This document provides an overview of the main components of an educational research project, including the statement of the problem, research questions, literature review, methodology, analysis, conclusions, and implications. It discusses the purpose statement, theoretical framework, strategies of inquiry (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods), data collection and analysis. The document also outlines the first steps for developing an educational research project, including identifying a problem, choosing a worldview, selecting a methodology, and generating initial keywords for the literature review.

1. EDUC 515
Educational
Research
Fall 2013
Adapted from Creswell, Nocera, Buller,

2. Main Components of Research
• Statement of the Problem / Purpose Statement
– What is the problem you are investigating?
– Why it is important?
• Research Questions and Hypotheses
– What are your Research Questions? In other
words what is it that you are trying to find out by
doing this study?

3. Main Components of Research (cont.)
• Review of the Literature
– What is your Theoretical Framework? (What is the theoretical
basis for your study?)
– A good piece should be grounded in theory. Simply put, a
theory is a statement explaining a phenomenon.
• Examples:
– Socio-economic status influences academic performance
– Metacognitive ability influences performance in school subjects
– Knowledge of story grammar enhances reading comprehension of narrative
text
– Discipline problems is more common among students with low self-esteem
– Presenting information visually enhances recall and understanding
– Inquiry learning methods improves understanding of material
– What previous studies shed light on this topic and how do they
differ from your study?

4. Main Components of Research (cont.)
• Methodology/Strategies of Inquiry
– Revisit your research questions.
– How will your perform your data collection?
• Qualitative
• Quantitative
• Mixed Methods
– How will you analyze the data?
• Analysis
– What are your findings and how do they inform your
research questions?

5. Main Components of Research (cont.)
• Conclusion
– A summary of your findings and how they answer
the research questions (major themes that
emerged from the data; less detailed than the
analysis section).
• Implications
– What does this study mean? What might happen
or change as a result of this new knowledge?
– What recommendations do you have for future
research on this or similar topics?

6. 3 Main Types of Methodology
(Strategies of Inquiry)
• Qualitative
– [Subjective] How do the participants make
meaning of events in their lives?
– How do participants perceive a
situation/problem?
– Phenomenological: Finding the human experience
by looking at events as participants describe
them.
• Data Collection
– Interviews, focus groups
– Observation, participant observation

7. 3 Main Types of Methodology (cont.)
• Quantitative
– [Objective] What is the relationship among
variables?
– Events, participants’ perceptions, etc. are assigned
numbers and these numbers are analyzed using
statistical procedures.
• Data Collection
– Surveys, questionnaires
– Measures, document review

8. 3 Main Types of Methodology (cont.)
• Mixed Methods
– Mixes both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
• Data Collection
Example: A review of the documents shows that an
inordinate amount of students are failing Mr. Olsen’s
class.
– Report statistics: 15% of Olsens’s students earn failing
grades as opposed to 3% of students in other
classrooms in the school and 5% of students district-
wide.
– Conduct a focus group with students who are doing
well and with those who are failing. Interview certain
individuals. Interview Mr. Olsen and other teachers.

9. First Steps
Your starting point should be typed and about 1
page in length. You can list your paper Steps 1 -5
to address the following:
1. Step 1: After reading, think of a problem you
see in your school (or district, community in
which students live , etc.) that you would like to
investigate. Describe this problem in 1 or 2
paragraphs.
*You will not actually be conducting research
during this course.

10. First Steps
2. Step 2: Choose a worldview (combination of
worldviews) that most closely reflects your
ideas (see Table 1.1, p. 6). Give a brief
explanation of why you chose this worldview
– what do you like about it? Do you see any
shortcomings?

11. First Steps
• Step 3: Select a methodology/strategy of
inquiry (qualitative, quantitative, mixed
methods). Be sure that your worldview
meshes with the methodology you choose
(see p. 16 -18).
• Step 4: Create a list of Key Words (approx. 5)
that you would use to begin researching
literature on this topic.