Developing A Thesis

1
Developing A Thesis

• Chapter 2.1 In Search of Good Data
• Mathematics of Data Management (Nelson)
• MDM 4U
• Author Gary Greer

2
What is a Thesis?

• A thesis is an intellectual proposition
  (Wikipedia, 2004).
• in essence it is an idea
• there are other definitions as well it is also
  a major research publication created by
  post-secondary students
• you will develop a thesis for the course
  culminating project

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and

• a thesis is a formal statement or question that
  research will answer or discuss
• when choosing a thesis
• can you state a specific question?
• what are the main variables?
• can these be measured statistically?
• is there enough data to make interesting
  analysis?
• is the topic manageable?

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Variables

• a variable is a measurable characteristic that
  can change
• variables can be continuous or discrete,
  containing nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio
  data
• identifying the variables involved in a study is
  a significant task

5
Brainstorming

• sometimes developing ideas is quite difficult
• mind maps or concept maps are useful tools for
  this process

6
Indexes

• an index is number arbitrarily chosen to
  represent some data
• the consumer price index is an example
• what type of data would the consumer price index
  be?
• interval?
• now do the exercise on page 76, and answer the
  discussion questions on page 77

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Culminating Project

• your first job is to choose a topic that is
  neither to simple nor too difficult
• a project that is too large can be made more
  specific to reduce the size
• once you have a topic you need to develop a
  thesis a specific question
• without a specific question, the rest of the
  project will be more difficult

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Sample Research Question from a Paper Written by
G. Greer

• Will secondary school students engaged in an
  instructor moderated, constructivist activity,
  socially construct knowledge in Computer Mediated
  Conferencing environments in the same fashion as
  adults?

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Hypotheses from the same paper

• Individual participants in this Computer Mediated
  Conferencing process will change their
  understanding or create new personal
  constructions of knowledge as a result of
  interactions within the group
• Secondary school students engaged in an
  instructor moderated, constructivist activity,
  will construct knowledge within the group by a
  process of social negotiation in CMC environments
  in the same fashion as adults
• (Hypotheses based on questions from Gunawardena,
  Lowe and Anderson, 1997)

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Examples of projects

• lets look at some examples of projects from other
  schools to give you an idea of where we are going
• it is expected that the project will be produced
  electronically using a common word processor
  package as well as analysis software
• presentation using PowerPoint or Presentations is
  also required

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Exercises

• try page 81 1 a c e, 2 a c e, 4, 5, 13

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Characteristics of Data

• Chapter 2.2 In Search of Good Data
• Mathematics of Data Management (Nelson)
• MDM 4U
• Author Gary Greer (with ideas from K. Myers)

13
Data?

• data is a group of facts or information that is
  collected from a population
• a population is the group of individuals that a
  study is concerned with
• for example if we want to find the opinions of
  students at NDSS, the population is all students
  at NDSS

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More Data Classifications

• quantitative data
• data that can be measured numerically
• ex height or weight
• qualitative data
• non-numerical data
• ex opinion, eye color, attitudes
• time series data
• data collected over a long of time

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Sampling

• it is usually too difficult to collect data from
  all the population (a census)
• a sample is a part of the population that is
  chosen to save money and/or time
• if the sample is representative, then it provides
  an accurate picture of the entire population
• a conclusion drawn from a sample data is called
  an inference (we are assuming that the sample
  represents the entire population)

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Types of Studies

• Cross sectional
• a study which sample different groups of a
  population at the same time
• for example sampling students in grades 9
  through 12 in a secondary school
• Longitudinal
• a study that looks at the same individuals over
  time
• for example sampling the same students over 4
  years
• what are the advantages of each of these?

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Exercises

• read through examples 1 to 3 on pages 86 through
  89
• try page 89 1-6 and 10

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References

• Wikipedia (2004). Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved
  September 1, 2004 from http//en.wikipedia.org/wik
  i/Main_Page