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Texts

Procedure

Evaluation

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TOPICAL OUTLINE AND ASSIGNMENTS

January

12:  Introduction to Course

  • Course project and other requirements
  • Research paradigms

19: Human Inquiry and Science

   Assignment: Babbie, pp. xxi - 40.

    Study Questions:

  1. Find a magazine or newsletter article that illustrates a common error in inquiry. Discuss how a scientist would avoid making that error.
  2. How does scientific inquiry differ from nonscientific?
  3. How does scientific inquiry attempt to avoid the pitfalls that produce error in nonscientific inquiry?
  4. What topic do you want to explore in this class? [Note: we want to leave this session with a tentative project that you can begin working on immediately.]

26: Information Technology Tools

 

February

2: Theory and Research

   Assignment: Babbie, pp. 41 - 67.

   Study Questions:

  1. Describe how the relationship between education and prejudice could be examined through inductive and through deductive methods.
  2. Discuss the role of theory, operationalization, and observation.
  3. Apply deductive logic to success in educational administration. Develop a theory as to why some people are more successful in administrative roles than others. Specify the range of phenomena your theory addresses (NC public school administrators? All public school administrators in the US?) Identify and specify your major concepts and variables. State your theory using these concepts and variables. Keep in mind that theory explains the causes of phenomena; it may have one or more statements. Derive one testable hypothesis, making sure that the hypothesis states a specific relationship between two variables.

9: The Nature of Causation

   Assignment: Babbie, 68 - 85.

   Study Questions

  1. How is the process of measuring variables linked to determining the associations between the variables?
  2. What criteria need to be met before you can argue that there is a causal relationship?
  3. In Sweden there is a relationship between the number of storks in an area and the number of births. How would you go about investigating whether this is a spurious or a causal relationship?
  4. Babbie describes a newspaper article in which the author links fluoridation to AIDS, citing as evidence that 90% of AIDS cases come from communities that have fluoridated water supplies and only 10% come from nonfluoridatd areas. Does fluoridation cause AIDS?
  5. Identify one dependent variable that is important to school administrators. Identify an independent variable that could explain variation in the dependent variable. State a causal hypothesis for your variables. State at least one alternative argument that should be examined before you can accept the causal hypothesis.

16: Research Design

   Assignment: Babbie, pp. 88 - 114.

    Study Questions

  1. Why would a school administrator do an exploratory study? A descriptive study? An explanatory study?
  2. Babbie describes a number of research design issues in this chapter. How will you use this discussion in conceptualizing the course project--the evaluation of a school program?

23: Conceptualization and Measurement

   Assignment: Babbie, pp. 115 - 137.

    Study Questions

  1. Describe the processes of conceptualization and measurement.
  2. Often a students' GPA is taken as an indicator of intelligence. Is GPA a reliable and valid measure of intelligence? Why or why not?
  3. Take the concepts of school success or school accountability. Describe the conceptualization process you would use to measure either concept. What is the nominal definition of success or accountability? What indicators would you use to develop an operational definition of either concept?

Reports

Each team (below) will report their problem statement and what they have found through their literature review that informs their project. The teams and their project topics are:

Sam Basden, Mark Minskey, and Frank Creech: A Comparative Analysis of Year-Round Magnet Schools and Traditional Calendar Magnet Schools

Patricia Warren and Travis Taylor: The Relationship of North Carolina Regions and End-of-Course Test Scores: An Exploratory Study

June Nance and John Grischow: The Efficacy of Corporal Punishment

Mike Regan and Russ McGlothlin, Frank Portera: Efficacy of Smart Start

Tony Watlington and Jacqueline Boyd: Evaluating the Advanced Learner Program in Guilford County

Allison Whitaker, Nancy Sabiston, and Renee Price: An Exploratory Study of K-2 Teachers' Perceptions of Their Contribution to Children's Preparation for the Third Grade End-of-Grade Tests

Amy Rickard and Julie Spencer: The Relationship of Teacher Performance and Student Achievement

March

2: Operationalization

   Assignment: Babbie, 138 - 165.

    Study Questions

For each of the following open-ended questions, construct a closed-ended question that you would use on a questionnaire:

a. What was your family's total income last year?
b. What do you think of the ABC plan?
c. What do you feel is the greatest problem facing our school?
d. What is your occupation?
e. What is (was) your father's occupation?

 

9: Spring Break

16: Indexes, Scales, and Typologies

   Assignment: Babbie, 166 - 190.

   Draft problem statement and review of liter

    Study Question

  1. Babbie notes that single item indicators of a concept are not as robust as several indicators. Discuss how you would come up with a score for five indicators that measure one concept.

    Assignment: Please have ready by end of class your statement of the problem and your review of literature for my review.

23: Logic of Sampling

   Assignment: Babbie, pp. 191 - 229

    Study Questions

  1. You are the principal of a high school. Your superintendent asks you to survey your student body on the use of drugs. The superintendent suggests that you hand out the questionnaire to students as they get off the bus in the morning before classes. What would you tell the superintendent about your preference for using a probability sample instead?
  2. What are the differences between a population, a study population, and a sampling frame. Use examples. Discuss the cautions you would apply when generalizing from the sampling frame to the study population and the population.

30: Modes of Observation: Experiment

   Assignment: Babbie, pp. 230 - 253.

    Study Question

  1. Your superintendent charges you to study the effects of Sesame Street on children's intelligence. You have six months to design, implement, and report the results of the study. The principal has already obtain parental consent for you to use the children in any or all kindergartens in the district. Describe how you would design the study using the experimental approach.

Assignment: Insert your draft study proposal in your team folder by April 2. The draft should be as complete as you can make it at this time. Remember to save the draft as an RTF file. I will make my comments on your draft before class on April 6.

April

6: Modes of Observation: Field and Survey

   Assignment: Babbie, 254 - 306.

    Study Questions

  1. Think of the school where you were last employed. Describe how someone from outside the district might study this school using the complete participant, the participant-as-observer, the observer-as-participant, and the complete observer roles.

 

13: Modes of Observation: Unobtrusive and Evaluation

   Assignment: Babbie, 307 - 355.

   Study Question

  1. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the logic and language of social science research, its inquiry procedures and techniques, and how to interpret and explain research results. Design an evaluation study to determine the effectiveness of this course. The evaluation study will take place fall, 1999, thereby giving you some control over the setting in creating your design. [Note: the report should follow the organization described by Babbie, pp. A15 - A21.]

 

20: Team Project Work Day. (Faculty is at AERA)

Work on your papers and presentations in the Mercer-Reynolds lab, which is reserved for you from 1:00 to 4:00.

27: Project Presentations

Sam Basden, Mark Minskey, and Frank Creech: A Comparative Analysis of Year-Round Magnet Schools and Traditional Calendar Magnet Schools

Patricia Warren and Travis Taylor: The Relationship of North Carolina Regions and End-of-Course Test Scores: An Exploratory Study

June Nance and John Grischow: The Efficacy of Corporal Punishment

Amy Rickard and Julie Spencer: The Relationship of Teacher Performance and Student Achievement

May

4: Project Presentations

Mike Regan, Russ McGlothlin, and Frank Portera: Efficacy of Smart Start

Tony Watlington and Jacqueline Boyd: Evaluating the Advanced Learner Program in Guilford County

Allison Whitaker, Nancy Sabiston, and Renee Price: An Exploratory Study of K-2 Teachers' Perceptions of Their Contribution to Children's Preparation for the Third Grade End-of-Grade Tests