Introduction to writing research questions and determining what variables to use. Introductory concepts for school personnel interested in action research.

1. Research Topics and Hypotheses
Formulation
Educational Research and
Assessment
Dr. Pedro L. Martinez

2. What is a Theory?
• A theory is a well-established principle that has
been developed to explain some aspect of the
natural world. A theory arises from repeated
observation and testing and incorporates facts,
laws, predictions, and tested hypotheses that
are widely accepted.
• A theory predicts events in general terms, while
a hypothesis makes a specific prediction about
a specified set of circumstances.

3. • A hypothesis is a specific, testable prediction about what you
expect to happen in your study.
• For example, a study designed (imaginary) to look at the
relationship between study habits and test anxiety might have
a hypothesis that states:
“This study is designed to assess the hypothesis that students
with better study habits will suffer less test anxiety.”
Unless your study is exploratory in nature, your hypothesis
should always explain what you expect to happen during the
course of your experiment or research.
What is a Hypothesis?

4. • A research hypothesis is the statement created
by a researcher when they speculate upon the
outcome of a research or experiment.
• A hypothesis should be based on sound
rationale. It should derive from previous
research or theory and its confirmation or
disconfirmation should contribute to educational
theory or practice.
Hypothesis

5. What is the Difference Between a
Theory and Hypothesis?
A theory predicts events in general terms, while
a hypothesis makes a specific prediction about a
specified set of circumstances.
A hypothesis is generated via a number of
means, but is usually the result of a process of
inductive reasoning where observations lead to
the formation of a theory. Scientists then use a
large battery of deductive methods to arrive at a
hypothesis that is testable, falsifiable and
realistic.

6. Operational Definitions
• Study habits and test anxiety are the two
variables in this imaginary study. A
variable is a factor or element that can be
changed and manipulated in ways that are
observable and measurable. However, the
researcher must also define exactly what
each variable she is using and state the
operational definitions. These definitions
explain how the variable will be
manipulated and measured in the study.

7. Defining Operations
• In our previous example, a researcher
might operationally define the variable
„test anxiety’ as the results on a self-
report measure of anxiety experienced
during an exam.
• The variable ‘study habits’ might be
defined by the amount of studying that
actually occurs as measured by time.

8. • These precise descriptions of each variable are
important because many things can be
measured in a number of different ways.
• One of the basic principles of any type of
scientific research is that the results must be
replicable. By clearly detailing the specifics of
how the variables were measured and
manipulated, other researchers can better
understand the results and repeat the study if
needed.
Why does the researcher need to
provide operational definitions for each
variable?

9. • How would you operationally define a variable
such as aggression?
• For obvious ethical reasons, researchers cannot
create a situation in which a person behaves
aggressively toward others. In order to measure
this variable, the researcher must devise a
measurement that assesses aggressive
behavior without harming other people. In this
situation, the researcher might utilize a
simulated task to measure aggressiveness.
Some variables are more difficult
than others to define.

10. Supplemental Instruction
• Read more: http://www.experiment-
resources.com/research-
hypothesis.html#ixzz0zKSGuVmH
• http://www.experiment-resources.com/research-
methodology.html

11. How do I find a Research Question?
Find a topic?
What do I know?
What I have read?
Do I know any theories in my area?
What experiences have I had related to learning?
Do I know of a research topic that could be
replicated?
Sign up to an organization or to a e-mail list serve
www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html

12. Narrowing your Topic
• Examine all the possible handbooks that are
available at the O‟Kelly Library:
• Handbook of Educational Research
Administration
• Handbook of Educational Psychology
• Handbook of Research on Curriculum
• Handbook of Teacher Education

13. Is your topic researchable and
worth pursuing?
• Effectiveness of class reminders in reducing
instances of pencil sharpening?
• Should students be held back?
• Should in –service teachers take graduate
courses?

14. Select an aspect of research
• If you find a research study such as:
• Investigating the Effectiveness of Computer-
Assisted Children Instruction in Elementary
Arithmetic.
• Can I extrapolate the study to include other
subject areas?
• Of course!

15. Is your research question
applicable to a study?
• Turn a non-researchable topic into a research
questions:
• Do students who are held back increase their
motivation to persist school?

16. • 1. Search the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) database
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education at http://eric.ed.gov.
• 2. Search the online catalog of books and journals at a local college or
university library. Major research in Qualitative Research:
• Educational Action Research
• Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (American Educational
Research Association)
• Educational Insights (Centre for the study of Curriculum & Instruction;
University of British Columbia) [online]
• Educational Researcher (American Educational Research Association)
• Electronic Journal of Sociology [online]
• The Elementary School Journal
• Emergence: Complexity and Organization
• English Education (National Council of Teachers of English)
• Ethnography
• Exceptional Children (The Council for Exceptional Children)
The initial step is to identify and obtain copies of research
reports from studies of programs and practices similar to those
your school district seeks to improve. Such as:

17. • 3. Check List Available at O'Kelly Library
• 4. Visit the Web site of well-regarded national
and local education organizations such as:
Other Sources…

18. • 4. Contact people operating programs in your
area of interest, such as juvenile delinquency
and community-based arts education or
collaborations between schools and arts
organizations, and inquire about research they
may have available. Often the small studies
conducted on specific, localized programs
remain unpublished and can easily be
overlooked unless you contact the program
directly.
• 5. Place a query on an education organization‟s
listservs.
• 6. Use a Web search engine such as Google
Continued…

19. • That depends on your judgment. However, you should always ask
does it improve my practice or profession?
Research recommended by NCLB:
• http://www.ct4me.net/Research_Corner.htm#NCLB and Research
• http://www.ct4me.net/Research_Corner.htm#Reading and
Conducting Research
• http://www.ct4me.net/Research_Corner.htm#Finding Education
Research
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (2004) discusses
and provides examples of the six components of scientifically based
research (SBR) must:
• Use empirical methods.
• Involve rigorous and adequate data analyses.
• Rely on measurements or observational methods that provide
reliable and valid data.
• Use either an experimental or quasi-experimental design.
• Allow for replicability and undergo expert scrutiny. (pp. 3-4)
Is my research question significant?

20. 1.Pose significant questions that can be investigated
empirically.
2. Link research to relevant theory.
3. Use methods that permit direct investigation of the
question.
4. Provide a coherent and explicit chain of reasoning.
5. Replicate and generalize across studies.
6. Disclose research to encourage professional scrutiny
and critique.
For more information on the role of NRC go to:
National Research Council uses this
criteria:
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/NRC/ind
ex.htm

21. • The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (2002) defines
scientifically based research as "research that
involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and
objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid
knowledge relevant to education activities and
programs."
• The criteria according to NCLB is:
• Persuasive-Persuasive. This attribute refers to
research that is moving from "tentative knowledge
claims generated at local research sites to become
stabilized and transformed into widely accepted
facts" (Smith and others 2002). Appropriate
research design, methods, and techniques; logic
and reasoning; and replicable results can all help to
establish persuasiveness.
What is SBR?

22. • SBR is defined in the Elementary and Secondary School
Education Act in Title IX, Part A (37). This definition
applies to all programs under ESEA except the Reading
First Program, which has its own definition.
• SBR is defined for Comprehensive School Reform
(CSR) by the following six criteria:
• Employs systematic, empirical methods;
• Involves rigorous data analyses;
• Relies on measurements that provide reliable and valid
data;
• Uses experimental or quasi-experimental designs;
• Ensures that studies are clear and detailed to allow for
replication; and
• Has been reviewed or accepted by independent experts.
Scientific Based Research

23. • Empirical. Research that is empirical is based on
measurement or observation, that is,
experienced "through the senses" (NRC 2002).
• Is it important question?
• Appropriate Methods. This refers to the use of
designs, methods, and techniques that fit the
nature of the question the study is attempting to
answer.
• Replicable and Applicable Findings
NCLB Criteria for SBR

24. • Nuremberg Code
• In 1948 the Nuremberg Code laid down 10 standards for physicians to conform to when carrying out experiments
on human participants. The Nuremberg Code was the result of judgment by an American military war crimes
tribunal conducting proceedings against 23 Nazi physicians and administrators for their willing participation in war
crimes and crimes against humanity. The doctors had conducted medical experiments on concentration camp
prisoners who died or were permanently affected as a result.
• The Nuremberg Code was developed in response to the judicial condemnation of the acts of Nazi physicians, and
did not specifically address human subject research in the context of the patient-physician relationship.
• Briefly, the 10 standards of the Nuremberg Code are as follows:
• Volunteers freely consent to participate
• Researchers fully inform volunteers concerning the study
• Risks associated with the study are reduced where possible
• Researchers are responsible for protecting participants against remote harms
• Participants can withdraw from the study at any time
• Qualified researchers conduct the study
• Cessation of the study if adverse effects emerge
• Society should benefit from study findings
• Research on humans, should be based on previous animal or other previous work
• A research study should never begin if there is a reason to believe that death or injury may result
Why Ethics?

25. • Declaration of Helsinki (International)
• In 1964, the World Medical Association developed ethical principles as guidance for medical doctors in biomedical
research involving human subjects. The World Medical Association adopted the Declaration of Helsinki in
response to concerns with research on patient populations. The primary purpose of the accord was to declare
individual patient interests before those of society. The Declaration of Helsinki was revised in 1975, 1983, 1989,
1996, and 2000.
• Briefly, the basic principles of the Declaration of Helsinki include the following:
• Physician‟s duty in research is to protect the life, health, privacy, and dignity of the human participant
• Research involving humans must conform to generally accepted scientific principles and thorough knowledge of
scientific literature and methods
• Research protocols should be reviewed by an independent committee
• Research protocols should be conducted by medically/scientifically qualified individuals
• Risks and burden to the participant should not outweigh benefits
• Researcher should stop study if risks are found to outweigh potential benefits
• Research is justified only if there is a reasonable likelihood that the population under study will benefit from the
results
• Participants must be volunteers and informed in research project
• Every precaution must be taken to respect privacy, confidentiality, and participant‟s physical and mental integrity
• Assent must be obtained from minors, if child able to do so
• Investigators are obliged to preserve the accuracy of results; negative and positive results should be publicly
available
Historical antecendents

26. Is it Ethical?
• It does not harm individuals physically or emotionally.
• If someone told you to press a button to deliver a 450-
volt electrical shock to an person in the next room, would
you do it?
• Milgram‟s Study
• In the early 1960s, a young psychologist at Yale began
what became one of the most widely recognized
experiments in his field. In the first series, he found that
about two-thirds of subjects were willing to inflict what
they believed were increasingly painful shocks on an
innocent person when the experimenter told them to do
so, even when the victim screamed and pleaded.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk

27. Is this what is meant by Ethical and
Legal?
In order to determine whether fear was innate or a conditioned
response, father of behaviorism, John Watson, used a nine
month old orphan he nicknamed Little Albert to test his theory.
Watson began the experiment by placing Little Albert in the
middle of a room. A white laboratory rat was placed near
Albert, who was allowed to play with it. Albert was not scared.
For two months he was exposed to various things without any
sort of conditioning; a white rabbit, a monkey, masks etc…
Watson placed Albert in a room again with the rat, however this
time, when Albert would touch the rat, Watson would make
loud sounds behind him, such as the striking of a steel bar with
a hammer. When this occurred, Albert would get frightened
and begin to cry. Watson continued to do this until eventually,
Albert became very distressed whenever exposed to the rat.
Eventually, Albert associated anything fluffy or white with the
loud noise. Little Albert was never desensitized to his fear and
was released from the hospital before Watson was able to do
so.
http://www.highestfive.com/mind/5-unethical-
psych-experiments/

28. • Dubbed the „monster study‟, the experiment
was conducted by speech expert Wendell
Johnson, led in part by graduate student Mary
Tudor Jacobs in 1939. Johnson believed that
stuttering was a learned behavior, attributed to
outside factors such as constant criticism from
a parent to its child for even the slightest
speech imperfections. 22 orphan children with
no prior speech impediment were chosen for
the experiment. Wendell‟s goal was to induce
the disorder in orphans.
• One group of orphans received praise for
positive speech therapy whereas the other
group was belittled, badgered and told they
were stutterers. By the end of the study, none
of the test subjects in the negative therapy
group became stutterers, but the experience
caused them low self-esteem and irreparable
damage.
Another Tragic Example

29. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br9goVGNPzc&fe
ature=related
• Stanley Milgram's experiment
• The Tuskegee Syphilis study
• The Willowbrook study,
• The Laud Humphrey's "Tearoom Sex" study.
These studies led to the creation of the Belmont
Report and the Institutional Review Board (IRB)
which were formed to protect human subjects
involved in research.
What is the nature of humans?

30.  Syphilis Study (1932 –1972):
• The U.S. Public Health Service conducted a research project from 1932 to 1972 to
document the natural progression of syphilis. Six hundred low-income African-
American males, 399 of whom were infected with syphilis, 201 were not infected,
were recruited for the study. Participants were given free medical examinations, free
meals, and burial insurance; however, they were not told about their disease. The
physicians conducting the study told the participants they were being treated for “bad
blood”. The physicians deliberately denied these men treatment for syphilis and also
attempted to prevent treatment from other sources.
On May 16, 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton apologized, on behalf of the
government, to the surviving participants of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the
members of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee.
The participants for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study were disadvantaged, rural black
men; however the disease was not confined to this population. Risks to participants
were not minimized in this study, instead, participation increased risks. The burden of
risk was placed on the disadvantaged, rural black male population while a much
broader population benefits from the findings. These findings demonstrate the need
for voluntary informed consent, risks not outweighing benefits, and that benefits and
risks of research should be distributed fairly.
For more information see the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee website.
Classical Unethical Research
Studies

31.  Willowbrook School Study (1963 - 1966):
• Willowbrook State School, situated in New York State, was an institution for
mentally handicapped children. Parents of children in the institution gave
consent for their children to participate in a study. The intent of the research
study was to follow the course of viral hepatitis and study the effectiveness
of an agent for inoculating against hepatitis. Parents were provided with
study information describing the drug administration as vaccinations.
However, the children were deliberately infected with the hepatitis virus.
There is evidence that the school only admitted children to the school
whose parents gave permission for them to be in the study.
 Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital (1963):
• Studies were conducted at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in New
York City to develop information on the nature of the human transplant
rejection process. Chronically ill patients who did not have cancer were
injected with live human cancer cells. The physicians did not inform the
patients as to what they were doing. The physicians‟ rationalization for their
actions was as follows: (i) they did not want to scare the patients and (ii)
they thought the cells would be rejected.
•

32.  Milgram Obedience Study (early 1960s):
• Stanley Milgram, a social psychology researcher at Yale University,
wondered why defendants in the Nuremberg Trials justified their unethical
actions by saying they were just following orders. Even though his studies
were designed to learn about conditions of obedience and disobedience,
Milgram used deception to recruit participants by calling his projects
learning and memory studies.
Naïve participants believed they were applying punishment, escalating
electric shock, to a “learner”, in response to incorrect answers to word-pair
matching questions. Actually, the “learner” was a confederate (i.e., was
working for the researcher) and was not being shocked. The deception was
revealed at the end of the study.
The study was criticized for the extreme psychological stress experienced
by some of the participants, and that due to the deception, informed consent
was not obtained. There is a short online video of "Obedience-the Stanley
Milgram Experiment" available for viewing. This short won the 1997 Best
Student Production Award.
Milgram Studies

33. • 1. What right does a researcher have to expose
subjects to such stress?
• 2. What activities should be or not be allowed in
marketing research?
• 3. Does the search for knowledge always justify
such "costs" to subjects?
• 4. Who should decide such issues?
• Besides this study, there were other experiments
that also brought about awareness to the
• issue of ethics.
What are the Rules?

34. • The Belmont Report, U.S., (1979)
• On July 12, 1974, the U.S. National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of
Biomedical and Behavioral Research was created via the U.S. National Research Act. The
Commission was to:
• Identify the basic ethical principles that should underlie the conduct of biomedical and
behavioural research involving human subjects, and
• Develop guidelines which should be followed to assure that biomedical and behavioural
research is conducted in accordance with the basic ethical principles.
• The basic ethical principles of The Belmont Report are as follows:
• Respect for Persons
– Autonomy of individuals
– Persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection
• Beneficence
– Respect persons‟ decisions and protect from harm
– maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harms
• Justice
– Benefits and risks of research must be distributed fairly
• The applications of 1, 2, and 3, respectively, are informed consent, assessment of risks and
benefits, and selection of subjects.
The Belmont Report

35. • The role of the IRB (Institutional Review Board) is to protect the rights and
welfare of individual research subjects. These goals are accomplished by
having the IRB assure that the following requirements are satisfied:
• 1. risk to subjects are minimized
• 2. risk to subjects are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits,
• 3. selection of subjects is equitable, i.e. fair
• 4. informed consent is sought form each subject or his/her legally
authorized representative,
• 5. informed consent is appropriately documented,
• 6. when appropriate, the research plan makes provisions for monitoring
data collection,
• 7. privacy and confidentiality of research subjects is appropriately protected,
and
• 8. when some or all of the subjects are likely to be vulnerable to coercion or
undue influence, additional safeguards have been included.
• For ore Information on the IRB Board go to: http://www.irbforum.org/
Additional Ethical Questions

36.  Tearoom Trade Study (mid 1960s):
• For his PhD dissertation, Laud Humphries, a sociologist, was
interested in learning what motivates men who have anonymous sex
in public washrooms. He was interested in determining their
personal characteristics and also the nature of the sexual activity.
There were two parts to the study. In the first part, he befriended the
men by acting as a “lookout”. Since the public washroom was in a
park the researcher was able to take down some of the men‟s
license plate numbers. He then obtained identifying information on
these men by tracing their car license plates via a policeman. A year
later, in the second part of the study, the researcher utilized the
identifying information he obtained to contact and subsequently,
interview the men in their homes. To avoid being recognized, he
altered his appearance and claimed he was conducting a study on
health issues.
The concerns with this study were the use of deception upon
deception and the lack of opportunity for participants to provide
informed consent.
•
Tea for Two?

37. • Human Behavior Experiments 2007
Produced for Court TV and the Sundance Channel, HUMAN BEHAVIOR EXPERIMENTS
revisits three famous behavioral studies to explore some perennial questions about why
human beings commit unethical acts under particular social conditions: Stanley Milgram's
obedience to authority experiments, in which subjects willingly inflicted pain on another
person; Philip Zimbardo's alarming prisoner and guard role-playing study at Stanford; and
Columbia University's 1969 experiments which illuminated how being in a group can cause
a diffusion of moral responsibility. A Jigsaw Production.
Click to read the NYTimes Review
Nudity, Violence, Adult Language, Adult Content
• Taxi to the Dark Side 2008
Winner of the Academy-Award for best documentary feature, TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE is
a gripping investigation into the reckless abuse of power by the Bush Administration. A
documentary murder mystery that examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver at Bagram
Air Base, the film exposes a worldwide policy of detention and interrogation that condones
torture and the abrogation of human rights. This disturbing and often brutal film is the most
incisive examination to date of the Bush Administration‟s willingness, in its prosecution of
the “war on terror,” to undermine the essence of the rule of law. The film asks and answers
a key question: what happens when a few men use the wartime powers of the executive to
undermine the very principles on which the United States was founded? A Jigsaw
Production.
Website: www.taxitothedarkside.com
Contemporary Films

38. Permission Sample #1

39. Sample #2

40. • Does it depend on my research skill level?
• What is my knowledge in the subject
• Are participants available?
• Are there instruments that I can use that have
been shown to be reliable?
• http://www.centerforcsri.org/pubs/pg/sbr.htm
Is it Manageable?

41. • Quantitative or Qualitative?
• Quantitative-topic statement describes the
variables of interest, the specific relation among
the variables, and the important characteristics
of the participants.
• (e.g., gifted students, fourth graders with
learning disabilities, teenage mothers)
Look at this research statement:
“ The focus of this study is to determine what effect
positive reinforcements have on the quality of
10th graders‟ English composition.”
How do I state the research topic?

42. • “The topic to be investigated in this study is
secondary teacher‟s attitudes toward required
after-school activities.”
• Variables- (I) (D)
• Relationship-
• Subjects-
What are the variables, relationships
and who are the subjects?

43. • In qualitative research the research question is
not initially stated as hypothesis. Researchers
conducting qualitative research are mainly
concern about (a) specific environment where
observable behaviors may take place and
documented.
• Researchers begin with an open mind and later
try to formulate a hypothesis based on
information and data gathered throughout the
study. The researcher will narrow the research
question later as the study proceed
Qualitative Research Topics

44. • Why does the quantitative researcher must
begin with a hypothesis?
• Why does the qualitative researcher does not?
What is the difference?

45. • Choice of participants
• Measuring instruments
• Design
• Procedures
• Data Analysis
• Conclusions
• So what about a theory?
In quantitative research a
hypothesis establishes

46. • There are four criterion used to determined its
value:
• 1) Based on sound rationale from theories or
previous studies. It confirms or disconfirms previous
conclusions
• 2) It is reasonable and provides an explanation for
the predicted outcome
• 3) States concisely the expected relationship
between variables and defines them in an
operational and measurable way. (how do we define
the variables?)
• 4) Is it testable?
Criteria to Determine the Value of a
Hypothesis

47. • 1. The hypothesis (quantitative) will determine
the research study
• 2. My research topic is sound and based on
previous findings or reasonable professional
judgment
• 3. Survey the standard tools of measures
readily available.
Other things to consider..

48. • Inductive and Deductive- how are they derived
• Directional and Non-Directional-stating the
relationship of variables.
Hypotheses Typology

49. Inductive Hypothesis
Inductive vs. Deductive
Obser
vation
1
Observ
ation 2
Observ
ation 3 Hypothesis

50. • Deductive Hypothesis is derived from previous
research and theory.
• Example: An eight grader teacher with 10 years
of experience has found that her students tend
to be less anxious when taking an essay exams
than those who take multiple choice tests.
• What kind of hypothesis?

51. • A directional hypothesis simply states the direction of
the relationship or difference.
• A non-directional hypothesis-simply states that a
direction or relation exists.
• Examples:
• “The achievement of 10th grade biology students who
are instructed using interactive multimedia is significantly
different than the achievement of those who receive
regular instruction only.”
• “Tenth grade biology students who are instructed using
interactive multimedia achieve a higher level than those
who receive regular instruction only.”
Directional and Non-Directional
Hypotheses

52. • The null hypothesis states that there is no
significant relation or difference between
variables.
• “ The achievement level of 10th grade biology
students who are instructed using interactive
multimedia is not significantly different than the
achievement level of those who receive regular
instruction.
The null hypothesis

53. • P who get X do better on Y than
• P who do not get X (or get some X)
• P= participants
• X= the treatment (causal or IV variable)
• Y= the study outcome, the effect of the dependent variable (DV)
• “The purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of 12th
grade mentors on the absenteeism of low achieving 10th graders”
• “The purpose of the proposed research is to investigate the
effectiveness of different conflict resolution techniques in reducing the
aggressive behaviors of high-school students in an alternative
educational setting”
• Write a directional and non directional hypothesis for each of the above.
Exercise

54. • Write directional, non-directional and a null hypotheses for the
following examples:
• “This study investigates the effectiveness of token
reinforcement, in the form of free time given the completion of
practice worksheets, on the math computation skills on ninth
grade general math students”
“The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of formal
versus informal preschool reading instruction on children‟s
reading comprehension at the end of the first grade.”
More examples