Assignment: Examine a Research Study
Activity Description:
Whereas published studies do not always explicitly map out the chain of reasoning proposed by Krathwohl, the structure is often evident when researchers note specific links to previous research in the literature review and provide justifications for their study. Similarly, researchers usually give a rationale, explanation, theory, or point of view upon which the study is based. They present a purpose, questions, hypotheses, and/or models and demonstrate preplanned or emergent designs that were developed to yield answers to the research questions. Researchers gather data, conduct the analysis, reach a conclusion, and then link findings to those of other studies, which serves as the rationale or explanation for the next study in this area based on the results.
For this assignment: Read the article New York's smoke-free regulations: Effects on employment and sales in the hospital industry.
Write a brief paper that includes the following:
1. Description of the authors' justification of the need for the study, including the degree to which the authors synthesized and critically analyzed existing research to show that this study is the next logical step in the line of research.
2. Description of the theory that is guiding the research and assessment of whether it is clear how the authors used it to shape the study.
3. Description of the problem being addressed, purpose of the study, research questions, and corresponding hypotheses and assessment of their quality.
4. Discussion of the authors' justification of the selected methodology and design.
5. Analysis based on Krathwohl model that infers each link in the chain is determined by the link before it. Is this true for your article? Justify your response and give examples from within the article you selected for this assignment.
6. Discussion that answers if there are any limitations or "weak links" in the article and if so, how would you strengthen them. In addition, what future studies might be done to address these limitations and/or to further build the literature related this topic?