Research Analysis Assignment

Purpose:

Finding research-based instructional practices that are applicable to your unique classroom situation can inform your practice. In this assignment you will use the ERIC database in the Kaplan Library to select an article to analyze. In Unit 3, you will write a lesson plan using what you have learned from this article about your chosen instructional technique.

Directions:

Choose one instructional method that is applicable to your unique classroom situation. This can be based on what you have learned in previous courses or from your own experience. Some suggestions can be found in the Bullmaster literature review in Unit 2.

Go to the KU Library to search the ERIC, Academic Search Premier, or Professional Development Collection databases and select one full text article on your chosen instructional method. Examples of possible topics might be discovery learning, scaffolding, nonlinguistic representations, cooperative learning, etc. (This topic can also be used for your Literature Review due in Unit 6. If you find several articles of interest, you might want to save them for your Literature Review.)

Write a 2-3 page paper analyzing and reflecting on the article you read. Use the following headers and discussion questions to frame your research analysis assignment.

Research Problem:

• What are the research questions? What is the hypothesis being tested? Literature Review/ Theoretical Framework: (This will be a summary of the author's literature review included in the article. You will not need to create a new literature review.)

• What general field of knowledge does this study investigate? Examples could include: Research on Teacher Effectiveness, Research on Self-Reflective Learning, Research on Gender Differences in Mathematics Performance, etc.

• List three key points from the study's literature review that help the reader understand what is already known about the subject, and the purpose of this study in light of other studies.

• Cite at least one study used by the author for each of the three points you list.

Research Design:

• Describe the research design (experimental, correlational, descriptive, etc.).
• Describe the method(s) of data collection.
• Describe the method(s) of data analysis.
• Experimental studies seek to prove cause-and-effect relationships. The role of the  researcher is to introduce a change (known as a "treatment") into a situation and note the results. Collecting data in experimental studies is accomplished through observation, "counting," and measurement. The data is then analyzed by statistical methods. These studies are sometimes referred to as quantitative studies.

• Correlational studies can be descriptive or experimental, and they seek to prove a relationship between events without any manipulation of those events by the researcher. Data from correlational studies is analyzed by statistical methods.

• Descriptive or qualitative studies report and analyze descriptions of educational settings, events, or processes without seeking to change these settings, events, or processes. Descriptive studies often take the form of case studies. Data in these studies is collected through interviews, observation notes, audio and video records of activities, and open-ended survey responses. Descriptive studies do not analyze data with sophisticated statistical methods and do not prove cause-and-effect relationships between events.

Findings:

• Briefly describe the outcomes of the research. (Summarize the study's results in general terms; you do not have to supply large amounts of statistical data from the study.)

Limitations:

• What are the limitations of this research?
• Can the outcome(s) be generalized or transferred to groups outside of this study? Why or why not?

Implications for Practice:

Discuss ways in which you can incorporate findings from this study into your own professional practice.

A sample Research Analysis is available in Doc Sharing.