numeric responses -- Illustrative Questionnaire: EDUR 9131 Research Methods Review or http://tinyurl.com/yhfntjx  (note, items worked poorly fall 09) Data file to above questionnaire: http://tinyurl.com/4mzdj3l (Note: 1-6 instructional rating; 7-10 value; 11-13 methods efficacy/confidence [r 12]; 14-17 effort regulation [r 14 15])

Ignore notes below:

5. Reading Research Reports --- t-tests and ANOVA

•  Hallam, S., Price, J., & Katsarou, G. (2002). Effects of Background Music on Primary School Pupils' Task Performance. Educational Studies, 28, 111-122.

• From "Instrument Construction Steps" activity: Conley, D. T., & Goldman, P. (1995). Reactions from the field to state restructuring legislation. Educational Administration Quarterly, 31, 512-538.

• Goodman, G., Hans, S., & Bernstein, V. (2005). Mother Expectation of Bother and Infant Attachment Behaviors as Predictors of Mother and Child Communication at 24 Months in Children of Methadone-Maintained Women. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26, 549-569.

• van Beek, Y., Genta, M., Costabile, A., & Sansavini, A. (2006). Maternal Expectations about Infant Development of Pre-term and Full-term Infants: A Cross-national Comparison. Infant and Child Development, 15, 41-58.

• Rittschof, K., & Griffin, B. (2001). Reciprocal Peer Tutoring: Re-examining the vale of a co-operative learning technique to college students and instructors. Educational Psychology, 21, 313-331.

• Scahill, L., Sukhodolsky, D., Bearss, K., & Findley, D. (2006). Randomized Trial of Parent Management Training in Children with Tic Disorders and Disruptive Behavior. Journal of Child Neurology, 21, 650-656.

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

Communication in the Course

In this course we will hold group discussions once a week (twice a week during summer terms). The chat session schedule is listed above in the calendar. Group discussions will be held using GeorgiaView Wimba. If you have difficulty accessing Wimba, contact GeorgiaView support. Contact information can be found in the link below: 

http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/col/gaview/students/index.php

To access EDUR 8131 GeorgiaView page, follow the link below:

https://my.georgiasouthern.edu/

Syllabus

Office Information

Hours

By chance or appointment. It is best to contact me by e-mail to make an appointment.

E-Mail

Use GeorgiaView to contact me. If GeorgiaView is not working, my regular e-mail address is bwgriffin@GeorgiaSouthern.edu, but please use GeorgiaView for course-related communications.

Telephone Number

Office (Room 2128 College of Education Building): 912-478-0488
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Research: 912-478-5091

Mail

Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
P.O. Box 8144
College of Education
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460

Course Description

The purpose of this course is for doctoral-level students to gain a firm foundation in educational research prior to the start of their dissertation experience. Students will engage in an applied research project that updates their understanding of research procedures (e.g., hypothesis generation, sampling theory, instrument construction, measurement concepts, and descriptive and inferential statistics). Emphasis is on the “hands-on” application of advanced inquiry skills.

Class Materials

Required:

(a) de Vaus, D. A. (2002). Surveys in Social Research (5^th ed., and 4th or 3rd editions acceptable). Taylor & Francis.

 http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=178766# (4th edition on-line)

Note that 5th editions may be found on-line for less than $50. Try searching for ISBN 0415268583 on google.com shopping, www.amazon.com, or www.alibris.com, for example.

(b) SPSS will be used in this course. The most recent version can be found and rented here for ~$35 for  6 months:

http://www.onthehub.com/spss

Other student options and pricing for SPSS/PASW can be found here:

http://www.spss.com/vertical_markets/education/online.htm

(c) EDUR 9131 Course Notes, which are available on-line at:

http://www.bwgriffin.com/gsu/courses/edur9131

Supplemental:

(d) Gall, M. D., Borg, W. R., & Gall, J. P. (1996 or later). Educational Research: An Introduction (6th,  7th, or 8th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.   

Grading Criteria

Course grades will be based upon the following items and weights:

• Test 1 = 30%
• Test 2 = 35%
• Project 1 (group research) = 35%

Attendance

You may come and go as you please. If you miss a chat/class session, there is no need to provide an excuse.

Academic Dishonesty

Students are expected to abide by the GSU student conduct code and regulations regarding academic integrity. Academic misconduct such as cheating and plagiarism will be reported to the Office of Judicial Affairs and appropriate penalties imposed, such as a grade of zero on the targeted activity. See information on student conduct in the relevant student handbook for details 

Withdrawing from Class

The university sets a specific date in which you may withdraw from a course without an academic penalty. In this course, however, you may withdraw without an academic penalty (i.e., you will received a WP) until the last day of regular class (this excludes exam week), no questions asked, no matter what your current performance. My policy of assigning WPs is contingent upon the approval of my departmental chair and COE Dean (i.e., a WP is not guaranteed). 

Course Calendar (will be revised as semester progresses)