M4 Research Design Critique Report

.:6. Design a (hypothetical) experiment that adheres to the Scientific Method. Be sure to include all the necessary requirements at each step and give examples at all of the steps. Start with an observation, whether it’s real or made up, state the null hypothesis, and design an experiment (including an experimental and control group, random sampling, sample size, and reproducibility) that will allow the student to reject or fail to reject the hypothesis, and state the conclusion (20 points.)

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

According to Yilmaz (2013) there exist two significant approaches to research with respect to studying the social and individual world. According to Creswell (2014) three types of design quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods should remain in consideration when choosing a research designs at the start of the process. The two methods exist a quantitative and

A correlational research design would be useful when studying the relationship of mentoring students in a reading class and the achievement on their Aims-web reading comprehension and fluency scores. The correlational design would be useful to determine to what degree if any exists. In a correlations study there can be a relationship between two or more variables. This type of research uses a correlation coefficient to explain relationships or show a lack of relationship between the variables. Correlational research design and a casual-comparative research design differ in many ways. Casual-comparative research uses two or more groups and determines the differences between groups. Also, in

I will be using a mixed methods approach to answer my research question. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical methods will be used to analyze my data. Bivariate measures that will be employed are Pearson’s R and Pearson’s R Square. Meanwhile, a multiple regression analysis will be utilize as my multivariate statistical method to analyze data.

The dependent variable in this study is the test scores of the students who use the learning approaches. The independent variable is the application of multimedia materials when teaching the content to the students along with the amount of time that they get exposure to the multimedia presentations. In this particular experiment, it is more relevant and correct for the instructor to utilize a between-subject design instead of a within-subject design. The between-subject design allows for the administration of the same information to all the subjects in both groups at once and only once (Shuttleworth, M., 2009). If the within-subject design were applied, then the students would be exposed to the same content twice, which could possibly cause them to earn higher scores on the second test, which would invalidate the data since students could recall some of the information from the first test (Shuttleworth, M., 2009). Now that the basic experimental design is understood, it is time to discuss the specific details of the experiment. To conduct the experiment in the most unbiased way, the students in a classroom must be randomly selected for the study and randomly assigned to different groups of the design. Random assignment means that every selected student has the same probability of being placed into either one of the groups. The control would be the group that utilizes the original textbook approach. On the

Within a quantitative study, the research is completed to seek some type of verification, but within a qualitative study the research is completed to seek a deeper understanding (Capella University, 2017c). For instance, Hoelscher et al. (2016) used a survey method to verify how the students commuted to school, and they received weather reports for specific dates and locations for data collection. In contrast, if Hoelscher et al. (2016) study was conducted using qualitative methodology, it would be designed as a multiple-case study design. A multiple case study design is an evaluation of multiple systems that are studied and compared to one another over time (Capella University, 2017b). The multiple cases being

| |Chapter 16. |simultaneously or sequentially when using mixed methods designs. The researcher must also |

A mixed methods research design is a procedure for collecting, analyzing, and “mixing” both quantitative and qualitative research and methods in a single study to understand a research problem.

‘The origin of mixed methods lies in two major research paradigms’ (Terrell, 2012, 257), namely qualitative and quantitative paradigms. The former exhibits many features of natural science approach such as dependency on numerical forms of data, whereas the latter focuses on exploration of social in-depth interpretations in the form of narrative words (Bryman, 1988). However, there has been a debate on the compatibility within qualitative approach and quantitative approach adopted in one enquiry. Advocators for the “incompatibility thesis” (Robson, 2011:162) maintain that ‘the two paradigms cannot be combined since they do not study the same phenomena’ (Sale, Lohfeld & Brazil, 2002, p. 43). I am not in favor of the

True experimental and quasi-experimental research designs are the two most common forms of research design. While they both share similar elements, such as measuring participant results to test the hypothesis, there are also significant differences between true experimental and quasi-experimental research designs (The Regents of the University of Michigan, 2013 ).

1. The main goal of the analysis being conducted is to assess whether the new curriculum on basic electricity in basic science yields better achievement outcomes compared to the existing curriculum, which is a more traditional teaching approach, for elementary school students in both urban and suburban schools. In doing this analysis some questions that will be key to this study is to reveal if this new curriculum is beneficial when compared to the traditional teaching approach. Indeed, some students are randomly assigned to both the new curriculum and to the traditional teaching approach. As a result, through this randomization biases will be kept from occurring. This investigation is important because it will be determined what yielded better results through focusing on examining differences in the posttest variable for children who did or did not experience the new curriculum.

When both research designs are used together, more information can be gathered. Mixed methodology uses the numerical portion of the quantitative study design in combination with the descriptive aspect of the qualitative study. There are many similarities between these two designs, which make them compatible with each other.

Quantitative research is considered to be the use of numbers. In the use of a quantitative study, the researcher test objective theories by examining the conjunction among variables. The variables used can be measured on instruments, so that numbered data can be used and analyzed (Creswell, 2008). Qualitative research is mainly used to explore and understand human or social problems. The process of qualitative studies includes questions and procedures; and the data is collected byway of participant’s settings. It allows the researcher to study an issue in great detail and depth, as well as not allowing data collection to be constrained by predetermined data. Mixed methods research combines quantitative and qualitative methods and it involves philosophical assumptions. This form of study includes collecting and analyzing data from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. It is believed that mixed methods research is a great method for practicing researchers who would like to bridge the schism between quantitative and qualitative research (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2004a). Even though these methods are different, they all involve philosophical assumptions and distinct methods or procedures (Cresswell, 2009).

Referencing McMillan and Wergin (2010) assertion on the commonality of mixed method designs having one dominate approach, determined through a series of questions. The conclusion is that Oreck (20014) has a dominate quantitative focus. Therefore, to determine whether it contributes significantly to the knowledge base, it must be judged on how well it meets the non-experimental quantitative evaluative criteria offered by McMillian and Wergin (2010). Particularly in its ability to provide connections and rationale to previous studies and illuminate gaps in the present knowledge base that this study will examine through mainly statistical means to discover associations amongst variables.