The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development
Quantitative Research Methods: New Doctoral Student Self-Assessment
 
Introduction
Instructions
Resources
Assessment
Answer Key
Module 1
Module 2
Module 3
Module 4
Module 5
Module 6
Module 7
Module 8
Module 9
Module 10
Module 11
Module 12
Module 13
Answer Key
Module 13: Critiquing Education and Social Science Research

The correct answers for this module are:

1. B
2. E
3. A
4. E
5. B (No information is given about the validity of the responses to the interest questions.)
6. E

If you missed more than two of these problems, you should devote some study to critiquing education and social science research.

Resources for Studying the Critiquing of Education and Social Science Research

Research Methods in Education, Seventh Edition: Chapter 16
William Wiersma; Allyn and Bacon, 2000; $84
This text is often used in GSEHD masters degree level research courses. It provides a good overview of research methods.

Evaluating Research Articles from Start to Finish, Second Edition
Ellen Girden; Sage Publications, 2001; $33
This book leads the reader through the critique of several research articles, posing questions and then providing the answers.

Understanding & Evaluating Educational Research, Second Edition
McMillan, James & Wergin, Jon; Merrill/Prentice Hall; 2001; $30
This book provides guidelines for critiquing educational research, then provides short research articles, questions for the critique, and answers to half of them.

Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics, Case Studies
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Elane/rvls.html
This is a series of research case studies that illustrate analysis and interpretation of research studies. By clicking on the topic of interest on the left side, only those cases that illustrate the topic will be shown on the right.

Tools for Preparing Literature Reviews
http://www.gwu.edu/~litrev
The GSEHD Web site is intended to help graduate students learn the three main steps of doing a literature review, which is required for every dissertation proposal. The steps are search for applicable literature, assess (critique) the literature, and synthesize the literature. The site give considerable guidance on assessing individual studies, but does not yet have examples or exercises.


Go to Module 13