Deck 7: Know the Evidence Source

Question 1

If you were to conduct research using all the teachers in a school, what subcategories for analysis might be created?

Answer 1

Answers may include gender, age, experience, preparation, subject areas taught, grade levels taught, percent load, or other demographic or professional variables. It is important for students to identify and consider the basic rules for stratification:
$\bullet$ set up according to the research questions using one level of discourse (based on a sample drawn from a single population)
$\bullet$ exhaustive (all subjects or objects in the sample are used up)
$\bullet$ mutually exclusive (each data element is in only one category)
$\bullet$ independent (being in one group is not dependent on being in a second group)
$\bullet$ derived from one classification principle (just age, or just gender, but not both, for example).

Question 2

When would it be acceptable to consciously omit specific students from an action research project in a classroom?

Answer 2

The answer is when a convenience sample is used, or when a purposive sample is selected and participants who are known to represent the research concepts are selected for inclusion. An example would be when the research project applies only to athletes in a high school, for instance, or when it deals with a subject specifically meant for female students.

Question 3

If you use a control group and an experimental group in a research project, why is it important to ensure that the two groups are very similar?

Answer 3

In order to ascertain whether or not the treatment is effective, the comparison must be to a group that very closely resembles that which is manipulated. The need to control extraneous variables is a big part of the answer.

Question 4

What kinds of data may be gathered through the use of surveys?

Question 5

How are interview data different from survey data?

Question 6

Write five interview questions for a panel of elected officials on the topic of property taxes.