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EDPSY 505

EDPSY 505. August 27, 2007. Mayer (2000). The Big Picture. There are many different research processes Each has its own: Philosophy of inquiry Methods of inquiry Purposes for doing research Processes and “rules” Quantitative research has its own Here is one process:.

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EDPSY 505

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  1. EDPSY 505 August 27, 2007

  2. Mayer (2000)

  3. The Big Picture • There are many different research processes • Each has its own: • Philosophy of inquiry • Methods of inquiry • Purposes for doing research • Processes and “rules” • Quantitative research has its own • Here is one process:

  4. Scientific Thinking Vs. Everyday Thinking • Everyday thinking • Biased questions • Do you really support the war? • Limited sampling • Your friends and family are different from my friends and family • Selective attention • Confirmation bias • Inaccurate generalization • Stereotypes

  5. Scientific Thinking Vs. Everyday Thinking (Cont.) • Scientific thinking. • Empirical observations. • Empirical: capable of being confirmed, verified, or disproved by observation or experiment. • Systematic. • Objective. • Less dependent on emotion or personal prejudices. • Replicable.

  6. Purposes of Scientific Research • Exploratory • What is out there? • Descriptive • What does this group look like? • Explanatory • Why and how are these constructs related? • Evaluation • Does this program work? • Prediction • Who will become depressed?

  7. The Research Problem

  8. Research Problem • An area of general concern • Research Questions • The problem posed as a question • How can a principal improve faculty morale? • Does behavioral therapy improve children’s behavior? • Do flow charts improve scientific understanding? • Some questions are not researchable • Is god good? • What is the meaning of life?

  9. Characteristics of Good Research Questions • Feasible • Clear • Constitutive definition • By Example • Operational definition • Significant • Worth investigating • Strong rationale • Ethical

  10. Variables

  11. On the Theory of Scales of Measurement (Stevens, 1946) • Measurement • Is the assignment of numerals to objects. • Nominal • Examples: Gender, party affiliation, and place of birth • Ordinal • Examples: SES, Student rank, and Place in race • Interval • Examples: Test scores, personality and attitude scales. • Ratio • Examples: Weight, length, reaction time, and number of responses

  12. Understanding Variables and Hypotheses (Charters, 1992) • Objects • Things that one does research on. • People, districts, nations, etc. • Properties of objects • Give us a way to talk about how objects are alike and how they differ. • Scores • Values on the property of interest • Must be at least two.

  13. Values • Exhaustive • Must be able to assign a value to all objects. • Mutually Exclusive • Each object can only be assigned one of a set of values. • A variable with only one value is not a variable. • It is a constant.

  14. How variables are used • Two major piles • Descriptive and Verificational (cause-effect) • Descriptive • Describes a population in relation to one or more variables. • Sex bias in textbooks • Trends in dropout rates • Verificational • Does A cause B • Associations between A and B • Is the observed relationship greater than would be expected by chance?

  15. Hypothesis • A proposed explanation for a phenomenon. • Two types • Casual order - 'A causes B' • Correlational – ‘A is related to B’

  16. Sorting Out Variables in a Study • Purpose of most empirical studies in behavioral research is to identify causal relationships. • Independent variables (IV) • Causes, determinants, predictors, factors. • Dependent variables (DV) • Consequences, outcomes, effects • Moderator variables • Variables that change the relationship between the IV and DV. • Aptitude by treatment interactions

  17. Dissecting Hypotheses • Identify the two variables and sort them into IV and DV. • Describe each variable. • Object, property, mode of variation, elaborate on mode of variation. • Specify the relationship expected between the two variables. • Note the unit of analysis implied or actually used.

  18. Additional comments • Simple Hypotheses have only two variables--bivariate relations. • H.1: Authoritarian principals are more effective than non-authoritarian principals • What are the names of the two variables? • How do they vary? • Complex Hypotheses have more than two variables and sometimes contain a moderating variable. • H.1: Authoritarian principals are more effective than non-authoritarian principals when goals are clear, but non-authoritarian principals are more effective when goals are ambiguous. • What are the names of the three variables? • How do they vary?

  19. Practice • H.1: The greater the weight of a five-year old, the taller the child. • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  20. Practice • H.2: Authoritarian principals command more loyalty than non-authoritarian ones when they have influence, but non-authoritarian principals command greater loyalty when principals lack influence. • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  21. H.3. Secondary teachers are more custodial in pupil control ideology than elementary teachers. • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  22. H. 4. Academic achievement will be greater among students taught by autocratic teachers than those taught by permissive teachers. • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  23. H. 5. The larger the size of a community college’s instructional faculty the greater the degree of administrative centralization. • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  24. H. 6. Democratic supervisors have teachers who demonstrate more creativity in teaching methods than autocratic supervisors. • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  25. H. 7. When administrators have influence with their superiors, authoritarian administrators command more loyalty from subordinates than non-authoritarian ones, but when administrators have little influence, then non-authoritarian administrators command more loyalty than authoritarian ones . • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  26. H. 8. The stronger the collective efficacy of a school, the higher the level of level of student achievement. • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable?

  27. Now try it with your proposal topic • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable? • State how you expect them to be related to one another.

  28. Literature reviews • Purpose • Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the subject under review • Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration • Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in, previous research • Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies • Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort • Point the way forward for further research • Determine where your work will fit

  29. Literature Reviews • Hopefully by the end of this class you will become a more critical consumer. • Questions you should ask when reading a report • What were the research questions? • Who or what was studied? • How were they sampled? • What are the variables? • How were they measured? • What design was used? • What statistics were used? • Do the conclusions follow from the statistics?

  30. Writing Literature Reviews • Avoid summarizing a body of literature • Attempt to identify shortcomings • Provide analysis • Design problems • Problems with measures • Unique subsets of the population not included • Be very very careful • Plagiarism can sneak up on you

  31. Finding Articles and Questionnaires • Search engines • Be careful much of what is on the internet is of low quality. • However, you can find peer reviewed articles using Yahoo. • Google Scholar • http://www.google.com/

  32. Finding Articles and Questionnaires • Research Databases and Indexes http://www.unm.edu/ • General • EBSCOhost • Expanded Academic ASAP • Specialized • JSTOR • Linked to the articles • SportDiscus • Pscyinfo • Pubmed • I frequently use • Web of Science

  33. Next Class • Bring three hypotheses and a rationale for each. • Also, address the following when applicable • What is the object? • What are the variables? • What are the names of the variables? • How do they vary-categorical or continuous? • What is the moderating variable? • What is the independent variable? • What is the dependent variable? • State how you expect them to be related to one another.

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