APA Format: A Comprehensive Guide for ED795A Research Papers by Dan Kitchen, Study notes of History of Education

Download APA Format: A Comprehensive Guide for ED795A Research Papers by Dan Kitchen and more Study notes History of Education in PDF only on Docsity! APA Format APA Format: A Style Guide for ED795A Papers Dan Kitchen San Diego State University 1 APA Format APA Format: A Style Guide for ED795A Papers Introduction Statement of the problem Briefly describe the problem that your study is designed to address. Purpose of the study Briefly explain why this research project is being undertaken. Research questions (or objectives or hypotheses) Briefly state the research questions that this study addresses. Indicate your major hypothesis: what do you expect the results of your inquiry to reveal? Theoretical perspective Your hypotheses about how the independent and dependent variables in your study are related to each other should be based upon a theory that would predict what is likely to occur. Describe that theoretical grounding of your study. Definition of key terms Here you should indicate what you mean by key terms that you use in your study. Pay particular attention to terms that may not have the same meaning for all readers. Later on, in the methods section, you will define all of the variables used in your study in operational terms. Delimitation and limitations of the study Describe the scope of your study. What are its boundaries? What issues will be addressed and what issues are considered beyond the scope of the study? What are the limitations of your study? Pay special attention to limitations in terms of the sample which is 2 APA Format Sample, Population, or Subjects Describe the population of interest in your study and how the sample was selected. Tables displaying the characteristics of subjects—ethnicity, gender, grade levels, for example— help the reader understand who the subjects are and would be included in this part of your paper. Instrumentation and Materials Measurement instruments. Describe the instruments that will be used to carry out your study. Will you be using a test? Is it a standardized, norm-referenced instrument? Criterion- referenced? What do we know about its reliability and validity? Will you be using surveys or questionnaires? Were they developed by someone else or did you develop them? What do we know about their reliability and validity? Materials used in conjunction with the independent variable. What materials are employed in “delivering” the independent variable, or treatment? Is computer software involved? Printed materials? What are the materials supposed to do? How are they used? What is their content? Variables in the Study Describe each of the independent and dependent variables in your study, indicating both the operational definition of the variables and the constructs they represent. It is also appropriate here to indicate how you decided upon those operational definitions. If your design is experimental or quasi-experimental, include enough discussion of the independent variable(s) so that the reader has a good understanding of what the treatment actually was. Data Analysis How will the data be analyzed? Indicate descriptive statistics to be included in your 5 APA Format report and the reasons for including them. What statistical treatments will be applied in order to test your hypothesis? Why is this statistical treatment appropriate for answering your research question? Why is it appropriate for the kind of data that you will be gathering? How will you present your results? 6 APA Format References Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., and Razavieh, A. (1996). Introduction to research in education (5th ed.). Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. American Psychological Association. APA style: General form for electronic references. Retrieved August 1, 2003, from http://www.apastyle.org/elecgeneral.html. Creswell, J.W. (1997). Qualitative inquiry and research design : Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. 7