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It is important for research to be performed ethically.  What are some of the ethical principles that researchers must consider as they design their experiments? Respect for persons: subjects must give informed consent. Beneficence: studies should not have any negative impact on the wellbeing of the subjects. Justice: making sure subjects are not exploited, especially vulnerable groups of people like children and infants. All of the above are ethical principles that researchers must consider.

You are planning a qualitative study using interviews.  Discuss 1 factor that you would consider in determining your sample size for the study.

Define “ecological validity”

A researcher compared the science exam scores for 100 students who received 2 weeks of Direct Instruction to the science exam scores for 100 students who received 2 weeks of Discovery Learning Instruction. The p level (probability level) from a statistical test was equal to .99.  Using a .05 level of significance what would be the correct decision made by the researcher?

Give 1 example of a high inference observational variable and 1 example of a low inference observational variable.

What is grounded theory?

In order to study the relationship between studying and test performance a teacher recorded the length of time 10 students studied for a final exam and the students’ performance on the exam. The teacher found a correlation of .95 between study time and the final exam score. List 2 conditions that would be necessary to infer that studying “caused” students to score higher on the exam.

In a qualitative research study where interview data were collected, what is involved in open coding?

  A researcher was interested in comparing the grade point averages of male and female freshmen undergraduate Biology students.   25 male and 25 female freshmen undergraduate Biology students were randomly selected from 1 large university.  Grade point averages were computed at the end of the year. What type of research design is being used in this study?

If a researcher was interested in studying middle school math teachers’ beliefs about how children learn math and what math teachers do in their classroom (instructional practices), what would be the advantages of using virtual interview method to collect the data?