Assignment 1: Research Manuscript Critique Part 1
Post your assignment by assigned to theSubmissions Area. Complete each item listed below for each manuscript.
Step 1: Access the Shared Documents at the bottom of the Course Content Menuin your online classroom.
Step 2: Select the sub-module which pertains to your discipline-Research Articles_Business or Research Articles_Social Sciences.
Step 3: Select Three manuscripts in your area of study to examine throughout this course:
• 1 qualitative study
• 1 quantitative study
• 1 mixed methods study
Critique the manuscripts using the checklists below. You will be using these research articles to help you understand what exactly goes into the research methods for dissertations and other research. Each module you will identify specific elements in these research articles relating specifically to that module. These will serve as great examples for what you will need to do in your own research!
Complete the following research manuscript critique for each selected article.
Manuscript Reference: (Include the APA style Reference here)
Type of Study: (Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods)
Research Topic: (Identify the phenomenon of interest.)
Purpose of the Study: (Briefly, in 1-3 sentences, describe the purpose or significance of the study)
Overarching Research Question or Theory: (What is the primary research question or theory for this study?)
Specific Research Questions/ Philosophical Underpinnings: (Include the specific research questions, hypotheses or philosophical underpinnings for each study.)
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 2: Formulating Research Questions
The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate how the research question informs the choice of methodology. Formulate your research question or theory (for some qualitative work) and identify which type of methodological approach would best answer your question: Quantitative, Qualitative or Mixed Methods. Explain your choice. Submit your questions no later than by the due date assigned.
List your:
1. Research Topic: (Identify the phenomenon of interest.)
2. Purpose of the Study: (Briefly, in 1-3 sentences, describe the purpose or significance of the study)
3. Overarching Research Question or Theory: (What is the primary research question or theory for the study?)
4. Specific Research Questions/ Philosophical Underpinnings: (Include the specific research questions, hypotheses or philosophical underpinnings for the study.)
5. Methodological Approach and Rational: (Identify the type of methodological approach best suited for this study: Quantitative, Qualitative or Mixed Methods and explain why this approach is best.)
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 3: Describing the Sample
Building on your own research topic discussed in Module 2, discuss the following information concerning your sample. Submit your checklists no later than by the due date assigned.
Remember, this is a process so please make sure to incorporate corrections based on the feedback you received on previous assignments!
1. Research Topic:
2. Purpose of the Study:
3. Overarching Research Question or Theory:
4. Specific Research Questions/ Philosophical Underpinnings:
5. Methodological Approach and Rational:
Sample:
• What is the anticipated sample size: How many will be included? How will you determine this number?
• Explain the demographic variables (age, gender, ethnicity, education etc. and how these relate to the study).
• What population does the sample belong to? Ie: What are the general demographic characteristics of the population (students, children, healthy adults, mentally ill adults etc).
• Recruitment: How do you plan to recruit the participants? Will all those recruited be included in the study? Why or why not? What type of sampling procedure will you use?
• Location: Where will the data be collected?
• Discuss potential difficulties you may encounter in recruiting this population and/or discuss your plan on how to access this population.
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 4: Quantitative Methodology
Your research question may or may not be appropriately answered using Quantitative Research methodology. In this assignment you will apply what you have learned about quantitative methodology from the readings and the Assignment 1 discussion to your own research question. If your research question is best answered using Quantitative methodology, stick with it and complete the critique below. If not, how might you alter your question so that it may be answered using quantitative methodology? Although research is driven by questions, for this assignment we are going to turn it around so we may explore the benefits and differences of various types of methodologies. Adjust your question to fit a quantitative design and complete the critique below.
For example: The question "What are the perceptions of students regarding their experiences with faculty mentors" is best answered by gathering qualitative data through unstructured interviews via email correspondence. This question could become a quantitative question by altering the question to "What types of interactions do students value most with their faculty mentors?" To answer this quantitative question we could survey 250 students using an instrument identifying 15 functions of a faculty mentor on a likert scale (very helpful to not helpful).
Complete the following dissertation critique for the Quantitative research you propose.
1. Research Topic:
2. Purpose of the Study:
3. Overarching Research Question:
4. Specific Research Questions/ Hypotheses:
5. Type of Study: Quantitative
6. Variables: Identify the Dependent and Independent Variables.
7. Quantitative Research method design: survey, experimental, quasi-experimental, pretest/posttest control group, cross-sectional, longitudinal, etc.
8. Instrument(s) analysis: Identify potential measures that will help to answer your research questions and discuss their reliability and validity.
9. Data analysis: Discuss the statistical software, if any, that will be used in analysis of the data and the type of analyses that may be included. Discuss the anticipated generalizability of the results.
10. Consent: What type of consent, if any, will be obtained from the participants?
*If your topic was not originally best suited for a quantitative design: What did you need to change to adjust your research to fit a quantitative design? How does this design address your overarching topic differently? Discuss the differences in the type of information you would gain by using this research design.
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 5: Qualitative Methodology
Your research question may or may not be appropriately answered using Qualitative Research methodology. In this assignment you will apply what you have learned about qualitative methodology from the readings and the Assignment 1 discussion to your own research question. If your research question is best answered using Qualitative methodology, stick with it and complete the critique below. If not, how might you alter your question so that it may be answered using qualitative methodology? Although research is driven by questions, for this assignment we are going to turn it around so we may explore the benefits and differences of various types of methodologies. Adjust your question to fit a qualitative design and complete the critique below.
For instance, if you are asking the question "What are the most effective interactions students have with faculty mentors?" which is best investigated using quantitative methodology, you can ask a similar question "What are the perceptions of students regarding their experiences with faculty mentors" that would be answered best using qualitative methodology including unstructured interviews.
Complete the following research critique for the Qualitative research you propose.
1. Research Topic:
2. Purpose of the Study:
3. Overarching Research Question:
4. Specific Research Questions/ Hypotheses:
5. Type of Study: Qualitative
• Qualitative Research method design: (case study, ethnography, phenomenology, document reviews, etc.)
• Procedure/Paradigms: (How was the data collected? What was the sampling strategy used?)
• Variables/Concepts: (What will you examine in this research?)
• Rigor: (How will rigor be assured? Discuss credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability as appropriate.)
• Data collection/ analysis: (Discuss data collection, analysis and saturation.)
• Consent: (What type of consent, if any, will be obtained from the participants?)
• If your topic was not originally best suited for a qualitative design: What did you need to change to adjust your research to fit a qualitative design? How does this design address your overarching topic differently? Discuss the differences in the type of information you would gain by using this research design.
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 6: Mixed Methodology
Your research question may or may not be appropriately answered using a Mixed methodology model. In this assignment you will apply what you have learned about mixed methodology from the readings and the Assignment 1 discussion to your own research question. If your research question is best answered using Mixed methodology, stick with it and complete the critique below. If not, how might you alter your question so that it may be answered using mixed methodology? Although research is driven by questions, for this assignment we are going to turn it around so we may explore the benefits and differences of various types of methodologies. Adjust your question to fit a mixed methods design and complete the critique below.
For Example: In assignments M4A2 and M5A2 you may have had to change your research question so that it should be answered using a different design. The example questions included, "What are the perceptions of students regarding their experiences with faculty mentors", best answered using qualitative research, and "What types of interactions do students value most with their faculty mentors?", best answered using quantitative research.
Both of the questions would produce information about the topic of effective mentoring of graduate students. In a mixed methods design there is value and need to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. In this case the qualitative interviews could help provide not only greater insight into the results of the quantitative data, but could provide necessary information if the final goal was to help faculty understand their students' needs. Note that the mixed methods researcher must determine whether concurrent or sequential data collection will best suit the purposes of the study. (See Creswell, Chapter on Mixed Methods Procedures: Timing)
By the due date assigned, complete the following research critique for the Mixed methods research you propose.
1. Research Topic:
2. Purpose of the Study:
3. Overarching Research Question:
4. Specific Research Questions/ Hypotheses:
5. Type of Study: Mixed Methods
• Mixed method design: (present the elements of quantitative and qualitative and describe how these compliment each other and why it is important to conduct this research as a mixed methods design. find a reason!)
• Overarching Research Question:
• Specific Research Questions:
• Hypotheses:
• Procedure: (How was the data collected? What was the sampling strategy used?)
• Variables/Concepts:
• Instrument(s) analysis:
• Data analysis: Discuss the statistical software, if any, used in analysis of the data and the type of analyses included.
• Consent: What type of consent, if any, will be obtained from the participants?
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 7: Discussion of Ethical Issues in Research
An important ethical consideration for any research study involving human subjects is informed consent. After reviewing The Argosy University IRB handbook, consider the following vignette, which has been adapted from Corey, Corey, and Callanan (2007). Issues and ethics in the helping profession (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Submit your response to the discussion questions that follow the vignette no later than by the due date assigned, to the Submissions Area.
Note: The vignette presented below is not specific to a particular discipline, but an education setting is used in order to provide context for the vignette. You can adopt this vignette to your particular discipline. For example, if you are in the Business programs, the participants may be clients or customers with which you work. If you are in the Psychology or Counseling programs, the participants may be clients you see in treatments.
Ethical issues vignette:
Anna is conducting a research study to evaluate the process and outcome of her intervention programs at the school where she teaches. She believes that in order to obtain valid data, she must keep the research participants in the dark in as many aspects as possible. Thus, she thinks it is important that the students she works with remain unaware of the hypotheses under investigation and that they are being studied. Although she agrees that some ethical issues may be raised by her failure to inform her participants, she believes that good research designs call for such procedures. She does not want to influence her students and thus bias the results.
Anna states that since there are no negative consequences or risks involved with her research, her research practices are justified. In addition, she claims that since she is able to improve her educational techniques through this research, both her current and future students will benefit.
Discussion questions:
1. What are your thoughts about Anna's rationale for not obtaining informed consent?
2. If the value of the research seems to be greater than the risks involved to participants, do you think researchers are justified in not obtaining the informed consent of participants?
3. Would Anna's approach as described above meet Argosy University's informed consent criteria?
4. What advice would you give Anna about informed consent and how she should deal with her study participants?
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Assignment 8: Final Mini-Methods Paper
In this course you have explored Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Method approaches to research. Consider the research question you wrote in Module 1. Now that you have explored each type of methodology, decide which methodology would best answer your question and use this for your final mini-methods paper.
Based on the work you have previously prepared and the feedback you have received from your instructor and your peers, prepare the mini-methods section (including all appendices, such as informed consent, copy of instruments, interview protocol, etc.).
The final paper should not exceed 15 pages, not including the appendices. [NOTE: THE INSTRUCTOR WILL NOT GRADE ANY TEXT AFTER 15 PAGES]. This paper should primarily consist of the work that you developed in Modules 2-5 and modified based on feedback from your instructor and your classmates. For the informed consent, and letters of permission, please refer to the Argosy University IRB handbook or a dissertation example for templates. If something that should be included is missing (for example, the measure you will be using) place a page with the title or topic of the measure and a few sentences about what will be measured.
The paper must include the following components. Use proper headings and Subheadings, as per the current edition of APA guidelines.
1). Introduction, Problem Statement, Purpose, Research Questions and Literature Review including:
• An introduction to the research topic including the background of your topic.
• A section about the significance of your topic and why it is important.
• The purpose of your study, problem statement and your research questions and/or hypotheses.
o Cite at least 5 references including a minimum of 3 empirical studies for your literature review. Use the literature list you presented in Module 2 Assignment 1, however elaborate on these to present in paragraph form. These paragraphs will be a bit more brief than what you would include in your dissertation proposal, however you should include enough information so they lead up to a logical research question (yours).
2). Methods including:
• Design: A description of the design of your study covering each relevant aspect included in Modules 3-7.
o If you adopt a quantitative design, clearly identify the type of design (e.g., quasi-experimental); the primary constructs; and hypotheses to be tested. Justify why you chose this design.
o If you adopt a qualitative design, clearly identify the approach; (ethnographical, phenomenological, case study, etc.) primary phenomena; and primary research question(s). Justify why you chose this design.
o A mixed methods design must address both of the above.
• A description of your proposed study's accessible population; sampling strategy; and the participants including the number, demographic information, setting, and other relevant information. Be sure this is consistent with the type of design.
• If you adopt the quantitative method, include a description of your intended instruments including sample questions, reliability measures, and types of measurement.
• If you adopt a qualitative method, describe your data collection method (interview, observation, document review, focus group, etc.).
o If you plan to conduct interviews, provide a list of sample interview questions including a rational for each question as to what information the response will provide towards answering your research question.
o If you plan to conduct an observation, describe who and how you will observe.
• A description of your data collection strategies and procedures for securing informed consent and collecting data.
• Address generalizability.
3). Limitations (1-2 pages) in which you discuss the limitations of your study in terms of participants, design, data collection, etc. This is a new contribution to your methods. Please refer to your textbook for examples of limitations.
• For Quantitative studies, limitations should be discussed in terms of threats to internal and external validity.
• For Qualitative studies, limitations should be discussed in terms of rigor, credibility and transferability.
4). References-should be included in accordance with APA style.
5). Appendices including data collection instruments when possible, interview protocols, recruiting, or advertising documents, informed consent forms, etc. Use your sample dissertations and Argosy dissertation guide to help you in writing your consent forms. Please note you should not have any formal permissions at this point, but shouldinclude a page with a description of what will be included for the proposal (ie permission from schools etc). If measures are not yet available provide a description of potential measures.
All written assignments and responses should follow APA rules for attributing sources.