Suggested by Donald Ary, Lucy Cheser Jacobs and Chris Sorensen in Introduction to Research in Education..
1. A study investigated the difference in French grammar performance between high school freshmen taught by two different methods.(a) What is the independent variable in this study?
(b) What is the dependent variable?
(c) What is not a variable?
Answers:(a) teaching method, (b) French grammar performance, (c) grade level of participants
2. Based on the title of each study, classify the following research as basic or applied:
a. The Effect of RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) Injections on the Transfer of Skills from Trained Animals to Untrained Animals
b. Outcomes of a Remedial Arithmetic Program
c. Conditioning as a Function of the Interval between the Conditioned and Original Stimulus
d. Teaching Geometry to Cultivate Reflective Thinking: An Experimental Study
Answers
a. Basic
b. Applied
c. Basic
d. Applied
3. In a study designed to determine the effect of varying amounts of sleep deprivation on the learning of nonsense syllables, identify the following:
a. What is the independent variable?
b. What is the dependent variable?
Answers
a. Amount of sleep deprivation
b. Number of nonsense syllables learned
4. Consider the following characteristics of a research study. Indicate whether each one is most likely (1) quantitative research or (2) qualitative research.
a. Researcher is objective and detached from participants
b. Develops hypotheses after data have been collected
c. Uses induction to analyze data
d. Uses large representative samples of individuals
e. Uses narrative descriptio
Answers
a. 1
b. 2
c. 2
d. 1
e. 2
5. A principal wants to know if it is beneficial to keep class sizes small in kindergarten to grade 2. Write an appropriate research question designed to answer this question.
Answers
What is the effect of class size in grades K–2 on students’ academic performance?
6. What are the purposes of the hypothesis in research?
Answer
The purposes of hypotheses are to provide a tentative proposition suggested as a solution
to a problem or as an explanation of some phenomenon, stimulate research, provide a
relational statement that is directly testable, and provide direction for research
7. What is the difference between an inductive and a deductive hypothesis?
Answers
With an inductive hypothesis, the researcher makes observations of relationships and then hypothesizes an explanation for the observed behavior. With a deductive hypothesis, the researcher formulates a hypothesis based on known theory, accompanied by a rationale for the particular proposition.
8. What is the difference between random selection and random assignment? How are they related to internal and external validity?
Answers
Random selection is using a chance procedure to draw a sample from population. Because it addresses the question of how well results drawn from a sample can be generalized to the population from which the sample was drawn, it is a strategy for increasing external validity. Random assignment is using a chance procedure to assign the subjects available for an experiment to treatment. It is a strategy for increasing internal validity.
9. From a group of students enrolled in social studies in a high school, a researcher randomly selected 60 students. The students were then divided into two groups by random assignment of 30 to group A, the traditional social studies curriculum, and 30 to group B, a new program designed to deal with the history of certain ethnic groups. The two groups were compared at the end of the semester on a scale designed to measure attitudes toward ethnic groups.In this study, identify the following:
a. Independent variable
b. Dependent variable
c. Control group
d. Experimental group
e. Method(s) used to control for differences
between the groups
f. Research design used
g. Any threats to internal validity
Answers
a. Type of social studies curriculum
b. Scores on an ethnic attitude scale
c. Group A, the present curriculum
d. Group B, the curriculum with ethnic history
e. Random selection of the sample from the population and random assignment of
the sample to the experimental and control groups
f. Design 3, the randomized subjects, posttest only control group design
g. In the event that randomization does not control for initial group differences, there is no pretest to use to check if there are differences in attitudes before the study.
10. Examine the following research topics and decide whether experimental research, ex post facto research, or correlational research is the appropriate research design for each one:
a. The effect of parents’ divorce on the achievement motivation of the children
b. The effect of a specifi c program of vocabulary instruction on social studies achievement
c. The relationship between self-esteem and grade point average
d. The effect of phonics instruction on the reading grade level of fourth-grade students
e. The relationship between the verbal aptitude scores of identical twins f. The relationship between preschool attendance or nonattendance and academic achievement in fi rst-graders
Answers
a. Ex post facto research
b. Experimental research
c. Correlational research
d. Experimental research
e. Correlational research
f. Ex post facto research
Well, hopefully today's posting will be useful for all of us. Amien.
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