For Dissertation Blog Post 4 please post your potential research design on your blog; please make sure your purpose and research questions are visible from your previous post (or please repost them). Please discuss briefly why you feel this design is most appropriate. Don't forget to include a link to your Dissertation Blog on the discussion board and let us know that you have posted your research design. Please also include whether this is a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods design.
A quasi-experimental explanatory sequential mixed methods design will be used, and it will involve collecting quantitative data first and then explaining the quantitative results with in-depth qualitative data. In the first, quantitative phase of the study, the School Engagement Scale will be collected from the third-graders at a Title I elementary school in metropolitan Atlanta to test the engagement theory to assess the effects of participation in BreakoutEDU activities on student engagement. Students will be given a post-test assessment for the 4 Cs of learning as well. The second, qualitative phase will be conducted as a follow-up to the quantitative collection to help explain the quantitative results. In this explanatory follow-up, the tentative plan is to explain the engagement triggers that lead to the acquisition of the 4 Cs of learning with third-grade students at a Title I elementary school in metropolitan Atlanta. A purposive selected focus group of students that participated in the breakout activities and showed high engagement on the School Engagement Scale will be used for the qualitative follow up. I think this method gives depth to the quantitative results of engagement. Engagement can have a confounding variable of motivation but possibly through the focus group interview the triggers for engagement will give a greater understanding of how students stay engaged to acquire the 4Cs. Purpose Statement and Research Questions The purpose of this mixed methods study is threefold: to (a) determine what effect participation in Breakout EDU activities has on student engagement and the acquisition of the 4Cs of learning, (i.e., creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking), (b) understand the engagement triggers students experience during the Breakout EDU activities, and (c) to determine how the engagement triggers help explain their acquisition of the 4Cs for third-grade students in a Title I elementary school in metro Atlanta. Research Questions 1. What is the effect of participation in Breakout EDU activities on student engagement, as measured on the School Engagement Scale, for third-grade students in a Title I elementary school in metro Atlanta ? 2. What is the effect of participation in Breakout EDU activities on the acquisition of the 4Cs of learning for third-grade students in a Title I elementary school in metro Atlanta? 3. What are the engagement triggers from Breakout EDU activities for third-grade students at a Title I elementary school in metro Atlanta? 4. How do third-grade engagement triggers from Breakout EDU activities help explain the acquisition of the 4Cs?
4 Comments
Dr Reeves
7/25/2017 01:27:09 pm
Ok Keri, this is coming together nicely, but I think you made up your design. :) You are doing either an embedded quasi-experimental mixed methods design or a sequential, explanatory mixed methods design. Generally embedded approaches collect quant and qual data concurrently (unless it is a two-phase design, in which case qual is collected before and after).
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Keri
7/25/2017 02:00:10 pm
Dr. Reeves,
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Dr Reeves
7/25/2017 02:08:49 pm
Yes, the sequential design should outweigh the quasi-experimental design. BUT, maybe a new design was created that I'm not aware of. :) What book are you using?
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Keri
7/25/2017 04:35:01 pm
I have been reading the Mixed Methods Reader by Plano Clark and Creswell (2008). This design isn't explicitly stated in the book, but through a conversation with Dr. Edmonds we discussed it and he said it works. I had read about it in other studies.(Understanding Interpreters: Confidence in inquiry and motivations for interpretations by Sarena Randall Gill retrieved from http://www.prescottsymposium.org/dissertation-presentations-2017/ and others.) Leave a Reply. |
Author: Keri DuncanThis is a blog created as a requirement for my dissertation. In different classes, there have been different requirements but hopefully it will provide good thought and discussion as I progress through the dissertation process. Archives
July 2017
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