Research Proposal Methods and Procedures

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Research ProposalMethods and Procedures
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OBJECTIVES

• Recognize component subheadings under Methods and
  Procedures section.
• Identify characteristics of subheadings in
  Methods and Procedures section.
• Be able to write a Methods and Procedures section
  for research proposal.

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Introduction

• Four Questions Should be Addressed
• 1. Who will participate in the study?
• 2. What types of materials will be needed?
• 3. What data will be collected?
• 4. What will participants do?

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Participants

• How will they be selected?
• volunteers? paid?
• random selection?
• From where will participants come?
• geographic region?
• institutional affiliation

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Participants (continued)

• Demographic characteristics
• Approximations in terms of
• age/age ranges
• gender
• ethnicity
• Other information for replication

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Example of Participants

• Participants
• A total of about 50 participants will be
  selected from a population of about 160 students
  enrolled in an Algebra I course at Floyd Dunlap
  High school, a large urban high school, in Miami,
  FL during the 1998-99 school year. The population
  is tri-cultural, composed primarily of Caucasian
  non-Hispanic, African-American, and Hispanic
  students

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• from a variety of Latin American backgrounds.
  Moreover, 100 of students at this school are
  enrolled in the free or reduced price lunch
  program. Participants, comprised of
  approximately 54 female and approximately 46
  male, will be selected randomly through use of a
  random numbers table (Ary, Jacobs, Razavieh,
  1996).

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Instrumentation

• Describes things to be used
• Sources from where data will come
• tests, questionnaires,
• archival sources
• Why were instruments selected
• Reliabilities and validities

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Instrumentation (continued)

• Who will administer?
• How will it will be administered?
• how many items?
• how long to complete?
• how scored?
• If new instrument has been developed
• why? field tested?
• include in entirety as table or appendix

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Example of Instrumentation

• Instrumentation
• The Stanford Achievement Test (SAT)
  Arithmetic Test (level 7.0 - 9.9) will be
  utilized as the data gathering instrument.
  Split-half reliability coefficients are reported
  to range from .86 to .93 (Davies, 1994) and
  reviewers (Locus, 1995 Smythe,

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• 1994) are in agreement concerning its high
  content validity. The SAT Arithmetic test,
  comprised of 45 multiple-choice items, requires
  students approximately 35 minutes to complete.
  Taken via paper-and-pencil, students respond to
  questions on a Scantron that is computer scored
  by the SAT publishing company.

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Procedures

• What will the researchers and the participants
  do? When? In what order will the activities be
  conducted?
• If an intervention or treatment occurs, describe
  in detail the nature of the program.
• Write in a cookbook manner Step-by-step process
• Error made by students in writing a procedures
  section is insufficient detail for replication.

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Example of Procedures

• Procedures
• In the fall of 1999, prior to the
  assignment of students to classes, a list of all
  students scheduled to enroll in General Math I in
  the fall (approximately 150 students) will be

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• obtained from the principal of the school.
  Using this list, 60 students will be randomly
  selected through use of a random numbers table
  (Ary et al., 1996) to participate in the study.
  These 60 students will then be

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• randomly assigned to one of two General Math I
  classes, one class to receive programmed
  instruction and one class to receive
  lecture-discussion instruction. The random
  assignment to class type will also be performed
  through the use of a random numbers table.

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• The programmed instruction class will utilize
  a computer program titled Herculette, published
  by the Programmers Institute of Technology School
  (1996), and used on IBM or IBM compatible
  computers with a Pentium 686 processor. In this
  program,

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• students are required to exhibit mastery
  learning on each lesson prior to making a
  transition to the next higher lesson in the math
  sequence. The lecture-discussion classroom
  teacher will present the same math concepts used
  in the Herculette

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• program but through a lecture format instead of
  through use of a computer. Discussion will occur
  between the teacher and students when students
  ask questions about math concepts.

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Data Analysis

• Describes statistical technique(s) to be used to
  analyze your data
• Use a dependent samples t-test for comparing pre-
  and post- test scores of a group of students
• Use an independent samples t-test for comparing
  means between two different groups of students.
• Use an analysis of variance for comparing the
  means of three or more groups
• Use .05 for level of statistical significance

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Example of Data Analysis

• Data Analysis
• To address the extent to which mean
  differences will be present in reading between
  students enrolled in block scheduled schools and
  those students enrolled in non-block scheduled
  schools, an independent samples t-test will be
  used.

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• Should the independent samples t-test provide a
  statistically significant result at the .05 level
  or below, then the null hypothesis will be
  rejected. That is, the assumption of no
  difference in reading between block and non-block
  schools will be rejected.

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• Should the independent samples t-test analysis
  not provide a statistically significant result at
  the .05 level, then the null hypothesis will not
  be rejected. That is, the assumption of no
  difference in reading between block and non-block
  scheduled schools will not be rejected. For this
  statistical comparison, an alpha level of .05
  will be used as the level of statistical
  significance.

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Example of Methods and Procedures section

• Participants
• Participants will be approximately 100
  certified school personnel in South Georgia. Of
  this sample, about 20 will be male and about 80
  will be female. Approximately 75 of the sample
  will be regular education teachers and
  approximately 25 will be special education
  teachers. Experience of teachers will range from
  about 1 to about

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• 15 years in education. About 33 of teachers
  will be working in elementary schools, about 33
  of teachers will be working in middle schools,
  and about 33 of teachers will be working in high
  schools.

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Methods and Procedures (continued)

• Instrumentation
• Participants will complete a
  questionnaire consisting of the following format
  demographic questions related to teaching
  position years of teaching experience grade
  level teaching and whether or not their students
  will take a state-mandated

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• minimum competency test. These demographic
  items will be followed by 27 attitude statements
  about standardized achievement tests to which
  participants will respond using a 5-point Likert
  format ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly
  Disagree. A total score on the attitude items
  will be obtained by adding item responses for
  each.

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• participant. Items negatively phrased will be
  reverse scored. Thus, total scores will reflect
  more positive attitudes toward standardized
  testing.

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• Procedures
• In the fall of 1997, all teachers at the
  Lowndes County High School will be asked at a
  routine faculty meeting, through a one page memo
  handed out by the school principal, if they would
  be willing to participate in

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• this study. At the end of the faculty
  meeting, those teachers who decide to participate
  will be handed a copy of the questionnaire, a
  computer scoring form, and a 2 pencil. Those
  teachers who decide not to

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• participate will leave at the end of the
  faculty meeting.
• Following completion of the questionnaire,
  the senior researcher will collect the
  questionnaire, computer scoring form, and 2
  pencil when the teachers exit the room. Once all
  materials have been

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• collected, approximately 30 minutes after the
  end of the faculty meeting, the junior researcher
  will take the questionnaires and pencils back to
  the junior researchers university office. The
  computer scoring form will be taken to the
  university computer center to be recorded onto a
  3 1/4 IBM formatted disk.

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• Data Analysis
• Questionnaire data, to be analyzed via
  frequencies, will be reported in terms of percent
  of educators who express agreement or
  disagreement with each questionnaire item.

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• Following the calculation of a total score on
  the survey, an analysis of variance will be
  conducted to determine whether mean differences
  are present in attitudes among elementary,
  middle, and secondary school teachers. Then, an
  independent samples t-test will be performed to
  determine whether mean differences in attitudes
  are present between male and female teachers. The
  level of statistical significance for statistical
  comparisons will be set at .05.