1 / 8

Mastering Reading and Interpreting Research Reports

Learn how to interpret and summarize research reports effectively. Explore statistical information and understand significance levels using real examples. Discover key statistical measures and tools for different types of research questions.

dholbrook
Download Presentation

Mastering Reading and Interpreting Research Reports

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Introduction to Educational Research (5th ed.) Craig A. Mertler & C.M. Charles Chapter 5 Interpreting & Summarizing Published Research

  2. Reading Research Reports • Skim to quickly examine nature of study and conclusions • Begin with abstracts, summaries • Title and introductions • Scan Findings, Conclusions, and Discussion • Summarize the report; include the following: • Topic • Subjects • Basic methods • Results • Complete bibliographic citation

  3. Interpreting Statistical Information • Three types of research questions/findings: • Status—describes people, places, etc. as they currently exist • Comparison—examines differences between two or more groups • Covarying relationships—examination of relationships that will permit predictions

  4. Interpreting Statistical Information (cont’d.) • Status reports (descriptive, qualitative research): • Often make use of raw data • Utilize statistics that indicate: • Typicality (mean, median, mode) • Spread or diversity (range, standard deviation) • Conversion or transformation (z-scores, percentile ranks, grade equivalents, etc.)

  5. Interpreting Statistical Information (cont’d.) • Comparison reports (evaluation, causal-comparative, experimental research): • Utilize statistics including: • Chi-square (c2)—when data are counts or categories; used to determine if difference exists between two groups • t-Test—when measures are scores; used to determine whether difference exists between two groups based on means • Analysis of variance or ANOVA (F-ratio)—when measures are scores; used to determine whether differences exist between three or more groups based on variability of scores about the means

  6. Interpreting Statistical Information (cont’d.) • Correlational reports (correlational research): • Utilize statistics including: • Pearson correlation coefficient (r)—when measures are scores; used to determine degree of relationship between variables, ranging from -1.00 to +1.00 • Many other additional measures of correlation exist

  7. The Concept of (Statistical) Significance • Significant—whether or not a topic is worthy of investigation • Significance—a.k.a., “statistical significance;” interpreted as “it is very likely that the findings we observed in the sample also exist in the population” • Alpha level (a) determines the likelihood, or probability • Traditional values are .05 & .01

  8. Applying Technology… Web sites to aid in writing a literature review • Writing a Literature Review in the Health Sciences and Social Work (http://www.utoronto.ca/hswriting/lit-review.htm) • Purdue University Online Writing Lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu) • Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American Psychological Association (http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html)

More Related