RSMT 3501 Research Methods

1.a.A Research Question (RQ) can be developed as: Is there significant differences in the final grades of team-taught students in the subjects of Mathematics and Physics?

To address the above RQ, student who were only team-taught are to be selected. In addition, the students should have studied both Mathematics and Physics as their subjects. Since the sample of study consists of only team-taught students, hence this is a process of convenience sampling method. We are rejecting all students who were not team-taught. Furthermore, to concentrate on the RQ only students who have studied both Mathematics and Physics again we the convenience sampling method is used (Privitera, 2013).

The convenience sampling method is a very poor method of data collection. However, the advantage of convenience sampling method is that the data collection process for the RQ is highly economical and can be done in the shortest possible time. In addition, with the segregation the data of interest can be collected with ease. In the present scenario, convenience sampling methodology would be beneficial in getting data of only team-taught students. Moreover, the same method would be used to get data of those students who have studied both Mathematics and Physics.

b.To investigate the RQ secondary data collection method would be the most suitable process (De Vaus, 2014). The secondary data collection allows for data to be collected from existing data. Secondary data means, the data has been collected by somebody else. The researcher would use the data already collected over a period of time to answer the RQ. The advantage of using secondary data is it is economical, since the data has already been collected. In addition, it also saves time. Longitudinal study can also be done by using secondary data. Secondary data suffers from the disadvantage that the data was collected not to address the present RQ (Begun & Gregoire, 2014). Thus the data may not always meet the criteria of study. In addition, the quality of data available for the study may not always be high.

Data for the research would be collected using existing records.  Quantitative data on the final grades of the students before team-taught and after team-taught would be collected and analysed. The data can be analysed with the use of paired sample t-test. MANOVA can be used to analyse pre and post team-taught grades.

2.a.The research methodology defines the process in which data would be collected for answering the research question. The research question herein analyses if there is any difference in the final grades obtained by the students of Education course Trident University. The students are taken from two groups, those who are team-taught and those who are not team-taught. Thus, to investigate the research question primary data needs to be collected.

b.To provide an answer to the research question the vital data is the final grades of the two groups of students. The scores of the final grades form the dependent variable.

The independent variables of the study can be described as:

1. The attendance of the student in the class
2. Number of hours of teaching
3. The number of courses enrolled
4. Students passing or failing in the exam

1. Final grade scores - this is a continuous type of variable in the interval ratio
2. Attendance of the students – A continuous type of variable in the interval ratio
3. The number of hours of teaching - A continuous type of variable in the interval ratio
4. The number of courses in which the student is enrolled - A continuous type of variable in the interval ratio
5. The final result of the student – A categorical variable of ordinal type

d.To arrive at a conclusion for the RQ, data has to be collected which can be studied. The method through which data is collected is vital for the proper study. For the purpose of the present study we are interested in the final grades of the students of two types of teaching methods. In view of the fact that there might be a large number of students who are enrolled for both the types of courses, hence it would be convenient to collect the data as simple random sampling. Simple random sampling process would allow the data from the students for both the courses to be collected at random.

e.For analysing the RQ hypothesis tests can be done.

We can just compare the final grades of the two groups of students. This can be done by t-test. If the number of students in both the groups is equal then the paired sample t-test is used. When the number of students in both the groups is not equal then the independent sample t-test is to be used.

The grades of the students depends on his attendance in class, the number of hours of teaching and the number of courses in which the student is enrolled. Thus a simple regression taking the final grades as dependent variable and the others as independent variables can be done. Comparison of the R² value of team-taught and not-team taught would provide for how much of the dependent variables (final grades) can be explained through the independent variables. In addition, the p-value of the ANOVA would provide the level of statistical significance (Lacort, 2014).

References

Begun, A. & Gregoire, T. (2014). Conducting substance use research (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.

De Vaus, D. (2014). Surveys in social research (1st ed.). Allen & Unwin.

Lacort, M. (2014). Descriptive and Inferential Statistics (1st ed.). Lulu.

Privitera, G. (2013). Research methods for the behavioral sciences (1st ed.). Sage Publisher.