Questions for Article Analysis Assignment

1. Identify the stated purpose of the study.

2. What are the research questions?

3. Write a null hypothesis and research hypothesis for each research question:

a. Question 1 i. Research ii. Null b. Question 2 i. Research ii. Null c. Question 3 i. Research ii. Null d. Question 4 i. Research ii. Null

4. Identify whether each research question is directional or nondirectional. Explain your reasoning!! a. Question 1 b. Question 2 c. Question 3 d. Question 4

5. Identify the sample and the characteristics of the sample.

6. To what population do you think the authors of the study are trying to infer the results? Explain your reasoning.

7. What were the independent variables in the study?

8. What were the dependent variables in the study?

9. How was the reliability of the social studies knowledge assessments established? How would you evaluate the strength of the reliability?

10.What kind of reliability measure was used to ensure that student assessments were reliably scored? Explain how this was achieved.

11. Using the information provided about the two efforts to establish reliability of both the student-read and administrator-read vocabulary-matching probes, how do you predict that the researchers would answer their first two research questions? (Keep in mind that high-quality reliability coefficients usually fall in the .8 to ,9 range.)

12.Looking at Table 7 on page 148, answer the following questions:

a. What was the direction of all of the obtained correlations?

b. What is the range of strength of the correlations between the vocabulary matching probes and all other criterion variables except quarter grades?

c. What is the range of strength for the correlations of the two types of probes with quarter grades?

d. Taking into consideration when each of the assessments was carried out, explain the relationship (in words) between each of the following correlations:

i. Vocabulary matching pretest to knowledge pretest:

ii. Vocabulary matching pretest to knowledge posttest:

iii. Vocabulary matching pretest to ITBS/Social Studies:

iv. Vocabulary matching pretest to quarter grades:

v. Vocabulary matching posttest to knowledge pretest:

vi. Vocabulary matching posttest to knowledge posttest:

vii. Vocabulary matching posttest to ITBS/Social Studies:

viii. Vocabulary matching pretest to quarter grades:

13.Why do you think correlations with quarter grades were lower than the other correlations?

14.Based on the information obtained from correlations, how would you relate the validity of the vocabulary matching probes? Explain your reasoning.

15.The type of correlation coefficient used for the validity correlations is not specifically identified. Using information available in the “Purpose of the Study”, identify what type of correlation coefficient was likely used.