Experimental and Non experimental Research Designs

A) Mr. Gualtieri cannot draw a conclusion about a cause-and-effect relationship from the evidence he has because he would be too quick to determine the factors that are affecting the students’ learning, development, and behavior (Ormrod, 2014, p.11). Instead of worrying about the cause-and- effect relationship from the evidence, Mr. Gualtieri should scrutinize the research report carefully; therefore, he must answer two questions. First, he must determine if he separated and controlled variables that might have an influence on the outcome. Second, he must ask if he has ruled out other possible explanations for his results? (Ormrod, 2014, p.11). If Mr. Gualtieri’s answers to both these questions are yes, then he should be able to draw a conclusion about the cause-and-effect relationship. Unfortunately, “yes” is not the answer to the two questions. This software program may not lead itself to experimental manipulation and tight control of other potentially influential variables because it is considered as a quasi-experimental study (Ormrod, 2014, p.10). Some of these influential variables that cannot be

Describe the experimental method, state its advantages and disadvantages, and distinguish between independent and dependent variables.

Describe the experimental method, state its advantages and disadvantages, and distinguish between independent and dependent variables.

A research design can be understood as the planning of any scientific research from the first to the last step. In this sense it is a program to guide the researcher in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting facts (Bless and Higson-Smith, 1995:63).

Experimental research concentrates on how and why something happens. It is the evaluation of how an independent variable (a manipulated factor) affects a dependent variable (an observed factor). The outcome can be affected by a number of elements; obtaining random and representative samples of the study population, experimenter bias and extraneous variables.

Consider the following situation: A car is driving past the local elementary school on a hot and sunny July afternoon. As the car approached the school the driver notices some unusual things. Students are outside with the teachers for recess, and it looks as if school is in session. The school is on a year-round schedule. The driver is intrigued and decides to do some research. From the research, this person found that students are achieving more academically and the teachers are well rested.

The first type of research that is used in the field of sociology is experiment research. Experiment research involves creating an experiment based off an hypothesis to answer an question. The scientific method is used to keep the experiment on track and follow a set of guidelines. This experiment is done in a controlled setting in which the design of the experiment is to answer the hypothesis. Data is gathered based on what the participants do or act during the experiment. The data gathered is quantitative, in which the data gathered is expressed in numbers. There are both benefits and limitations of

3.     What are the advantages and disadvantages of an experimental design in an educational study?

A case study is defined as a full, detailed picture of a participant or a small group of other participants. While a correlational study can suggest that both variables have a relationship that exists. An experiment is where the experimenter’s hypothesis is tested to see whether it works. Typically, the experimenter has an independent variable (the cause) where they can manipulate the variable and as well as the dependent variable (the effect).

Researchers or research teams who elect a quantitative study are going to determine the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable within a population (Babbie, E.R., 2010). There are two types of quantitative study designs: descriptive and experimental. A descriptive design typically measures the subject once and establishes the association between the independent and dependent variables (Mujis, D, 2010). An experimental design measures the subject before and after a treatment and establishes causality between the variables (Brians, C.L. et al, 2011).

The criteria I used to determine the study design is looking at what kind of study the research is. In descriptive and correlational studies, there are no treatments involved (Burns & Grove, 2011). Since this study has treatments involve and the researchers have control over the treatments, it is experimental. Experimental study also uses a smaller sample size like the sample size in the article. It also involves 3 characteristics namely: (1)

Experimental design research tends to use math and statistics to try to prove or disprove a hypothesis. Within an experimental design most of the research is controlled and leaves little room for error. One advantage of experimental design is that it is hard to disprove the results. However, a disadvantage is that because the conditions are controlled that makes the results too perfect. If the same experiment was conducted in an uncontrolled setting, such as the real world, the results would vary.

A type of educational research in which the research decides what to study; asks specific, narrow questions,

In Psychology 101 we learned that research methods are used in order to understand our mental and behavioral processes by making observations in a systematic way, following strict rules of evidence and thinking critically about that evidence. This scientific research is based on theories (tentative explanations of observations in science), hypotheses (predictions based on a theory) and replication (testing a hypothesis in more than one study). Some of the different research methods are firstly, descriptive studies. Descriptive studies are studies that use survey methods, naturalistic observation and clinical methods. Another research method is correlational studies. Correlational studies are studies that help one to determine if a relationship exists between two or more variables and if so it tells one how strongly those two variables relate to one another. With in correlational studies one can have positive correlation (as one variable increases or decreases so does the other), negative correlation (variables go in opposite directions) or zero correlation (no relationship between the variables). Another research method is formal experiments. Formal experiments are studies that allow us to draw conclusions about how one variable may cause or have an effect on another variable. With in formal experiments there are four elements, which are the independent variable (variable that is manipulated or controlled), the dependent variable (variable that is measured), the experimental

Explain the difference between true experimental and quasi-experimental research design. Provide examples in your answer. (265 words)