Nonexperimental Research Designs and Survey Research | EDUC 504, Study notes of History of Education

Download Nonexperimental Research Designs and Survey Research | EDUC 504 and more Study notes History of Education in PDF only on Docsity!

Nonexperimental Research Designs

and Survey Research

Katie Rommel-Esham

Education 504

Research Design

 Research design deals with the ways in

which data are gathered from subjects

Descriptive Research

 Concerned with the current or past status of something  Describes achievement, attitudes, behaviors, or other characteristics of a group of subjects  Does not involve manipulation of independent variables

Uses of Descriptive Research

 Provide data for initial investigation of an area of study or phenomenon  Examples of descriptive research questions include

• How much do college students exercise?
• What do teachers think about merit pay?
• How do students spend their time during independent study?

Relationships in

Nonexperimental Research

 All quantitative research that is not simply

descriptive is interested in relationships

 A relationship or association is found when

one variable varies systematically with

another

The Importance of Relationships

 They allow us to make preliminary identification of possible causes of educational outcomes  They help identify things that need further investigation  They allow for prediction from one variable to another

Comparative Studies

 Examines the differences between two or

more groups on one variable

 For example,

Is there a difference between second- and third- graders’ scores on a measure of self concept?

Comparative Studies

 Comparisons are based on descriptive data

 Existence of a relationship does not imply

causation -- we can only say that a

difference or relationship exists

Example of a Bivariate

Correlational Study

 The relationship between teenagers’ and

mothers’ attitudes toward science, available

science activities, grades, and grade point

average in the sciences

Prediction Studies

 Use correlation coefficients to show how one variable (the predictor variable) predicts another (the criterion variable)

Example of a Prediction Study

 Which high school applicants should be

admitted to college?

 For example, assume that high school GPA

(predictor) is a good predictor of college

GPA (criterion)

 The predictor variable is determined before

the criterion variable, and the data span a

length of time (4 years of high school)

Multiple Regression Prediction Studies

 Suppose, in fact, that high school GPA is not the sole predictor of college GPA  What might be other good predictors?  All of these variables can contribute to the overall prediction in an equation that adds together the predictive power of each identified variable

Ex Post Facto Research

 Nonexperimental designs that are used to investigate causal relationships  Examine whether one or more pre-existing conditions have possibly caused subsequent differences in groups of subjects  Researcher attempts to discover whether differences between groups have resulted in an observed difference on the independent variable

Examples of Ex Post Facto Studies

 What is the effect of day care on the social

skills of children?

 What is the relationship between

participation in extracurricular activities and

self concept?

Characteristics of Ex Post Facto Studies

 There may be both “treatment” and

“control” groups, however these will be

existing, not assigned by the researcher

 There is no manipulation of conditions

McMillan’s Tips…

 Should be used to investigate relationships when an experiment is not possible  The causal condition must have occurred in the past  Potential extraneous variables (PRH) should be identified and noted  Differences in groups should be controlled  Causal relationships should be noted with caution!

Examples of Survey Research Topics

 Descriptive Studies

• What is the average length of time teachers use to prepare lessons?  Relationship Studies
• Is there a relationship between teacher attitudes toward discipline and student satisfaction with the class?  Explanatory Studies
• Why are students in one school achieving better than similar students in another school?

Advantages of Survey Research

 Versatility

 Efficiency

 Generalizability

 Cost effectiveness

 Small samples provide for reliable

extrapolation of results

Longitudinal Surveys

 Same group of subjects are studied over time  Trend studies use the same population across time but uses different samples from that population each time  Cohort studies examine a specific group ( same population ) over time  Panel studies are cohort studies that use the same sample each time

Cross-Sectional Surveys

 Attempt to simulate longitudinal data in a

shorter time frame

 Data are gathered from multiple samples of

the same population simultaneously

 May be used to study a phenomenon at one

time or to gather data from multiple groups

at the same time