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Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for...

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Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design
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Page 1: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

Quantitative Methods

Topic 1 Research Design

Page 2: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate

for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

Conceptual understanding of statistics rather than formal mathematical derivations

Univariate and bivariate statistics.

Skills in questionnaire design

Page 3: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Assessments

There will be 10 exercises (30%), and 1 project (4000 words) (70%)

Page 4: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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SPSS is required

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)

Page 5: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Accessing materials online

www.edmeasurementsurveys.com/QM

Page 6: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Reading materials for Topic 1

Module1.pdf:

Educational research: some basic concepts and terminology

T. Neville Postlethwaite

Page 7: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Topic 1 outline

Types of educational research Planning educational research Research questions

Page 8: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Issues/headlines in Education Australian students lag in maths,

science Funding splurge fails to improve

student results Best assessment practice Boys lag behind girls Accountability policies Use technology in the classrooms

Page 9: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Types of Research Questions addressed by quantitative methods

Descriptive

Association/Correlational

Causal/Explanatory

Page 10: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Descriptive Problems - 1 Which subject fields are more frequently chosen by Australian

Year 11 and 12 students?

Do girls choose different subject fields compared with boys? If

so, what are the subjects preferred by girls?

Are there differences in subject choice according to differences

in social status and ethnic family backgrounds?

What are the areas that Professional Development Program for

teachers should cover?

Are all primary school teachers qualified to teach?

What are the status of school building in a country?

Page 11: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Descriptive Problems - 2 May not be as straightforward as the computation of

frequencies and averages. Break-in On the radio, an advertisement for an insurance

company ran as follows: “Every 10 minutes, a car is stolen in Zedland. Every 21 minutes, a house is broken into. Take up an insurance policy today.”

Using only the information given in the advertisement, can you conclude anything about the chance a car will be stolen in Zedland? that it is more likely to have a car theft than a house break-

in? Give reasons to support your answer.

Page 12: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Association - 1

Are there any relationships between students’

reading achievement and their mathematics

achievement?

Is there an association between reading

achievement and the number of books in the

home ?

Association does not always lead to causal.

Page 13: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Association - 2

In a town in Europe, the number of storks is positively correlated with the number of babies born.

Crime rate is positively correlated with ice cream sales.

Page 14: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Causal relationships - 1

Does smaller class size increase student performance?

Do students’ performance improve if more homework is assigned?

Does parental attitude have an impact on student achievement?

Page 15: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Causal relationships - 2

Causal relationship is very difficult to identify. Number of books at home is positively correlated with

student achievement. Can student achievement be improved by placing

more books in a home?

Mediating variables High parental expectations of achievement is

correlated with both number of books at home and student performance.

Page 16: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Causal relationships - 3

Study design to establish casual relationships needs to be “confirmatory” than “exploratory”.

Confirmatory approach E.g., we hypothesise that increasing homework can

increase student performance. Carry out a study where some students are assigned

more homework and some are not. Exploratory approach

Obtain student performance data and other information including homework, school administration, hours of teaching, etc.

Find correlations between student performance and other variables.

Page 17: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Research Stages

Stage 1: Research aims Stage 2: Literature Stage 3: Research design Stage 4: Instrumentation Stage 5: Piloting Stage 6: Data collection Stage 7: Data cleaning and Data analysis Stage 8: Research report

Page 18: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Research aim(s)

Example: To identify factors influencing student withdrawal from school and explore the extent to which each factor contributes to student withdrawal from school

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Literature Review

Review the related literatureWhat have been done in the field? What are controversial debates? School of

thought? What are the “gaps”? (knowledge and

methods)What are the findings?

Develop a theoretical framework

Page 20: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Research questions

What are the factors that influence students’ academic achievement?

Which method of instruction is most effective in teaching young children to read?

Page 21: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Propositions

Gender, ethnicity, family economic status, parents’ education and occupation, parents’ and students’ attitudes, were important factors relating to students' academic achievement.

School effectiveness has an impact on student achievement

Teacher qualification has an impact on student achievement

Page 22: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Research design

At this stage the following should be identified:

Source of informationWho is appropriate to provide the necessary

informationCharacteristics of the target population

Data collection methods

Page 23: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Data collection methods

Cross-sectional vs longitudinal If longitudinal, how many times?

Sample vs cohort If sample, how many?

Questionnaire, test, interview, published statisticsHow many questions?

Page 24: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Establishing the link between information needed, source of information and methods of data collection

Information needed/variables to be measured

Source of information

Methods of data collection

Page 25: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Link between the information needed, sources and methods

Information needed Source Data collection

Student gender Students Questionnaire

Family characteristics parents Questionnaire

Parent attitudes Parents Questionnaire

Student attitudes Students Questionnaire

Student achievement Students tests

School characteristics School/Principal Questionnaire/interview

Page 26: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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QuestionnairesNeeded

  Student questionnaire   Parent questionnaire   School questionnaire

Page 27: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Instrumentation

Develop/validate and pilot instruments (test or questionnaires)

Page 28: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Variables included in the Parent Questionnaire Family social status/wealth Mother Education Father Education Mother Occupation Father Occupation Family size Parent attitudes

Page 29: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Variables included in the Student Questionnaire

Student gender Ethnicity Student attitudes Student academic achievement Student behaviour

Page 30: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Data collection and data management Field work supervision Entering the data into data file Cleaning the data

Page 31: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Data Analysis

Descriptive Correlational Causal Note that statistics can only provide

correlational information. Any causal interpretation is made by people.

Page 32: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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Writing up the reports and discussions Technical report Policy report General public

Page 33: Quantitative Methods Topic 1 Research Design. 2 Subject Aims Data analysis methods appropriate for investigating issues across a range of topics in education.

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A few examples to contemplateMargins of error in test scoresFor Year 5 numeracy, each child is tested on just

40 questions each year in a national test. If David obtained 25 out of 40 on the 2009 test, how much would we expect David’s scores to vary if tests similar to the 2009 test are administered?

For a 40-question test, David’s scores might vary by as much as 5 score points.

In percentage terms, if a student’s score is 70% on a test, we expect the range of this student’s scores on similar tests to be between 58% and 82%.

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Simpson’s paradox

Men Women

Arts 3 out of 4 (75%) 1 out of 1 (100%)

Sci 0 out of 1 (0%) 1 out of 4 (25%)

total

5 men and 5 women apply for university places (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox)

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False positives Prevalence rate for a disease in a population is

1%. Test for this disease

-ve/-ve 95% +ve/-ve 5% (5% of those who do not have the disease show a +ve result)

+ve/+ve 95% -ve/+ve 5% (5% of those who have the disease show a -ve result)

Is this a good test? Suppose 10,000 people were tested. 600 had

+ve result. What is the proportion of the people with +ve result who actually have the disease?


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