Drake University School of Education
EDUC 202

Fall, 2001

Class Activity

Designing research studies

The purpose of this activity is to help you understand a variety of research design issues by working together in small groups to design a study. We will break the class into several groups. Select a specific topic as a focus for the group. To help broaden your knowledge base, pick some topic that is interesting to you, but different from what you might be doing for a field study or thesis. In general, I would like for you to develop a research question (or questions) on the issue, and then design a study to answer the question. We will discuss your ideas as a class after you have completed the activity. In this discussion, we will want to consider:

I. From a "traditional" quantitative or qualitative research perspective:

1. What is the research question?
2. What information would you want to find through a literature review?
3. What method would you use for this study (specific quantitative or qualitative approach)?
4. What are some details of the research design methods to be used (sampling issues, data collection methods, etc.)?
   • Independent variables
   • Dependent variables
   • Sampling
   • Other issues, things to control, etc.
5. What kinds of ethical, legal, and/or human relations issues would need to be considered for this design?
6. Are there any threats to validity in your design?
7. How would you analyze the data?

 II. Now, thinking in terms of "action" research:

• Could you ask and answer the same question using action research?
• What would be different? What would be the same? Would your results be more or less meaningful? Why?

Group 1:

1. What is the research question?
2. What information would you want to find through a literature review?
3. What method would you use for this study (specific quantitative or qualitative approach)?
4. What are some details of the research design methods to be used (sampling issues, data collection methods, etc.)?
   • Independent variables
   • Dependent variables
   • Sampling
   • Other issues, things to control, etc.
5. What kinds of ethical, legal, and/or human relations issues would need to be considered for this design?
6. Are there any threats to validity in your design?
7. How would you analyze the data?

Group 2:

1. What is the research question?
2. What information would you want to find through a literature review?
3. What method would you use for this study (specific quantitative or qualitative approach)?
4. What are some details of the research design methods to be used (sampling issues, data collection methods, etc.)?
   • Independent variables
   • Dependent variables
   • Sampling
   • Other issues, things to control, etc.
5. What kinds of ethical, legal, and/or human relations issues would need to be considered for this design?
6. Are there any threats to validity in your design?
7. How would you analyze the data?

Group 3:

1. What is the research question?
2. What information would you want to find through a literature review?
3. What method would you use for this study (specific quantitative or qualitative approach)?
4. What are some details of the research design methods to be used (sampling issues, data collection methods, etc.)?
   • Independent variables
   • Dependent variables
   • Sampling
   • Other issues, things to control, etc.
5. What kinds of ethical, legal, and/or human relations issues would need to be considered for this design?
6. Are there any threats to validity in your design?
7. How would you analyze the data?