1. Specifying a Purpose and Research Questions or Hypotheses
Chapter 5
Dr. Kakali Bhattacharya
EDPR 7521

2. The Purpose Statement Overall direction and focus Topical sentence
Quantitative – closed ended, cause and effect, predictive
Qualitative – open ended, exploratory
Examples

3. Family of Variables Independent (cause) Intervening
Dependent (effect, outcome)
Control variables
Moderating variables (effect of two variables)
Confounding variables
Example – banana peel

4. Theories in Quantitative
Explains and predicts the probable relationship between independent and dependent variables
Bhattacharya’s banana theory
If certain conditions are true then the variables will be related (structure of theoretical discussion)

5. Tips for Quantitative Purposes
One sentence
State what you want to study
Number of people
Context
Specify if testing theory
Seek to relate 2 or more variables
Compare independent variable to 2 or more dependent variables
Describe one variable
State independent variable first and then dependent variable
Using sample scripts on page 128, write a quantitative purpose statement

6. Designing Quantitative Questions
Specify variable – characteristic, attribute
Need to know how you are going to measure variable
Variables measured as categories (male, female)
Continuous variables (low to high scores)

7. Writing Quantitative Questions
Do NOT write WHY questions
How and what are ok
Describe, compare, relate are ok
Questions about significant differences
No need to write number of participants if already in purpose
Operationalize all variables used in purpose and in questions in a paragraph following either research purpose or questions

8. Types of Questions Descriptive Relationship Comparison
Example (frequency) banana peel (p. 129)
Relationship
How does independent variable relate to dependent variable for (context, participants)
Is there a relationship between independent and dependent variable?
Comparison
Differences – is there a significant difference? (better framed than text p. 130)

9. Quantitative Research Questions
Are there significant differences in student affective learning between traditional classroom instruction and instruction through a game/simulation? (experimental) asks questions about differences (groups, treatments)
How do (insert specific variables) predict how (#) African American parents and guardians of school-aged children rate their children’s elementary and secondary school teachers, and the public system as a whole? (correlational) asks questions about relationship (not causal, just existence)
What is the degree to which (#) exemplar teachers report using cooperative learning versus the degree to which they would prefer to use this method, and well as the relative use of each element of cooperative learning? (survey) asks questions that starts with “what is….?” appropriate to gather quick opinions, perceptions.

10. Write Quantitative Questions
Using the tips and scripts write at least one quantitative question aligned with your quantitative purpose
Refer to p and also the previous slide

11. Null Hypothesis
No difference between independent variable group 1 and independent variable group 2 in terms of dependent variable for participants at research site
In other words, whatever scores you get are purely coincidental and has nothing to do with dependent variable
Banana peel example

12. Alternate Hypothesis
Something is going on and it is not coincidental but because of the treatment
Directional and nondirectional
Measurement of means between two groups
Either you know if one is greater than the other (directional)
Or you know they are unequal (non-directional)
Based on your research question, write a null and an alternate hypothesis. If your research question was descriptive, then work with some difference or experimental questions

13. Qualitative Purpose Statements
No hypothesis
No use of variables
No testing or predicting of theories
Open-ended, multiple possibilities
Seek to understand, evaluate, explore, describe, interrogate, deconstruct

14. Central Phenomenon What would you like to know?
What would be your indicators?
How would you know that you know? 
Using the topics with which you worked earlier, we will now write qualitative research purpose and questions

15. Qualitative Purpose Statements
Referring to the example and the script on p. 136 write a qualitative purpose statement about your topic

16. Qualitative Research Questions
In what ways do foreign-born ESL teachers draw on their experiences as foreign-born residents living in the U.S. to open or close new social networks for their students?
How do students perceive the value of the new math program?
What are the experiences of survivors of Katrina who were in the superdome?
How do social structures within the K-12 system affect achievement levels of the students?
What is the role of the new math program in students’ achievement?

17. Qualitative Research Questions
Referring to the previous slide and examples on pp and the script on p. 137 write a qualitative research question for your topic
Ignore subquestions and other categorizations