EDD 631, Educational Research Seminar
Overcoming Adversity

Final Research Paper

The final paper demonstrates your ability to analyze data and draw sophisticated analyses from them and relate these to your initial predictions. Your final product should clearly demonstrate both your careful analysis and critique of the sources you have read and your ability to synthesize those ideas with your own to create a product that meaningful contributes to the field and the growth of at-risk children. The paper should be written succinctly and organized into a cohesive whole that is free of grammatical errors and that conforms to APA style; including avoiding the most common APA formatting errors.

To create your final paper, you will begin with the one you submitted last semester in EDD 630. After revising that manuscript, you will add a clearer and more detailed assessment plan. Once you have collected data, you will also add a results section and re-write your discussion section based on your outcomes. The main content of the paper—the Introduction, Intervention, Results, and Discussion sections—will be at least 23 pages long (at least 34 pages if you are proposing but not conducting an intervention). Beyond that, though, it’s depth not length that matters: It is the sort of clear, well-organized, scientific, and sophisticated writing one would expect from a capstone graduate course that will make this a successful thesis.

1. Abstract

A 100 – 200 word summary of the entire proposal containing parts recommended by APA:

Background
Justification
Purpose
Methods/Intervention Procedure
Results
Implications

Your abstract for the final project in EDD 631 should contain all of the parts of a typical abstract. Some tips about writing it are here.

2. Introduction

The Introduction section yo uwill submit for this semester is based on that which you submitted for last. Indeed, the final paper for EDD 631 is intended to be the completion of what you started last sememster. You are expected to revise and improve what you sumbitted for EDD 630, but not utterly rewrite it.

The introduction will be comprised of roughly three pieces. The first section is a general introduction to your area; it should provide background and context of intervention and evaluation assembled from relevant research. This will surely the be smallest piece and will likely be completed with only a paragraph or two at the most.

After this general introduction, you will demonstrate your understanding of the area you are presenting through an intelligent synthesis of the articles into review that draws conclusions and makes connections. This section will be where you cite most of your articles—again using APA style. So, the main goals of this part are to show that you understand the articles you’ve read, you can think about them critically (are an “intelligent consumer”), and that you can make connections and inferences from them to build knowledge.

In the final part of the Introduction and Literature Review section, you will review the main strategies that have been used to address the problems you are reviewing. The articles you will address here will, of course, be those that evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions you’re discussing. You will probably also cite a few sources that explain exactly what the interventions do; for this latter point, you don’t necessarily need scholarly sources. In this section, your main goals are to demonstrate your understanding of the programs and critically assess them in light of the articles you review in the previous section.

Overall, the Introduction and Literature Review section should be at least 2,000 words/8 pages long. Remember to correctly cite the scholarship your reference and further it with your own insights and informed opinions. Some formatting guidelines are given here, here, and here. Finally, please use direct quotes only when a phrase cannot be put into your own words, such as when only that phrase can accurately define a specific term or concept.

3. The Intervention

Perhaps the most important part, it is here that you can show both your understanding of the field and demonstrate your creativity and pedagogical/developmental acumen. Since this area is where you can most show your creativity, its format is most open to change. In general, this can be organized like a lesson plan in which you identify:

Objectives
This the purpose(s) of the intervention written in general terms,

Outcomes
Here you will operationalize the specific changes you expect to see if the objectives are met. These should be objective (i.e., not subjective) and observable,

Participants
Here, describe the target population and any other relevant stakeholders (teachers, parents, etc.). Explain important characteristics (e.g., fifth grade students in a large, public, urban elementary school; currently living on a family income below the poverty line; members of a publicly-run day care for working parents, etc.) but don’t list un-important ones (e.g., religious affiliation or race unless relevant).

Procedure
This section explains the steps one would take to conduct the intervention. Please write this section with enough detail and clarity that a naive but intelligent person could conduct your intervention with fidelity by what is written here. Also in this section, please discuss contingency plans for likely stumbling blocks, for example if a given student needs more help than you can give or if a part you’re not sure is going to work indeed doesn’t. This will probably be the longest section, and will probably be at least 750 words/3 pages long.

Materials
This section may only describe any materials used (e.g., list books used in a reading program). However, there are occasions on which it is appropriate to include the actual materials (e.g., discussion prompts, do-nows, etc.); if so, describe these generally in this section and include copies of the actual materials (or, e.g., photos taken of them with your phone) as appendices.

4. Results

Presentation and description of the analyzed results of your study. Optimally, the results section contains only a description of the data and their analyses—no consideration of their implications. Again, think of it like being a journalist who is simply reporting the facts and keeping her/his opinion out of it.

The results section should be at least 750 words/3 pages. This section should include at least one graphical representation of the results (table, histogram, line chart, box-and-whisker plot, etc.).

If you are not actually conducting an intervention but only proposing one to be conducted, then first present what results you would expect to get, were you able to indeed conduct it. Then, discuss several possible alternative outcomes and how they may affect your results. To do this second part, consider both what the results would look like if an alternative theoretical mechanism were the underlying cause of the effects—and how the results would look in light of this—as well as what could likely go wrong when collecting data—and how that would differentially affect the outcomes. In this case, your Results section will be twice as long, at least 1500 words.

5. Discussion

This section considers how your results relate to the predictions made in your introduction: Were your predictions supported? If so, what does this mean for future practice and research? If not, why might they have not? The discussion is often structured like the mirror image of the introduction; you can cover the same points in the discussion you did in the introduction.

At the end of the discussion, is a sub-section entitled “Limitations” that outlines the main caveats for interpreting your results based on the weaknesses in your design. No design is perfect, so there is always something to write here. The challenge of the limitations sub-section is finding meaningful limitations and clearly conveying how these could influence your results and their interpretation. The entire Discussion section (main part as well as Limitations) should be at least 2000 words/8 pages.

Again, if you are not actually conducting an intervention but only proposing one to be conducted, your Discussion section will reflect the various possible results you explored in your Results section. Consider the implications of each of the different possible outcomes on the theory and recommendations for future practice. Given the explanded range of outcomes you will consider, your Disucssion section will also be twice as long, at least 4000 words.

6. References

This is a properly formatted list of the articles etc. that cited in the other sections. Include at least 12 articles.

The EBSCO search engine you will use through our library to find articles can also be used to obtain the proper format for citing works in the reference section. When you click on an article to view the detailed description of it (i.e., the page that also provides the abstract if there is one), note a “Cite” link in a menu either on the top or right side of the detailed citation. Clicking on this link will open a new, temporary window with the article formatted in various citations styles, including the APA style you should use. You can also Son of Citation Machine to help. Please note, however, that neither EBSCO’s nor Son of Citation Machine’s systems always format perfectly, so check with, e.g., the examples given on OWL’s web site to be sure.

Some Guidelines on the Paper’s Format

In addition to the links to helpful sites noted throughout the sections above such as this, the following sites and files should help you conform to the required APA style relatively painlessly. The University of Illinois provides a sample research paper formatted in Word you can use both to learn about the contents of the sections and to help you format your paper. That same sample paper is also available in LibreOffice.org Writer format.

To assist you in conforming to APA style, you may use this zipped template for Microsoft Word or this zipped template for LibreOffice.org’s Writer. Note that you must unzip either template after you download it and before you use it. Information about using the one for Word is here and here; information for using the one for Writer is here, here, here, and here.

Grading Rubric for Final Research Paper

Although you are graded on the quality of your manuscript, your grade is not fully based on your own ability. You will (hopefully) work closely with the other members both of your group and the entire class to help your fellow students hone their proposal into a first-rate product. I will not grade the extent to which you help each other (unless it infringes on cheating, of course), but I hope that this structure will nurture an appreciation for the role of collaboration in research. Research is almost never a solitary endeavor—even beyond the rudimentary collaboration between researcher and participant there is almost always an active and rich arena where ideas, passions, and work flourish through sharing.

Element	Percent Weight	Criteria
Abstract	5	Contains all requisite parts Is requisite length Succinctly, comprehensibly summarizes proposal
Introduction	5	Demonstrates a thorough understanding of pertinent background Background well-presented and sufficiently covered Connection between background and current study well-made
Methods	10	All major, relevant sources of bias, confounds, and barriers addressed Variables are operationalized in practical and relevant ways Addresses hypothesis Is simple Contains all requisite parts
Results	25	Outcomes are clearly explained Covers all important aspects of results Graphics strike a good balance between amount of information and clarity Text compliments graphics without being unnecessarily redundant
Discussion	30	Connections between expected results and both hypothesis and theory are well-reasoned and clearly presented Implications for practice and theory are sufficiently discussed and thought out Implications of at least one other, possible set of outcomes are addressed Inclusion of a Limitations sub-section that demonstrates a strong understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your research design and how these affect your outcomes
References	5	Articles are well-chosen given topic At least six are given Are properly formatted
Overall Writing Quality	10	Is well-organized (paragraphs build on each other, each paragraph has a topic sentence that is supported by all other sentences, etc.) Is succinct, clear, and engaging Communicates in own voice; uses direct quotes only when the original words must be reproduced exactly (e.g., when giving a precise definition) Adheres to APA style Is grammatically correct and spelled correctly All sections are at least of minimal length
Overall Quality and Sophistication of Thinking	20	Demonstrates an expert grasp of the scientific process and scientific thinking Logic is flawless while implementation is practical Demonstrates sophisticated critical thinking about sources, hypothesis creation, and implementation Demonstrates encyclopedic understanding of field and its relation to topic

EDD 631, Educational Research Seminar Overcoming Adversity