RES 5313 American College Mod 2 Research Methods for Early Childhood Research Directions: 1) Review the Module 2 Application PDF. 2) Create a Word or text

RES 5313 American College Mod 2 Research Methods for Early Childhood Research Directions:
1) Review the Module 2 Application PDF.
2) Create a Word or text document for your response. Use 12-point Arial or Times New Roman
font. Follow APA (6th edition) format.
3) Create a title page and references page in APA (6th edition) format for your research paper.
4) Follow the directions to complete Part 1 and Part 2. You should begin your three to fivepage research paper in this module and include the purpose of your research (to describe),
problem statement, one to three research questions, and a literature review of three peerreviewed articles.
5) Before you submit your document, save a copy. You will refer to this document in Module
3’s assignment.
6) Follow the directions to submit your final Word or text document.
Research Methods for Early Childhood Education
© 2018 American College of Education 2
Part 1: Purpose, Problem Statement and Research Questions
Directions:
1) Review “Thinking It Through” in the Module 1 assignment.
2) Access the article, Action Research to Improve Teaching and Learning, by Roberta RossFisher in the Ebsco-Proquest database. This article describes the steps of action research,
including the development of a problem statement and research questions. While the article
is focused on education, it provides guidance for action researchers in any discipline.
3) Read through the bulleted questions and explanations in Part 1 below this set of directions
to find more assistance in generating a problem statement and research question(s) for your
action research paper.
4) Compose an introductory paragraph in which you grab the reader’s attention and state the
purpose of your research. Remember, your research purpose is to describe the situation.
5) Compose a problem statement for your research paper. Summarize the problem and the
setting and context for the study. Support the problem with data.
6) From your problem statement, generate from one to three research questions. Questions
should not have yes/no answers, and they should require research to answer.
• What wonderings do you have about your professional practice? What do you need to
know more about to be optimally effective? What situations need to be examined? Think
specifically about your specific school or organizational situation, and avoid outside
issues and conditions over which you have little control.
• From your wonderings and thoughts about what you need to know or examine, select an
issue or concern and explain why it is important to you. Clearly articulate your concern or
issue as a problem statement. How do you know it is a problem? What evidence do you
have that the problem is worth investigating? What are the chances an investigation
might lead to action on your part to improve or resolve the problem?
• There are times when it is difficult to clearly state a problem because you don’t yet know
enough to do so. This may dictate the first phase of your action research project will
involve gathering data leading to a clear statement and suggesting appropriate action to
be taken in a follow-up phase. If this characterizes what you are contemplating, then the
research you carry out will be exploratory and problem-defining, and your final action
research report in Module 5 will need to include a detailed description of phase two
complete with action to be taken and data-gathering methods to assess the effects of
this action.
• In contrast, what you are contemplating may allow for a final problem statement and
definitive action from the outset with your initial round of data gathering designed to
assess action effects. In these cases, your description of next steps in your final report in
Module 4 will not have to include an additional action to be taken and could describe
some type of expansion, extension, or replication.
• From your problem statement, formulate researchable questions – at least one and no
more than three for the purposes of this assignment. Each question should be narrowly
focused, specific, and researchable. You will need to consider your student population,
your desired outcome, and how you might bring about that outcome, assuming enough
is known about the problem to spell all of this out. For example, you may have noticed
that girls are not performing well in science. The problem is reasonably clear, so you can
ask, “Will grouping by gender during science work improve the participation of female
students?”
Research Methods for Early Childhood Education
© 2018 American College of Education 3
• Another example may be low journal-writing production, and you have read in the
literature that word walls may help. This problem is also clear, so you can ask, “Will
interactive word walls improve the journal writing of my kindergarten students?” If you
still have “why” questions, they will need to be recast to make them researchable
beginning with “how,” “what,” “does,” “will,” etc. If formulated correctly, these are
essentially hypotheses.
Part 2: Literature Review
• In Module 1, you completed an annotated bibliography to help you
firm up your ideas for your action research study. Some or all of
these sources may be appropriate to your literature review.
However, if your research has taken off in a new direction or you’ve
decided you need different perspectives, use the Ebsco database to
locate additional peer-reviewed articles.
• For your literature review, you need at least three professional, peer-reviewed articles
related to your concern, problem statement, and specific question(s). Good, relevant
articles will help you to begin answering your questions and solving your problem.
Tutorials for conducting research are available: Digital Learning Connections
Resources and Tips
o Remember, when you search, be sure to place a check on the box for “peer
reviewed,” so you are sure to use only peer-reviewed studies. Articles reporting
on one or more empirical studies will likely be the most useful, but there are
theoretical articles describing programs, interventions, and methodologies to help
you decide on the appropriate action to take or propose.
• Compose a brief overview of each article synthesizing common and differing points.
• Cite your sources using APA (6
th edition) style, and reference all three in an APA-style
reference list at the end of your paper. Place titles in your reference list only, not in the
body of your paragraphs.