slides

1. CONDUCTING EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
STEP 1: GATHERING DATA FOR SESSION 1 ‘A GUIDE TO UNIVERSITY’

2. CONDUCTING EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
3 primary purposes that I need to take into account: (Nemoto, 2014):
1. To contribute to the development of a theory
 Student find it difficult to transition to university on a personal and academic level that leads to
withdrawal
2. To investigate a phenomena believed to play an important role in education
 The transition from college to university has an impact on students in their education
3. To develop more effective pedagogies
 Develop a session for 6th form students on transitioning to university for them to have a more
realistic view of what to expect
To pursue these purposes I need to:
• Use data gathering tools: tests, interviews, protocols, class rom observations and questionnaires
• Ensure the data gathered can be used to make inferences as this is important for validity

3. LIKERT SCALE QUESTIONNAIRE
It’s a psychometric scale that has multiple categories and numbers of desirable
characteristics from which respondents choose to indicate their opinions, attitudes or
feelings about a particular issue (Nemoto, 2014).
(Nemoto, 2014)

4. LIKERT SCALE QUESTIONNAIRE
Why did I choose a Likert scale questionnaire?
• Can gather information quickly from a large number of respondents
• Provides highly reliable person ability estimates
• The validity of the interpretations can be measured through different ways
• The data can be compared, contrasted and combined with qualitative data gathering techniques (open
ended questions, participant observations, interviews…)
It’s a psychometric scale that has multiple categories and numbers of desirable
characteristics from which respondents choose to indicate their opinions, attitudes or
feelings about a particular issue (Nemoto, 2014).

5. AIMS
• Make students aware of
the transition from 6th
form college to
university
• Give the students a
realistic view of what
it’s like to transition to
university based on our
experience
OBJECTIVES
• Get a realistic view of student
experience transitioning to
university on a personal and
academic level
• Create an informative session on
transitioning from college to
university
• Collect data on how students learn
and their opinions on case based
learning
TRANSITIONING TO UNIVERSITY
POPULATION
• Students at the
University of Leeds

6. THE CREATION OF THE LIKERT SCALE QUESTIONNAIRE
1
Understanding of the
target construct
 Academic
literature
 Analysis of
previous
questionnaires
 Critical discussion
2
Construct centred
approach
 Knowledge
skills/attributes you
need to assess
3
Developed the
questionnaire
 Developing the
items
 Determining the
outcome space
TARGET CONSTRUCT
Students opinions and
experience on
transitioning to
university

7. THE CREATION OF THE LIKERT SCALE QUESTIONNAIRE
 Year of study
 Living at home or at university
 Joined any societies
 Life-style changes at university (5 items)
 Academic changes at University (4 items)
 Studying strategies (5 items)
 The use of case studies in personal and professional development (6 items)
 Open ended question: what do you wish you had known before coming to university?

8. THE CREATION OF THE LIKERT SCALE QUESTIONNAIRE
4
Gathering feedback
and piloting
 Consult with others
who are familiar with
the construct
 Show it to at least 3
reviewers
 After modifications
show it to a reviewer
 Show it to at least 4
of target
respondents
5
Analysis of the
questionnaire
 Qualitative analysis
(%)
 Thematic analysis