The Research Spiral

1. The Research Spiral Identify the Research Problem Review the Literature Evaluate Data and Write Report Analyze and Interpret Data Specify a Research Purpose Collect Data

2. Identifying a Research Problem Research Problem is the focus of a research investigation

3. Differences Among Topic, Problem, Purpose and Questions General Topic Distance Learning Lack of students in distance classes Research Problem To study why students do not attend distance education classes at a community college. Purpose Statement Does the use of web site technology in the classroom deter students from enrolling in a distance education class? Research Question Specific

4. Flow of Ideas in a Problem Statement FLOW OF IDEAS What Remedying the Deficiencies will do for Select Audiences Deficiencies in the Evidence Educational Issue Evidence for the Issue Topic Subject Area • A Concern • A Problem • Something • that needs a • solution • Evidence from • the literature • Evidence from • practical • experiences • In this body of • evidence, what is • missing? • What do we • need to know • more about? • How will addressing • what we need to • know help: researchers • educators • policy-makers • individuals like • those in the study

5. Specifying a Purpose, Research Questions or Hypothesis

6. Research Questions??? • Usually a research problem is initially posed as a question, which serves a focus of the researcher’s investigation

7. Some Times When Operational Definitions Would Be Helpful Figure 2.2 8

8. Variables and Hypotheses • One of the most important concepts in research is the concept of ‘variable.” Many kinds of variables exist, and much ed. Res. involves looking for relationships among variables In this lesson, several kinds of variables are described and discussed. In addition, the concept of “hypothesis” is discussed, since many hypotheses express relationships between variables. Hypotheses are based directly on the research question and can be regarded as extension of it.

9. Lesson Objectives 1.Explain what is meant by the term “Variable” and name five variables that might be investigated by educational researchers. • 2. Explain how a variable differ from a constant • 3. Distinguish between a quantitative and a categorical variable • 4. Explain how independent and dependent variables are related

10. Objectives (cont’) • 5. Explain what a hypothesis is and formulate two hypotheses that might be investigated in education • 6. Name two advantages and two disadvantages of stating research questions as hypotheses • 7. Distinguish between directional and non-directional hypotheses and give an example of each

11. R. Qs often (but not always)suggest a relationship of some sort to be investigated. RLTS Means that two qualities or characteristics are tied together or connected in some way Are motivation and learning related? If so how? A principal’s administrative policies and faculty morale? Relationships

12. Relationships (cont.) • IT is important to understand how the term “relationship” is used in research, since the term has other meanings in everyday life. • When researchers use the term RLTS, they are not referring to the nature or quality of an association between people, for example. Look at the next slide

13. Illustration of Relationship Between Voter Gender and Party Affiliation Figure 2.3 9

14. Relationships (cont.) • There is a strong RLTS between the two factors shown in group B. • We can express the RLTS in group B by saying that males tend to be Republications while females tend to be democrats. We can also express this RLTS in terms of a prediction. Should another female joint group B. She would be a democrat since 14 of the previous 16 females are Democrats.

15. Relationships (cont.) • Sometimes researchers are interested only in obtaining descriptive information to find out how people think or feel or to describe how they behave in a particular situation. • Other times the intent is to describe a particular program or activity.

16. Definition of a Variable A Variable (A Characteristic or Attribute) Can be and Measured Varies (Can be assessed on an instrument and recorded on an instrument) (Can assume different values or scores for different individuals)

17. Variables and Constructs • A Variable is an attribute or characteristic stated in a specific or applied way • A Construct is an attribute or characteristic expressed in an abstract, general way. Construct Student Achievement Variable Grade Point Average

18. How Many Variables Can You Identify? Page 54 15

19. VariablesWhat is a variable? • A variable is a concept - a noun that stands for variation within a class of objects, • The individual members in the class of objects, however, must differ - or vary - to qualify the class as variable. • Suppose a researcher researcher is interested in studying the effects of reinforcement on student achievement.

20. The effects of reinforcement on student achievement. • The researcher systematically divides a large group of students, all of whom are ninth-graders, into three smaller subgroups to reinforce their students in different ways (one gives verbal praise, the second gives monetary rewards, the third gives extra points) for various tasks the students perform.

21. Notice that it is easier to see what some of these concepts stand for than others. “motivation’ • Researchers must be specific here – they must define ‘motivation” as clearly as possible the concept clearly as possible. They must do this so that it can be measured or manipulated.

22. We cannot meaningfully measure or manipulate a variable if we cannot define it. As we mentioned above educational research involves looking for a relationship among variables. But what variables? Researchers choose certain variables to investigate because they have a suspicion that these variables are somehow related and that if they can discover the nature of this relationship, it can help us make more sense of the world in which we live. Many variables ‘out there” in the real world that can be investigated

23. constants • If all members of a class are identical, we do not have a variable. Such characteristics are called constants, since the individual members of the class are not allowed to vary, but rather are held constant. In any study, some characteristics will be variables, while others will be constants.

24. Illustration of Quantitative Compared with Categorical Variables Figure 4.1 16

25. Categorical Variables Figure 4.2 17

26. Categorical Variables • Can ‘teaching method” be considered a variable?

27. Teaching method? • Yes, it can • Suppose a researcher is interested in studying teachers who use different methods in teaching. The researcher locates one teacher who lectures exclusively, another who buttresses her lectures with slides and filmstrips, and a third who uses the case-study method and lectures not all.

28. Vary? • Does the teaching method “vary”? It does. • You may need to practice thinking of differences in methods, or in groups of people (teachers compared to administrators, for ex.) as variables, but mastering this idea is extremely useful in learning about research.

29. 1.Make of automobile 2. Learning ability 3. ethnicity 4. Cohesiveness 5. Heartbeat rate 6. gender Which ones are quantitative variables and which ones categorical variables?

30. Research Involves the Study of Relationships Between Variables Page 59 18 a. Two quantitative variables • Age and amount of interest in school • Reading achievement and mathematics achievement • Classroom humanism and student motivation • Amount of time watching television and aggressiveness of behavior b. One categorical and one quantitative variable • Method used to teach reading and reaching achievement • Counseling approach and level of anxiety • Nationality and liking for school • Student gender and amount of praise given by teachers c. Two categorical variables • Ethnicity and father’s occupation • Gender of teacher and subject taught • Administrative style and college major • Religious affiliation and political party membership

31. Sometimes researchers have a choice of whether to treat a variable as quantitative or categorical. It is not uncommon, for example, to find studies in which a variable such as “anxiety” is studied by comparing a group of “high-anxiety” to group of ‘low-anxiety” students. This treats anxiety as though it were a categorical variable. quantitative or categorical

32. quantitative or categorical (cont.) • While there is nothing really wrong with doing this, there are three reasons why it is preferable in such situations to treat variable as quantitative

33. there are three reasons why it is preferable in such situations to treat variable as quantitative • 1. conceptually, we must consider variables such as anxiety to be a matter of degree in people, not matter of either-or • 2. Collapsing the variable into two (or even several) categories eliminates the possibility of using more detailed information about the variable, since differences among individuals with a category are ignored. • 3. The dividing line between groups (for example, between the individuals of high, middle, and low anxiety) is almost always arbitrary (that is, lacking in any defensible rationale)

34. Manipulated versus Outcome Variables • Whenever researchers set up an experiment along the lines of the examples described in which there are two or more experimental conditions, they create a variable.

35. Suppose, for example, that a researcher decides to investigate the effect of different amounts of reinforcement on reading achievement and systematically assigns students to different groups. One group is praised continuously every day during their reading session; the second group is told simply to ‘keep up the good work”; the third group is told nothing at all. Manipulated versus Outcome Variables(cont.)

36. Manipulated versus Outcome Variables(cont.) • The researcher, in effect, • manipulates the conditions in the experiment, thereby creating the variable “amount of reinforcement.” • Whenever experimental conditions are set up by a researcher, one or more variables are created Such variables are called experimental variables or manipulated variables or treatment variables..

37. Manipulated versus Outcome Variables(cont.) • most studies in education with one quantitative and one categorical variable are studies comparing different methods or treatments. In such studies, the different methods or treatments represent a categorical variable. Often the other variable, the quantitative one, is referred to as an "outcome variable."

38. Manipulated versus Outcome Variables(cont.) • (it also possible for an outcome variable to be categorical For example, the variable ‘college completion” could be divided into the categories of “dropouts” and “college graduates.”)

39. outcome variables • The investigation, after all, is interested in the effect of the differences in method on one or more outcomes (the achievement of students, their motivation, interest, and so on). An outcome is a result of some sort, an observed behavior, product, or condition of an organism that has been stimulated in some way.

40. outcome variables • Since such out comes vary for different people, in different situations, and under different conditions, they are often called outcome variables.

41. The amount of uneasiness that applicants for a position express in an interview. How anxious students are before an examination Neatness The “openness” of a classroom How disruptive students are in a history class The ability of people to express themselves in writing Fluency in a foreign language Teacher-student rapport All of the following can be examples of outcome variables

42. Notice two things about each of the above examples. First, each represents a possible result or outcome of some sort that can be produced by something else. In a methods study,. researchers are interested in the effect of different methods on a particular outcome or outcomes They are never completely certain as to what it is, exactly that produces these outcomes, however. Notice two things about each of the above examples

43. Outcomes • Many outcomes like those above are not very well understood by educators. Researchers have designed studies not only to understand better the nature of these (and other) outcomes but also to gain insight into what causes them.

44. Outcomes • The second thing to notice about each of the examples above is that the amount or degree of each can vary in different situations or under different conditions. Not all people have the same degree of fluency in Spanish, for example. The amount of rapport that exists between teachers and students varies for different teachers with different students, and vice versa. Neatness, expressiveness, anxiety – such qualities are possessed in varying amounts by different people. That is why they can be considered quantitative variables.

45. check for understanding • Suppose a researcher plans to investigate the following question: “will students who are taught by a team of three teachers learn more science that students taught by one individual teacher?” • What is the outcome variable in this question?

46. Independent Versus dependent variable • An independent variable is presumed to have an effect on, to influence somehow, another variable. • The variable that the independent variable is presumed to affect is called the dependent (or outcome) variable. The nature of the dependent variable "depends on" what the independent variable does to it, how it affects it.

47. Independent Variables • Not al independent variables are manipulated The relationship between childhood success in mathematics and adults career choice is likely to refer to the former as independent variable and subsequent career choice as dependent variable, even though success is not manipulated.

48. More than One • It is possible to investigate more than one independent. (and also more than one dependent variable) in a study. For simplicity’s sake I present examples in which only one independent and one dependent variable are involved.

49. “Will students who are taught by a team of three teachers learn more science than students taught by one individual teacher? What are the independent variables and dependent variables in this question? IT IS POSSIBLE TO INVESTIGATE MORE THAN ONE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE IN A STUDY

50. Answers • (The Ind (categorical) variable is the number of teachers, and the dependent variable is the amount of science learning. Notice, again, that the dependent variable is also the outcome variable in this study).