EDEL 695: Educational Research
Jim Vander Putten
Research Study Proposal
[50% of the final course grade]
Due: 11:59pm on Monday, October 16, 2023
The primary theme running throughout the EDEL 695: Educational Research course addresses
empirical qualitative and quantitative research in higher education and student affairs and how it
is used to generate solutions to educational problems or strategies for improved practices. One
goal of the course is to prepare scholar-practitioners who: can a) recognize evidence-based
problems and issues in higher education practice, b) accurately understand empirical education
research studies, and c) apply relevant findings to evidence-based decision-making and generate
solutions to problems and strategies for improved practice.
The Context
Assume that you have graduated with your M.Ed. degree and are in your first fulltime
professional position in a campus office of your professional interest. I’m your Supervisor and I
have asked you to write a 7-10 page proposal to conduct research that would investigate a
problem or issue that exists with the office’s programs, services, or students being served. There
is no actual data collection required, but you need to identify a specific problem or issue that
exists within the office based on your previous education and work experience.
Proposal Guidelines
A proposal is the precursor to a research study and consists of three sections: Introduction,
Literature Review, and Methods. Apply what you have learned from each week of the course
that can inform your proposed study. You will need to identify and discuss specific relevant
concepts from the Biddix textbook (cite page numbers as necessary) to address many of these
aspects of your proposal:
I. Introduction (1-2 pages)
a. Briefly identify your professional position and campus office
b. Introduce the research topic and the problem you plan to investigate.
c. Assignment help – Discuss why this research is important and to whom the results would it be important
(i.e., who is your audience?).
d. State 1-2 research questions clearly.
e. Identify whether this will be qualitative or quantitative research and use the Biddix
textbook to inform your rationale for this approach.
II. Literature Review (1-2 pages)
a. Cite the pertinent literature on your research topic and on the problem or issue (if
available). You should have between 5-10 citations of recent empirical research in this
section (mostly 2010 or later). Two of these articles can be those you used for your article
critiques. Since this proposal focuses on U.S. higher education, be sure your literature
review only addresses research conducted in the U.S.
b. You may include research reports from state and federal agencies, if relevant.
EDEL 695: Educational Research
Jim Vander Putten
III. Method (2 pages)
a. Describe the context (e.g., institutional type) and identify the population and your
sample (e.g., demographics of participants).
b. Define all variables you propose to include in your study.
c. Identify the types of data you would collect (e.g., documents, narratives, fixed
responses) and your procedures for collecting it (e.g., interviews, surveys, observations).
d. Describe possible results of this research and their implications for solutions to the
problem or improved practice in point 1(b).
IV. References
a. Provide information in the reference list only on the sources you cite in the paper and
apply appropriate Help write my thesis – APA style (7th Edition).
V. APPENDICES
a. If you plan to administer a survey or conduct interviews, append a list of survey items
or interview questions you plan to use for data collection.
Evaluation Criteria:
A. Content
1. A high quality proposal will provide the necessary information related to each part of sections
I-III so that I (as your supervisor) could complete the study. Your proposal will be evaluated on
the extent to which these parts are addressed and cited from the Biddix textbook
B. Clarity of Presentation
1. Structure your paper and use Help write my thesis – APA style headers and sub-headers as appropriate. Begin with a
cover page that includes your Student MUID number (instead of name), date, and course
information. No Table of Contents, Abstract, or running head is necessary.
2. Grammar and spelling errors weaken strong ideas and make an argument difficult to follow.
The paper grade will not depend on minor errors unless they limit the paper’s ability to
communicate the main points. Most errors can be identified by reading the paper aloud and
revising it after a first draft.
3. Minimize the use of quotes in the paper. I’m much more interested in reading your ideas and
application of educational research concepts, and less interested in those of the original authors.
4. Your paper must be double-spaced, use one-inch margins all around, use Times New Roman
font size 12, and contain no extraneous spaces between paragraphs. Paginate your paper in the
upper right corner and submit your assignment in Microsoft Word format to me in Canvas by
11:59pm on Monday, October 16, 2023. Papers submitted after October 16 will be reduced by
one whole letter grade for each day the paper is late.
5. Help write my thesis – APA 7th Edition requires Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers in the reference list for
journal articles and be sure to include DOI numbers in your citations. If this number is not
provided in an article, use this website to obtain them: www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery . For
best results, enter the entire Help write my thesis – APA-style formatted citation in the text box.
EDEL 695: Educational Research
Jim Vander Putten
Style
Apply Help write my thesis – APA style guidelines for citation practices and be sure to cite any broad, sweeping
statements that are not common knowledge about higher education, as well as any specific
knowledge claims. If you have questions about citing sources appropriately, Help write my thesis – APA Style Tutorials
are freely available online at: https://extras.apa.org/apastyle/basics-7e/#/
Vander Putten’s Recommendations for Writing Quality
• Be sure to set the text spacing between lines and paragraphs in Microsoft Word to ‘0pt’
throughout the document. In the Line and Paragraph Spacing pulldown menu, click on the ‘Line
Spacing Options’ command and change the Spacing Before and After from 8 or 10pt to 0pt.
• Avoid using the phrase “Since the founding of Harvard in 1636…” This is the academic
equivalent of “It was a dark and stormy night…”
• Avoid the unscholarly writing strategy: “According to Webster’s dictionary, x is defined as…”
• Use past tense when reviewing previous literature, because the author isn’t saying it *now*.
• The terms ‘data’ and ‘information’ shouldn’t be used interchangeably, because in research,
they’re two different things. Information is generated from the analysis of data.
• Avoid anthropomorphisms (i.e., attributing human actions to inanimate objects): “The National
Center for Education Statistics found that 25% of college students have taken at least one online
course.” Be sure to cite the authors.
• Don’t use passive voice in writing. One easy way to check for this is to add the phrase “by
zombies” at the end of the sentence (Vander Putten, 2023). If the sentence still works, it’s
passive voice. Refer to Help write my thesis – APA style resources for useful writing strategies.
• Don’t misuse affective terms (e.g., ‘feelings’) and cognitive concepts (e.g., ‘thinking’): “I feel
that Astin’s Black Box Model accurately depicts what occurs in higher education.”
• Avoid the use of ‘presentism’; discussing research results that are more than 10 years old and
assuming that they are still current and accurate today. This is misleading to the reader.
Acknowledge the dated nature of the source and discuss more current scholarship.
• Don’t use a journalistic writing style that includes full names, job titles, or institutional
affiliations.
• Don’t include article, journal, or book titles in the paper text. This is TMI.
• Don’t use the editorial ‘we,’ ‘us,’ and ‘our’ in your writing; these words should only refer to co-authors.
• Avoid overreliance on too few sources. This sends a message of “lazy scholarship” to the reader.
_______________________
Research Study Proposal: An Investigation of First-Year Student Engagement in Co-Curricular Activities
Introduction
As the Assistant Director of the Office of Student Engagement at a large public university, I aim to investigate levels of participation in co-curricular activities among first-year students. Research shows involvement in campus programs and events outside of the classroom leads to greater academic and social integration (Tinto, 2012). However, anecdotal reports from student staff in my office suggest first-year student attendance and membership in campus clubs and organizations has declined in recent semesters. This study seeks to understand factors influencing first-year student engagement in co-curricular activities to help address this issue. The following research questions will guide this study: 1) What are first-year students’ motivations for and barriers to participation in campus activities? and 2) How do levels of engagement compare between demographic subgroups of first-year students? A quantitative survey approach will be used to collect data from a random sample of first-year students to address these questions.
Literature Review
Previous research has found involvement in campus activities enhances the first-year transition and leads to higher retention (Astin, 1984; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Tinto’s (2012) model of student departure emphasizes the role of academic and social integration on student success and persistence. However, lower levels of engagement have been found among commuter students (Jacoby, 2015) and students belonging to marginalized racial/ethnic groups due to lack of belonging and representation (Strayhorn, 2018). Studies show academic and social experiences differ substantially depending on a student’s background characteristics (Pike & Kuh, 2005). This suggests engagement may vary for different demographic subgroups in the first-year cohort at my institution in need of further investigation.
Methods
This study will survey a random sample of 500 first-year students at my large public university located in the Midwest region of the United States. The survey will collect demographic information including residential status, race/ethnicity, gender, and first-generation status. It will also include Likert scale items to measure motivations for and barriers to participation in campus activities adapted from previous instruments (Moore et al., 2010; Strayhorn, 2018). Additional questions will assess the types and frequency of involvement in various student organizations, campus events, and leadership roles. Results will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to identify differences in engagement levels between subgroups. This study has the potential to inform targeted outreach and programmatic changes to increase first-year student participation in campus life.
In conclusion, this proposed study aims to understand factors influencing first-year student engagement in co-curricular activities using a quantitative survey approach. Results could help address declining attendance and membership in campus clubs and organizations reported anecdotally. Identifying barriers and motivations for different demographic subgroups may provide insights on how to boost integration and retention among first-year students.
