1. How would you describe the relationship between a research topic, a research question, and a set of hypotheses?

The relationship between a research topic, a research question, and a set of hypotheses is fairly direct. A research topic is the broad idea that you would like to study. Once you have decided upon a topic, you then move on to narrowing your topic and forming a research question. The research question guides the research you will be doing. A set of hypotheses are “intelligent, informed, guesses about the findings of the study.”

2. Think of a topic of interest to you and appropriate for an action research study. State the topic, a research question, and all three types of hypotheses for your topic.

Research Topic: School Safety

Research Question: Is there a direct correlation to how safe students feel at school to their academic performance?

Null Hypothesis: There will be no change in student academic performance regardless of how safe they feel at school.

Nondirectional Research Hypothesis: There will be a change in student academic performance depending on how safe they feel at school.

Directional Research Hypothesis: Students who feel safer at school will perform better academically than those students who do not feel safe.

3. Think of another research topic of interest to you. Develop a research question for investigating the topic using a qualitative apporach and another for using a quantatative approach. Are your questions different? Could the be indentical? Explain your answers

Research Topic: Music in Schools

Research Question (Qualatative): Are students who participate in school music programs happier than those who do not?

Research Question (Quantatative): Do students who participate in music programs at school perform better on standardized tests than those who do not?

My questions are slightly different. My qualatative question measures happiness which cannot really be measured in terms of exact numbers or percentages. My Quantatative question measure performance on tests. This could be measured in terms of exact numbers or percentages by looking at the outcome of the standardized tests given to the students.

4. Find and discuss an example of correlational research that has appeared in newspapers or in the news. Are there any misconceptions or misinterpretations evident?

5. Briefly describe an appropriate research design for each of the research questions listed in #3.

Qualitative Research Question: Are students who participate in music programs happier than those who do not?

Research Design: To investigate this research question, I think I would conduct a Case Study where I observed music students over a period of time, interviewed a group of the students on an individual basis, and also interviewed their primary classroom teacher to gain some comparisons of attitudes of music students versus non-music students.

Quantitative Research Question: Do students who participate in music programs at school perform better on standardized tests than those who do not?

Research Design: To investigate this quantitative research question I would use a Group Comparison Design method. To do this, I would compare the standardized test scores of a class of student’s who do not participate in a music program, to those scores of a class of students who do participate in a music program.

5. For the two research questions you listed in Number 3, describe an apporpriate research design for each. One question will necessitate a qualitative research design, while the other will require a quantatative research design.