EDUC 6033

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EDUC 6033

• Research Design and Analysis
• Week 1

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Purpose of Research

• To increase knowledge or solve problems

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Sources of Knowledge

• Experience
• Expert Opinion
• Reasoning
• Deductive (general to specific)
• Inductive (specific to general)
• Scientific Method

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Scientific Method

• Make Observations
• Develop a Theory
• Test the Theory
• Draw Conclusions

Qualitative Techniques are particularly
effective here
Quantitative techniques are particularly
effective here
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Types of Research

• Basic
• Applied

To expand knowledge To solve practical
problems(e.g., program evaluations)
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One Form of Scientific Study

• R O X O
• R O O

Random Assignment of subjects to a group
Make initial observations (pre-test)
Apply a treatment to one group but not the other
Make subsequent observations (post-test)
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Generalizability

• When youre done, who are you going to say the
  study applies to?
• Population
• Sample
• Random assignment

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Control

• To make sure that it is the treatment that is
  impacting the second observation, not something
  else.

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Observations

• What is being measured?Types of
  variablesOperational definition of constructs
• How is it being measured?ReliabilityValidity

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Variables

• Conditions or characteristics that can take on
  different values or be placed in different
  categories. These are called
• Quantitative
• Categorical

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Variables

• Can take on different roles in an experimental
  study
• Independent variable (IV)That which the
  researcher manipulates (changes) during the
  experiment
• Dependent variable (DV)That which is changed as
  a result of the manipulation of the independent
  variable.

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Variable Complications

• Intervening variableA variable that is affected
  by the treatment and has an effect on the
  outcome.
• Extraneous or Confounding VariableA variable
  that affects the outcome and whose effects are
  unknown.
• Moderator VariableA variable that impacts the
  degree of treatment effect.

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Types of Research - Quantitative

• Experimental or Quasi-experimental
• Causal Comparative
• Correlational

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Types of Research - Qualitative

• Phenomenology
• Ethnography
• Case Study
• Grounded Theory
• Historical