Review of Research Designs and Techniques

How did we use research…. to answer problem statements test hypothesis formulate conclusions We conducted experiments to determine the effects of predetermined independent variables on dependent variables.

Experimental Design We aimed to determine the effects of certain factors on the life cycle of tenebrio molitor. How do we categorize those factors? What type of variables were the growth, length, color, activity rate etc….?

Experimental Research Design How did the meal worm experiment help represent the relationship between independent and dependent variables? What could have been done in addition to what was completed in class to increase the validity of our findings?

Causal Comparative Research Design Causal comparative studies sought to seek the cause of some effect EX: Why do high school students in period 3 English class perform better then those in period 10? Q. How did the causal comparative design differ from the experimental design?

Descriptive Study We tried to determine how various characteristics affected academic behavior or achievement. The goal of this research design is to be able to describe a common characteristic within a similar population. EX: Peer tutoring works best in mathematics amongst boys between the ages of 14-15. How did we try to achieve the goal described? What instrument did we use?

Descriptive VS Experimental How does the descriptive research design compare to the experimental in regards to: Participants Instruments Data collection Validity

Correlational We studied relationships between variables in an effort to determine relationships between them. EX: As level of education increases so does family income. How did we classify those relationships? How were the relationships quantified? How were the relationships visually represented?

Practice identifying research designs…. In pairs read the article given to you and determine what research design was used…