RES 866 Approaches to Research Design and Data Analysis

Scholarly research must be “aligned.” What does it mean that research is aligned? Use the GCU Library to locate an empirical study on the topic you are interested in researching. Give the APA-formatted citation for the article along with the Permalink. Is the study you selected aligned? Why or why not?

RES 866 Module 2 DQ 1

It is not unusual for researchers to use a convenience sample for their study. For example, if you would like to see if there is a correlation between the time parents spend working with their children on home work and the children’s school grades, you may consider recruiting your friends and relatives to participate in your study because it will be easier to obtain their permission for data collection. What might be some of the limitations of this sampling approach?

RES 866 Module 2 DQ 2

What is the difference between a population and a sample? How large do you think your population and sample will need to be for your dissertation research? Explain your reasoning. What factors other than size will you consider in relation to sampling? Why? What types of descriptive statistics will you consider for summarizing the sample? Why?

RES 866 Module 3 DQ 1

From the bibliography of your proposed dissertation study, select a peer-reviewed journal article that was done with a quantitative methodology. Cite the article and summarize the study in one paragraph. Then categorize it according to each of the following dimensions:

• Experimental, quasi-experimental, or non-experimental
• Descriptive, predictive, or explanatory
• Retrospective, cross-sectional, or longitudinal

Why did you categorize the article as you did? Do articles in your field of interest commonly fall into this category? Why or why not?

RES 866 Module 3 DQ 2

What are the primary factors that make it more challenging to conduct experimental studies in the field of education or leadership? Why are these significant? How do these factors affect your own research design for the dissertation study?

RES 866 Module 4 DQ 1

Suppose that you have collected data throughout a semester from a large elementary school regarding the number of days per week each math teacher spends in a collaborative teaching community. The average ranges from 0 to 7 days per week. You have also obtained the pre-test and post-test scores in math administered in those same classrooms in the beginning and end of the semester, and you have calculated a score that shows learning during the semester by subtracting the pre-test score from the post-test score for each student.

You are interested in examining any potential differences in student learning (i.e., post-test minus pre-test) that may be due to the number of days of teacher participation in a collaborative community. What are the independent and dependent variables? How can you best handle the data so that you can perform group comparisons to examine the potential effect of the IV on the DV?  Why is this technique the best for handling the data?

RES 866 Module 4 DQ 2

Suppose that you have collected data throughout a semester from a large elementary school regarding the number of days per week each math teacher spends in a collaborative teaching community. The average ranges from 0 to 7 days per week. You have also obtained the pre-test and post-test scores in math administered in those same classrooms in the beginning and end of the semester, and you have calculated a score that shows learning during the semester by subtracting the pre-test score from the post-test score for each student.

You are interested in examining any potential differences in student learning (i.e., post-test minus pre-test) that may be due to the number of days of teacher participation in a collaborative community. Is group comparison the best approach to analyze the available data? Why or why not?

RES 866 Module 5 DQ 1

Assume that you are interested in the relationship between Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) scores (the total of all subtests) and graduate school grade point averages (GPAs) at the end of their graduate programs. Conveniently, you have access to the GRE scores and GPAs of a large number of graduate students who have graduated from the electrical engineering master’s program in an Ivy League university between 2000 and 2013. The Pearson correlation coefficient did not reach significance. What can you conclude from the data analysis? Can the result be generalized to all graduate students in electrical engineering master’s programs across the United States? Why or why not?

RES 866 Module 5 DQ 2

A researcher asks the question “Is there a relationship between GRE total scores and GPAs in the master’s programs in electrical engineering?” The researcher’s null hypothesis states, “There is no correlation between GRE total score and GPA from an electrical engineering master’s program.” The researcher’s alternative hypothesis states, “There is a positive correlation between GRE total scores and GPA from an electrical engineering master’s program.”

Are these valid hypotheses for the research question? Why or why not? What other observations can you make regarding the hypotheses and research question?

RES 866 Module 6 DQ 1

Suppose you are interested in how children with severe autism experienced the receipt of special education assistance in public schools. This population is characterized by underdevelopment of social cognition, social skills, and language skills. What is the best method for collecting data to answer your research question? Why is this method best? How would you describe the research design?

RES 866 Module 6 DQ 2

Suppose you are interested in how children with severe autism experienced the receipt of special education assistance in public schools. This population is characterized by underdevelopment of social cognition, social skills, and language skills. How many children should be included in the study? Why? What are the factors considered in making this determination?

RES 866 Module 7 DQ 1

Suppose you are interested in the behaviors of physicians that have high ratings of patient satisfaction. The research goal is to identify the behaviors in the natural clinical settings of these successful physicians so that these behaviors can be built into the curricula of medical preparation programs. The main data were collected by the video recording of five randomly selected physician-patient encounters from 10 physicians who have been rated highly by patients in a reliable satisfaction survey.

In analyzing the recordings, what would you define as the unit for analysis? Why? How many data units (in rough estimates) are you likely to get based on this decision? Does the estimated number of data units seem adequate? Why or why not?

RES 866 Module 7 DQ 2

Suppose you are interested in the behaviors of physicians that have high ratings of patient satisfaction. The research goal is to identify the behaviors in the natural clinical settings of these successful physicians so that these behaviors can be built into the curricula of medical preparation programs. The main data were collected by the video recording of five randomly selected physician-patient encounters from 10 physicians who have been rated highly by patients in a reliable satisfaction survey.

Assume that you reviewed the literature on physician communication skills as a major component of patient satisfaction. Based on this idea, what might be some of the initial codes that you could use to label the data units? How would you justify this set of codes in your research report?

RES 866 Module 8 DQ 1

Please share the tentative research design from your prospectus and provide a brief rationale for it. Also include the research question(s) and the associated hypotheses (for quantitative studies only) in their current state and describe how they align with your proposed research design. What questions or concerns do you have surrounding your work at this point?

RES 866 Module 8 DQ 2

Reflect on the information presented in this course. How will the information on finding a content expert influence your research plans? When did the course information give you new insight on your proposed research methodology and design for your dissertation research study?  Will this new insight change anything in your prospectus? If so, what steps will you take to update your prospectus?  Explain.

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