Examples Of Research Design

Sample Solution

Choosing the Right Research Design for Each Question:

1. What do elementary school teachers in the San Francisco Unified School District think about full inclusion as practiced in their district?

• Appropriate Design: Surveys
• Reasoning: This question seeks to understand the opinions and attitudes of teachers, which can be effectively captured through surveys with well-designed questions.

2. Is there a relationship between students' level of social skills and successful transition into mainstream classes?

• Appropriate Design: Correlational
• Reasoning: This question investigates a potential association between two variables (social skills and transition success) without manipulating either. Correlational research is ideal for exploring such relationships.

3. How do individuals with physical disabilities perceive themselves in comparison to their able-bodied peers in terms of work-related activities?

Full Answer Section

• Appropriate Design: Qualitative (Ethnography)
• Reasoning: This question delves into the lived experiences and perceptions of individuals with disabilities, which can be richly explored through ethnographic research methods like interviews and observations.

4. Does a whole-language curriculum lead to higher student achievement than a phonics curriculum?

• Appropriate Design: Experimental
• Reasoning: This question seeks to determine cause-and-effect by manipulating the curriculum type (independent variable) and measuring student achievement (dependent variable) in a controlled setting.

5. How are teachers implementing the whole-language approach to reading in their curricula at Harding Elementary School?

• Appropriate Design: Case Study
• Reasoning: This question focuses on a specific program within a particular school, making a case study design suitable for in-depth exploration of real-world implementation.

6. What were the key events that led to the demise of affirmative action in state hiring and college admissions in California?

• Appropriate Design: Historical
• Reasoning: This question delves into a sequence of past events and their impact, making historical research methods suitable for analyzing documents, records, and accounts from the relevant period.

7. How do magazines targeted at teenagers present information on safe sex practices?

• Appropriate Design: Content Analysis
• Reasoning: This question focuses on analyzing the content of magazines (text, images) to understand how safe sex information is presented. Content analysis is ideal for systematically evaluating communication patterns in various media.

8. Are the reasons Native American Indian students give for dropping out of school different from those given by non-Native American Indian students?

• Appropriate Design: Causal-Comparative
• Reasoning: This question explores potential differences between two groups (Native American and non-Native American students) regarding their reasons for dropping out. Causal-comparative research allows for comparisons between pre-existing groups.