EDF 5481 Educational Research Spring 2013

EDF 5481 Educational Research Spring 2013

Multiple Choice

Identify the letter of the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question and place it in the space next to the item number on your answer sheet.

1. An advantage of the scientific approach over deductive reason is that the scientific approach

a. / is infallible.
b. / produces absolute truth.
c. / doesn't include reflective thinking.
d. / doesn't include inductive reasoning.
e. / probes beyond what is already known.

2. The person who was most prominent in the development and use of inductive reasoning as a source of knowledge was

a. / Bacon.
b. / Aristotle.
c. / Newton.
d. / Darwin.

3. To establish what percent of teachers in the Nashville School District hold master's degrees, an investigator examined the files of all those teachers who were employed in that school district. This investigation is an example of

a. / perfect induction.
b. / perfect deduction.
c. / imperfect induction.
d. / imperfect deduction.

4. Which of the following is not more of a problem in the social sciences than in the physical sciences?

a. / Hypothesis formation
b. / Control of variables
c. / Measurement of variables
d. / Replication of experiments

5. Which of the following illustrates the idea of universal determinism?

a. / If a bullet has your name on it, it will hit you no matter what you do.
b. / Your fate is in the stars.
c. / All natural phenomena have antecedent factors.
d. / Whatever will be will be.

Exhibit 2-2

Examine the following list of research titles, then determine whether the italicized part of each title is an independent variable, a dependent variable, or a variable but impossible to determine whether independent or dependent.

6. Refer to Exhibit 2-2. The relationship between teacher expectation and the achievement of students

a. / an independent variable.
b. / a dependent variable.
c. / a variable but impossible to determine whether a or b.

7. Refer to Exhibit 2-2. The effect of the use of instructional technology on college algebra achievement

a. / an independent variable.
b. / a dependent variable.
c. / a variable but impossible to determine whether a or b.

8. Refer to Exhibit 2-2. The effect of social reinforcement on shaping children's judgments

a. / an independent variable.
b. / a dependent variable.
c. / a variable but impossible to determine whether a or b.

9. A researcher who wants to investigate the claim that drinking moderate amounts of red wine will promote a healthy heart would most likely use the ____ method.

a. / survey
b. / ex post facto
c. / experimental
d. / quasi-experimental
e. / correlational

10. Experimental research, in contrast with nonexperimental research, focuses on

a. / cause-and-effect relationships.
b. / descriptions of phenomena.
c. / prediction of phenomena.
d. / naturalistic inquiry into relationships.

11. Which one of the following research questions meets the criteria of a good research question?

a. / What are the ways of decreasing violence in American society?
b. / How could high school students be motivated to study world geography?
c. / Does attending kindergarten affect the social maturity of the children at the elementary school level?
d. / Should high school curricula aim at preparing students for college or should they aim at preparing students for life?

12. A geography teacher is planning to conduct research on the effect of field trips on learning geographical facts. The source of this researcher's problem is most likely

a. / the recommendation of school authorities.
b. / his/her own experience.
c. / his/her knowledge of geography.
d. / a suggestion made by the school psychologist.

13. To be researchable, an educational problem must be one that

a. / can be attacked empirically.
b. / has practical implications.
c. / can be conducted in one's own school.
d. / is approved by the school authorities.

Exhibit 3-4

Criteria for selection of a research problem may be summarized as follows:

1) / The solution of the problem will make a contribution to the body of organized knowledge in education.
2) / The problem must be one that is researchable.
3) / The problem should be one that will lead to new problems.
4) / The problem must be suitable for the particular researcher.

Indicate which, if any, of these criteria has been violated by the following research proposals.

14. Refer to Exhibit 3-4. A principal wants to determine if high school students should have after-school jobs.

a. / The solution of the problem will make a contribution to the body of organized knowledge in education.
b. / The problem must be one that is researchable.
c. / The problem should be one that will lead to new problems.
d. / The problem must be suitable for the particular researcher.
e. / none of these criteria is violated

15. Refer to Exhibit 3-4. A remedial reading teacher wants to identify measures that have a correlation with reading improvement among poor readers.

a. / The solution of the problem will make a contribution to the body of organized knowledge in education.
b. / The problem must be one that is researchable.
c. / The problem should be one that will lead to new problems.
d. / The problem must be suitable for the particular researcher.
e. / none of these criteria is violated

16. Which of the following is not a purpose of the search for related literature?

a. / Avoiding the unintentional replication of previous projects
b. / Defining the boundaries of one's field
c. / Determining whether the project would make a meaningful contribution to the field
d. / Displaying an exhaustive knowledge of one's field
e. / Learning which research procedures have been useful to other researchers

17. Which of the following is NOT one of the criteria that materials in ERIC are evaluated on?

a. / relevance to education
b. / quality
c. / editorial/peer review criteria
d. / length

18. Where could one locate dissertations related to one's topic?

a. / Dissertation Abstracts
b. / Education Abstracts
c. / Mental Measurements Yearbook
d. / Review of Educational Research

19. Established tests and measurements are indexed in

a. / PsycInfo
b. / ERIC database
c. / Social Sciences Citation Index
d. / Tests in Print
e. / Google Scholar

20. An annotation is a:

a. / brief description of an article.
b. / critical review of a published test.
c. / deliberately limited thesaurus used for classifying studies.
d. / descriptive word or phrase used for retrieving information.
e. / detailed abstract of a research study.

21. Which one of the following is the first step in testing a hypothesis?

a. / Deducing consequences that can be observed.
b. / Asking the views of authorities to see if it satisfies the criteria.
c. / Selecting or developing research instruments for data collection
d. / Reviewing the literature in the field to see if the hypothesis is consistent with the body of knowledge

22. Which one of the following should be included in the statement of a hypothesis?

a. / The variables under investigation
b. / The source from which the hypothesis is derived
c. / The contribution of the hypothesis to the body of knowledge
d. / All of these are true

23. Hypotheses derived from Kohlberg's moral development model could be classified as

a. / deductive hypotheses.
b. / inductive hypotheses.

24. A hypothesis which is formulated following the observed relationship between phenomena is classified as a/an

a. / inductive hypothesis.
b. / deductive hypothesis.
c. / workable hypothesis.
d. / alternative hypothesis.

25. A teacher wishes to compare a new approach to teaching math (Method A) with the traditional approach (Method B), because she thinks Method A will improve the learning of math. Prior to the study, what general research hypothesis should the teacher state?

a. / The traditional method (Method B) of teaching math is inadequate.
b. / Method A should be utilized to teach math.
c. / Can Method A be used successfully to teach math in this particular situation?
d. / Students will learn more math with Method A than with Method B.

26. If your professor is only interested in the test performance of students in her class, the class is her

a. / population
b. / random sample
c. / biased sample
d. / nonprobability sample.

27. A researcher can guarantee the representativeness of the sample by:

a. / using stratified random sampling.
b. / employing simple random sampling procedures.
c. / using systematic sampling procedures.
d. / using the whole population.

Exhibit 7-1

Choose the type of sample that matches the following characteristics of sampling procedures.

28. Refer to Exhibit 7-1. Individuals from defined subgroups are sampled.

a. / simple random.
b. / stratified.
c. / cluster.
d. / systematic.

29. Refer to Exhibit 7-1. Naturally occurring groups are randomly selected.

a. / simple random.
b. / stratified.
c. / cluster.
d. / systematic.

30. Refer to Exhibit 7-1. All individual cases have a non-zero chance of being selected.

a. / simple random.
b. / stratified.
c. / cluster.
d. / systematic.

Exhibit 7-2

Label the following characteristics of sampling procedures as convenience, purposive, or quota.

31. Refer to Exhibit 7-2. Taking subjects wherever you find them.

a. / Convenience
b. / Purposive
c. / Quota

32. Refer to Exhibit 7-2. Chooses subjects that seem to be typical of the population being studied.

a. / Convenience
b. / Purposive
c. / Quota

33. If a research finding is found to be statistically significant it:

a. / confirms the research hypothesis.
b. / suggests the findings are significant contributions to the theory being tested.
c. / suggests that similar results would be found if another sample was tested.
d. / all of these are true.

34. The null hypothesis states that:

a. / the effect of the treatment is negative.
b. / the apparent relationship between variables is due to chance alone.
c. / outcomes are affected by the experimental treatment.
d. / the true relationship between variables can never be known.

35. A school administrator finds no significant difference in learning whether students are taught by computer or by books. She decides not to spend money on new computer equipment. Later, she finds that a neighboring district is very successful in implementing computer technology.

a. / She may have committed a Type I error.
b. / She may have committed a Type II error.
c. / A Type I and Type II error may have occurred.
d. / No error is possible in this situation.

36. On a standardized mathematics test the reliability coefficient is reported to be .76. From this information one could best determine

a. / the extent to which the test scores are correlated to classroom achievement in mathematics.
b. / the extent to which errors of measurement have influenced the test scores.
c. / the extent to which the test is a representative sample of relevant concepts in math.
d. / on the average, the number of points pupils' scores will change when given an equivalent test.

37. If the reliability of a test decreases, the standard error of measurement will

a. / decrease.
b. / increase.
c. / stay the same.
d. / decrease only if the standard deviation decreases.

38. The major disadvantage of the coefficient of stability and equivalence as a measure of reliability is

a. / getting the cooperation of the subjects.
b. / obtaining the two forms of the test.
c. / finding a suitable criterion.
d. / establishing the appropriate time interval.
e. / the statistics involved in calculating the coefficient.

39. High reliability for a test indicates that

a. / the test has validity.
b. / random errors of measurement are not a serious problem.
c. / the test is measuring what it is supposed to be measuring.
d. / the proportion of error variance to true variance is very high.

40. Three individuals report the same information about a student's personal characteristics. Their agreement is indicative of a high degree of

a. / validity.
b. / interrater reliability.
c. / halo effect.
d. / standardization.

41. Which of the following is not a characteristic of an experiment in its simplest form?

a. / A dependent variable is manipulated.
b. / All variables except the independent variable are held constant.
c. / The effect of manipulating the independent variable is observed.
d. / Extraneous variables are controlled.

42. In an experiment, a researcher believes that by manipulating Variable A he can cause changes in Variable B. However, Variable C is actually causing changes in Variable B. Variable C is a(n) ____ variable.

a. / independent
b. / dependent
c. / extraneous
d. / attribute

43. Which of the following would represent a variable that could be manipulated in an experiment?

a. / Lecture vs. discussion method of teaching
b. / High vs. low socioeconomic status of subjects
c. / Male vs. female subjects
d. / College prep vs. vocational curriculum
e. / High vs. low scorers on an aptitude test

44. The finding that individuals' performance may be altered if they are subjects in an experimental treatment is known as the

a. / treatment effect.
b. / experimenter effect.
c. / placebo effect.
d. / Hawthorne effect.

45. An internal validity threat in which the researcher's expectations concerning the outcome of an experiment actually contribute to producing certain outcomes is known as the ____ effect.