1.

An educational researcher is interested in determining the long-term effects of cyber-bullying on

students social, emotional and cognitive development. Despite the fact that a true experimental
design would give the strongest evidence of this (because, when well designed, it can establish
cause and effect), why would it be unethical to adopt this design for this research? Discuss this with
reference to the characteristics of an experimental design and core ethical principles. What other
quantitative design might be more appropriate (while maintaining the aim of the research) and how
would it circumvent these ethical issues?

It would be unethical to use an experimental research design for this

research question. In its design, Experimental research uses elements of
manipulation, control and randomisation. These elements, particularly
control, if used as a true experimental design research study would be
unethical to use in this circumstance. The researcher would need to
control as many of the variables as possible so that the effects of the
bullying could be measured (Kervin, Vialle, Herrington & Okley, 006). This
means controlling other factors such as support from friends, parents or
teachers, as well as other coping skills the student may have. It would also
require the researcher to control how much bullying each students was
subjected to and what form of bullying this would be in. This would go
against the ethical requirements of taking into consideration the welfare of
participants, taking part in research study should involve as little risk and
as much benefit to the participants as possible; Do no harm. In Australia,
research that includes the use of humans as subjects must meet certain
standards of conduct that are outlined by the NHMRC. These standards
include; respect for human beings, research merit and integrity, justice
and beneficence (Howard, 2015 Quantitative Research Process). This
research study would not be meeting the ethical requirement of
beneficence, the likely benefit of the research must justify any risks of
harm or discomfort to participants (Australian Research Council, 2015).
Another quantitative research design which would be a more ethical
choice for this research topic would be survey research design. This design
would eliminate the ethical problems associated with the experimental
research design. A survey could be conducted anonymously. Although this
research design could not provide data directly related to cause and
effect, the data collected from the surveys could be used to examine if

there were any correlations between cyber bullying and a students social,
emotional and cognitive development.

2. A qualitative researcher aims to investigate how students at a comprehensive girls school who are
identified as having additional educational needs perceive their prospects of academic and
professional success. To explore this, they propose to conduct one-on-one unstructured interviews
and focus groups with students and teachers, collect student work samples, analyse school policy
documents, observe in-class and out-of-class behaviours, analyse images depicting school contexts
and administer a year-long free-writing journal. The researcher also plans to take an ethnographic
approach to this study. Given the research question and design are each of the data sources
necessary and appropriate? If so, describe the unique contributions and utility of each, making
reference to the research aims. If not, indicate which you would retain, the unique contributions
and utility of each kept and why the rejected data sources were discarded.

Ethnography

is

described

as

being

an

exhaustive

process

of

understanding what meanings participants make of their culture.

(Reeves, Peller, Goldman, Kitto, 2013, 165). Because of this I would argue
that most of the mentioned data collection methods would be appropriate.
The

main

data

collection

method

for

ethnographic

research

are

observations and interviews (Reeves, Peller, Goldman, Kitto, 2013, 165).

As an ethnography looks at the culture, the school policy documents
would provide insight into the required values, attitudes behaviours and
actions of the teachers and students at the school (Nind, Benjamin,
Sheehy, Collins & Hall, 2004). The requirements and expectations set out
in these documents could influence the manner in which teachers and
students interact with one another. Images could be used as a way to help
the researcher document their observations. The use of unstructured
interviews could be used to triangulate the data collected from
observations. I think that work samples and focus groups could be left out
of this study. These collection methods would be limited in the amount of
valuable data they could contribute to the ethnographic study. If the

research was mixed methods then I would include them to triangulate the
data collected from the other data sources.

3.

Although often overlooked, it is recommended that additional considerations are integrated in the
design of survey-based research, in order to take into account the unique nature and limitations of
questionnaire data. Identify these considerations, indicate why they are important and, for the
following questionnaire, indicate the extent to which you believe they considered these aspects
(using evidence from the questionnaire to support your claims).

When using a questionnaire researchers must be aware of the limitations

that come with questionnaire formats in order to maintain high validity
and reliability in their results. These include considering how the
questionnaire will be distributed and collected, the quality of questions
being asked and any extra information to accompany the questionnaire. It
can be helpful for researchers to include a cover letter that can explain to
participants the background of the research, why it is being conducted,
what data will be collected and how this data will be used (Punch, 2003,
63). This information could encourage participants to answer questions
truthfully and encourage them to complete and return the questionnaire.
Researchers must also ensure that they make the questionnaire easy for
participants to understand and answer correctly by creating short and
simple questions, including only one idea in each question, avoiding
double negatives, vague language (Punch, 2003, p.61-63). Being able to
ask the right questions to obtain relevant answers to the research
question can be difficult but is important because if a poorly designed

questionnaires will have limited validity and reliability, and so will the
conclusions that can be drawn from them (Howard, 2015, Research
Considerations; Ethics in Research).
There sample questionnaire shows that the researcher has not put much
thought into the design of their questions. For example, question 4, is
open to individual interpretation. Only two answers are provided, yes or
no, and the idea of what classifies as a lot of junk food will differ between
participants and researcher, resulting in unreliable data. Furthermore,
questions 5 and question 7 are both irrelevant to the research questions
and therefore should not be included in the questionnaire. Question 9 does
not provide a suitable way for participants to answer the question
properly. Participants are able to tick a box indicating each restaurant but
not whether they do or do not like to eat at that restaurant. This makes it
difficult for the participant to answer the question correctly and will impact
the validity of the questionnaire.
4.

After hearing about the potential strength of mixed methods designs (yielding generalisable
evidence of statistically significant effects, while also suggesting how and why these effects occur)
a researcher decides to adopt a mixed methods design to investigate the effectiveness of iPads for
fostering student interaction and learning. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to identify
whether: (a) students using iPads collaborated more than those without iPads; and (b) students
using iPads achieved higher grades than those without iPads. Throughout this study, students were
also asked to write personal logs about their impressions and experiences, while the researcher
made detailed notes on their observations of how iPads were being used. Student work samples
were also analysed. For this study: (1) identify which form of mixed method research was used; and
then (2) evaluate what the quantitative data adds in response to the research aim, (3) evaluate
what the qualitative data adds in response to the research aim and (4) evaluate and justify whether
mixed methods was the ideal approach (compared to qualitative or quantitative alone).

Due to the nature of the research question I think that the researchers
have used a triangulated form of mixed method research. This is due to
the fact that the qualitative and quantitative methods were used to
answer their own parts to the research question and neither relied on the
other for support. The research question is divided into two sections that
each require different sorts of data.

To collect data to answer the first

question qualitative methods are necessary. The researcher has achieved

this by using observations and writing logs. This data would help to
explain the data collected from work samples and could explain any

irregularities in the data. It could also provide insight into the collaboration
process while students were using the ipads. This data can be used to
interpret, clarify and validate the quantitative data (Burke Johnson,
Onwuegbusie & Turner, 2007, p.115). The second part of the question
requires quantitative data to show if there was a measureable difference
after using the ipads. The data gained from the work samples would show
if there was an increase in the students grades between those who used
Ipads and those who did not. This would provide results that can be
numerically assessed and determine an answer for the research question.
This quantitative data would also increase the generalisability of the
research results (Burke Johnson, Onwuegbusie & Turner, 2007, p.115). In
order to answer both sections of this question both types of data,
qualitative and quantitative, are required. When used together this data
can be used to triangulate the results found, the qualitative data from the
work samples will support the claims made in the observation notes. Used
together, this data can answer the questions, can the use of ipads
increase students collaboration and in turn their academic performance.

5. A researcher sets out to answer the following: How does the introduction of play in the

primary classroom influence students outcomes? Based on their reading, the researcher
hypothesises that imaginative play, when appropriately designed, will improve student
outcomes. To investigate this possibility, the researcher adopts a narrative design. They
recruit 100 students to complete a paper-based survey asking them to rate their
perceptions of how the newly introduced play influenced their motivation, concentration
and cognitive abilities. Clearly there is a mismatch between the research question, design
and methods. Explain why this proposal is problematic. Assuming the research aim is
investigating the relation between play and student academic outcomes: (1) how could
the study be altered to be a qualitative investigation?; and (2) how could the study be
modified to be a quantitative investigation?

This proposal is problematic because the research question, the research

design and the data collection methods do not complement each other.
The use of a narrative research design is inappropriate for both the
research question and data collection method. Narrative design, as the
name implies, would have the students telling their own stories of how
imaginative play increased their learning outcomes. This would not be
appropriate as the students are unlikely to have an understanding of how
this could occur or the articulation to describe this to the researcher. A
narrative design could not be supported by the use of a survey as it would
require more detailed reflections from the students involved. Having the
students sit down and complete a survey would limit the amount of
relevant data the researchers could collect. The students may not know
how to answer their questions, and may not be aware of benefits when
asked. A survey could not measure the improvement in student outcomes,
only the students perceptions of their learning based on the use of the
playground.
This study could become a qualitative investigation if the researcher
collected their data from observations. These observations could occur in
the classroom and outside on the playground. The researcher could also
use interviews with the teachers and students themselves to compliment
the field notes collected from observations.

Use Semi-structured

interviews with the students and teachers. Or, it could become a

quantitative investigation by reviewing student outcomes, pre playground
and post playground. This research question could also adopt an
experimental design, there could be two groups of students, with and

without playground exposure. Work samples could then be collected and

compared for any increase in academic performance.

6. Cobern et al. (2010) sought to investigate the comparative effectiveness of direct and indirect
science instruction primary school. To achieve this, they conducted an experiment with 180 either
grade students from a range of demographic areas (feel free to read the source article for
additional detail about the study). The authors interpret their results (no statistically significant
differences between the two modes of instruction) as indicating inquiry-based instruction
potentially offers significant advantages for science instruction (p. 93). Given the research
question, design and methods, evaluate and justify: (1) the limitations of the study; (2) the extent
to which the results are generalisable; and (3) what the key implications and applications of this
study are for educational theory, research, policy and/or practice (i.e., what can and cannot be
concluded note: it is rarely that a study makes no contributions, so work hard to evaluate the
contributions of this study).

The limitations of the study would be time as the study was only
conducted over a two week period. It could be that the students and
teachers required more time to settle into their learning routines, as
mentioned the students were entrant year 8s. Although the authors dont
consider their study to be generalizable, it is able to be generalizable
within the subject of science. The results show that outside pressures,
such as time restraints and teacher confidence and experience, ultimately
influence whether or not a teaching strategy will be used in the classroom.

The research question asked if an inquiry approach or a direct approach

to experientially-based instruction is more effective for science concept
development, when both approaches are expertly designed and well
executed (Cobern, Schuster, Adams, Applegate, Skjold, Loving, & Gobert,
2010, p.82). The study concluded that the two approaches produced the
same results in relation to student achievement. This implies that the
important factor is not the teaching style, but that the teaching provided
is of high quality and the lessons are designed well. This can be used to
support teachers who prefer different teaching styles than other teachers
of the same topic. As long as the content being taught is the same, and
the quality of teaching is high, the mode of delivery should not influence
student outcomes, within the realm of science. This study provides
suggestions for further study. Many of these questions are suggested as
the researcher have uncovered gaps in their own research or have
identified other areas of study which could provide insight into the
research area.

REFERENCES
Burke Johnson, R., Onwuegbusie, A. & Turner, L. (2007) Towards a
definition of mixed methods research, Journal of Mixed Methods
Research, Vol.1, No.2, 112-133
Cobern, W., Schuster, D., Adams, B., Applegate, B., Skjold, A., Loving, C. &
Gobert, J. (2010). Experimental comparison of inquiry and direct
instruction in science, Research in Science & Technological
Education, 28(1), 8196
Kervin, L., Vialle, W., Herrington, J. & Okley, T. (2006) Research for
Educators, Cengage Learning, Victoria Australia
Howard, S. (2015) Quantitative Research Process powerpoint slides,
EDGZ921, University of Wollongong, delivered 9th March 2015.
Howard, S. (2015) Research Considerations; Ethics in Research
powerpoint slides, EDGZ921, University of Wollongong, delivered 4th
May 2015.
National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research
Council and the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (2015)
National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research,
Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra
Nind, M., Benjamin, S., Sheehy, K., Collins, J. & Hall, K. (2004)
Mthodological challenges in researching inclusive cultures,
Educational Review, Vol.56, No.3, p259-270
Punch, K. (2003) Survey Research; the Basics, Sage Publications, London
Reeves, S., Peller, J., Goldman, J. & Kitto, S. (2013) Ethnography in
qualitative education research, Medical Teacher, Vol.35, p136-1379