Conducting Educational Research
Caroll
Caroll
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
ORGANIZING AND WRITING CHAPTER ONE<br />
WRITING A RESEARCH QUESTION<br />
Once you have your problem statement, you are ready to begin writing your<br />
research paper. You have what you need to write Chapter One, The Introduction.<br />
An introduction is a narrative in which you make the case that your research<br />
question is worth asking. As an exercise, select a published research study or use<br />
one of those included in this book and try to write a short phrase or sentence that<br />
summarizes the main point(s) of each paragraph in the introduction of the paper.<br />
More often than not you will discover that the notes you have made form a logical<br />
argument. Each point or paragraph works toward making the case that the research<br />
study needs to be done. For this reason, problem statements usually appear at the<br />
end of the introduction.<br />
A simple way to structure an introduction is outlined in Table 2.2. Once you<br />
structure your argument, take each point and expand it into one or several<br />
paragraphs. This will provide you with the bulk of your introduction. Let’s look at<br />
an example. Suppose you think some of your students suffered from test anxiety.<br />
You want to see if you can reduce this test anxiety and get a better measure of your<br />
students’ actual learning. Your introductory outline might look like this:<br />
I. History<br />
What prompted the study<br />
Types of assessments generally used<br />
II. Context<br />
Where do you teach (brief description of school/community)<br />
Description of students<br />
(Note: descriptions are kept anonymous)<br />
III. Theoretical constructs<br />
Purpose of assessment<br />
Why test anxiety is an issue<br />
Theories that shed light on the issue of test anxiety<br />
Strategies that exist to reduce test anxiety<br />
IV. Why is it important?<br />
Importance in terms of accurately measuring student learning<br />
Improved test scores<br />
Personal teaching goals<br />
Meaning of scores for district/federal funding<br />
V. Problem Statement<br />
Write the problem statement<br />
Which strategy will you implement to try and reduce students’ test anxiety<br />
VI. Terms<br />
Define test anxiety<br />
33