Methods Chapter
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For proposals we write everything in the future tense then change for final papers. Also in your final paper, report what you actually did, not what you intended to do (you can explain why you were not able to do the ideal procedure).
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Action Research Methods
As an applied field, Education Research borrows methods from many traditions (psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, computer science). It is essential to analyze the data that you collect in an appropriate way - there are many more options than qualitative or quantitative. Pick a methodology to match both your question and the educational environment that you are working with. More on Selecting Appropriate Methods
Outline for Research Methods Chapter
- Intro
- Research question(s)
- Participants
- Who are the participants (experiment/control if appropriate)
- Number (N = )
- How students are selected (any selection criteria)
- identify any possible bias in the selection
- if you have data on students pre state (e.g. a pretest) put it here to show how the groups are the same or different
- Background/context information on participants
- Instruments or Materials
- If you are using a particular instructional method (e.g. curriculum, software etc)
- Any surveys, tests, protocols used in the study
- for each survey - what are we trying to measure, the protocol,
- Complete survey should be in an appendix
- samples of questions are encouraged
- Procedures
- What is the process from start to finish
- Provide a time line of when different events happened (will happen) in the study
- Data Analysis Method
- describe how you will analyzed the data (e.g. coding answers into categories, case studies).
- samples of student responses with their coding are very useful
- any statistical analysis that you did (or will do if this is a proposal) on the data.
- describe how you will analyzed the data (e.g. coding answers into categories, case studies).
Development Project Methods
If you are working on a project that develops curriculum or technology tools, the methods chapter is very different from an Action Research methods chapter. The methods chapter for a development project describes the process of constructing your project - both the reasoning and the technical details. In the results chapter you will describe the fully formed result.
Outline for Development Methods Chapter
- Intro
- Goal of the project
- Features
- Describe the key features of the project
- Link the key features to the literature detailed in chapter 2
- Provide other examples where people have used these features
- Materials and Process
- Describe the tools you will use in the construction (briefly)
- Describe any specific technique or approach you use
- List the sequence of steps in the process - note any that are particularly difficult
- Pilot testing
- Describe how you test your creation
- indicate the context, participants (in general), and procedure
- describe what measures or observations will indicate if you have been successful
- Describe how you test your creation
